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Abstract
Customer Value can be broken down to two distinct perspectives which are ‘Desired wants’ or ‘Perceived wants. Marketers today strive to create customer value through various techniques and strategies. The Customer-Value creation framework by Smith and Colgate identifies four types of values that can be created by Organizations:
- Functional value
- Experiential value
- Symbolic value
- Cost value
Companies try to find/develop various tools, techniques to provide customer value and keep them engaged in the most cost-effective way. Then there is WhatsApp, a cross-platform instant messaging app with over one billion active users and more than 10% of such users are in India. (Satpathy, 2016) WhatsApp is installed on 90% of smartphones in India(Jana, 2016). It now boasts of features like WhatsApp calling, Web WhatsApp and much more. WhatsApp presents a solution for business houses’ search for affordable alternative for marketing and particularly value creation for customers. Based on research findings – 39 out of 50 businesses find WhatsApp an important tool which creates a customer engagement and customer retention.(Madhavi, Vishnu, & Rahul, 2015) What kind of values can it create? Here, responses are collected through structured questionnaire and semi structured interviews with a sample size of 65 marketing professionals/entrepreneurs.