What is the Kano model?
In the 1980s, Professor Noriyaki Kano developed the principles of the model, which was named after him. The Kano model allows you to determine what exactly the customer likes about your product or service.
The functions of the Kano model are to determine which product characteristics are important to the customer. Such knowledge is important in order to optimize production and develop exactly those parameters that better influence customer satisfaction.
The strength of Kano’s model is that he requires that customers hear their opinions from the customers themselves. With this approach, you don’t try to guess what the customer values in your product or service. You ask a sample of customers questions and get answers that will help you achieve high satisfaction with your product or service.
One of the disadvantages of Kano’s approach is his age. However, it has stood the test of time and is still helping businesses today. Also, research based on this model requires a lot of resources and knowledge, for example, in the field of statistics. But the results that can improve the product are worth it.
Categories of the Kano model
The Kano model is an approach that breaks down a product into its various characteristics or attributes. These characteristics fall into five categories. To build the Kano model, at least 3 of these types are required (California model).
It’s also important to remember that features may or may not be well implemented, and the client may like them or not. All these factors make it possible to formulate the Kano model. The example we will look at concerns the different characteristics of dark chocolate.
Required attributes
There are product characteristics that must be present. They are also called Must-be, which translates from English as “must be.” If they are not there, the client will be dissatisfied. The same situation will arise if they are poorly implemented. These qualities are taken for granted, so their presence, as a rule, does not increase customer satisfaction.
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For example, when it comes to dark chocolate, consumers expect it to contain a certain percentage (at least 55%) of cocoa. If this expectation is not met, the customer will be unhappy, but he will not be happy that dark chocolate contains the required percentage of cocoa. This goes without saying – if a customer wanted a lower percentage of cocoa, they would buy dark chocolate.
Other examples:
- the smartphone has a calling function;
- the presence of handles on the pan;
- the presence of a zipper on jeans.
The product must have such characteristics. Therefore, if you find out that an attribute is required, you need to find a way to implement it in the product.
One-dimensional attributes
They can improve customer satisfaction if executed well enough. Such attributes are called one-dimensional (literally One-dimensional in English).
For example, dark chocolate has an important taste, which can be affected by the types of cocoa beans and different recipes. The tastier the chocolate, the more satisfied the customer will be. Of course, taste is a rather subjective concept, but this is perhaps the main attribute of chocolate, and every buyer will pay attention to it.
Other examples:
- smartphone memory,
- non-stick features of the pan,
- the quality of the fabric from which the jeans are made.
However, it is worth noting that it is impossible to improve the characteristics endlessly. Let’s take phone memory: a small memory really won’t make the customer happy. But trying to increase it to hundreds of terabytes is not rational, especially from the point of view of production and finding clients willing to pay for such memory.
Unimportant attributes
There are attributes that cannot affect customer satisfaction. They may or may not be implemented well, but in any case the client will not be interested in them.
For example, the design of chocolate packaging will be such an attribute for many buyers. Not for everyone – there are clients who want beautiful packaging. But given the fact that it will end up in the trash, this is not the most important attribute for most buyers.
Other examples:
- the location of the SIM card in the smartphone (provided that it is convenient to put it in and take it out);
- country of production of the pan;
- equipment used to sew jeans.
Please note that each of these examples may be relevant to a specific client. Also, attributes that are unimportant to the client may be important to the manufacturer; It may be more profitable to produce pots in a certain country. Knowing these characteristics allows you to stop wasting money on things that don’t matter from the buyer’s point of view.
Attractive Attributes
Sometimes clients like the presence of certain attributes, even if they were not implemented perfectly. Such characteristics are considered attractive.
For example, you can produce dark chocolate in packaging that can be closed after opening. Such an attribute will not hurt, even if its execution is not very good. It will be more convenient for the client to store chocolate in an open package if he does not eat it right away.
Other examples:
- bluetooth function in smartphone,
- beautiful pot design,
- availability of jeans in various colors.
Attractive attributes are a good way to increase product value and customer satisfaction. However, during production, you need to remember about mandatory and one-dimensional attributes. They are more important than attractive ones, because their absence or insufficiently good performance leads to dissatisfaction.
Undesirable attributes
Attributes that, as their use increases, begin to reduce customer satisfaction are called undesirable attributes.
For example, dark chocolate is bought for its taste. So adding too much sugar to a recipe is a bad idea. Dark chocolate requires a small amount of sugar.
Other examples:
- built-in advertising in the smartphone;
- unsafe materials (such as aluminum) in the pan;
- poorly placed seams on jeans.
Undesirable attributes, of course, should be avoided whenever possible.
Model types and their differences
There are only 2 Kano models:
- Japanese (proposed by Kano himself): it implies taking into account all 5 attributes and defining them when communicating with clients.
- Californian: Use only 3 attributes (must-have, one-dimensional and attractive).
It is believed that the full Japanese model is better suited for established businesses that already have a customer base that has already established a dialogue with buyers.
For startups, the California model is recommended, in part because for a new product and new customers it is difficult to determine which qualities will be perceived negatively. In addition, the 3 attributes of the California model are responsible for increasing customer satisfaction, which is very important for a new product.
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It can also be argued that marketers can independently identify undesirable and unimportant attributes. However, this approach does not fit the Kano model. Its essence is that the customer’s opinion is more important than what marketers think about this opinion.
How to perform Kano analysis?
Kano’s analysis can be divided into several steps.
- Product analysis using the Kano model always requires contact with customers, so the first step is to create a representative sample of them. Sample representativeness is a statistical term. It means that the sample matches the customer base in terms of key characteristics. This can be achieved by randomly selecting clients from the database. It would be a good idea to involve a statistician for this step.
- The second step involves preparing questions for clients. To do this, you need to know the characteristics of the product you want to ask for. There shouldn’t be too many characteristics. Long surveys require a lot of time from customers, so they may refuse to answer questions.
- Each characteristic has 2 questions: how the client will react to its presence and absence. For the convenience of clients, it is better to create questions with prepared answer options. Answers must correspond to the attribute categories you are using. For example, a response indicating a required attribute might be: “I expect this characteristic.” Another option: “This characteristic is required.” Questions may also use a scale, such as 1 to 5 or 10, to determine how important a characteristic is.
- The results should be analyzed using 5 categories. Software can help, including Excel and Google Sheets, as well as programming, including in R language.
- Sometimes a characteristic is difficult to categorize. In this case, the order of categories is: must-have, then one-dimensional, then attractive, and finally unimportant. Therefore, for example, if a characteristic scores equally in the must-have category and the attractive category, it falls into the must-have category.
Bottom line
We looked at what the Kano model is. Marketing becomes easier if you take advantage of this analysis of the various characteristics of a product or service. The process of obtaining information according to the Kano model is based on attention to the client and his preferences. Using 3 or 5 categories, you can determine how the client wants the product to be and use this knowledge to improve it. For this, it is important to understand what the Kano model is all about.
Cover photo: Freepik
Source: rb.ru
