Marketing Management
PRODUCT

What is a Product?
• We can define a product anything – goods, services and ideas – that
can be offered in a market to satisfy customer needs and wants.
• A product has a bundle of tangible and intangible characteristics.

Definition of Product
“Anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use
or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. It includes physical
objects, services, persons, places, organizations and ideas”.
-Kotler, Wong, Saunders, Armstrong

Three Levels of a Product
• The marketer must understand these three levels of classification. Each
product level means adding more value.
• Core Product. This is not a physical object but consist of the problem-
solving benefits that satisfy the consumer needs.
• The second level, the marketers must convert the core benefits into a
physical or Actual product that have the attributes to satisfy customer
needs and wants. If the company want to deliver its core benefits, it must
have combined five attributes name, parts, packaging, features and style.
• Augmented product that includes after-sales services, installation,
warranty.

Types of products
Consumers Products
oConvenience Products
oInformed or Shopping goods
oSpecialty goods
oMandatory or Unsought goods
Industrial Products
oMaterials and Parts
oCapital Items
oSupplies
oBusiness Services

Tangible and Intangible products
• A tangible product is a physical object that can be perceived by touch
such as a building, vehicle, gadget, or clothing.
• Intangible products—travel, freight forwarding, insurance, repair,
consulting, computer software, investment banking, brokerage,
education, health care, accounting

Reasons for Classification of Products
• Professionals divide products into categories for a variety of reasons.
• Product classifications can influence a variety of decisions during a
product's life cycle, including how corporations promote it, its pricing,
the sort of consumer who buys it, and how high demand is for it.

Product line
• As the company grows, it expands its product portfolio. Some of
these new products are extensions, updates, and remakes of the
existing ones, while some belong to a totally new and different
category. These different categories are often launched as different
product brands.
• These different product categories (or brands) are called product lines
of the parent brand.

What Is Product Mix?
• A product is an item produced or procured by the business to satisfy
the needs of the customer. It is the actual item that is held for sale in
the market. A company usually sells different types of products. For
example, Coca-Cola has around 3500+ product brands in its portfolio.
These different product brands are also known as product lines. A
combination of all these product lines makes up the product mix.

Branding
• A brand is a specific term that may include a name, sign, symbol,
design or a combination of these, with an intention to identify goods or
services of a particular seller.
• The word ‘brand’ is derived from the Old Norse word brander, which
means ‘to bum’. Branding helps to develop customer loyalty and it is
advertised by sellers under their own name. A good brand develops a
corporate image. Usually customers prefer brands as they can easily
differentiate the quality.
• According to Kotler and Amstrong, ‘a brand is a name, term, sign,
symbol or design or a combination of these that identifies the maker or
seller of a product, or services’.

Significance of branding
To Buyer:
• A brand helps buyers in identifying the product that they like/dislike.
• It identifies the marketer.
• It helps reduce the time needed for purchase.
• It helps buyers evaluate quality of products, especially if they are
unable to judge a product’s characteristics.
• It helps reduce buyers’ perceived risk of purchase.
• The buyer may derive a psychological reward from owning the brand
(e.g., Rolex watches or Mercedes).

To Seller:
• A brand differentiates product offering from competitors.
• It helps segment market by creating tailored images.
• It identifies the companies’ products making repeat purchases easier
for customers.
• It reduces price comparisons.
• It helps the firm introduce a new product that carries the name of
one or more of its existing products.

New product development process
• Idea generation.
• Idea screening.
• Concept development and testing.
• Marketing strategy and business analysis.
• Product development.
• Test marketing.
• Product launch.