Bill Matthies

Understanding The Value Of Value
February 4, 2008

Value is a funny, very hard to predict thing.

What it is, how to measure it, how to demonstrate that you offer more of it than does your competitor is more voodoo than science.  But it is no less important because that is so. No matter how difficult to do, everyone in business must define a value proposition for their customers and then attempt to sell how they want to be perceived. To do that we see terms like “great value”, “no better value”, “high value”, etc. but have you ever stopped to wonder what that means to the consumer?

Case in point; determining the value of converting analog video stored on VHS tape or even 8 mm film to digital. As no doubt is true for many, I have hours of VHS and 8mm digital video tape as well as a small amount of 8mm film from my parents, just sitting in drawers deteriorating. A visual history of some of my youth and all of my two boys’ — seemingly every soccer, baseball, basketball game, karate match, school play and birthday painstakingly recorded for posterity. While I no longer have the equipment that recorded those events, not even a VCR, I do have the tape and increasingly felt guilty about not doing anything to save it, until recently.

I had seen services offering to convert a tape to DVD typically for $20.  That seemed high, particularly since I have more than 70 tapes.  And then I wondered about the wisdom of putting it on DVD.  How long would they last, what if DVD were to be replaced by some other medium?  So each time I thought of that, the conclusion was the service was of too little value. But, you might say, “what about all those memories that may be lost forever?  Can any price to save that be too much?  Is there not great value in return for whatever it cost?”  Well at $20 bucks a tape I guess there wasn’t because I didn’t bite.

Then I came across O’Hara Productions in Northern California,  $10 per tape, 50 cents per slide or photo; half of what I’d been seeing but still not enough to push me over.  However, I was intrigued enough to call and talk with Dan O’Hara who proved to be knowledgeable beyond my expectation; enough so as to remove all my concerns and doubts. Enough so that I would have paid more than $10 a tape and 50 cents a slide if necessary because of his expertise. Because more than just the act of converting tape to a new medium (external hard disc), Dan himself became a component of the value proposition that had been missing to date.

All “value” is perceived; conceivably quite differently by one consumer to the next and at its core is based on much more than simply price.  There are many more elements that separately and together make up the consumer’s perception of value (or lack thereof) and understanding that mix is central to every sale you make (or lose.)

Posted by Bill Matthies on February 4, 2008 | Comments (0)