全新的用户需求层次和价值评估模型@哈佛商业评论【UXRen译#228】

由宝珠 · 发布日期 2018-05-07 · 已更新 2019-04-09

作者：Eric Almquist, John Senior, and Nicolas Bloch | 翻译：Renee 审校： June

原文中文标题：《价值要素——Maslow的“需求层次”升级版，多维度打通你在用户需求认知上的任督二脉》

当用户评估一个产品或服务，他们会权衡其感知价值和要价。营销人员通常把他们的时间和精力都花在管理价格方面，因为提高价格会立即提高利润。但这很容易：定价需要管理一小组价格数字，更需要定价分析和策略。

When customers evaluate a product or service, they weigh its perceived value against the asking price. Marketers have generally focused much of their time and energy on managing the price side of that equation, since raising prices can immediately boost profits. But that’s the easy part: Pricing usually consists of managing a relatively small set of numbers, and pricing analytics and tactics are highly evolved.

然而，客户真正重视的东西是很难确定的而且伴随着复杂的内心活动。领导团队如何积极的管理价值或设法提供更多价值，无论从功能上（节约时间、降低成本）还是情感上（减少焦虑、提供娱乐）？离散选择分析——模拟产品特征、定价和其他组件的不同组合的需求——以及类似的研究技术是强大而有用的工具，但是它们被设计用来测试消费者对先入为主价值观念的反应——而这些概念是管理者习惯用于做判断的。提出新的概念需要预判出人们可能认为有价值的其他东西。

What consumers truly value, however, can be difficult to pin down and psychologically complicated. How can leadership teams actively manage value or devise ways to deliver more of it, whether functional (saving time, reducing cost) or emotional (reducing anxiety, providing entertainment)? Discrete choice analysis—which simulates demand for different combinations of product features, pricing, and other components—and similar research techniques are powerful and useful tools, but they are designed to test consumer reactions to preconceived concepts of value—the concepts that managers are accustomed to judging. Coming up with new concepts requires anticipating what else people might consider valuable.

当然，特定的产品或服务中的价值的量和质总是存在于旁观者的眼中。然而，普遍存在的价值基石确实是存在，为企业创造了机会，让它们在当前市场上提高业绩，或打入新的市场。一个严格的消费者价值模型允许一个公司提出新的产品和服务价值组合。我们的分析显示，正确的组合可以让客户的忠诚度更高，品牌消费意愿更强，并持续保持企业收入增长。

The amount and nature of value in a particular product or service always lie in the eye of the beholder, of course. Yet universal building blocks of value do exist, creating opportunities for companies to improve their performance in current markets or break into new ones. A rigorous model of consumer value allows a company to come up with new combinations of value that its products and services could deliver. The right combinations, our analysis shows, pay off in stronger customer loyalty, greater consumer willingness to try a particular brand, and sustained revenue growth.

我们已经确定了30个“价值元素”——属于本质和离散形式的基本属性。这些元素分为四类:功能型、情感型、改变生活型和社会影响型。一些元素更专注于内在，主要是满足消费者的个人需求。例如，改变生活的元素动机是Fitbit运动追踪产品的核心。另一些则向外聚焦，帮助客户与外部世界互动或确定方向。功能元素是The Container Store（美国家居零售o2o企业）和Intuit的TurboTax（报税软件）的核心，因为两者都是在帮助消费者处理他们生活中的复杂事务。

We have identified 30 “elements of value”—fundamental attributes in their most essential and discrete forms. These elements fall into four categories: functional, emotional, life changing, and social impact. Some elements are more inwardly focused, primarily addressing consumers’ personal needs. For example, the life-changing element motivation is at the core of Fitbit’s exercise-tracking products. Others are outwardly focused, helping customers interact in or navigate the external world. The functional element organizes is central to The Container Store and Intuit’s TurboTax, because both help consumers deal with complexities in their world.

一、价值要素金字塔（The elements of value pyramid）

产品和服务提供了价值的基本要素，解决了四种需求：功能、情感、生活变化和社会影响。总的来说，提供的元素越多，客户的忠诚度越高，公司持续的收入增长也就越高。

Products and services deliver fundamental elements of value that address four kinds of needs: functional, emotional, life changing, and social impact. In general, the more elements provided, the greater customers’ loyalty and the higher the company’s sustained revenue growth.

