5. How Customers Choose
To arrive at this evaluation, we used
ratings of the four ice cream parlors on key
success factors from the differential advantage analysis. Afterwards, we looked again
at our online customer survey and derived
weights customers allocated to respective key
success factors. Lastly, we multiplied the
weight for each attribute with ratings from the
four parlors and summed up their scores over
all factors.
In our differential advantage analysis, we
concluded that Santini and Amorino ranked
first, followed by, Nannarella, and Artisani.
Surprisingly, the Multiattribute Model provides us with a differing ranking. By using customer weights on key success factors, Santini
is by far the best performer in the market.
Amorino is placed second, followed by Nannarella and Artisani. Since flavor and location
are considered more important than digital
appearance and ice cream presentation, Santini’s respective scores of ‘four’ carry more
weight in the analysis than Amorino’s scores
of ‘four’. Likewise, Nannarella’s high scores in
categories of flavor, price and ice cream
presentation account for a higher rating than
Artisani’s, having rather medium-score performances on all key success factors.
6. Why They Prefer a Product
Preferences for a product depend on the value customers place on it, which is calculated
by subtracting product or service costs from
respective benefits. Benefits can be
‘economic’, ‘functional’, and ‘psychological’.
With respect to low switching costs for customers in the ice cream market, psychological
benefits, namely brand equity, are of utmost
importance. Brand equity is a “premium a customer would pay for one product over another when the economic and functional attributes are identical.” Brand awareness and associations, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and
other proprietary brand assets define brand
equity. In our online customer survey, we
measured brand awareness rates in terms of
brand recall and brand recognition evaluations. Our results show that Santini beats all
three rivals regarding brand recognition,
brand recall, and top-of-mind rates.