News and Insights
July 10, 2025
For many brands, defining a customer value proposition feels like a straightforward task: articulate what you offer, why it’s useful, and how it’s different. However, in reality, this process often moves too quickly from an internal brainstorm to public messaging, without pausing to ask the crucial question: “What does the audience actually value?”
In the rush to define positioning, businesses sometimes forget that their value proposition isn’t about what they want to say. It’s about what their audience needs to hear. And to know that you have to start with research.
Listen before you write
The foundation of any relevant brand message lies in understanding the people it’s for. This means going beyond demographics and starting to explore motivations, behaviours, expectations, and concerns.
Who are your highest-value customers? What keeps them loyal or drives them to competitors? What do they say they need, and what do they signal through their behaviour? Whether through social listening, audience segmentation, or a close look at customer journey mapping, investing time in understanding your audience helps ensure your proposition isn’t built on assumptions.
For example, our 2025 study on Indian international travellers found that Gen Z is already turning travel dreams into reality, often choosing destinations like Japan not just for its beauty but for their emotional resonance. This cohort prioritises experiences that offer emotional rejuvenation, spontaneity, and digital convenience; values that often go unseen in traditional travel brand messaging.
The most effective value propositions don’t just respond to needs. They reflect them clearly and simply.
Say less, but say it clearly
Once you have a clearer view of your audience, shaping the actual message becomes much more strategic. It’s not about loading your value proposition with every feature or benefit. It’s about identifying what matters most and communicating it in a way that is both relevant and distinctive.
In our PRISM research on consumer electronics audiences, we saw that Gen Z and high-income buyers were less influenced by product specs and more by ease of use, brand values, and how products align with their identity. This insight helped shape simplified messaging strategies that focused less on feature listings and more on emotional and reputational alignment.
This doesn’t always mean being radically different. It often means being more precise. Remove jargon. Avoid generic claims. Make sure your promise is aligned with what your audience is already thinking about. A well-defined proposition helps unify internal teams, align brand storytelling, and guide marketing decisions. Most importantly, it gives the audience something to connect with on their terms.
Consistency matters more than boldness
There’s a temptation to treat your value proposition as a one-off exercise. A line in a strategy deck, or the first slide in a pitch. But for it to shape how your brand is perceived, it needs to show up consistently across every part of your communications.
That’s where alignment with brand identity becomes essential. Tone, visuals, messaging, and even product naming should reflect the same strategic foundation. This isn’t about repeating the same phrase everywhere. It’s about ensuring the same intent is carried through in how your brand speaks, acts, and shows up.
Check in, don’t sign off
Markets evolve. Customer needs shift. Competitors move fast. A value proposition that felt fresh and relevant last year might feel disconnected today.
Rather than treat brand positioning as a static outcome, build in regular points of reflection. What’s changed in your category? How has your audience’s mindset shifted? Are there signals in performance data, media sentiment, or campaign feedback that suggest your message needs revisiting? Keeping your value proposition relevant doesn’t require a full rewrite every quarter. But it does require listening, learning, and adjusting with intent.
In fact, our travel research found that the idea of a “bucket list” is being replaced by real-time action, especially among Gen Z. These evolving behaviours suggest that brand messaging should adapt regularly to meet emerging expectations, not rely on legacy positioning.
Value is a two-way conversation
At its core, a value proposition is a statement of intent. But the strength of that statement depends on how well it reflects what your audience wants to hear, and what they’re willing to believe.
Research doesn’t just make a proposition more accurate. It makes it more human. In a landscape where attention is short and expectations are high, that clarity and relevance can make all the difference.
If you’re rethinking your brand messaging or revisiting your customer strategy, pause to ask not just “what are we saying,” but “what are we hearing?”
If you’re interested in what an audience-first strategy can look like in practice, take a look at our Indian traveller insightsor PRISM consumer technology study: both show how research can illuminate what your audience truly values, and how to meet them there.