Adding meaning to values by directly assessing value-benefit relationships

Abstract

Marketers who rely on consumers' personal values to aid them in developing strategy have to rely on inference to suggest the connections personal values have to benefits that consumers desire in the products they consume. This article provides an alternative approach, one in which the consumer makes a series of connections among immediate benefits desired from consuming a product, to higher-level benefits desired, and ultimately to which of their own important personal values are being satisfied. This article demonstrates that the same values take on different meanings depending on the benefits to which they are linked. A visual method for presenting these benefit-value chains is provided to increase their usefulness to marketers in planning marketing strategy.