<p>Background</p><p>After a successful launch in early 2007 Pond’s Age Miracle, Unilever Vietnam’s anti-aging skincare product, is now experiencing falling sales and a declining market share having failed to complete its mission of counter-attacking its main competitor – P&G’s Olay Total Effect. This predicament poses a question of how Unilever Vietnam can improve market performance of this product.</p><p>Purpose</p><p>To determine Pond’s Age Miracle customer perceived value and propose recommendations on how to improve it.</p><p>Method</p><p>A combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches was pursued. In-depth interviews with consumers were used to discover relevant attributes of anti-aging skincare. A consumer survey was employed to measure relative importance and relative performance of the identified attributes – a basis for determining Pond’s customer perceived value.</p><p>Findings, Analysis and Conclusion</p><p>Customer perceived value of Pond’s Age Miracle was found to have a negative character on the entire market scale and across most of the listed consumer groups.</p><p>Recommendations</p><p>A re-launch of the upgraded version of Pond’s is suggested to maintain the current consumers and recruit the potential anti-aging skincare users.</p>

Background After a successful launch in early 2007 Pond’s Age Miracle, Unilever Vietnam’s anti-aging skincare product, is now experiencing falling sales and a declining market share having failed to complete its mission of counter-attacking its main competitor – P&amp;G’s Olay Total Effect. This predicament poses a question of how Unilever Vietnam can improve market performance of this product. Purpose To determine Pond’s Age Miracle customer perceived value and propose recommendations on how to improve it. Method A combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches was pursued. In-depth interviews with consumers were used to discover relevant attributes of anti-aging skincare. A consumer survey was employed to measure relative importance and relative performance of the identified attributes – a basis for determining Pond’s customer perceived value. Findings, Analysis and Conclusion Customer perceived value of Pond’s Age Miracle was found to have a negative character on the entire market scale and across most of the listed consumer groups. Recommendations A re-launch of the upgraded version of Pond’s is suggested to maintain the current consumers and recruit the potential anti-aging skincare users.

During recent years corporations have been focusing on revenues rather than profits. This led to decreased margins and unstable financial performances. To increase profits, new pricing strategies have emerged. One promising pricing strategy that focuses on increasing profits is value-based pricing, which constitutes the monetising of customer perceived value. The purpose of this paper is to identify what factors influence customer perceived value in the global high-tech service industry. With this knowledge corporations can draw precise evaluations of customer perceived value and hence utilise value-based pricing in the best possible way. A qualitative method was used to study the case of MB Services, the service division of the Meyer Burger Technology Group, and the global high-tech service industry represented at the Hannovermesse 2011, an industrial exhibition in Hanover, Germany. The empirical data collected was analysed together with the theoretical framework. The findings are that customer perceived value of high-tech services is influenced by the overall benefits the customer can obtain from the service, the sacrifices in terms of costs the customer has to pay for the service, competitors’ offerings, different segments, subjective judgments of distinctive people within a corporation, and the industries’ and customers’ level of maturity. Customer perceived value is an underresearched subject, which requires further investigation.

