Page 9 - Intangible value

INTANGIBILITY AS A SERVICE
Intangible investments are a means to devel- op something that is sold to the customer as a service. Services, by de nition, are non-ma- terial, so, at least roughly speaking, all services can be classi ed as intangible. These services can be anything, but what the customer buys is speci cally the service. In a fairly new form of service business, the paying customer and bene ciaries are not exactly the same party. The Google search engine and Facebook are good examples of this. People who use these services can use them for free. Instead, the paying customers are companies which buy information from Google or Facebook to be used for example in advertising.
Digitalisation makes many services more scalable and independent of where they are
located. At the same time, it also enables the development of new service functions to in- dustrial products. Due to digitalisation, many services companies will not only compete locally, but also globally.
INTANGIBILITY AS A MEANS FOR MORE EFFICIENT OPERATION
With intangible investments, the compa- ny seeks to improve its internal operation. However, the improved internal operation cannot, in itself, be sold to the customer. Through improved internal operation, the sales of products or services sold to the cus- tomer or their pro tability increase. Intangi- ble investments aimed at improving internal operation include, for example, training the personnel, enhancing ef ciency of the prod-
uct/services production, or developing new sales or marketing methods. What is essen- tial is that the bene ts from improving inter- nal operations are always realised through sold products or services.
INTANGIBILITY AS A PROPERTY OF THE PRODUCT
Companies aim to develop additional prop- erties to products (GOODS) through in- tangible investments and the customer is prepared to pay an additional price for the additional properties that intangibility pro- vides. The range of additional properties is diverse. They include for example better design, technical properties, the brand and ease of use. What is typical of the value cre- ation method is that the value added is real- ised through a physical product.
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