ICONS BY NIK SCHULZ （点击图片查看高清大图）

在我们的研究中，我们不是从表面上根据消费者的反馈认为某个产品属性重要要或不重要；相反，我们是在探索这种出现这种论述的原因。例如，当有人说她的银行是“方便的”，它的价值来自于一些功能元素的组合，诸如节省了时间，避免了麻烦，简化和减少了工作量。当一台价值1万美元的莱卡相机的所有者谈到产品的质量和它所拍摄的照片时，改变生活的潜在因素蕴含了自我实现，源自于拥有一款近一个世纪以来被知名摄影师们所用的相机而带来的自豪感。

In our research we don’t accept on its face a consumer’s statement that a certain product attribute is important; instead we explore what underlies that statement. For example, when someone says her bank is “convenient,” its value derives from some combination of the functional elements saves time, avoids hassle, simplifies, and reduces effort. And when the owner of a $10,000 Leica talks about the quality of the product and the pictures it takes, an underlying life-changing element is self-actualization, arising from the pride of owning a camera that famous photographers have used for a century.

价值要素延伸了Maslow的“需求层次”（The elements of value approach extends Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs”）

30年的消费者研究和对企业客户的观察让我们发现了这30个基本属性，这些属性是我们从定性和定量的客户研究中获得的。许多研究涉及众所周知的访谈技巧“laddering”，它探究消费者的初始偏好，以确定驱使他们的深层原因。（Laddering方法可译为“爬梯法”，也类似于”5WHY”法。这是一种“打破砂锅问到底”的方法，提倡在访谈时对用户的初步回答反复追问“为什么”，引导用户从表面的行为开始思索，清理出行为背后的动机、需求乃至价值和文化观念。）

Three decades of experience doing consumer research and observation for corporate clients led us to identify these 30 fundamental attributes, which we derived from scores of quantitative and qualitative customer studies. Many of the studies involved the well-known interviewing technique “laddering,” which probes consumers’ initial stated preferences to identify what’s driving them.

我们的模型可以追溯到心理学家Abraham Maslow在1943年首次发表的“需求层次”概念。当时，布鲁克林学院的一名教员马斯洛认为，人类的行为源于一种天生的愿望，满足从基本（安全、温暖、食物、休息）到复杂（自尊、利他主义）的需求。如今，几乎所有的营销人员都熟悉Maslow的等级制度。价值要素的方法扩展了他的见解，把重点放在将人们作为消费者来描述他们的行为与产品和服务的联系。

Our model traces its conceptual roots to the psychologist Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs,” which was first published in 1943. Then a faculty member at Brooklyn College, Maslow argued that human actions arise from an innate desire to fulfill needs ranging from the very basic (security, warmth, food, rest) to the complex (self-esteem, altruism). Almost all marketers today are familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy. The elements of value approach extends his insights by focusing on people as consumers—describing their behavior as it relates to products and services.

将Maslow的理念与我们的模型进行简单的比较可能是有用的。市场营销人员都看到过他以金字塔形式组织的等级层次(尽管后来是译者，而不是Maslow本人以这种方式表达他的理论)。金字塔的底部是生理和安全的需要，而顶端则是自我实现和自我超越。人们普遍的假设是，人们在满足下面的需求之前，无法达到顶端的需求。Maslow自己采取了一种更细致入微的观点，他意识到可以存在多样的实现模式。例如，攀岩者在攀登数千英尺中实现了自我，而忽略了基本的安全考虑。

It may be useful to briefly compare Maslow’s thinking with our model. Marketers have seen his hierarchy organized in a pyramid (although it was later interpreters, not Maslow himself, who expressed his theory that way). At the bottom of the pyramid are physiological and safety needs, and at the top are self-actualization and self-transcendence. The popular assumption has been that people cannot attain the needs at the top until they have met the ones below. Maslow himself took a more nuanced view, realizing that numerous patterns of fulfillment can exist. For example, rock climbers achieve self-actualization in unroped ascents of thousands of feet, ignoring basic safety considerations.

同样地，价值要素金字塔的是一种启发式的模型，实际在理论上并不完美，而其中最强大的价值形式存在于顶部。为了能够实现那些高阶要素，公司必须至少提供特定产品类别所需要的一些基本功能要素。但是，当今成功的产品和服务中确实也存在着许多元素的多样组合。

Similarly, the elements of value pyramid is a heuristic model—practical rather than theoretically perfect—in which the most powerful forms of value live at the top. To be able to deliver on those higher-order elements, a company must provide at least some of the functional elements required by a particular product category. But many combinations of elements exist in successful products and services today.

