‘Value’ is a loaded word – it means different things to different people. But to most people outside marketing, it means ‘cheap’.

Of course, to people inside marketing, value is a composite quality that embraces many dimensions. As a minimum, it includes: service; ethics; reputation; speed of delivery and scarcity vs. availability. Think about Amazon Prime vs Amazon when it comes to speed of delivery, for associated costs, for example. Or Ecover vs Persil when it comes to ethics; John Lewis vs Ikea when it comes to service delivery. And so on…

These all make up parts of a brand’s value ecosystem. The trick is to identify which levers exist for your brand, and which to pull on.

Don’t accept gripes about price at face value. It’s only ever a post-rationalisation to a far more complex value ecosystem – and yours might be out of whack if you’re hearing pushback about it.