The document discusses the importance of a value proposition as a central strategy for businesses, summarizing how a company's offerings appeal to customers and differentiating it from competitors. It emphasizes the significance of a clear and concise value proposition in driving sales and guiding marketing strategies, as well as outlining methods to craft effective propositions. Additionally, several examples of successful companies are provided to illustrate how strong value propositions contribute to their market presence and customer engagement.

1. [Strategic Plan &
Business Models]
[BM types: Value Proposition]

2. “Business Model Types - Value Proposition”
Introduction
A business model is the central strategy of a business for doing business profitably. In general,
models provide details such as goods or services that the organization plans to provide, target
markets and any planned expenses.
A value proposition is a value commitment stated by a corporation that summarizes how the
profit will be distributed, experienced, and acquired from the product or service of the
company. A value proposition basically defines what makes the product or service of the
business appealing, why it should be purchased by a consumer, and how the value of the
product or service is distinguished from similar offerings.
The value proposition is usually addressed to the target clients or the target business segment
of the organization. The plan takes the form of a brief, simple and succinct statement of the
customers' tangible and intangible benefits to be offered. Without the need for more
clarification, the perfect idea must communicate the values easily to potential customers.
Each plan must be unique, since it is a tool for communicating a company's differentiation
points to the target customers
As the latter two can not explicitly express the advantages of a business and its goods, the value
proposition must not be confused with slogans and catchphrases.
Importance of a Value Proposition

3.  The development of a value proposition is a vital part of a company’s business strategy.
Since the proposition provides a company with a method to influence the decision-
making of customers, it is frequently displayed on the company’s marketing materials,
such as a website.
 The value proposition is a powerful tool to drive sales and build a customer base.
Additionally, a perfect and compelling value proposition can advance the effectiveness
of the company’s marketing strategies. Generally, it is regarded as the most effective
and wide-reaching marketing activity.

How to Create a Value Proposition
The perfectly tailored value proposition, as we have already determined, can become a huge
success factor for a company. The production of a powerful proposition, however, is a
demanding but rewarding challenge for any organization. We've mentioned some tips below
that will help you build a productive one:
 Know your customers
Before creating your value proposition, you must analyze the market and potential
customers. Identify your target customers and target market segment to understand
their desired benefits.
 Understand your costs and benefits
Identify and assess the benefits delivered by your company and its products or services,
along with the costs incurred to provide them. It is important to do this because the
value to your customers is essentially the difference between the benefits and costs of
your product or service.
 Don’t forget about your competitors
After the analysis of target customers and your own company, evaluate the competitive
landscape in the market. Determine the strengths and weaknesses of your major
competitors and identify ways you can differentiate your business from them.
 Be clear and concise

4. Don’t forget that an effective value proposition is clear and concise. Your target
customers must quickly grasp the message you want to convey. It should not exceed
two or three sentences.
 Design is king!
Make your proposition visible and appealing on all marketing materials (e.g., website).
Remember that if you have created a powerful value proposition, but no one can see it,
the effect of the proposition will be zero!
How to write a value proposition: 3 options
If you’re intentional about creating a value proposition, it can help clarify the way forward for
your entire company. However, including too many voices early on can water down your intent
in an effort to make everyone happy, and, ironically, the results won’t work for anyone.
Rather than get everyone involved, start with a small group of people (no more than three) who
can set aside the time to hone a few compelling options.
Here’s how to write a value proposition three different ways, from complex mapping to a simple
formula. Start with one or try all three in a workshop to refine your ideas with greater precision.
Map out a value proposition canvas
Peter Thomson’s value proposition canvas explores the different components of a company that
contribute to a strong value proposition. Thomson believes that a process like this can help team
members get to “minimum viable clarity,” which can be whittled down into a one-sentence
value proposition.
Thomson calls a value proposition “a crunch point between business strategy and brand
strategy,” and he created a model that syncs the two strategies. There are seven areas to
explore, each of which takes up a section in the map:

