There has been a fundamental change in the purchasing motivation and behavior of customers and the methods by which companies meet these new customer expectations.

Companies are re-examining their fundamental assumptions about the way in which they define and deliver value to their customers.

Marketing and brand strategies successfully deployed in the 1980s and 1990s are no longer sufficient to ensure continued profitable growth, customer loyalty and competitive advantage. Today, global competition offers everyone a meaningful choice of equally competent suppliers. The sharp-end of creating customer value lies with the organization’s ability to:

• customize products and services
  
• direct complex supply chains on behalf of customers
  
• provide pre-sales advice and post-sales service
  
• maximize customer convenience
  
• work effectively within alliances on behalf of customers.

The UOVP – Unique Organisation Value PropositionTM is an important new methodology providing a practical approach which enables senior management to define and deliver customer value in a world where traditional products and brands often fail to do so.

The UOVP integrates an organization’s value-adding processes into a powerful combination of reputation, performance, customer and product portfolio and a network of third-party relationships. Creating this differentiated combination, on the basis of delivering real value, enables an organization to:

• create profitable long-term customer relationships
• integrate and direct the organization towards customer value
• lead unbeatable alliances
• generate breakthrough innovation.

In short, to prosper by Competing on Value.

Simon Knox is a Professor of Brand Marketing at the Cranfield School of Management and a consultant to a number of multinational companies including McDonald’s, Levi Strauss, DiverseyLever and the Ocean Group.

Before joining Cranfield, Simon worked for Unilever in a number of senior marketing roles in both detergents and foods. He writes extensively on brand equity issues and customer purchasing styles.

Stan Maklan is a Principal Consultant with CSC Computer Sciences, one of the world’s largest IT and management consulting firms, and is a regular contributor to international conferences and seminars.

He has been a director at operating companies for Unilever and Burson-Marsteller, international leaders in consumer goods and public relations respectively, as well as a marketing manager for Cable & Wireless (telecommunications). Stan ran his own consultancy specializing in business-to-business marketing before joining CSC.

He was awarded honors for academic excellence when he obtained a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario (Canada) and has a Bachelor of Science (Economics) from the Université de Montréal.