How do you communicate value to consumers & shoppers?

This is a age old question for any and everyone who is in sales & marketing!

There is a perpetual quest on part of marketers, salesmen, retailers in communicating and getting acknowledgment of value on part of the consumers and shoppers. Over the years I have come to believe "value" is an experience not a tangible take away not even real bills of money the consumer or shopper may put in their wallets or pocketbooks.

So what is "value"?

The classical marketing concept of value is the difference between benefits and price. Benefits are the intangibles that can be morphed to the solution, the venue, the product, the establishment, the people and so on. There are a number of different schools of philosophy on "value" and "value proposition", the one that I subscribe to believes "value proposition" is the same as "brand positioning" targeted towards businesses versus consumers.

The question still remains; Is the communication of value enough to generate a sale or does the consumer and shopper need to realize the value? What happens when the consumer converts and closes the sale but delays the actual consumption? Is purchase of a branded product or service the proof of value or does it take consumption to realize value?