HOW DO BUSINESSES ADD VALUE TO THEIR CORE OFFER?
The customer relationship is the most common
route to added value – 92% of businesses follow it.
Not far behiind is the design of products and
services – 84% of businesses say they add value
in this way.

At least half of businesses say they add value in all the ways we asked about, but far fewer actually
have a defined strategy for doing so. Only just over a third of businesses (36%) say they offer a lot
of added value, while one in five (21%) say they rely solely on their core product or service.


What benefits do businesses get from adding value?
39% of businesses that add a lot of value have seen turnover grow rapidly in the last year. Only 20%
of businesses who just offer their core product or service say the same.

The benefits of adding value are clear. The majority of businesses that add value see some impact
across a range of measures. For example, nine out of ten businesses say it has had a positive impact
on their competitiveness and 83% say it has boosted their turnover and profits. A significant proportion
go furher and say adding value has had a great impact on performance -- a third say this applies to their competitiveness and nearly as many report a great impact on turnover. Almost a quarter say the same
about the effect of added value on market share (24%) and their ability to open up new markets (23%).

WHAT IS THE OVERALL IMPACT OF ADDED VALUE ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE?
39% of businesses that add a lot of value have
seen turnover grow rapidly in the last year. Only
20% of businesses who just offer their core
product or service say the same.

The benefits of adding value are clear. The majority of businesses that add value see some
impact across a range of measures. For example, nine out of ten businesses say it has had
a positive impact on their competitiveness and 83% say it has boosted their turnover and profits.
A significant proportion go further and say adding value has had a great impact on performance –
a third say this applies to their competitiveness and nearly as many report a great impact on
turnover. Almost a quarter say the same about the effect of added value on market share (24%)
and their ability to open up new markets (23%).

WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF ADDING A LOT OF VALUE ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE?
Businesses that add the most value get the biggest
payback. Of those which add a lot of value, 46% say their competitiveness has improved to a great extent.

Two in five (39%) are just as positive about the impact on their turnover. Among businesses who add less value,
only 20% say the same. The difference is even bigger when it comes to market share – 38% of businesses which
add a lot of value have seen a great impact here, compared to just 12% of those who add less value.

HOW MUCH IS ADDING VALUE WORTH TO BUSINESS?
To find out how much adding value is worth to businesses, we asked them to quantify its impact on their turnover, market share and profit. The results suggest that businesses which add value get an average 14% increase in turnover and market share, while their profits go up by an average of 11%.

HOW DOES DESIGN BOOST THE IMPACT OF ADDING VALUE?
34% of businesses that add value through design say this has had a great impact on turnover. Only 21%
of businesses who don’t appreciate design’s role say the same.

Businesses get even more benefit from adding value when they use design or a designer. That’s true whether
they use design specifically for added value activity or see it as important to the business generally. 34% businesses that see design as integral or significant say added value has had a great impact on their turnover. Where design plays only a limited role, the proportion is just 21%.

There’s also a link between using design and being strategic about adding value. Almost half of businesses
that use design are planning to add more value in the future (46%), compared to only 6% of those that don’t
use design.

USING A DESIGNER INCREASES THE IMPACT OF ADDING VALUE
43% of businesses who used a designer to add value
reported a great impact on competitiveness, compared
to 25% of those who didn’t use a designer.

Businesses get most payback from adding value when they use a designer to do so. Those that do are twice as
likely as those that don’t to see an impact on turnover and market share.

53% of businesses that use a designer also add a lot of value to their core product or service. In businesses
that don’t use a designer only 39% add a lot of value to their core product or service.

Businesses that use a designer to add value are also much more likely to be planning more added value
activity in the future – 61% say they’re doing that, compared to only 34% of those which don’t use a designer.

Businesses that employ a designer are even more likely to perform well when it comes to adding value to their
core product or service. 69% of businesses which do so have developed a new product or service in the last
three years, compared to only 47% of businesses which don’t use a designer.

WHY DO BUSINESSES NOT OFFER ADDED VALUE BEYOND THEIR CORE PRODUCT OR SERVICE?
38% of businesses which only offer their core product
or service don’t think added value would do them
any good.

The benefits of adding value are clear, particularly if you use design or a designer to do so. It’s surprising then
that just over a fifth of US businesses are missing out by not adding value.

Businesses that don’t go beyond their core product or service give various reasons for not adding value. Two
out of five don’t think it would benefit them and a quarter don’t feel it’s relevant to what they do. Far fewer say
they’re prevented from adding value by a lack of resources or because they simply haven’t thought about it.

Businesses that don’t add value are most likely to be small, with between 10 and 49 employees. 62% of these
said their product or service meets customers’ needs by itself and that, as a result, they didn’t need to add
anything extra. In contrast, bigger businesses seem much more enthusiastic about adding value. Just over half
of firms that add a lot value have more than 250 employees. In contrast, 90% of businesses that don’t add
value at all are SMEs.