8/25/22, 6:46 PM The death of price-value and dissection of quality - 2022 Q3 Quarterly Brief - Kearney

The death of price/value and dissection of quality

KCI quarterly briefing, Q3 2022

August 16, 2022

(I can’t get no) Satisfaction

What matters most to consumers? You might guess price, but our research shows that most consumers typ
prioritize other quality dimensions over price. Consumers make trade-offs depending on what works for the
personally, in that moment. And quality and price are both subjective, which makes price/value an impossib
calculation. Whether we’re talking about snacks, sneakers, or slow cookers, consumers dictate the primary
quality they are looking for out of that product. Keep reading to find out what factors contribute to consum
decisions and how they think about and define “quality.”
The Kearney Consumer Institute (KCI) Q3 2022 consumer briefing explores the complicated definition of quality and the death of price/value. We d
how consumers seek a nebulous mix of price and quality—they are both contextual, depending on the consideration set and relative cost. On top of
our research demonstrates that despite the tendency to talk up the many attributes of a product, consumers identify a single, primary quality that
supersedes all others. This leads to a fundamental question: why do we conflate price and quality? It’s all relative, after all.

Additional learnings include:

• “Quality” is subjective by consumer, despite our attempts to objectify quality standards.

• Customers do consider quality attributes but they ultimately buy for emotional and psychological reasons.

• We make different calculations depending on the context of our purchase. Are we buying food for a weeknight family meal, or a dinner party for f
The context changes our quality and price expectations.

In turn, this highlights opportunities to tighten messaging and focus, and embrace the subjectivity. How can brands meet consumers where they are
decision-making process and simplify the complicated decision matrix? Some thought starters include:

• Does multidimensional messaging confuse consumers, obscuring the primary quality of a product?

• Could brands focus on the primary quality dictated by consumers to simplify their efforts and streamline messaging for overwhelmed consumers?

• How can brands evaluate consumers’ trade-offs in order to understand what’s most important and what attributes of a product drive decisions?

• Should brands decouple price from the product equation?

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8/25/22, 6:46 PM The death of price-value and dissection of quality - 2022 Q3 Quarterly Brief - Kearney

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Authors

Katie Thomas
Lead, Kearney Consumer
Institute

Tanya Moryoussef
Consultant

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