这些元素的大部分已经存在了好几个世纪，甚至可能更久，尽管它们的表现随着时间的推移而发生了变化。连接属性最初是由携带书信的快递员提供的。然后是驿马、电报、气动邮政、电话、互联网、电子邮件、Instagram、Twitter和其他社交媒体网站。

Most of these elements have been around for centuries and probably longer, although their manifestations have changed over time. Connects was first provided by couriers bearing messages on foot. Then came the Pony Express, the telegraph, the pneumatic post, the telephone, the internet, e-mail, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media sites.

要素的相关性根据行业、文化和人口特征而不同。例如，思乡情感或一体化对于发展中国家的农民的生存来说意义不大，而减少风险和赚钱对他们来说是至关重要的。同样地，纵观历史，对于大多数消费者来说，自我实现都是遥不可及的，他们关注的是生存(即使他们通过精神或世俗追求实现了自我实现)。但是任何节省时间、减少工作量或降低成本的事情都是值得推崇的。

The relevance of elements varies according to industry, culture, and demographics. For example, nostalgia or integrates may mean little to subsistence farmers in developing countries, whereas reduces risk and makes money are vital to them. Likewise, throughout history, self-actualization has been out of reach for most consumers, who were focused on survival (even if they found fulfillment through spiritual or worldly pursuits). But anything that saved time, reduced effort, or reduced cost was prized.

二、日益增长的收入（Growing Revenue）

为了测试价值要素是否能与公司业绩挂钩（特别是公司的客户关系和收入增长），我们现在与Research Now(一家在线抽样和数据收集公司)合作，对超过1万名美国消费者进行调查，了解他们对近50个美国公司的看法。每个被调查者都要从他们在前六个月里购买了产品或服务的公司中选取一家，对每个要素都使用0-10的等级进行打分。当公司有保险或银行等重大品牌部门时，我们分别对这些部门进行了单独的采访。然后，我们研究了这些排名之间的关系，每个公司的净推荐评分(NPS)——一个广泛用于客户忠诚度和拥护度的指标，以及公司最近的收入增长。

To test whether the elements of value can be tied to company performance—specifically, a company’s customer relationships and revenue growth—we collaborated with Research Now (an online sampling and data collection company) to survey more than 10,000 U.S. consumers about their perceptions of nearly 50 U.S.-based companies. Each respondent scored one company—from which he or she had bought a product or service during the previous six months—on each element, using a 0–10 scale. When companies had major branded divisions such as insurance or banking, we conducted separate interviews focused on those divisions. We then looked at the relationships among these rankings, each company’s Net Promoter Score (NPS)—a widely used metric for customer loyalty and advocacy—and the company’s recent revenue growth.

我们的第一个假设是，那些在多个价值要素上表现良好的公司会比其他公司拥有更多的忠实客户。调查得到了证实。在苹果，三星，USAA，TOMS和亚马逊等受访者中，至少有50％的受访者中给4个或更多的元素打出高分（8分或以上定义为高分），这些公司的NPS得分是那些只得到一个高分元素公司的3倍，是那些没有得到高分元素公司的20倍。价值元素越多越好，但尝试将所有30个元素注入到产品或服务中显然是不现实的。即使是像我们研究过的用户表现最好的苹果公司，在30个元素中也只有11个获得了高分。正如我们将要说明的那样，企业必须从战略上选择它们的要素。

Our first hypothesis was that the companies that performed well on multiple elements of value would have more loyal customers than the rest. The survey confirmed that. Companies with high scores (defined as an 8 or above) on four or more elements from at least 50% of respondents—such as Apple, Samsung, USAA, TOMS, and Amazon—had, on average, three times the NPS of companies with just one high score, and 20 times the NPS of companies with none. More is clearly better—although it’s obviously unrealistic to try to inject all 30 elements into a product or a service. Even a consumer powerhouse like Apple, one of the best performers we studied, scored high on only 11 of the 30 elements. Companies must choose their elements strategically, as we will illustrate.

我们的第二个假设是，在多个要素上表现良好的公司将以比其他公司更快的速度增加收入。在多个要素上的强劲表现确实与更高、持续的收入增长密切相关。那些在4个或多个要素上得分较高的公司最近的收入增长比只获得一个高分要素的公司收入增长多4倍。获胜的公司明白如何与竞争对手比拼，并且有条不紊地选择了新的要素来传输企业价值(尽管他们中的大多数没有使用我们的特定框架)。

Our second hypothesis was that companies doing well on multiple elements would grow revenue at a faster rate than others. Strong performance on multiple elements does indeed correlate closely with higher and sustained revenue growth. Companies that scored high on four or more elements had recent revenue growth four times greater than that of companies with only one high score. The winning companies understand how they stack up against competitors and have methodically chosen new elements to deliver over time (though most of them did not use our specific framework).

