In order to move beyond a single product, it is necessary to look at connections to related services, the situations in which the products are being used, and to determine points of potential increased competitiveness. Look widely with a broad perspective and you may notice that the value that will appeal to users lies where in fact added value is low at a glance.
For example, Disco Corporation, a manufacturer of silicon wafer processing equipment, provides customers with “recipes” of settings for the equipment, so that customers can more easily get the best results. What the customers want is the properly processed wafers; determining the settings and so on is nothing but tedious for them.
By adding value to the product – doing something the customer would prefer not to have to do – Disco has successfully made the equipment itself, in combination with its effort, more attractive.
The chipmaker Broadcom offers its products along with know-how on chip layouts so as to reduce noise in design circuits for communications antennae. Similarly, by providing value-added “solutions” – its expertise in network operations, including monitoring unusual actions – Swedish L. M. Ericsson contracts with its buyers to reduce operational costs.
A one-stop service is particularly attractive for communications carriers in emerging nations. Procurement of equipment is just one step in starting a business. Profitability after investment is what they are aiming for. The value of the product itself is increased when it comes with various supporting activities related to its use. For the supplier, this kind of thinking is key to escaping the mentality of “just selling a product.”
What is important here is conscious awareness of building up a service, system and solutions, in order to profit from the hardware products. The starting point is figuring out how save the customer time and effort.