Is value the quality equivalent of a product?

Lately I have had several conversations on the topic of VALUE. What is the value from a brand to a consumer? Can the value vary by the brands prospect? Can the value be changed for the consumer by time of day, location, messaging, packaging, pricing?

The answers are all a resounding YES! A brands value to a consumer is what the consumer assigns it. It can vary dramatically by the prospect, the mindset, the perspective, the need state, the purpose and much more.

I have personally experienced that in business and careers. Where one individual investing their heart, sweat and blood gets little back while another one who does little gets significantly more from their career. It is the evaluators perception of the value addition. I hear this from manufacturers all the time, "we have a better quality product, but our competitor gets much more out of the product". The perception of quality like value is not assessed by the delivering organization or individual but the receiver of the product or service.

Recently one of the businesses I am consulting has successfully generated several leads and some closure in selling some of their product but the repeat purchase has not yet happened on that same product. What is fascinating though is the repeat purchase by the same customers has occured for other services from the organization not the one that was initially sold. It is clear that value exists and is obviously perceived by the consumer during the sale but has not realized it in the actual product but instead in the consultative element of the sales itself. Clearly not a scalable solution for the organization and not one that the firm intends to sell.

The challenge is to captivate value and have the consumer realize it into the brand the product or the service!