5. When you explore each section of the canvas, do so from the perspective of the customer. While
writing out the benefits of your product, imagine how it increases pleasure or decreases pain for
the person using it. Approach the features and the experience that way, too: How do the
features make the customer’s life better? How does the product experience make a customer
feel?
Next, you’ll dive into the customer’s wants (emotional drivers), needs (rational motivators),
and fears (undesired outcomes). Remember that even when consumers are making purchases or
investments on behalf of a company, they can still be guided by emotions.
In particular, try to understand whether a product or service affects a buyer’s perceived
likelihood of failure, their anxiety, or their reputation at work. You can use Bain & Company’s 30
“Elements of Value” and its B2B counterparts as a roadmap for articulating the ways your
company gives the customer value within this context.
Ask Harvard Business School’s essential questions
Harvard Business School’s Institute for Strategy & Competitiveness simplified how to write a
value proposition with just three prompts. Just as Thomson does, Harvard argues that a value
proposition serves as the connection between a company and its customers:
To create an integrated, cohesive value proposition, start by brainstorming as a group around
these three questions:
 Which customers are you going to serve?
 Which needs are you going to meet?
 What relative price will provide acceptable value for customers and acceptable
profitability for the customer?
Depending on your product and service, it may make sense for you to start with the first or
second question in the list. Together, all three create a triangle that can lead you closer to a
succinct value proposition.

6. As you move through the exercise, consider which one is the primary “leg” of the triangle. For
example, is the greatest value that you offer in cost savings? Or is it that you’re offering a better
product or experience at a premium?
Also, think about whether your company is expanding the market by meeting a need that hasn’t
been realized. Harvard’s experts use a great example — the iPad. Apple created a new demand
that hadn’t existed before the technology hit the market.
Try the Steve Blank formula to distill your insights
Steve Blank, a former Google employee who runs the Lean Startup Circle, noticed that many
startup founders emphasize features instead of benefits when they try to transform more
detailed insights into a succinct value proposition. Instead of summarizing how a company offers
value to customers, leaders often get stuck in the weeds.
Here’s my value proposition for my copywriting business, for example:
 I help marketing teams to resonate with their target audiences by communicating with
clarity and compassion.
Your local coffee shop may have a value proposition that’s similar to this one:
 We help our local customers to feel good and do good by fueling them up with artisanal
coffee in a community-focused space
Although you may have brainstormed as a group with the other two methods, this time, ask
team members to complete this exercise individually. Comparing and contrasting answers
afterward can yield helpful insights about each person’s priorities.
Most importantly, as you draft your value proposition, use the language your customers use. At
Help Scout, we say things like “emails slipping through the cracks,” because that’s what our
customers say about the problem we help solve. If you don’t write your value proposition the
way your customers would write it, there will be a big gap between what you say and what they
hear. When you use their voice, you cut through the noise.
6 value proposition examples
Beyond grasping how to write a value proposition, it helps to see how a strong statement
influences and infuses a company’s strategy. Because value proposition examples aren’t
necessarily the same thing as brand copywriting, we don’t have access to the exact words a
company uses internally.

7. However, if a company does a great job situating their value proposition within the market, you
can tell because their message resonates far and wide. Here are six modern value proposition
examples that will help you to understand how value propositions can help you break into a
market or create a new one.
 Slack
Slack is a collaboration tool for teams with a simple, easy-to-use platform and instant
message capability. The platform is equally beloved by enterprise teams and scrappy
startups for its ability to keep work flowing, no matter the everyday barriers or the
complexity of a project.
Everything that the company does hinges on their value proposition: Slack saves time by
tearing down communication and systems silos. Their product aspires to take the pain
out of working together online — and maybe even make it fun. That’s something no
other product has tried or claimed to do.
Because they’ve built such a powerful value proposition, Slack is perceived as an
enjoyable alternative to the dreaded email inbox and other tools. Their approach works.
Slack is the fastest-growing Sass startup ever, and it’s used by 77% of Fortune 500
companies.
Despite this legendary growth, Slack famously said it was a business with a pared-down
sales team, which is only possible because of the foundation they set with a formidable
value proposition.
 Bloom & Wild
Bloom & Wild is an online flower delivery company that simplifies the process of ordering
and receiving luxury flowers. Aron Gelbard, founder and CEO, explained their value
proposition in their 2017 funding announcement: “We’re enabling [our customers] to
order flowers and gifts from the palm of their hand with better product, designs and
payments.”
Bloom & Wild makes it possible for customers to deliver flowers in under a minute using
their smartphone or computer; going from thought to action is almost instantaneous. As
Gelbard says, “Our mission is to make sending and receiving flowers a joy, using
technology to turn emotions into an action in the simplest and most beautiful way
possible.”
The flowers are just as simple to receive. They’re packed in flat boxes so they can be
delivered through letterboxes (or mailboxes) so there’s no need for someone to be on
hand to receive them, and they’re sent as closed flower buds for a longer bloom.

