Aligning with Customer Values

Image credit: Cosmic Kitty, via flickr

There’s a great article today in HarvardBusiness.org by Bob Lurie about aligning customer value with green value. Lurie points out that companies that hesitate to develop green practices and market green offerings to customers for fear that they won’t pay a premium for it, particularly now, are missing the point:

Focusing on whether or not customers will pay a premium for green products brings with it a number of constraining assumptions: 1) that green products do not have any tangible benefits for customers other than making them feel good about helping the planet, and 2) that green products are more expensive to produce than non-green products.

Both of which, he says, are potentially faulty assumptions.

To the corporate idealist, it may sometimes seem that this hesitation is everywhere, and it isn’t limited to green products and services. Doing more than the barest minimum demanded by the customer requires leadership that is insightful enough to recognize when something of lasting value is being created. That isn’t common, and it gets less common during times of economic difficulty, when taking chances would seem to mean the life or death of the business.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that taking the risk of going above and beyond will actually put the business above and beyond the competition, and that customers will notice. Apple products are famous for being pricier in general than competing devices, but that hasn’t stopped swarms of customers from adopting iPods and “switching” from PCs to Macs.

Sometimes the only way to rise above the stormy waters is by sticking your neck out enough to see over the waves.

Now it’s your turn. What examples have you seen of companies thriving by offering more value instead of more discount? What counterexamples do you feel compelled to point out? Have your say.