Where are you on the Value/Maintenance Matrix?

9 Inch Axiom – Value and Maintenance

‘The goal of marketing is for your target audience to regard you as high value and low maintenance’

Back in college I used to have a theory when determining if a co-ed was girlfriend material.  There were two basic criteria that created a basic matrix:  value and maintenance.  The ideal scenario was someone who was high value and low maintenance.  On the matrix that was the second quadrant.  The worse case scenario was the dreaded quadrant 4 . . . low value and high maintenance. 

The more I think about marketing, the more I keep coming back to the value/maintenance matrix.  Here is my breakdown of both:

Value – What are tangible and intangible benefits that your service or product provides?  (Note: Price factors into value, but only as it relates to the level of benefits and how effective the product or service is.)  What is the level of design, craftsmanship and service?  Is the product or service fulfilling its brand promise?  

Maintenance – What was the buying experience like?  Do you enjoy working with the brand or service provider?  Do they make things turnkey or simple?  Are they responsive to problems / issues?  Do they demonstrate initiative and the ability to go above and beyond?  

Do you agree with the vm matrix? Any good examples to share?  

Today’s Lagniappe  (a little something extra) - a great case study about Tourism Queensland

I had the privilege of spending a year of my college in Queensland, Australia (see photo of me and me mates drinking a few tinnies of XXXX).  The home of the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland is located in the Northeast of Australia.  It’s the second largest state in Oz (only about 3x’s the size of Texas).  

Anywho . . . the folks from Tourism Queensland just did something unprecedented.  They just swept the 3 grand prix’s at the biggest advertising awards festival in the world, the  Cannes Lions (digital, direct and pr).  Here is an excerpt from a great post that talks about the feat and the importance that this was a PR based campaign.  

According to AdAge, the winning campaigns this year strived to “engage consumers and deeply involve them in brands, or a movement, rather than whack them over the head with canned message time and again.”

Done well, PR campaigns can garner the type of coverage most media buyers would charge millions to secure. These campaigns can provide more successful results than traditional marketing efforts. However, as we enter into a new era of communications dominated by digital media and social mediums, some experts predict we will see an increasing number of campaigns that leverage and combine advertising, PR and marketing efforts. This year’s Cannes Festival could be seen as early proof of the convergence between marketing, PR and advertising. The shifting media landscape coupled with the current economic climate, are causing organizations to consider integrating their advertising and PR activities.

Here is the video case study on the ‘The Best Job in the World’: