One way to reconcile the apparent paradox between the product and the market is to introduce a new concept: the concept of customer value. What does that mean? If you think about consumers, why do they buy products and services? Usually they buy because they want to satisfy some needs or desires. The point is they want to get some benefits out of the products and services they buy. The idea of customer value is exactly this: it’s the combination of benefits that consumers want to get out of the products and services they buy. But obviously consumers know that to get some benefits they have to make some sacrifices, so the concept of customer value is usually represented as a ratio between the benefits and sacrifices. What are the typical benefits and sacrifices that consumers relate to food products and beverages? Generally speaking, when we talk about benefits the idea is to classify these benefits into two different classes. The first one is usually called functional benefits. If you think about functional benefits, they are benefits that consumers relate to problems they want to solve or something they leave as problems to be solved. When we talk about foodstuffs and beverages, we talk about typical functional benefits—-like the food could be energetic, healthy, or light; or if we think of the general consumer process when he or she decides and makes a choice, some other benefits are related to the process: the availability of the product and the convenience. All these are functional. Think, for example, about a yogurt, many consumers eat yogurt, because yogurt is light, or because they consider yogurt as healthy, or because they consider the specific yogurt they buy as very available in the shops they tend to buy at. All these are functional benefits, and there are also other kinds of benefits which are very important in food and beverage businesses. All these other benefits can be related to the big sphere of psychological, symbolical, and experiential benefits. One which is very typical is the sensorial pleasure given by a product in the food and beverage business like the taste which is obviously a fundamental one, but this is not the only one. Linked to the big sphere there is a number of benefits which are symbolical. Let’s think, for example, about the identity value of many foodstuffs and beverages. We Italians are very proud of our espresso, pizza, and pasta and these products are very much linked to our national identity but the same would be, for example, in Mexico with tequila or in the Caribbean with sweet rum, or in Germany with beer. There are many different products or services which are very linked to the identity of a country. When consumers consume these products, it's a way to reaffirm their identity. This has nothing to do with the functional benefits of the product it has a lot to do with the symbolical power of many foodstuffs and beverages. Another area is the area of psychological benefits which have to do with the psychological sphere of the consumer. Let's think for a while about self image, self perception, self esteem, and everything which is referred to the self. If I consider myself as an expert in tea, every time I buy some tea is a way to reaffirm the image I have of myself. Then there is another part of this big class of benefits which are the social benefits. I also consume some products, foods and beverages, just because I want to show or communicate my belonging to a social group or my not belonging to a social group. For example, if I want to share with my peers that I have a specific lifestyle, and connected to that lifestyle, there are some specific products and drinks. what I do is consume these products because I want to confirm my lifestyle to my peers. One good example we can use is the mineral water business. Mineral water like any other product category can provide consumers with very different benefits: functional, symbolical, experiential, and psychological. For example, a mineral water which is focused on some specific features of the product can provide a lot of functional benefits. For example, it can be used for a specific diet, and it can be considered light and/or healthy. On the other side, there are other mineral waters that provide consumers with other benefits that are more symbolical. Let me give you an example, There are two different brands: Evian which is part of the Danone group and San Pellegrino which is part of the Nestlé group. If you look at the ad by Evian, The ad is very focused on the health aspect. Basically, if you drink Evian you can stay younger forever. This is obviously put as an extreme. It’s very function, I mean you feel better, because your health would be benefit by the consumption of this kind of mineral water. If you look at the ad by San Pellegrino… The ad is very focused on lifestyle. The idea is seeing San Pellegrino as one one of the most famous Italian brands. The idea is to “live in Italia,” that is share the Italian lifestyle with all other consumers. It’s much more symbolical. It has nothing to do with function benefits. As you see we have two very different classes of benefits: one is the benefits connected to the functional aspects of the products and the service; and the second one is the big area of symbolical and experiential benefits. Then we can move to sacrifices which are the negative components of customer value. Consumers know very well that if they want to get a benefit they have to make some sacrifices. The easiest one to think of is price, a monetary sacrifice. Actually monetary sacrifices are not the only sacrifices consumers make when they want to get some benefits. There are many sacrifices linked to the consumer decision making process. When consumers have to choose a product or service, we have to go through a process. To come up with a choice, we need to collect information which requires time. It requires cognitive effort. It requires sharing information with others. This part is made of sacrifices. Then there are sacrifices connected to the procurement. When we want to buy a product we have to find this product online or offline. This means again, time spent in searching for information related to the shops where consumers can buy products. Another part of sacrifices are linked to learning how to use a product. We tend to think that food products and beverages are very easy to consume, but let’s think about a very classy restaurant. A typical Michelin star restaurant. Sometimes the cuisine is very complicated in terms of consumers' perception. I have to learn how to appreciate this kind of service. There are some learning costs which are related to the learning process to get the most out of the product and service. Then there are other sacrifices that, in economics, are usually called opportunity costs. What are opportunity costs? They are costs related to the fact that I choose one product and by choosing one product I cannot have other alternatives, usually because of monetary constraints. If I decide to go a weekend to a food destination I spend some money and time so in that weekend I cannot do other things. Sometimes if the opportunity costs are perceived very high, consumers decide not to buy the product or service. There are also other switching costs that sometimes are very psychological. Switching costs are costs related to the change of the supplier. I'm very loyal to a restaurant, so I tend to leave or to perceive with difficulty the fact that I may have to choose another one. This is a switching cost. Then there are costs related to the usage of the product. For example, think of the maintenance of some products related to food and beverage. If I have an espresso machine, I have to spend some money for the spare parts for repairing it. These are costs related to the usage of the product itself. As you can see the number of sacrifices that consumers have to make is not related only to the price, but there are many more. If you consider the customer value from the consumer's point of view it is a bunch of benefits related to a bunch of sacrifices that consumers have in mind when they decide to buy a product or service.