What is Value-Based Marketing?

Value-based marketing is the process by which a company attempts to gain the maximum impact from its marketing strategies and initiatives. Ideally, a company can reach the largest amount of potential consumers and persuade them to purchase its product with a streamlined, cost-effective marketing approach. This may be achieved by utilizing technological advances like the Internet and other computer applications that allow marketers to reach large audiences with minimal cost. In addition, value-based marketing may be accomplished by a company that creates a consistent brand and a product that encourages positive word of mouth from consumers.

Business as a whole has changed rapidly along with the ever-increasing amount of marketing options available to companies. It is highly unlikely for a company to be able to compete on a significant level without embracing some sort of aggressive marketing strategy. By the same token, technology has allowed companies to do a lot of advertising and selling with relatively little cost attached. Value-based marketing is all about getting the absolute most from a marketing budget.

The concept of value-based marketing has evolved from the realization that marketing and sales are increasingly correlated to one another. In the past, marketing initiatives were more focused on non-monetary functions like public relations than they were with sales. Marketing to customers, in a simpler, less-competitive time, was a simple process of presenting the customer with the product and showing him where to go to get it. In modern times, marketing has become a powerful tool from which practically all income is generated.

It is impossible to discuss value-based marketing without connecting it to the rise of technology. For a minimal cost, companies can reach out to consumers around the globe via software applications or Internet advertising. The drawback is that there is so much of this type of advertising available from so many companies that it is easy for a single company's efforts to get lost in the shuffle. Companies must realize that even a cheap marketing campaign is costly if it fails to produce some sort of value.

For that reason, value-based marketing initiatives must be focused and consistent efforts over a period of time. Through consistency, a company can build up a brand that resonates with consumers and allows the message to get across to them with minimal effort and cost. It is also important to realize that a marketing campaign is only as effective in creating value as the product that the company has to offer. The best value in marketing may be simple word of mouth, with one consumer singing the praises of a specific product to another.