This thesis aims at studying customer perceived value in language test training industry through an empirical research on four dominate IELTS training institutes in China. Customer questionnaires are used to get customers’ preferences about language test training service, as well as their perceived value of each institute. Based on that, a measurement of each institute’s performance according to the customer preferences is conducted. After analysis, the strength and weakness of each institute is clearly showed, followed by relative explanations and suggestions for their weaknesses.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the value differentiation in the polymer industry in South Africa by rating the polymer customers’ experience in this regard. This study is important in the light of increasing polymer competition worldwide. No records of similar studies in this industry in South Africa have been found. As such this study could make a contribution that could spur polymer manufacturers and suppliers in improving their competitive advantage by offering value-added services to enhance the customer experience and, as a result increase customer satisfaction levels. The type of research conducted was a descriptive research applying the quantitative research methodology. The non-probability quota sampling method was employed. The study population consisted of a select group of customers from a South African polymer manufacturer and supplier. A questionnaire was e-mailed to the select group of polymer customers, many of whom purchase polymer locally and abroad. A response rate of 74% was obtained from a sample of 68 customers approached. The survey results show statistically that a positive satisfaction level was attained, but also highlighted some areas where certain value drivers such as company image, supply and distribution, and information lack attention. Polymer suppliers could gain the competitive advantage by focusing on the drivers that many customers value to ensure that customer satisfaction levels are sustained or improved on. More importantly, polymer suppliers should focus on the low scoring satisfaction levels recorded from the survey, from which they could build by enhancing the total value proposition. Limitations of the study were identified. Recommendations for future research were made. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the value differentiation in the polymer industry in South Africa by rating the polymer customers’ experience in this regard. This study is important in the light of increasing polymer competition worldwide. No records of similar studies in this industry in South Africa have been found. As such this study could make a contribution that could spur polymer manufacturers and suppliers in improving their competitive advantage by offering value-added services to enhance the customer experience and, as a result increase customer satisfaction levels. The type of research conducted was a descriptive research applying the quantitative research methodology. The non-probability quota sampling method was employed. The study population consisted of a select group of customers from a South African polymer manufacturer and supplier. A questionnaire was e-mailed to the select group of polymer customers, many of whom purchase polymer locally and abroad. A response rate of 74% was obtained from a sample of 68 customers approached. The survey results show statistically that a positive satisfaction level was attained, but also highlighted some areas where certain value drivers such as company image, supply and distribution, and information lack attention. Polymer suppliers could gain the competitive advantage by focusing on the drivers that many customers value to ensure that customer satisfaction levels are sustained or improved on. More importantly, polymer suppliers should focus on the low scoring satisfaction levels recorded from the survey, from which they could build by enhancing the total value proposition. Limitations of the study were identified. Recommendations for future research were made. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

O luxo é um setor que tem cada vez mais despertado o interesse de acadêmicos e profissionais de marketing, não só pela importância econômica que representa para alguns países, mas também pela sua tendência de crescimento em mercados emergentes, favorecida pelo aumento da renda disponível e do tamanho da clientela potencial. Especificamente no Brasil, o mercado do luxo tem experimentado um incremento anual significativo e superior ao da economia como um todo. A gestão das empresas atuantes nesse mercado apresenta desafios de particular interesse para os estudiosos e praticantes do marketing, pois os produtos luxuosos possuem elevado grau de valores intangíveis, subjetivos e sociais agregados, que são determinantes para a formação de sua demanda e de uma parcela considerável do preço final. O cenário de crescente competição e internacionalização exige processos gerenciais cada vez mais orientados para o mercado, nos quais análises da concorrência e do perfil dos consumidores são formas de gerar um maior valor percebido pelo cliente. Não obstante, criar e entregar esse valor exige uma clara compreensão de sua natureza e dimensões. Nesse contexto, este trabalho teve por objetivo propor e testar um modelo conceitual integrador para o Valor Percebido pelo Cliente dos produtos de luxo, buscando ampliar o corpo teórico sobre o constructo e fundamentar o desenvolvimento de estratégias de marketing. A partir da análise crítica de modelos propostos por diferentes autores, de reflexões teóricas sobre o conceito do luxo, e com base na opinião de consumidores do setor, foram desenvolvidos o modelo teórico e seus respectivos itens de mensuração, testados e refinados pela técnica de modelagem de equações estruturais PLS-SEM em termos de sua confiabilidade e validade. Os resultados mostraram haver um impacto considerável das duas dimensões dos sacrifícios percebidos (não monetários e monetários) sobre o valor percebido total dos produtos prestigiosos, bem como efeitos menores, porém significativos, das dimensões dos benefícios psicológicos, sociais e intangíveis. Os benefícios tangíveis também demonstraram impacto sobre o valor percebido final, porém em menor grau. Tais resultados contribuem para a ampliação do corpo teórico de marketing sobre esse tema, ao propor e validar um modelo mais abrangente que integra os existentes e, ao mesmo tempo, preenche lacunas observadas. Em termos gerenciais, o conhecimento dos aspectos mais relevantes da percepção dos consumidores sobre o valor entregue pelos bens luxuosos é fundamental para gerenciar as marcas, direcionar os esforços de comunicação de marketing e desenvolver estratégias de mercado eficazes, levando em conta as diferentes dimensões de benefícios e sacrifícios propostos pelo estudo. / The luxury industry has been raising greater interest among marketing scholars and professionals, not only due to its economic relevance in some countries, but also because of its growth trend in emerging markets, spurred by increases in disposable income and a greater diversity of its target audiences. Specifically in Brazil, the luxury market has experienced significant annual growth rates, well above those of the total economy. The management of luxury companies presents challenges that are particularly interesting for marketing scholars and practitioners, as prestige products possess high levels of intangible, subjective and social added value, which are determinant for their demand and final price formation. In the present scenario, where growing competition and internationalization demand increasingly market-oriented managerial processes, competition and consumer behavior analysis is a necessary tool to create higher customer perceived value. Nevertheless, creating and delivering value demands a clear understanding of its nature and dimensions. Thus the purpose of this study: to propose and test an integrative conceptual framework for luxury products Customer Perceived Value, aiming to increase the construct\'s theoretical understanding and to serve as a basis for developing marketing strategies. Building upon a critical analysis of models proposed by various authors, the theory on the luxury concept, and luxury consumers\' opinions, the conceptual model and its measurement items were developed, tested and refined in terms of validity and reliability through the structural equation modeling technique PLS-SEM. The findings revealed a considerable impact of the two perceived sacrifice dimensions (non-monetary and monetary) on luxury products total perceived value, as well as smaller, though significant, effects of the psychological, social and intangible benefits dimensions. Tangible benefits have also shown an impact on the final perceived value, but to a lesser extent. Those findings contribute to the marketing theory on the subject by proposing and validating a more comprehensive framework that synthetizes preexisting ones and, at the same time, fills out gaps found in the literature. In terms of managerial practice, a better understanding of the most relevant aspects of luxury customer perceived value is vital for brand management, marketing communications and the development of effective marketing strategies that build upon the various benefit and sacrifice dimensions proposed in this study.

