What Does ‘Value’ Mean in This Economy?

Durability. Simplicity. Sensible. Authentic.

Value does not mean lowest price, flamboyancy, or boisterousness.   Consumers are looking for more meaning in their lives and are looking for products and services based on their conscience and their emotional desire to be connected (to each other, to nature, to family).  Consumerism has evolved from bottle water to bring your own water (BYOW), from Starbucks to make-your-own-specialty-coffee-and-put-it-in-a-really-snazzy-mug, from mindless reality entertainment to edutainment.

A recent survey by Brandindex, a daily measure of brand perception by the London-based firm YouGov taken from January to April, found that some brands, like Starbucks and General Motors’ Hummer are not convincing consumers that they offer value.  YouGov polls 5,000 people a day and asks them to rate about 200 brands (http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i6e35e0f4967c742a9cdc1acae2890b42).

Craftsman, Rubbermaid, Whirlpool all did well because they are perceived to offer dependability, while Lowe’s, Target, and Subway did well for value for the money in my opinion.  Brands that did not fare well like Starbucks, Hummer, Nieman Marcus, AIG, Perrier stand for excess.

Excess is out; right-sizing, responsible consumption, and buying ‘smart ’ (not lowest price) are in.  Challenger Brands that get this dynamic will gain market share.  Pontiac is going away unfortunately because it did not resemble any of today’s desired “value” traits, Quiznos is suffering because it is trying to be the low-price leader when it should represent more for the money, and Target is successful even though they are not the low-price leader because they have communicated to consumers they understand what “value” means in today’s economy.