| Course | BUS 320 Principles of Marketing |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 1 |
| Paper type | Marketing concepts paper |
| Length | About 1,024 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Business Administration |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for BUS 320 Module 1
Selling Coffee or Better Mornings? Customer Value at Juniper Row Coffee Roasters
Student Name
Business Administration Program, Aspen University
BUS 320: Principles of Marketing
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Selling Coffee or Better Mornings? Customer Value at Juniper Row Coffee Roasters
Juniper Row Coffee Roasters is a composite specialty roaster in Albuquerque with 24 employees, one café, 22 wholesale accounts at restaurants and offices, and an online subscription that ships fresh beans to about 640 households. The subscription grew quickly after launch but now loses about 7% of its subscribers every month. The founder, a skilled roaster, assumed the problem was the coffee and spent the spring sourcing more expensive beans. Cancellations did not slow. This paper uses the idea of customer value, the core of marketing, to explain why and to show what marketing means for a small business.
What Marketing Is
Marketing is often mistaken for advertising or selling. In its fuller sense, it is the work of understanding what customers need, creating offerings that meet those needs better than alternatives, communicating and delivering them, and building relationships that last. Levitt (1960) warned that companies decline when they define themselves by their product rather than by the customer need it serves, a mistake he called marketing myopia; his famous example was railroads that thought they were in the railroad business rather than the transportation business. Juniper Row risks a small version of the same mistake if it thinks it sells roasted beans rather than good coffee at home with little effort.
Customer-Perceived Value
Customers do not buy products for their features alone; they weigh what they receive against what they give up. In an influential synthesis, Zeithaml (1988) treated perceived value as a customer's overall judgment of a product's usefulness, weighing the benefits obtained against the sacrifices made, and noted that people differ in which benefits and sacrifices they count. For a coffee subscriber, what is received includes taste, freshness and convenience; what is given includes price, but also the time spent managing deliveries and the frustration of running out or piling up bags.
Value Created in Use
A related idea holds that value is not simply built into a product at the factory but is created when the customer uses it. Vargo and Lusch (2004) argued that marketing should be understood as service, in which firms offer value propositions and customers co-create value by applying the offering in their own lives. Juniper Row's beans produce value only when a subscriber grinds and brews them well at home. If the subscriber's brewing is poor, even excellent beans deliver little value, and no amount of better sourcing will fix it.
Listening to Former Subscribers
The marketing manager interviewed 30 people who had canceled in the past three months. Only four mentioned taste. Eleven said bags arrived too often and piled up, nine said they could not get cafe-quality results at home, and six said the price felt high once the novelty wore off. Several praised the coffee even as they explained why they left. The problem was not the product but the fit between the offering and how customers actually lived.
What Different Customers Value
The interviews and sales records suggest three groups of subscribers with different ideas of value.
| Customer group | Share of subscribers | What they value most | Main reason for leaving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home espresso enthusiasts | About 25% | Freshness, variety, roast detail | Rarely leave |
| Busy households | About 50% | Convenience, consistency | Bags pile up; delivery rhythm wrong |
| Gift recipients | About 25% | Novelty, ease of brewing | Poor results at home; price after gift ends |
Why Keeping Customers Matters
Losing customers is expensive because each one represents a stream of future purchases. A simple measure, customer lifetime value, estimates what an average customer is worth over the relationship. A subscription averages $22 a month with a gross margin of about 45%, or $9.90 of margin per month. With 7% of subscribers leaving each month, the average subscriber stays about 14 months, so lifetime margin is about $141. If churn fell to 5%, average tenure would rise to 20 months and lifetime margin to about $198, an increase of 40% per customer without any new sales. Improving value for existing customers is often cheaper than finding new ones.
Improving the Value Proposition
The interviews point to changes that address what customers value rather than the beans alone. For busy households, a flexible delivery schedule that customers can pause or stretch by text would stop the pile-up. For gift recipients and new subscribers, a short brewing guide matched to the equipment they own, with a two-minute video for each method, would help them get better coffee and so more value. For enthusiasts, a quarterly rare-lot option would reward loyalty. These changes cost far less than the premium beans the founder bought in the spring.
Marketing as a Partnership
Delivering this value is not the marketing manager's job alone. The roaster must plan batches around flexible delivery; the shipping team must handle pauses without errors; customer service must answer brewing questions; and finance must track churn and lifetime value monthly. Marketing's role is to understand customers and coordinate the business around them, which is why the course treats partnerships between marketing and other functions as central.
