Product, Service, and Branding Essentials for Marketing Success

Product Fundamentals in Marketing

Defining a Product

A product is a combination of both tangible and intangible components. As products become more commoditized, companies increasingly deliver value through customer experiences.

• Core Customer Value: The main need fulfilled by the product.
• Actual Product: Includes elements like brand name, quality level, and packaging.
• Augmented Product: Encompasses additional services and benefits offered.

Product Classifications

Products can be categorized in various ways, including physical goods, services, events, and places. They are also broadly classified as consumer products or industrial products.

Consumer Products

These are products bought by final consumers for personal consumption. They are typically categorized by how consumers buy them:

• Convenience Products: Bought frequently and with minimal effort.
• Shopping Products (Durable Goods): Bought less frequently, requiring a high level of effort and comparison.
• Specialty Products: Have unique characteristics and require extra effort to understand and find.
• Unsought Products: Consumers do not actively consider these products. They require significant promotion from the organization.

Industrial Products

These are products purchased by organizations for further processing or for use in conducting a business. They include:

• Materials and Parts: The raw materials and manufactured parts used in producing or processing the organization's products. These are very important.
• Capital Items: Expensive products used to aid production. Their acquisition is carefully considered due to their cost.
• Supplies and Services: Less costly products used to aid the organization's functioning. They require less purchasing effort.

Product Strategy and Management

Individual Product Decisions

Key decisions for individual products involve:

• Product attributes
• Branding
• Packaging
• Labeling and logos
• Product support services

Product Line Strategies

A Product Line is a group of products that are closely related because they function similarly, are sold to the same customer groups, and are distributed through the same channels.

• Product Line Stretching: Adding more items beyond its current range.
• Product Line Filling: Adding more items within the present range of the line.

Product Portfolio Management

The Product Portfolio is the set of all product lines and items sold by an organization. All these items should be consistent with each other and with the organization's values and strategies.

Services Marketing

Understanding Services

Services marketing focuses on a form of product that consists of activities being offered. Services are essentially intangible and do not result in any ownership. Services account for the majority of GDP in many economies.

The interaction between the customer and the employee is central to customer satisfaction in service delivery.

Key Characteristics of Services

Happy and satisfied employees often lead to happy and satisfied customers. Services are characterized by:

• Intangibility: Services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before purchase.
• Inseparability: Services are produced and consumed simultaneously.
• Variability: The quality of services can vary greatly depending on who provides them and when, where, and how.
• Perishability: Services cannot be stored for later sale or use.

Major Service Marketing Tasks

Key tasks in services marketing include:

• Service differentiation
• Service quality management
• Service productivity improvement

Branding and Brand Equity

The Power of Brands

Brands represent consumers' perceptions and feelings about a product and its performance. A strong brand can significantly influence consumer choice.

What is Brand Equity?

Brand Equity is the differential effect that knowing the brand name has on customer responses to a product. Positive brand equity increases buying likelihood, while negative brand equity hampers the selling process. High brand equity offers competitive advantages.