Customer loyalty is an important issue for the success and sustainability of an online business. Moreover, the concept of affiliate marketing online business has become well-known among online shoppers in the past several years. Nevertheless, there is little research investigating customer loyalty towards affiliate marketing websites, especially in China, where this kind of websites are known as ‘cash-back website’. Therefore, this research investigates customer loyalty towards cash-back websites (51fanli.com as the leading cash-back website) in the China market. Based on previous studies and interview, this research applies six factors (cash-back promotion, price comparison service, WOM in social community, quality web design, privacy and security, trust) as core and supplementary services which influence customer perspective in loyalty. This study aims to find out which factors in cash-back websites can influence customer loyalty in the China online market. In this research, questionnaires are sent to cash-back website users to collect quantitative data. A statistical analysis is used to verify the nine hypotheses to analyze the collected data. The result points to five factors in both core and supplementary services that support customer perspective towards loyalty, while only ‘WOM in social community’ has no correlation with Chinese customer perspective towards loyalty. After comparing the results of the two groups of customers, those used 51fanli.com and those who did not use 51fanli.com, the research discover that customers who used 51fanli.com have stronger opinions on ‘privacy and security’ factor. Customer perceived value has significant positive relations to customer satisfaction that may influence customer loyalty. Furthermore, managing the loyalty programme in order to maintain high switching cost is only applicable to customers who have high satisfaction towards the website. Finally, some managerial implications suggested cash-back websites to adapt unique strategies to gain more customers and cautiously use switching cost. Maintaining a good reputation on privacy and security is another key success factor of cash-back websites in China market.