接下来我们探讨了价值要素是否可以揭示纯数字零售商惊人的市场份额增长。这也同样得到了证实。例如，亚马逊在八大主要功能要素上取得了高分，说明了为核心产品增加价值的重要性。它选择了与我们的模型紧密对应的产品特征。例如，在亚马逊2005年创建Prime时，公司最初专注于提供降低成本和节省时间的无限制的两日送达服务，收取79美元的年费。然后，它将Prime的功能扩展到包括媒体(提供访问和娱乐)、在亚马逊服务器上无限制的照片存储(降低风险)和其他功能。每一个新的要素都吸引了大量的消费者，并帮助亚马逊的服务远远高于商品地位。 Prime已经渗透到近40％的美国零售市场，亚马逊已经成为消费者价值的主宰。这使得公司敢于在2015年将Prime的年费提高到99美元，这在任何标准中都算得上是大幅提价。

Next we explored whether the elements of value could shed light on the astonishing market share growth of pure-play digital retailers. This, too, was confirmed empirically. Amazon, for instance, achieved high scores on eight mostly functional elements, illustrating the power of adding value to a core offering. It has chosen product features that closely correspond to those in our model. For example, in creating Amazon Prime, in 2005, the company initially focused on delivering reduces cost and saves time by providing unlimited two-day shipping for a flat $79 annual fee. Then it expanded Prime to include streaming media (provides access and fun/entertainment), unlimited photo storage on Amazon servers (reduces risk), and other features. Each new element attracted a large group of consumers and helped raise Amazon’s services far above commodity status. Prime has penetrated nearly 40% of the U.S. retail market, and Amazon has become a juggernaut of consumer value. That allowed the company to raise Prime’s annual fee to $99 in 2015—a large price increase by any standard.

三、价值模式（Patterns of Value）

为了帮助公司更直接地考虑管理价值方面的问题，我们想要了解这些要素如何转化为成功的业绩表现。是有一些要素比其他的更重要吗?企业是否必须在金字塔顶端或接近金字塔的顶端竞争才能取得成功?还是仅仅靠卓越的功能元素就能成功?消费者在数字和多渠道的公司中看到了什么价值?下面，我们用我们的数据来定义三种创造价值的模式。

To help companies think about managing the value side of the equation more directly, we wanted to understand how the elements translate to successful business performance. Are some of them more important than others? Do companies have to compete at or near the top of the pyramid to be successful? Or can they succeed by excelling on functional elements alone? What value do consumers see in digital versus omnichannel companies? We used our data to identify three patterns of value creation.

1、有些要素比其他的更重要（Some elements do matter more than others）

在我们所研究的所有行业中，感知质量对客户拥护度的影响比其他任何因素都要大。产品和服务必须在一定的水平之上，如果这方面是短板，没有其他因素可以弥补这一缺陷。

Across all the industries we studied, perceived quality affects customer advocacy more than any other element. Products and services must attain a certain minimum level, and no other elements can make up for a significant shortfall on this one.

在质量之后，关键因素取决于行业的不同。在食物和饮料中，感官的吸引力在第二位一点都不令人惊讶。在消费者银行业务中，提供存取和遗产业务(对后代来说是一项不错的投资)是重要的因素;事实上，传统的金融服务中，由于金钱与继承的关系，遗产业务是至关重要的。智能手机的广泛吸引力来自于它们如何实现多种要素，包括省力、省时、连接、集成、多样化、娱乐、提供访问和组织性。苹果、三星和LG这些产品的制造商，在所有公司的研究中都获得了最高的价值评级。

After quality, the critical elements depend on the industry. In food and beverages, sensory appeal, not surprisingly, runs a close second. In consumer banking, provides access and heirloom (a good investment for future generations) are the elements that matter; in fact, heirloom is crucial in financial services generally, because of the connection between money and inheritance. The broad appeal of smartphones stems from how they deliver multiple elements, including reduces effort, saves time, connects, integrates, variety, fun/entertainment, provides access, and organizes. Manufacturers of these products—Apple, Samsung, and LG—got some of the highest value ratings across all companies studied.

哪些要素是最重要的？（Which Elements Are Most Important?）

客户对产品的价值需求因行业而异。以下是影响10种企业忠诚度的五大因素。

What customers value in products varies by industry. Here are the top five elements influencing loyalty for 10 types of businesses.

