Step 2: How Customers Evaluate the Parameter Performance
Category: Marketing
Figure 2 is an example of how the customers evaluate an action parameter. Product quality has been chosen as an example, but the evaluation could be made for the other parameters as well.
Product quality has been defined on the basis of the criteria (properties): Price/quality relationship, lifetime/corrosion, strength/dimension, flexible construction, guarantees, suitability for self assembly, painting, materials and stability according to product.
Figure 2: How customers evaluate the performance of the parameter: Product quality
The customers have evaluated the product quality of the company and two of its main competitors without knowing which of the three companies were making the analysis. This means that the customers evaluate the three companies without bias coming from the knowledge of who makes the analysis.
The relative strength of the three companies can be extracted from figure 2. It shows the customers’ evaluation of the product qualities of each of the three companies — the degree to which the customers are satisfied with the performance. It is necessary to relate the evaluation of one’s strength to that of the competitors, in order to give a picture of the competitiveness of the company.
Figure 2 shows which of the company characteristics (properties) are strong/weak in relation to the competitors. The examples show considerable differences in the evaluation of the three companies within some of the properties. Except for the factor ‘Flexible construction’ the company is rather uncompetitive. In general the competitor 1 seems to have the most competitive strength of the three companies.