Figure 4-4. Zappos.com main home page
Like every element in optimization, a value proposition is a work in progress. Identify your value proposition and then test it to see its impact on your customers. Based on shifts within the market and changing customer expectations, you may need to readjust your value proposition to meet these changes. For instance, in 2009 many companies shifted their value to reflect the downturn of the economy. Wal-Mart has always been a company that “slashes” prices, so it was not much of a departure to bring that within the context of the economic downturn. Wal-Mart became the company that saves you money with a powerful value proposition: “Save Money, Live Better.”
What drives a customer to make a purchase decision? When visitors arrive to your site, they could have come for a few reasons:
They arrived by accident because they clicked on the wrong link or advertisement.
They are browsing.
They have a “problem” and your product will solve it.
It is rare for offline stores to have customers walk in “by accident.” Customers walking through the door either are browsing and window shopping, drawn in by your sale sign or featured product, or are coming specifically to your store to fill a need.
Understanding motivation is key to creating a clear value proposition. By identifying what brings different customers to your site or store, you can adjust your value proposition to meet the needs of every customer. The value proposition should state a value your customers are actually looking for. You can determine this by conducting surveys and field studies of your market. Tapping into your market is the best way to understand what motivates customers to make a purchase.
Our client, RHDJapan, offers the widest selection of Japanese domestic market (JDM) auto parts on the Web. Visitors arrive at the RHDJapan.com website with a number of motivations:
They are curious (browsing).
They have a knack for building race cars (problem).
They sell unique parts to customers (problem).
They have a vehicle they’d like to improve but are unsure of what they need (browsing).
Once you’ve identified the motivation, it’s time to evaluate your company: what value do you offer customers that no other competitor offers? If you have no distinguishing value, you are going to have a difficult time convincing visitors that you are better than the alternatives online or offline. Identifying your value proposition requires lengthy brainstorming discussions with key individuals within your company: C-level personnel, VPs, and marketing directors.
For RHDJapan, we discovered that the majority of customers were students, and cost was definitely an issue for them. Race car parts can get very expensive, so getting factory-direct brand-name parts from Japan at the lowest prices was a tremendous value to customers. Again, we do not recommend advertising “lowest prices” unless you really offer the lowest prices and can match a lower price offered elsewhere. Figure 4-9 shows how we communicated RHD’s value proposition on the main home page, giving users more confidence.