2、消费者认为数字公司提供更多的价值（Consumers perceive digital firms as offering more value）

精心设计的在线业务使许多消费者交互变得更简单、更方便。因此，数字公司在节省时间和避免麻烦方面是很擅长的。例如，Zappos的得分是传统服装竞争对手在这两个因素和其他几个因素的两倍。从总体上看，它在8个元素上取得了高分，领先于传统零售商。Netflix的表现同样优于传统电视服务商，在降低成本、治疗价值和怀旧情绪方面得分是后者的三倍。Netflix在多样性上的得分也高于其他媒体服务商，这说明它有效地成功说服了客户，尽管没有客观证据，但是它确实提供了更多的价值要素。

Well-designed online businesses make many consumer interactions easier and more convenient. Mainly digital companies thus excel on saves time and avoids hassles. Zappos, for example, scored twice as high as traditional apparel competitors did on those two elements and several others. Overall, it achieved high scores on eight elements—way ahead of traditional retailers. Netflix outperformed traditional TV service providers with scores three times as high on reduces cost, therapeutic value, and nostalgia. Netflix also scored higher than other media providers on variety, illustrating how effectively it has persuaded customers, without any objective evidence, that it offers more titles.

3、实体企业仍然可以在某些要素上取胜（Brick-and-mortar businesses can still win on certain elements）

多渠道零售商在一些情感和改变生活的要素上占据优势。例如，在品牌价值、吸引力、联盟和归属感方面，他们的得分是在线零售商的两倍。在商店里得到过员工帮助的消费者对零售商的评价要高得多;事实上，情感因素可能是支持以商店为基础的零售商继续经营的重要因素。

Omnichannel retailers win on some emotional and life-changing elements. For example, they are twice as likely as online-only retailers to score high on badge value, attractiveness, and affiliation and belonging.Consumers who get help from employees in stores give much higher ratings to those retailers; indeed, emotional elements have probably helped some store-based retailers stay in business.

此外，在情感要素上得分较高的公司趋向于比那些只聚焦在功能要素上的公司有更高的NPS分数。这一发现与此前的Bain分析结果一致，即数字技术一直在改变实体业务，而不是彻底消灭它们。事实证明，数字和实体的融合比任何一个单独的都要强大。这在一定程度上解释了为什么E*TRADE投资了实体店，以及为什么像Warby Parker和Bonobos这样的零售商已经开设了实体店。(见2014年9月HBR Darrell K. Rigby撰写的“数字& 实体融合”。)这些不同的模式表明，通过提供各种各样的价值，有许多方法可以成功。亚马逊在大众市场上扩展了功能优势。苹果公司在金字塔的11个元素上表现出色，其中有几个元素具有绝对竞争优势，这使得该公司可以收取较高的价格。TOMS在四个方面都很出色，其中之一就是自我超越，因为公司替每购买一双鞋的顾客送一双鞋给有需要它的人。这吸引到了一群关心慈善捐赠的人。

Moreover, companies that score high on emotional elements tend to have a higher NPS, on average, than companies that spike only on functional elements. This finding is consistent with previous Bain analysis showing that digital technologies have been transforming physical businesses rather than annihilating them. The fusion of digital and physical channels is proving more powerful than either one alone. That accounts in part for why E*TRADE has invested in physical branches and why retailers such as Warby Parker and Bonobos have launched physical stores. (See “Digital-Physical Mashups,” by Darrell K. Rigby, HBR, September 2014.) These patterns demonstrate that there are many ways to succeed by delivering various kinds of value. Amazon expanded functional excellence in a mass market. Apple excels on 11 elements in the pyramid, several of them high up, which allows the company to charge premium prices. TOMS excels on four elements, and one of them is self-transcendence, because the company gives away one pair of shoes to needy people for every pair bought by a customer. This appeals to a select group of people who care about charitable giving.

四、让要素发挥作用（Putting the Elements to Work）

这些模式本身就很有趣，也说明了一些公司是如何选择模式在自己的行业中进行颠覆。然而，最终，这些要素必须证明它们在解决业务挑战方面的作用，尤其在收入增长上。公司可以在其核心价值的模式上进行改进，这将有助于使它们摆脱竞争者，更好地满足客户的需求。他们还可以明智地增加要素以扩展其价值主张，而不需要对其产品或服务进行全面的调整。

These patterns are intriguing in their own right, and they illuminate how some companies have chosen to navigate upheaval in their industries. Ultimately, however, the elements must prove their usefulness in solving business challenges, particularly growing revenue. Companies can improve on the elements that form their core value, which will help set them apart from the competition and meet their customers’ needs better. They can also judiciously add elements to expand their value proposition without overhauling their products or services.

