Products, Services and Experiences
A product is anything that can be offered in a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or want.
Service is a form of product that consists of activities, benefits, or satisfactions offered for sale that are essentially intangible and do not result in ownership.
Experiences represent what buying the product or service will do for the customer.
Level of Products and Services
- Core benefit: show the accurate time
- Actual product: Swatch, high quality that meet the Swiss watch standard, young and stylish design, packed in high-quality clear plastic box.
- Augmented product: 1 year international warranty, worldwide service center.
Product and Service Classification
Consumer products:
- Convenience products
- Shopping products
- Specialty products
- Unsought products
Convenience products are consumer products and services that the customer usually buys frequently, immediately, and with a minimum comparison and buying effort.
Newspapers
Candy
Fast food
Shopping products are consumer products and services that the customer compares carefully on suitability, quality, price, and style.
Furniture
Cars
Appliances
Specialty products are consumer products and services with unique characteristics or brand identification for which a significant group of buyers is willing to make a special purchase effort.
Designer watches
Branded fashion wear
High-end electronics
Unsought products are consumer products that the consumer does not know about or knows about but does not normally think of buying.
Life insurance
Funeral services
Blood donations
Industrial products are products purchased for further processing or for use in conducting a business.
Classified by the purpose for which the product is purchased
Materials and parts
Capital
Raw materials
Branding Strategy: Building Strong Brand
Brand represents the consumer’s perceptions and feelings about a product and its performance. It is the company’s promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits, services, and experiences consistently to the buyers.
Brand strategy decisions include:
- Brand positioning
- Brand name selection
- Brand sponsorship
- Brand development
Brand Positioning:
Product attributes
Product benefits
Product beliefs and values
Brand name selection
Suggests benefits and qualities
Easy to pronounce, recognize, and remember
Distinctive
Extendable
Translatable for the global economy
Brand sponsorship:
Manufacturer’s brand
Private brand
Licensed brand
Co-brand
Private brands provide retailers with advantages.
Product mix control
Slotting fees for manufacturers’ brands
Higher margins
Exclusivity
Branding Strategy: Brand Development
Line extensions: occur when a company extends existing brand names to new forms, colors, sizes, ingredients, or flavors of an existing product category.
Brand extensions: is using a successful brand name to launch a new or modified product in a new category.
Multibrands: New brand names introduced in the same product category. This offers a way to establish different features and appeal to different buying motives.
New brand: New brand names in new product categories. This is developed based on the belief that the power of its existing brand is waning and a new brand name is needed.
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