Article Analysis Essay on The Strategic Importance of Customer Value

A scholarly article that has been selected for the study is The Strategic Importance of Customer Value by Donovan A. McFarlane, DeVry University. In the journal article, McFarlane (2013), describes certain findings important in the 21st-century marketing, which adds to the value of the research. This aim of this paper is to review the article based on the main idea of the article, why the author writes on the topic, the facts he presents, the articles relation to other readings on the topic, and the conclusions and recommendations brought forward by the researcher.

The Articles Main Idea

The main purpose of the article is a customers importance as a strategic approach in conducting business in the 21st-century hyper-competitive marketplace. The article encompasses Professor Art Weinsteins theory of customer value as a useful theoretical structure for an organizations strategic position through market orientation to both deliver and design a greater value of customers to get a competitive advantage.

Reasons McFarlane Writes About the Topic

The main reason McFarlane writes about the topic is to portray the significance a customer has in any business. The other reason McFarlane writes about the topic is to show the role that is played by value creation and customer service in the development of market positions and competitive advantage through the analysis of the differences of market driven companies in relation to the theory and concept of customer value. The articles guidelines are essential in ways that can help any organization to conduct its business operations in both a profitable and smooth manner. In an emphasis to show the value of a customer, the author uses two important frameworks, the CVF and the SQIP models, as proposed by Weinstein to communicate a customers strategic importance. An additional reason McFarlane writes on the topic is its importance to practitioners, researchers, and educators given that it highlights the need for a shift in practice, focus, and perspective in the theory of value during the current century where a companys competitive advantage is simply not based on possessing the factors of production, but on viewing customers as values co-creators and meeting and exceeding the demands of customers to create market driven opportunities (McFarlane, 2013).

Facts Presented By McFarlane

McFarlane points out the dramatic change of the current marketing environment, which has, as a result, made companies devise effective strategies to respond and deal with the change while ensuring the maximum customer satisfaction and value. For this reason, there are no unique key factors of success possessed by any company. Presently, businesses have to obtain a minimum and certain degree of technology, customer knowledge, image, value, quality, innovation, financial well-being, and understanding of their markets and products. The unique factor that remains to be crucial to market leadership is the ways through which value propositions are delivered by companies (McFarlane, 2013).

How the Article Relates to the Other Readings on the Topic

Taking into consideration that customer value has become vital for business managers and leaders, the article relates to other reading given that the creation of customer value is not a process relegated to sales and marketing departments. It is a philosophy involving the entire organization such as total quality management where every organizational member plays a role increasing value towards customer experience. Also, the article relates to other readings on the topic due to the specific need of customers in the market (McFarlane, 2013).

Critique of the Article

After extensively studying the article, it would be correct to point out the significance customers have in any business. According to the article, all businesses exist to create value for customers shaped and driven by customer wants and needs (McFarlane, 2013). As such, the article has covered most, if not all, factors necessary for global business, whereby markets, organizations, and customers level the field that results in business performance. Besides, the article has included the Weinsteins customer value funnel and the SQIP model to show the strategic significance of customer value. It is evident that the information presented in the article can be used or applied in every country since it applies to all markets. However, the article could have used B2B context in conducting similar studies to enable the readers to understand better the extent to which results of consumer studies could be generalized.

Conclusions

Customer value is, theoretically, about understanding the purpose of business and human processes of transaction and adoption. The main idea of customer value encompasses the capturing and understanding of customer expectation, creating and delivering experiences desired by customers, and customer evaluation analysis and management. In relation to the article, any researcher, business practitioner, and educator studying the topic would find the article to be of immense value. This is because the research topic applies to all market conditions. Additionally, the research would be beneficial to global businesses intending to improve their business performance.

Recommendations

Although the article is valuable to all organizations that may need to find out more about the strategic importance of customer value, future studies ought to use more advanced approaches or instruments to reach conceptual clarity. Also, a B2B context can be used to conduct similar studies to enable readers to understand better the extent to which results of consumer studies could be generalized.

Reference

McFarlane, D. A. (2013). The strategic importance of customer value. Atlantic Marketing

Journal, 2(1), 5.