一些企业已经开始用一些实际的方法来使用我们的模式，给员工灌输一种“追求价值”的心态。尽管许多成功的企业家在创业阶段可以本能地找到创造价值的途径，但随着公司的成长，这一点变得越来越困难。大多数大型企业的领导者花在客户上的时间越来越少，创新往往会放缓。这些要素可以帮助它们再次激发出新的价值。

Companies have begun to use our method in several practical ways, instilling a “hunt for value” mentality in their employees. Although many successful entrepreneurs have instinctively found ways to deliver value as part of their innovation process, that becomes harder as companies grow. The leaders of most large organizations spend less time with customers, and innovation often slows. The elements can help them identify new value once again.

一些公司已经改进了他们的产品设计以实现更多的价值要素。例如，先锋集团为其核心投资服务增加了一个低收费、半自动化的咨询平台，目的是为了让客户更好地了解投资信息，并在各种组合中降低风险。一个电锯制造商利用价值元素使未来的产品具备与众不同的特质，侧重于质量(可以被理解为使用产品后的结果)，节省时间，并降低成本。这三个要素对顾客的满意度和忠诚度产生了最大的影响，并且使公司建立起竞争优势。

Some companies have refined their product designs to deliver more elements. Vanguard, for instance, added a low-fee, partly automated advice platform to its core investment services in order to keep its clients better informed and, in many cases, to reduce risk. A chainsaw manufacturer that felt undifferentiated used the elements of value to identify specific ways of making future products distinctive. It focused on quality (defined as the results of using its products), saves time, and reduces cost. These three elements had the greatest effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty, and the company was able to build competitive advantage with them.

其他公司则利用这些要素来识别客户感知的优势和劣势。他们首先要了解哪些因素对他们的行业至关重要，以及他们在这些方面如何与竞争对手抗衡。如果一家公司在关键的要素上已经落后，那么在尝试添加新要素之前，它应该首先关注如何改进关键要素。一家大型消费银行发现，尽管它在避免麻烦和节省时间方面表现相对较好，但它在质量上的得分并不高。该银行对其低质量评级的原因进行了广泛的研究，并推出了旨在加强反欺诈操作和增强移动应用体验的举措。

Other companies have used the elements to identify where customers perceive strengths and weaknesses. They start by understanding which elements are the most important for their industry and how they stack up on those relative to competitors. If a company trails in the crucial elements, it should improve on them before attempting to add new ones. A large consumer bank found that although it fared relatively well on avoids hassles and saves time, it did not score well on quality. The bank did extensive research into why its quality ratings were low and launched initiatives to strengthen anti-fraud operations and enhance the mobile app experience.

目前，价值模型的最广泛的商业潜力在于开发新的价值要素类型。当企业能够稳定发展并进行合理的投资，以及当要素与公司的品牌保持一致时，新增的价值要素能够发挥最大效用。

The broadest commercial potential of the elements of value model currently lies in developing new types of value to provide. Additions make the most sense when the organization can deliver them while using its current capabilities and making a reasonable investment, and when the elements align with the company’s brand.

有时候，选择一个额外的要素是相当简单的：Acronis和其他的软件供应商增加了云备份和存储服务，用来降低计算机用户的风险强化对他们的品牌承诺。云备份的另一个关键要素是提供访问，因为用户可以通过连接到互联网的任何计算机、平板电脑或智能手机来获取他们的文件。

Sometimes selecting an additional element is fairly straightforward: Acronis and other software providers added cloud backup and storage services to reinforce their brand promise of reduces risk for computer users. Another key element in cloud backup is provides access, because users can reach their files from any computer, tablet, or smartphone connected to the internet.

然而，要添加哪些要素并不总是显而易见。一家金融服务公司认识到，如果他们能吸引更多的消费者到零售银行业务，他们就也许可以交叉销售保险、投资建议和其他产品。但它是怎么做到的呢?该公司通过三个主要的定性研究阶段，一个高度量化的定量研究阶段得出了最佳答案。

It’s not always so obvious which elements to add, however. One financial services company recognized that if it could attract more consumers to its retail banking business, it might be able to cross-sell insurance, investment advice, and other products. But how could it do that? The company arrived at the best answer through three largely qualitative research stages followed by a fourth, highly quantitative stage.

