Organizational Barriers and the Implementation of Customer Value Map Analysis: A Case Study of a Global Manufacturing Firm in the Polymer Technology Industry

Prior studies have found that firms often find it difficult to implement innovative pricing strategies, such as value-based pricing, due to the organizational barriers they face in the implementation process. This case study of a manufacturing firm’s implementation of value-based pricing through the use of customer value map analysis (CVMA) examines the effect of these organizational barriers. Key challenges for the studied firm involved overcoming the sales representatives’ focus on turnover rather than profit margin, as well as inconsistent prices across sales regions. These challenges were addressed by an increased sales force control and training the sales representatives in explaining the customer value. The results of our study indicate that innovation in sales force management, or more specifically, sales force price delegation, is a key success factor for the implementation of value-based pricing through CVMA.