CHAPTER 9

Products, Services and Branding Strategies

PRODUCT

anything that can be offered to a market for attention,

acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or

need.

includes more than tangible goods

products include physical objects, services, events,

persons, places, organizations, ideas

SERVICES

any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another

that is essentially intangible and does not result in the

ownership of anything

form of product that consists of activities, benefits or

satisfactions offered for sale

ex.: banking, hotel, airline, retail, tax preparation

PRODUCTS, SERVICES &

EXPERIENCES

product is a key element in market offering

a company’s market offering often includes both tangible

goods and services

pure tangible good – soap, toothpaste or salt

pure services – for which the offer consists primarily of a

service (ex.: doctor’s exam or financial services)

LEVELS OF PRODUCT

&SERVICES

1st/basic level: core benefit – ‘what is the buyer really buying?’

when designing products, marketers must first define the core,

problem-solving benefits or services that consumers seek.

2nd level – product planners must turn the core benefit into an

actual product

they need to develop product and services features and designs

3rd level - product planners must build an augmented

product around the core benefit and actual product by

offering additional consumer services and benefits

THREE LEVELS OF

PRODUCT

core benefit

actual product – brand name, quality level, packaging,

design & features

augmented product – delivery and credit, installation,

warranty & after-sale services

PRODUCT & SERVICE

CLASSIFICATION

consumer products – product brought by final

consumer for personal consumption

convenience product – consumer product that the

customer usually buys frequently, immediately and with a

minimum of comparison and buying effort

shopping product– consumer good that the customer,

in the process of selection and purchase, characteristically

compares on such bases as suitability, quality, price and style

specialty product – consumer product with unique

characteristics or brand identification for which a significant

group of byers is willing to make a special purchase effort

unsought product– consumer product that the

consumer either does not know about or knows abut but

does not normally think of buying

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS

product bought by individuals and organizations for

further processing or for use in conducting a business

has three groups

3 GROUPS OF INDUSTRIAL

PRODUCTS

materials & parts – includes raw materials and manufactured

items.

capital items – industrial products that aid in the buyer’s

production or operations

supplies & services – supplies include operating supplies and

repair items; services include maintenance and repair services

ORGANIZATIONS,

PERSONS, PLACES & IDEAS

organization marketing – activities undertaken to create, maintain

or change the attitudes of target consumers

corporate image advertising – major tool companies use to market

themselves to various publics

person marketing – consists of activities undertaken to create,

maintain or change attitudes towards particular people

place marketing – activities undertaken to create, maintain or

change attitudes towards particular places

SOCIAL MARKETING

the design, implementation and control of programs

seeking to increase the acceptability of a social idea, cause

or practice among a target group

includes campaigns to promote a clean environment,

energy conservation and family planning

PRODUCT & SERVICE

DECISION

three levels: individual product decision, product line decision & product mix decision

INDIVIDUAL PRODUCT &

SERVICE DECISION

developing a product or service involves defining the

benefits that it will offer.

these benefits are communicated and delivered by

product attributes such as quality, features and style and

design.

PRODUCT QUALITY

ability of a product to perform its functions; it includes

the product’s overall durability, reliability, precision, case of

operation and repair

one of the marketer’s major positioning tools

PRODUCT QUALITY

total quality management – an approach in which all

employees are involved in constantly improving the quality

of products, services & business process

two dimensions of product quality:

~ performance quality – ability to perform its function

~ conformance quality – freedom from defects

BRAND

a name, term, sign, symbol or design intended to identify

the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to

differentiate them from those of competitors

PACKAGING

the activities of designing and producing the container or

wrapper for a product

includes a product’s primary container

LABELING

labels may range from simple tags attached to products

to complex graphics that are part of the package

identifies the product or brand

describes several things about the product

PRODUCT LINE

group of products that are closely related because they

function in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer

groups, are marketed through the same types of outlets or

fall within given price ranges

company can lengthen its product line in two ways: line

stretching or line filing

PRODUCT LINE

STRETCHING

occurs when a company lengthen its product line beyond

its current range

the company can stretch its line downward, upward or

both ways

PRODUCT LINE FILLING

adding more items within the present range of the line

reasons for product line filling: reaching for extra profits,

satisfying dealers, using excess capacity, being the leading

full-line company and plugging holes to keep out

competitors

PRODUCT MIX / PRODUCT

ASSORTMENT

set of all product lines and items that a particular seller

offers for sale

a company’s product mix has four important dimension:

width, length, depth and consistency

width – number of different product lines the company

carries

depth – number of versions offered of each product in the

line

length – total number of items the company carries within its

product line

consistency – how closely related the various product lines

are in end us, production requirements and distribution channels

BRANDING STRATEGY

Building strong brands