1、系统性的倾听（Structured listening）

这家公司与Bain合作，以单独或分组的形式对美国各地的现有和潜在客户进行了采访。访谈的目标是了解消费者在支票账户上的优先事项、他们的挫败感、他们作出的妥协，以及他们为银行服务使用多个机构的理由。

Working with Bain, the company interviewed current and prospective customers across the United States, individually and in groups. The goal was to understand consumers’ priorities for a checking account, their frustrations, their compromises, and their reasons for using multiple institutions for banking services.

2、“意念”会议（“Ideation” sessions.）

然后，我们使用这些要素来探索哪些价值的改进可能会引起消费者的共鸣。Bain的调查数据发现了一些对于加强银行业务消费者粘性的要素，其中包括提供服务渠道、遗产服务和减少焦虑。这些洞见结合消费者研究，与一个包含银行各客户端业务部门代表组成的项目团队进行了信息交流，不仅仅只是针对营销人员。

We then used the elements to explore where improvements in value might resonate with consumers. Bain’s survey data had identified the elements that tend to reinforce customer advocacy in consumer banking, among them provides access, heirloom, and reduces anxiety. Those insights, combined with the consumer research, informed ideation sessions with a project team consisting of people from all customer-touching departments across the bank, not just marketers.

会议探讨了哪些要素可能被用来构成新产品的核心。例如，在提供访问和连接方面，银行可以提供共同基金或通过理财规划师与消费者连接。然而，最终小组决定，这两个要素在这项业务中都是不可行的，主要是出于成本原因。替而代之的是12个支票账户概念，它们围绕着降低成本、获得收益和减少焦虑而建立起来。降低成本，降低焦虑，强调自动储蓄。减少焦虑尤其重要，因为大多数目标消费者都在努力地节省开支。

The sessions explored which elements might be used to form the nucleus of a new offering. For example, provides access and connects held appeal, because the bank might be able to provide access to mutual funds or connect consumers with financial planners. In the end, however, the team decided that neither element was feasible in this business, primarily for reasons of cost. Instead it developed 12 checking-account concepts that were built around reduces cost, makes money, and reduces anxiety. Reduces costhighlighted low fees, while reduces anxiety emphasized automatic savings. Reduces anxiety was particularly important, because most of the targeted consumers were living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to save money.

3、以客户为中心的原型概念设计（Customer-centric design of prototype concepts）

项目团队批准的每个概念都包含了不同的产品特性、费用和客户服务水平。这些新概念中的许多可以通过优化智能手机应用程序来实现，这将增加客户与银行的交互。几乎所有目标消费者都使用智能手机来获得金融服务(这与我们之前对这些智能设备传递的价值元素的观察一致)。

Each concept approved by the project team contained a different mix of product features, fees, and levels of customer service. Many of these new concepts could be delivered through an improved smartphone app that would increase customer engagement with the bank. Almost all the targeted consumers used smartphones for financial services (consistent with our earlier observations on the many elements of value delivered by these devices).

没有其他要素能弥补质量上的严重不足（No other elements can make up for a significant shortfall on quality.）。

随后，这家金融服务公司对消费者进行了进一步的一对一访谈，并得到了快速反馈，使其能够将12个原型降低到4个，以提高其价值。然后，在反馈的基础上，通过第四阶段—量化阶段来完善：

The financial services company then conducted further one-on-one interviews with consumers and got fast feedback that allowed it to winnow the 12 prototypes down to four concepts for enhanced value. Then, on the basis of the feedback, it refined them in the fourth, quantitative stage:

4、严格选择模型（Rigorous choice modeling）

在设计了四个原型之后，项目团队用离散的选择分析测试了数千个客户，这要求人们在面对一系列产品选项时，要做出一系列明确的选择。研究人员首先收集了每个原型的属性清单：如atm费用、透支费、信用监控、客户服务时长等。他们向被调查者提供了几组属性有所差异的支票帐户，要求他们从每一组中选出喜欢的原型。这个过程重复了数次，根据实验设计不断改变属性，直到团队获得最成功的属性组合。

Having designed the four prototypes, the project team tested them with thousands of customers using discrete choice analysis, which requires people to make a sequence of explicit choices when presented with a series of product options. The researchers began by amassing a detailed list of the attributes for each prototype—ATM fees, overdraft fees, credit monitoring, customer service hours, and so on. They presented respondents with several sets of checking accounts that varied on these attributes, asking them to select which prototype from each set they preferred. This process was repeated several times, as attributes changed according to an experimental design, until the team derived the winning combination of attributes.

