Value Curve Canvas

How Do I Use the Value Curve Canvas?

The Analytics Use Case Canvas lets you design products and services that solve your customers’ problems and create added value for them. In addition and in order to differentiate your value proposition from the competition, you should focus on the product and service features that are critical to your target audience’s buying decision. The Value Curve Canvas lets you compare your value proposition with your competition’s offerings in terms of various factors, so you can decide which factors you will:

• Eliminate because your customers do not value these.
• Reduce because these are not crucial for the buying decision.
• Create, for example in order to reach a new target audience.
• Extend because these differentiate you from your competition.

For more information, see Data Strategy Design.

Step 1 of 5

Competitive Factors

After designing your value proposition using the Analytics Use Case Canvas, transfer the elements of your value proposition to the Value Curve Canvas. These are the elements in the Benefit field on the Analytics Use Case Canvas. Each element corresponds to a competitive factor, based on which a customer decides for your product or service or for your competition’s offer. You place the competitive factors on the template in the lower area on the fields “1st Factor”, “2nd Factor” and so on. Examples of purchasing factors include price, functionality or features, quality, brand image, handling, and many more.

Step 2 of 5

Competitors

Next, decide who your competitors are. These should offer comparable value propositions. If necessary, group similar competitors together if the target customers and products or services are very similar. Give each competitor or group a distinct color and place a respectively colored card with the corresponding competitor’s name or group as a caption on the template in the fields “1st competitor / group”, “2nd competitor / group” etc. The first field “Own Company” is intended for your company. This field must be also filled with a colored card.

Remember that your company has both direct and indirect competitors. As an airline, for example, you are competing with both low-cost airlines (first group) and premium airlines (second group) as well as railway companies, bus companies, car rental companies, carpools, and many other market participants.

Step 3 of 5

Offer Strength

Next, you go through the competitive factors from left to right and determine their offer strength for your company’s value proposition as well as for your competitors. A high offer strength means that this factor is very strongly pronounced for the respective company. The customer perceives it positively. As an example: A particularly low-priced value proposition is especially distinctive in terms of the factor price. Place for each competitor or group, as well as for your company, a respectively colored card along the dashed vertical line so that the relative position of the cards reflects the factor’s offer strength of the value proposition.

After you have gone through all the factors, you may sort the factors according to their offer strength:

1. Factors in which your company scores to a high degree are placed as far to the left as possible.
2. Factors in which your competition scores are placed as far to the right as possible.

As a result, your value curve runs from the top left to the bottom right, while one of your competitors runs from the bottom left to the top right.

Step 4 of 5

Measures

To really stand out from the competition, the distance between the two curves should be as big as possible on the left side. Ideally, you are offering a product or service which did not exist yet in this way and is, therefore “uncontested”. This is also known as the Blue Ocean Strategy. You have four measures available to increase or achieve this competitive advantage (see the right-hand side of the canvas):

1. Eliminate: Product and performance features that are weak in your value proposition but your competition has a leading position in those, can be eliminated if, for example, your target audience does not value these factors or in case the buying behavior of customers fundamentally changes. The elimination may let you save development and production costs. In turn, you can use this saved money somewhere else, for example, to introduce new product features.
2. Reduce: Some factors cannot be eliminated. This is for example true for the price. But if this factor plays a minor role for your targeted customers, you should not try to compete on it. You may consider reducing this factor by, for example, increasing the price to get the means to increase other factors.
3. Raise: You should try to increase factors that are relevant to your customers as much as possible. Do this to clearly differentiate from your competition. Usually, this can only be done by reducing other factors.
4. Create: Finally, there are product and performance features that your competitors have not yet thought of, but which are crucial to the customers’ buying decision. For example, for an airline, this could be a complimentary internet connection on the plane.

Step 5 of 5

Prioritization

After you have taken these measures, it is advisable to re-sort the value curve according to the offered strength of the factors (see OFFER STRENGTH), so that the factors that distinguish your product or service are placed on the left. These factors should get the appropriate attention while developing and marketing your value proposition. Hence, these should be highlighted on the Value Proposition Canvas.