marketing appears. It’s as if they never talk to their customers about how they really use their products.

In reality, signaling criteria can reinforce use criteria and help to position you in an extremely powerful position, especially against a competitor that has a superior product.

Imagine that your #1 competitor in the Trike business has no Step 13 in their assembly. They used to, but they received so many complaints they engineered it out of the process. To a person not tr

OK, through your Value Chain analysis you’ve discovered that a key component in your assembly instructions was discontinued. The yellow piece of paper that explained Step 13 in tricycle assembly was deleted; the attendant result was a huge up-spike in Helpline calls from frustrated customers asking about Step 13.

Your solution—bring back the yellow. You mention this to management, and it’s approved. It takes a while—after all; you’ve still got the entire current inventory in the stores. But there’s also a quicker way to distribute that flyer. You can email it directly to the customers that call in to the 1-800 Helpline. Plus, you can post a link to it on your website. Although the frequency of Helpline calls won’t diminish immediately, you can aid in reducing the duration of the calls.

At first glance, you might think the above answer to Step 13 illustrates an example of a classic “packaging” solution. Remember, Package is “your face to the customer”. The appropriate package reinforces your Brand in the customer’s mind. But, there is more to it than that.

See you wouldn’t have known the problem existed at all if you hadn’t sought input from Helpline and Shipping staff in your search for a better understanding of how your company value chain intersects your customer value chain.

In his classic Competitive Advantage Michael Porter mentions two types of buyer criteria:

use criteria = what your product does for your customer

signaling criteria = how your customer thinks or feels about what the product does for them

Unaided, Step 13 in your assembly process isn’t easy. But, once the customer reads the quick instructions on the yellow sheet and knows how to properly insert the stove bolt, then it’s a breeze.

Many marketers think of signaling criteria and use criteria as living in different silos. At least they must, because that’s the way their marketing appears. It’s as if they never talk to their customers about how they really use their products.

In reality, signaling criteria can reinforce use criteria and help to position you in an extremely powerful position, especially against a competitor that has a superior product.

Imagine that your #1 competitor in the Trike business has no Step 13 in their assembly. They used to, but they received so many complaints they engineered it out of the process. To a person not tra

s. But there’s also a quicker way to distribute that flyer. You can email it directly to the customers that call in to the 1-800 Helpline. Plus, you can post a link to it on your website. Although the frequency of Helpline calls won’t diminish immediately, you can aid in reducing the duration of the calls.

At first glance, you might think the above answer to Step 13 illustrates an example of a classic “packaging” solution. Remember, Package is “your face to the customer”. The appropriate package reinforces your Brand in the customer’s mind. But, there is more to it than that.

See you wouldn’t have known the problem existed at all if you hadn’t sought input from Helpline and Shipping staff in your search for a better understanding of how your company value chain intersects your customer value chain.

In his classic Competitive Advantage Michael Porter mentions two types of buyer criteria:

use criteria = what your product does for your customer

signaling criteria = how your customer thinks or feels about what the product does for them

Unaided, Step 13 in your assembly process isn’t easy. But, once the customer reads the quick instructions on the yellow sheet and knows how to properly insert the stove bolt, then it’s a breeze.

Many marketers think of signaling criteria and use criteria as living in different silos. At least they must, because that’s the way their marketing appears. It’s as if they never talk to their customers about how they really use their products.

In reality, signaling criteria can reinforce use criteria and help to position you in an extremely powerful position, especially against a competitor that has a superior product.

Imagine that your #1 competitor in the Trike business has no Step 13 in their assembly. They used to, but they received so many complaints they engineered it out of the process. To a person not tr

r”. The appropriate package reinforces your Brand in the customer’s mind. But, there is more to it than that.

See you wouldn’t have known the problem existed at all if you hadn’t sought input from Helpline and Shipping staff in your search for a better understanding of how your company value chain intersects your customer value chain.

In his classic Competitive Advantage Michael Porter mentions two types of buyer criteria:

use criteria = what your product does for your customer

signaling criteria = how your customer thinks or feels about what the product does for them

Unaided, Step 13 in your assembly process isn’t easy. But, once the customer reads the quick instructions on the yellow sheet and knows how to properly insert the stove bolt, then it’s a breeze.

Many marketers think of signaling criteria and use criteria as living in different silos. At least they must, because that’s the way their marketing appears. It’s as if they never talk to their customers about how they really use their products.

In reality, signaling criteria can reinforce use criteria and help to position you in an extremely powerful position, especially against a competitor that has a superior product.

Imagine that your #1 competitor in the Trike business has no Step 13 in their assembly. They used to, but they received so many complaints they engineered it out of the process. To a person not tr

at your product does for your customer

signaling criteria = how your customer thinks or feels about what the product does for them

Unaided, Step 13 in your assembly process isn’t easy. But, once the customer reads the quick instructions on the yellow sheet and knows how to properly insert the stove bolt, then it’s a breeze.

Many marketers think of signaling criteria and use criteria as living in different silos. At least they must, because that’s the way their marketing appears. It’s as if they never talk to their customers about how they really use their products.

In reality, signaling criteria can reinforce use criteria and help to position you in an extremely powerful position, especially against a competitor that has a superior product.

Imagine that your #1 competitor in the Trike business has no Step 13 in their assembly. They used to, but they received so many complaints they engineered it out of the process. To a person not tr

marketing appears. It’s as if they never talk to their customers about how they really use their products.

In reality, signaling criteria can reinforce use criteria and help to position you in an extremely powerful position, especially against a competitor that has a superior product.

Imagine that your #1 competitor in the Trike business has no Step 13 in their assembly. They used to, but they received so many complaints they engineered it out of the process. To a person not trained in marketing, it might appear that this is an advantage the competitor will use to crush you. But you can turn it into a non-event with proper use of the yellow-sheet explanation sheet.

Effectively, you “out-signal” your competitor’s engineering advantage and negate it.

Can you always do this? Of course not. But, inside the mind of the customer, we often operate at a closer parity with our competitors than we think.

It’s our job as marketers to make sure we do everything we can to signal to the customer that our product is, in fact, performing for them up to their expectations, not ours.

And a Value Chain analysis is a great tool to insure that happens