Segmentation based on value drivers in the field of marketing resource management

"Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. " This old saying still counts in a relatively new industry, Marketing Resource Management. Customers (people) think they know what they want and why they want it, but this study makes clear it is not always obvious what someone is striving to achieve. Even people in the working field, the employees of Cordeo, find it hard to see what customers really think is important. This study shows that the value of an offering in the field of Marketing Resource Management is very hard to grasp on. So hard, that it is straightforward to focus on the wrong aspect. The study showed that it is easy to answer the question on what they think is the most important value driver for them, but also find it very difficult to give the right answer, when asked in a extensive questionnaire to the true meaning of a certain value driver. However some value drivers most customers agreed on. One of these returning value drivers is Service Support who has a dominant place in the value of customers in the MRM field. Since Cordeo is a software product to enhance the quality of marketing collateral it is justified to reason that quick software updates and performance on speed is of particular interest for these customers. Another value driver customers agreed on are the Non Financial Consequences, although they agreed on to rate this driver as the least favorable. Hence it is important for a supplier of MRM products such as Cordeo to focus on Delivery Support, Personal Interaction and Service Support. It seems that Fiol, Alcaniz, Moliner Tena and Garci (2009) stipulated an important aspect by adding the social and emotional dimensions. Personal Interaction can count on a high appreciation of the customer. The principal of this study, Cordeo, scored highest on this particular value driver and should continue by doing so. This study supports Hansen, Samuelsen and Silseth (2008) by stating that it is not only rational economic criteria one builds its decision on. Low intensity users however, seem to reach for not only quick delivery, but also fast time to market of marketing collateral combined with low financial consequences. High intensity on the other hand strive to have fast delivery, but also Service Support and Personal Interaction, the more relational aspects of the value drivers. If Cordeo thinks a new customer will become a high intensity user, it could primarily focus on its Service Support accompanying the delivery of the product. Delivery Performance is recognized to be the most important for both high and low intensity users, so in their proposal they should incorporate fixed deadlines and meet up to the expectations from the customer regarding new releases and fixes. Furthermore the Non Financial Consequences don’t need a lot of attention since both customer groups equally grade this as the least important. Cordeo already has a strong connection with its customers, resulting in a high grade on Personal Interaction and Service Support. The organization should focus more on Time to Market and Delivery Performance. Especially the latter value driver is of particular importance, since the users grade these drivers as the highest. However the most interesting finding is the fact that traditional segmenting does not show the particular differences between value drivers one always argued. There were only small differences in evaluating the value drivers. Only Service Support is significantly graded higher by the high intensity user group. It is recommended by creating a value proposition for a potential high intensity user to focus extra on this particular driver. Through this connection from traditional segmentation and value drivers a first bridge is build for emerging into the new dominant logic (Vargo & Lusch, 2004).