Abstract This study explores customer perceived value in the context of emerging technology-intensive business service, in particular a mobile advertising service that is at the application phase of development. The purpose of the study is to conceptualise customer perceived value as a multidimensional concept by exploring 1) the complex interaction between benefits and sacrifices 2) temporality and 3) learning. This way the study contributes to the existing research within services marketing and business relationships. The empirical part of the study is conducted in the form of a qualitative single-case study. The empirical setting organised to acquire data is qualitative real-life experiment. It consists of three field experiments that were organised by the research project to simulate real-life situations and to gain understanding of developing technological services that are not yet in commercial use. Interviews, observations and personal experiences form the main sources of information and are complemented by secondary documental data. In this study the sources of value are first identified, which enhances understanding of what kind of value customers perceive from emerging technological service. In addition, value sub-elements have a complex interaction in service value co-creation, since certain sacrifices made by users may increase the benefits they perceive, whereas some benefits can increase the sacrifices and thus reduce the customer perceived net value. Second, the concepts of expected value, realised value and potential value are identified which enables deeper understanding of the temporality of customer perceived value. Third, learning has an important role in customer perceived value. When looking at learning at the process level, it is a sacrifice, but at the outcome level it turns into a benefit and thus also amplifies the customer perceived net value. Learning is needed from the customer to be able to use the new technological service and utilise it effectively, which in turn leads the customer to perceive higher value from the service. Moreover, the temporal dimensions of value are connected to each other through the customer’s learning that varies according to its type and object at different points of time. For the service providers of new technological services understanding value related to the service and its production is essential. The future success and viability of these kinds of services requires that service providers know what kind of value their customers perceive from the service and especially what kind of future expectations they have for it. This study provides implications for the service providers on how to co-create value with their business customers and thus make technology-intensive business service a profitable business in the future.

Globalisation has taken the world by storm by opening opportunities for new markets and easier communication. The general economic climate during the last decade is one reason to this, and the impact has resulted in internationalisation as a key strategy for survival. This has affected many kinds of industries and companies, not least new venture firms. There is today a competitive market climate where companies need to have a strategic advantage to succeed. One advantage could be to increase customer value through the selection of communication channels and sales channels, which has resulted in the following research objective: The purpose of this study is to examine how international market entry decisions based on customer perceived value can affect the choice of communication and sales channel strategies for new venture firms in a B2B context. This study has been of exploratory descriptive kind where a qualitative data collection has been conducted through in-depth interviews with five gemmologists active worldwide. The results of the research were varied since the respondents had different opinions, but some conclusions could still be made. The findings suggest the use of a multiple channel strategy regarding sales channel. The study also highlights the importance of 1) Building and cherishing customer relations, 2) Looking up potential resellers or distributors, 3) Communicating a solution and not a product and finally 4) Focus on internet advertising rather than paper and television. Since this study has been of qualitative kind, one suggestion for future research is to make a quantitative study of the same study to confirm the previously mentioned findings. These findings are due to the nature of the study only implications, but a quantitative study would make them generalizable. / Globalisering är ett område som tagit världen med storm, detta genom att förenkla kommunikation och öppna möjligheter till nya marknader. Det ekonomiska klimatet i skrivande stund är en av faktorerna som har påverkat detta, vilket har resulterat i internationalisering som en viktig strategi för överlevnad. Detta har påverkat många typer av industrier och företag, inte minst startups. Dagens konkurrenskraftiga marknadsklimat medför att företag behöver ha någon slags strategisk fördel för att lyckas. En fördel kan vara att öka kundvärdet genom val av kommunikationskanaler och försäljningskanaler, vilket lett till följande syfte för denna studie: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur marknadsbeslut baserade på kundvärde kan påverka valet av kommunikations- och försäljningskanaler i ett B2B-sammanhang. Denna studie har varit av förklarande och beskrivande slag, där en kvalitativ datainsamling har genomförts genom djupintervjuer med fem gemmologer som är aktiva på en internationell marknad. Resultaten av studien var varierade då respondenternas åsikter skildes, det gick dock trots detta att dra en del slutsatser. Resultaten indikerar att användning av en hybrid försäljningsstrategi vore optimal. Studien belyser också vikten av att 1) Bygga upp och värna om kundrelationer, 2) Söka potentiella återförsäljare eller distributörer, 3) Sälja en lösning istället för en produkt och slutligen 4) Fokusera på internetannonsering i stället för tidningar och tv. Då denna studie har varit av kvalitativt slag är ett förslag till framtida forskning att göra en kvantitativ studie av samma ämne för att bekräfta resultaten. Resultaten är i nuläget endast indikationer medans en kvantitativ studie skulle göra dem generaliserbara.