这家银行最近发布了两个入围名单，接下来将利用客户的人口统计数据和需求的增长来对比选出最终的赢家。

Two clear finalists emerged, which the bank recently launched in the marketplace. It will use customer demographics and the increase in demand to gauge the eventual winner.

五、开始（Getting Started）

当一家公司的领导者将其视为一个增长机会，并将价值作为优先事项时，价值的要素就会发挥最好的作用。它至少应该与成本管理、定价和客户忠诚度同等重要。公司可以在一些关键领域构建价值提升机制：

The elements of value work best when a company’s leaders recognize them as a growth opportunity and make value a priority. It should be at least as important as cost management, pricing, and customer loyalty. Companies can establish a discipline around improving value in some key areas:

1、新产品的开发（New-product development）

我们的模型可以激发新产品的创意，也可以为现有产品添加元素。例如，管理者们可能会问:我们能否以一种新的方式与消费者建立联系?我们的客户能在与其他软件应用的集成中获益吗?我们能为我们的服务增加治疗价值吗?

Our model can stimulate ideas for new products and for elements to add to existing products. Managers might ask, for example: Can we connect in a new way with consumers? Can our customers benefit from integration with other software applications? Can we add therapeutic value to our service?

2、定价（Pricing）

管理者们通常将定价视为需求管理中最重要的杠杆之一，因为当需求保持不变时，更高的价格会直接增加利润。但较高的价格也会改变消费者的价值等式，因此任何关于提高价格的讨论都应该考虑增加价值因素。回想一下，亚马逊是如何随着时间的推移明智地提高价值，进一步提高价格的。

Managers commonly view pricing as one of the most important levers in demand management, because when demand is constant, higher prices accrue directly to profits. But higher prices also change the consumer value equation, so any discussion about raising prices should consider the addition of value elements. Recall how Amazon’s judicious increases in value helped justify higher prices over time.

3、客户细分（Customer segmentation）

大多数公司都有一套自己的细分客户的方法，通过人口学特征或行为特征，这提供了一个分析这些群体价值观的机会，然后开发出提供这些要素的产品和服务。

Most companies have a formal method of segmenting their customers into demographic or behavioral groups, which presents an opportunity to analyze what each of these groups values and then develop products and services that deliver those elements.

每当一个提升价值的机会出现时，管理者们应该从对现有客户和可能的前景的调查开始，以了解公司在哪些方面是（或不是）可行的。调查应该涵盖产品和品牌，因为这两项调查很可能会产生不同的见解。例如，产品本身可能带来很多价值，而客户却很难获得服务或技术支持。

Whenever an occasion to improve value presents itself, managers should start with a survey of current customers and likely prospects to learn where the company stands on the elements it is (or is not) delivering. The survey should cover both product and brand, because examinations of the two may yield different insights. For example, the product itself may deliver lots of value, whereas customers have difficulty getting service or technical support.

价值要素也有组织维度：公司中的某个人应该被明确地考虑、管理和监控价值。一位付费电视高管对Netflix的成功表示惋惜，他告诉我们：“我有很多人在致力于产品功能和服务改进，但没有一个人以整体的方式思考消费者价值要素。”

The elements of value have an organizational dimension as well: Someone in the company should be tapped to explicitly think about, manage, and monitor value. One pay-TV executive, lamenting the success of Netflix, told us, “I have a lot of people working on product features and service improvements, but I don’t have anyone really thinking about consumer value elements in a holistic manner.”

价值的概念仍然植根于心理学，但价值的要素可以使它变得更无定形和神秘。Abraham Maslow强调了心理学的强大、自信和积极的潜力。这些要素可以帮助管理者创造性地为他们的品牌、产品和服务增加价值，从而获得消费者——真正的价值仲裁者——的优势。

The concept of value remains rooted in psychology, but the elements of value can make it much less amorphous and mysterious. Abraham Maslow emphasized the bold, confident, positive potential of psychology. The elements can help managers creatively add value to their brands, products, and services and thereby gain an edge with consumers—the true arbiters of value.

附录：

这篇文章的一个版本出现在哈佛商业评论的2016年9月(第46-53页)中。
Eric Almquist是Bain公司客户战略与营销实践的合伙人，也是Bain消费者洞见全球负责人。
John Senior是Bain公司客户战略与营销实践的合伙人。
Nicolas Bloch是Bain公司的战略实践的共同领导者。