Kano Model : Tool For Measuring Consumer Satisfaction

By Debapriya Chakraborty on March 08th, 2010  

Professor Noriaki Kano discovered Kano model to determine customer satisfaction based on four identifiers. The identifiers are the Basic/ Threshold (or Must be) attributes, the Performance (Linear or One-dimensional )attributes, the Exciters or Delighters (Attraction) attributes and the Indifferent attributes. These identifiers can be used to measure customer satisfaction of product as well as services. The identifiers are arranged according to priority in the ascending order as M>O>A>I.

Any manufacturers or service providers’ measure consumer satisfaction of product or service features according to the above order of importance or priority.

The features of the product and/or services are categorized under the above mentioned identifiers to measure customer satisfaction and arrive at decisions regarding introduction of new features, extension and/or enhancement of some features and other things. The features under each category is measured by developing a matrix having a functional and its corresponding dysfunctional attribute and based on consumer response, they are mapped in to matrix to get the desired result.

The Basic or threshold attributes are the ones which should be there for the product or service to make a market entry. For example, the basic attributes for hospital services is quality doctors and standard equipments and many others.

The Performance attributes are the ones which increase the satisfaction of the customers as new services or features are added. For example, music system and air-conditioning facility in cars increases consumer satisfaction beside the basic attributes of car like speed, mileage and others. But once these factors are removed from the products or services, leads to considerable dissatisfaction among the consumers. So while adding these features, the manufacturer or service provider must be sure of possessing skills and resources for continuing with the attribute.

The Attractive attributes when appended to a service or product increases the satisfaction of the consumers. Unlike performance attributes, the exciters do not affect consumer satisfaction when they are discontinued from a product or service. For example, special trains and buses during festivals which are discontinued after the festival is over.

The Indifferent attributes does not affect consumer satisfaction in any way. For example the style of inscription of company name on soap.

Completed B tech in Information Technology under West Bengal University of Technology.Currently pursuing Masters in Business Administration(MBA) from Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management(IISWBM),Kolkata with marketing as major specialization and finance as minor specialization. Have penchant for blogging and broadening my learning curve. Like to explore more insight on branding and its nuances.

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Customer Vs Consumer – Role of Distribution Channels in Marketing

By krish on February 06th, 2010  

Producers of goods and services have to be wary of one important aspect – their business success is dependent as much on consumer behavior as it is on customer satisfaction. This distinction between the customer and the consumer is an important variable that could have a bearing on business strategy in general, and marketing strategy, in particular. Business would have to satisfy both the customers, who would happen to be resellers of the goods and services of the company, as well as consumers, the end users. The point here is that ultimately, it is the business organization that is responsible for the way in which the product or service reaches the end consumer.

Traditionally, marketing has always been inclusive of intermediaries, the distribution channels of its products, which take the product to the consumer. Marketing channels deal with the consumers directly and have the opportunity to interact with them, know their likes and dislikes and stand a good chance of knowing the pulse of the consumer. Manufacturers, hence, should indulge in market research and develop the mechanisms to collect valuable market intelligence through the distribution channels, an important function in channel marketing.

However, with all systems up to gain information about consumption, there is no substitute for being in direct touch with the end consumer. While that is not always possible and marketing channels cannot be eliminated, business must make sure that they are not completely removed from its consumers. And that is what could be the prospects facing the publishing industry as they tend to become more and more dependent on their distribution channels.

Distribution channels, in the case of publishers, are the new age electronic gadgets, the ebook readers. The ebook reader has been around for a while now, but its dominance over publishing companies is only set to increase further, as tech companies are getting into the ebook business in droves. With Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader already present in the market, Apple iPad is all set to become the next big thing in the industry.

These ebook readers tend to remove the publishers further from the works that they own, with information about consumer trends and usage information becoming proprietary to ebook manufacturers. While the trend towards ebook is inevitable and digital information is a reality, the traditional publishing house has to gear up for the challenge that could be posed by the control that ebooks may soon come to exert over the book industry.

Passion for Writing and Business; Post-graduation in Management; Some useful managerial experience and International Exposure; Belief in Risk-taking and in the spirit of the entrepreneur. That's me.

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Business, Competition and Pricing – Marketing Communication and Consumer Behavior

By krish on February 05th, 2010  

Business, in pursuit of business objectives, tends to falter on marketing communications, with an increasing focus on profitability and business goals. As is obvious, business, ultimately, is about profit maximization. A business organization is started and gets operational with the hope of making it good on profitability, on the return on investment, and to drive growth rates that would become benchmarks for the industry. And that’s what management is all about, in making it easy for business to make profits, increase sales and revenue, achieve financial goals and enhance one’s standing in a competitive market.

Competitive forces, on the other hand, work towards reducing the very profit margin that business tries to increase. Competition tends to work against large profit margins and an increase in competition would invariably mean falling profitability and margins under stress. And companies tend to offer more for less, free offers abound and the consumer rejoices, till business starts feeling the pinch of reduced profitability. At one point, business has to reduce its freebies and hike prices so as to sustain, especially when faced not just with competitive forces but also with industry dynamics that give less room for profitability.

That’s what seems to be happening in the media industry, with the internet revolution having brought all media and journal online. Electronic versions of famous news papers and journals have been free for all, in an attempt to capture market share and for customer retention. Then, Wall Street Journal announced it was going to charge not just for its contents but for contents of all publications of the News Corp Group. And then, New York Times has followed suit with a similar announcement, but has chosen to be less stringent in erecting walls around its sites, perhaps starting 2011.

It is tough to communicate this to the market, after having been favourable to the consumer. All the time, the consumer has been allowed to gain access to contents for free – and to make the consumer adapt to a new world of paid content is tough. However, there is a flaw in the marketing communication part of it that stress so much on paid content and walls, and much less on what the consumer would stand to gain in the new system.

Marketing communications should be aimed at emphasising much on value added services, the value that the consumer would derive out of paid content; communication should not focus on what the consumer would have to bear with in the coming days but should rather be on how much the consumer has to benefit in terms of improved services.

Negative actions would have minimal impact if positive communication is applied.

Passion for Writing and Business; Post-graduation in Management; Some useful managerial experience and International Exposure; Belief in Risk-taking and in the spirit of the entrepreneur. That's me.

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