What's in it for You? : A Study of Perceived Customer Value among IKEA's Business Customers in the Kitchen Market

Abstract: Companies have started to concentrate more on customer relationship, meaning more attention on customer contact, instead of concentrating on the product. Those thoughts have further developed into that companies continuously create and add value for their customers, to keep them loyal and satisfied. Value can be created in different ways, and the companies need to understand the value factors that are considered most important among their customers. For the same reason IKEA commissioned this thesis; to know how to deliver greater customer value. Therefore the purpose of this thesis is to evaluate and rank the factors that perceive customer value for IKEA’s business customers in the kitchen market. With a quantitative approach in mind a market research is accomplished to find opportunities and solve problems of the existing strategy. Data was collected with help from a survey, in accordance with the method chapter. Further was the survey analyzed and interpreted with help from the theory in the frame of reference. The conclusions are presented in the end of the thesis. The theories within the subject of customer value show that price, performance and personalization are the main factors that contribute to perceived customer value. Good customer value can be achieved when price, performance and personalization are in harmony and exceeds customer expectations. When companies only present parts of the triad, maximization of perceived customer value cannot be reached. The empirical data, received through market research and personal communication with A. Larsson at IKEA, was analyzed with assistance of the theories. Through market research the factors that perceive customer value are identified, evaluated and ranked. The findings have made it possible to test if the model of price, performance and personalization is ac-curate in accordance to the reality. The findings show, in ranked order, that price, quality and distribution activities are the main variables creating customer value in the business-to-business relationship in the kitchen market. The authors found that price and performance are the main drivers behind perceived customer value. Personalization is also considered contributing to customer value, but works more as a motivation factor that is strengthening the business relationship. This guides us to the question; what’s in it for you? It is of high importance to understand that customers and groups of customers perceive value in different ways. This leads to that IKEA needs to consider what factors that are in there for you, as a business customer, and how those variables can be improved for a better business relationship.