8. While many companies deliver flowers, Bloom & Wild differentiates itself by offering a
smooth customer experience for everyone, as well as competitive pricing, with
significantly cheaper blooms than average.
Bloom & Wild communicates its value proposition so clearly that its customers perform
much of the hard task of marketing for them through word-of-mouth referrals.
 Airbnb
When Airbnb began to disrupt the hospitality industry, it needed to market to two
separate groups: guests who wanted a place to stay and hosts who wanted to rent out
their spaces. Their two-in-one value proposition: Travelers benefit from a truly local
experience and hosts benefit from extra income.
In their own words, “Airbnb exists to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere,
providing healthy travel that is local, authentic, diverse, inclusive and sustainable.”
Their rooms often have more character than hotels, and they’re usually located in
neighborhoods people live in. Guests learn from local knowledge shared by hosts and
feel at home wherever they go. These different sources of value wrap together into
Airbnb’s tagline: Belong Anywhere.
As a business goes through different stages of growth, its value proposition is likely to
change, too. Originally marketed as much cheaper than staying in a hotel, Airbnb has
now become an experience-driven, mainstream staple with a premium wing called
“Airbnb Plus,” with its own value proposition.
 Fjällräven
The classic Swedish outdoor clothing and equipment company Fjällräven was founded by
Åke Nordin in 1960. He designed functional (and warm) products for professional
researchers taking expeditions into northern Scandinavia.
Now, the 60-year-old brand is experiencing a resurgence amongst younger generations
across Europe and North America. Their core proposition is that they sell high-quality,
sustainably made products that balance form and function. Yes, customers look great
wearing their backpacks and they can still hike up a mountain in the middle of winter.
Their commitment to sustainable business practices appeals to the same conscious
consumers who value the outdoors, which fortifies their value proposition. Fjällräven
manufactures many of its own products using its own G-1000 material, as well as its own
Greenland Wax, contributing to its value proposition of offering quality and durability.

9. Because they “craft products for a lifetime of memories,” customers are more than
willing to pay their premium prices.
 Juniper Print Shop
When Jenny Komenda launched her first blog, Little Green Notebook, in 2007, she was a
young designer sharing her DIY projects with the world. An entrepreneur at heart,
Komenda evolved her skill set and online following into another award-winning blog,
Juniper Home, and its beloved counterpart, Juniper Print Shop.
Komenda built a cohesive brand that championed affordable design and spoke to a key
value proposition that motivated her customers: helping non-designers create a beautiful
home without breaking the bank.
Her content answers this question in thousands of different ways, and the new arm of
her business offers a simple fix for finding affordable art — one of the most difficult
challenges along the way. She launched a print shop featuring the work of women artists
and photographers with simple digital downloads and physical prints that are cost-
effective and easy to install.
Juniper’s value proposition comes to life in the details of the print shop — from links to
affordable IKEA frames — and Jenny’s one-of-a-kind suggestions (buy a vintage frame,
invest in a custom mat).
 Found My Animal
Found My Animal is a company for rescue dogs and their owners. In 2006, Bethany
Obrecht and Anna Conway met by coincidence — they both had rescue dogs named
Walter, and they quickly became friends.
Their shared interest in crafts (and a fisherman relative) led the two dog moms to design
and create leashes from nautical rope that withstand hundreds of pounds of pull. Each
leash has a brass tag with the word “FOUND” written on it in simple font.
The company has since expanded their product lines to include other dog accessories
and supplies like dog beds, totes, and toys.
Found My Animal’s value proposition is simple: Support a company that donates a
portion of its profits to animal rescue groups by outfitting your own rescue in quality
products. The company has given money (and leashes) to over 64 nonprofit organizations
that help abandoned or neglected pets, so customers know their purchases are making a
difference.

10. This value proposition is baked into every aspect of Found My Animal, especially their
marketing. Their team features rescue dogs in need of homes front and center on their
website and their social media accounts. Plus, their social media tag #foundmyanimal
brings awareness to animal adoption.
The best value propositions evolve with your customers
 As customers and markets change over time, your company should evolve as well. Rather
than make assumptions about your community based on their past needs and buying
behaviors, create feedback loops so you’re always in the know.
 By listening to customers in real time, you set your company up to evolve its value
proposition and meet the needs of your community as it grows.