Customer value is defined as “the difference between what a customer gets from a product and what he or she has to give in order to get it.” (BD, 2009) As the textbook mentions, “as marketers, we should be committed to the proposition that the creation of customer value must be the reason for the firm’s existence and certainly for its success.” (Johnson and Weinstein, 2004, p.3) Therefore, I believe that the actual act of delivering customer value should be considered as a must for both employees as well as employers since customers are one of the most important possessions any business can acquire. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many organizations and there is an immeasurable number of businesses that do not quite believe that the main reason for their success is customer value.

As the textbook mentions, “service, quality, image and price: the essence of customer value.” (Johnson and Weinstein, 2004, p.6) I consider that in order to achieve superior customer value any organization must be able to develop, retain as well as implement competitive advantage. Therefore, “a market-oriented culture provides a solid foundation for these value-creating capabilities, which will greatly enable a business to consistently deliver superior value to its crucial customers.” (Narver and Slater, 1994) Market orientation provides a combination purpose for the efforts and projects of individuals, by this means leading to superior performance. This market is practically composed of three major items that include customer orientation, competitor focus, and cross-functional coordination that are basically considered as long-term in vision and profit-driven. (Narver and Slater, 1994) The simple act of developing a strong bond with customers will definitely create loyalty that will lead to high customer retention rates. For that reason and as Johnson and Weinstein (2004) state, value driven marketing strategies aid organizations in the following areas “understanding customer choices, identifying customer segments, increasing competitive options, improving service quality, strengthening communications, focusing on what it is meaningful to customers, and building customer loyalty amongst others.” (p. 6)

Therefore, by building a strong relationship between market orientation and several measures of business performance including profitability, customer retention, sales growth, and new product success, the organization would not be just concentrating on providing excellent customer value, but on considering as a pedestal for their success in the marketplace. In other words, “a market-oriented culture is necessary to build and maintain the core capabilities that continuously create superior customer value. Recent work in service management, quality development, and new product development points to the necessity of being market-oriented for success in these key strategic activities.” (Narver and Slater, 1994) To conclude, I consider that for both people and organizations, the idea of being passionate about delivering superior customer value should be focused on understanding what the customers expect, for exceeding those expectations is the basis of enduring customer loyalty. So to build customer loyalty, businesses must make a long-term commitment to understand their customers’ expectations and how they change, motivate employees to view customer satisfaction as a primary objective, monitor customer satisfaction frequently, and stay in touch with customers after the sale.