Measuring Value
Customer value is judged by customers, so it has to be measured from their side. Juniper Row will track four indicators monthly: churn by customer group, the share of subscribers who change or pause deliveries rather than cancel, views of the brewing videos, and a single survey question asking how likely subscribers are to recommend the company. If the changes work, churn among busy households and gift recipients should fall first, since they are the groups whose reasons for leaving the changes address. Lifetime value will be recalculated each quarter so the owners can see whether the effort is paying off in dollars as well as in satisfaction.
Conclusion
Juniper Row was losing subscribers not because its coffee was poor but because its offering did not fit how many customers lived and brewed. Seeing marketing as the creation of customer value, judged by customers and realized in use, shifts attention from the product to the whole experience of buying and using it. A flexible schedule, brewing help and rewards for loyal customers could raise lifetime value substantially at modest cost.
References
Levitt, T. (1960). Marketing myopia. Harvard Business Review, 38(4), 45-56.
Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2004). Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. Journal of Marketing, 68(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.68.1.1.24036
Zeithaml, V. A. (1988). Consumer perceptions of price, quality, and value: A means-end model and synthesis of evidence. Journal of Marketing, 52(3), 2-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224298805200302
What the BUS 320 Module 1 instructions ask for
Aspen's BUS 320 opens with the core concepts of marketing and customer value, and the opening assignment typically has students explain them through a business. The classroom holds the exact Module 1 prompt, so this example works through one small company. Define marketing broadly, beyond advertising and selling. Use a recognized model of customer value and explain what customers receive and give up. Gather or describe evidence about what customers actually value, rather than assuming. Show that different customers value different things. Put a number on why keeping customers matters, with a simple lifetime value calculation. Recommend changes tied to what customers said, and note which parts of the business must deliver them.
Inside the BUS 320 Module 1 example
The paper opens with a roaster whose subscriptions shrink each month despite pricier beans. It defines marketing and applies Levitt's marketing myopia to a company that thinks it sells beans. Zeithaml's definition of perceived value and Vargo and Lusch's claim that customers help make value as they use what they buy explain why excellent beans can still disappoint. Interviews reveal pile-ups, poor results at home and price fatigue. A four-column table compares enthusiasts, busy households and gift recipients. A lifetime value calculation uses $22 a month, a 45% margin and churn of 7% versus 5%. Flexible delivery, brewing guides and a rare-lot reward follow, then roles for the roaster, shipping, service and finance, and four measures of value.
Reading the BUS 320 Module 1 grading rubric
Introductory marketing papers are assessed on accurate concepts, sound application, use of evidence and practical recommendations. This example applies each concept to the roaster's situation rather than defining it in isolation. The APA reference list holds Levitt's Marketing Myopia from the Harvard Business Review, Zeithaml's Journal of Marketing synthesis on price, quality and value, and Vargo and Lusch's article on a new dominant logic for marketing. The lifetime value arithmetic can be checked line by line. Linking each recommendation to a group's stated reason for leaving shows evidence-based thinking. The partnership section connects to Aspen's emphasis on marketing working with other functions, and the measurement plan shows how the company will know whether value actually improved.
Common BUS 320 Module 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
A common weakness is treating marketing as promotion. Show how it covers understanding customers, designing the offering and keeping relationships. Another is assuming what customers value; use data, interviews or reasonable evidence. Apply every concept to your business. Show calculations step by step. Tie recommendations to specific findings rather than general ideas like better service. Mention which parts of the company must act. If you use your own employer, keep sensitive figures approximate. When lifetime value feels abstract, work through the numbers for one customer before scaling up to the whole base, and check whether your churn rate is monthly or annual before dividing. Label every figure with its unit so a reader can follow the arithmetic without guessing.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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BUS 320 Module 1 questions, answered
What does BUS 320 Module 1 usually ask for?
Aspen's BUS 320 introduces marketing and customer value, so a first paper explaining what marketing is and applying customer value to a business is typical. Follow your classroom prompt.
What is marketing myopia?
Levitt's term for defining a business by its product rather than by the customer need it serves, which leaves the business open to decline when needs are met in new ways.
How is customer lifetime value calculated simply?
Multiply the average margin per period by the expected number of periods a customer stays; for a subscription, expected tenure is roughly one divided by the churn rate.
Where can I find a free BUS 320 Module 1 sample paper?
The complete paper is above, explaining customer value through a coffee roaster's subscriber losses, with a table of three customer groups and a lifetime value calculation.
What is customer-perceived value?
The customer's overall judgment of what they receive from a product, such as quality and convenience, compared with what they give up, such as price and effort.