Customer value creation for the emerging market middle class: Perspectives from case studies in India

This paper examines the customer value creation framework and discusses the design of the key elements for product development in emerging markets. A scientometric/bibliometric scoping literature review identifies a clear gap in the current research in studying prerequisites for customer value creation in emerging market contexts. Observing experiences of Daikin and Renault in the context of India, the purpose of this paper is to identify value creation strategic choices following which comprehensive customer value offerings in products and services can be successfully created by firms across the four facets of the framework in emerging markets. Value creation strategies include having a nuanced understanding of the latent contextual needs to offer localized high-quality products that embody distinct functional attributes that provide a functional value and being responsive to specific emotional needs and epistemic experiences of the target customers in product and service offerings to deliver a greater experiential value. Furthermore, the products should adopt a localized operational excellence strategy throughout the value chain to reduce costs for competitive price offerings in order to deliver superior cost value and develop brand image and equity strategy, thereby allowing for the provision of a greater symbolic value. Experiences of successful firms demonstrate the need for extensive local research into the emerging market followed by localization of production and development of a distribution network to be able to offer customized products at competitive prices whilst maintaining the brand value. We thus extend the customer value creation framework by introducing localization as a necessary condition for successful organizational performance in emerging markets

Understanding customers' holistic perception of switches in automotive human–machine interfaces

For successful new product development, it is necessary to understand the customers' holistic experience of the product beyond traditional task completion, and acceptance measures. This paper describes research in which ninety-eight UK owners of luxury saloons assessed the feel of push-switches in five luxury saloon cars both in context (in-car) and out of context (on a bench). A combination of hedonic data (i.e. a measure of ‘liking’), qualitative data and semantic differential data was collected. It was found that customers are clearly able to differentiate between switches based on the degree of liking for the samples' perceived haptic qualities, and that the assessment environment had a statistically significant effect, but that it was not universal. A factor analysis has shown that perceived characteristics of switch haptics can be explained by three independent factors defined as ‘Image’, ‘Build Quality’, and ‘Clickiness’. Preliminary steps have also been taken towards identifying whether existing theoretical frameworks for user experience may be applicable to automotive human–machine interfaces

Revealing the Vicious Circle of Disengaged User Acceptance: A SaaS Provider's Perspective

User acceptance tests (UAT) are an integral part of many different software engineering methodologies. In this paper, we examine the influence of UATs on the relationship between users and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, which are continuously delivered rather than rolled out during a one-off signoff process. Based on an exploratory qualitative field study at a multinational SaaS provider in Denmark, we show that UATs often address the wrong problem in that positive user acceptance may actually indicate a negative user experience. Hence, SaaS providers should be careful not to rest on what we term disengaged user acceptance. Instead, we outline an approach that purposefully queries users for ambivalent emotions that evoke constructive criticism, in order to facilitate a discourse that favors the continuous innovation of a SaaS system. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our approach for the study of user engagement in testing SaaS applications

How the Kano model contributes to Kansei engineering in services

Recent studies show that products and services hold great appeal if they are attractively designed to elicit emotional feelings from customers. Kansei engineering (KE) has good potential to provide a competitive advantage to those able to read and translate customer affect and emotion in actual product and services. This study introduces an integrative framework of the Kano model and KE, applied to services. The Kano model was used and inserted into KE to exhibit the relationship between service attribute performance and customer emotional response. Essentially, the Kano model categorises service attribute quality into three major groups (must-be [M], one-dimensional [O] and attractive [A]). The findings of a case study that involved 100 tourists who stayed in luxury 4- and 5-star hotels are presented. As a practical matter, this research provides insight on which service attributes deserve more attention with regard to their significant impact on customer emotional needs. Statement of Relevance: Apart from cognitive evaluation, emotions and hedonism play a big role in service encounters. Through a focus on delighting qualities of service attributes, this research enables service providers and managers to establish the extent to which they prioritise their improvement efforts and to always satisfy their customer emotions beyond expectation. Keywords: Kansei engineering, emotional feelings, Kano model, service

การออกแบบผลิตภัณฑ์เพื่อให้ตอบสนองกับความต้องการของลูกค้า

ABSTRACT Owing to the world economic crisis, both large and small companies face business problems. Many companies have to terminate their businesses. The remaining companies have to struggle to survive and preserve their business. Good design and good quality are not enough to survive in a competitive market. Presently, customers are important people for any business. Manufacturers face a wonderful challenge from the increasing requirement of variety by customers. Thus, it is important to work closely with customers to make sure that the products will fulfill their needs and requirements. This article aims to propose the product design to meet customer requirements. It is composed of three approaches: emotional design, brand identity and sustainable design that have an effect on the purchasing decision process of customers. Keyword: Product Design, Emotional Design, Brand Identity, Sustainable Design  บทคัดย่อ เนื่องจากปัญหาสภาวะเศรษฐกิจทั่วโลกส่งผลให้บริษัททั้งขนาดใหญ่และขนาดเล็กต่างประสบปัญหาทางธุรกิจ หลายบริษัทจำเป็นต้องปิดตัวลง บริษัทที่ยังเหลืออยู่จำเป็นต้องดิ้นรนเพื่อให้ตัวเองอยู่รอดและสามารถรักษาธุรกิจของตัวเองได้ ถึงแม้ว่าจะมีการออกแบบที่ดีและผลิตสินค้าที่ดีมีคุณภาพก็ยังไม่เพียงพอที่จะอยู่รอดในการตลาดแข่งขันปัจจุบันได้ เพราะในปัจจุบันลูกค้าเป็นบุคคลสำคัญที่เป็นผู้ทรงอิทธิพลต่อทุกภาคธุรกิจ ผู้ผลิตหลายรายต่างประสบปัญหาจากความต้องการที่หลากหลายของลูกค้าที่นับวันมีแต่จะเพิ่มขึ้นและเปลี่ยนแปลงอยู่ตลอดเวลา ด้วยเหตุนี้จึงมีความจำเป็นอย่างยิ่งที่ทุกบริษัทต้องทำงานใกล้ชิดร่วมกับลูกค้าเพื่อให้มั่นใจว่าสินค้านั้นตอบสนองและเติมเต็มกับความต้องการของลูกค้าอย่างแท้จริง บทความนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อนำเสนอแนวคิดการออกแบบผลิตภัณฑ์เพื่อให้ตอบสนองกับความต้องการของลูกค้า ซึ่งจะประกอบไปด้วยแนวคิดการออกแบบให้ตอบสนองกับความรู้สึกของลูกค้า, เอกลักษณ์ตราสินค้า และการออกแบบอย่างยั่งยืน ซึ่งทั้ง 3 แนวคิดนี้ถือได้ว่ามีอิทธิพลต่อการตัดสินใจในการเลือกซื้อสินค้าและบริการของลูกค้าในปัจจุบัน คำสำคัญ: การออกแบบผลิตภัณฑ์ การออกแบบให้ตอบสนองกับความรู้สึกของลูกค้า เอกลักษณ์ตราสินค้า การออกแบบอย่างยั่งยืน