Chapter 11 Flashcards
(52 cards)
What is a product?
Anything that a company offers to satisfy consumer needs and wants; possibilities include not only physical goods but also services and ideas. Ex car wash, laser eye surgery, cooking lessons all count as products.
When you buy a product you buy everything associated with it like brand name, image, rep.
Intangibility and inseparability for services
Intangibility: you can’t see hear smell taste or touch a service before you buy it. Smart marketers fix the uncertainty by giving clues suggesting value like walking Into a hair salon that has pictures of models with perfect hair
Inseparability: you can’t separate the buyer of a service from the person who renders it. Delivery requires interaction between the buyer and provider and the customer directly contributes to the quality of the service. Companies deal with the inseparability of services by effectively grouping customers and hiring the right service provider personnel.
Variability and perishability
Variability: close to inseparability. Talented masseuse would help you relax whereas a mediocre one could make you tense. A massage at a top notch spa is likely better than at the local gym. Marketers may try to standardize the service as a way of reducing the impact of variability.
Perishability: marketers can’t store services at peak periods. A restaurant has only so many seats. Hotels can’t store an inventory of room service deliveries or performances of cirque du soleil. Is it worth it to prepare for a beak crowd but lose money when it’s slow? Some marketers deal with this by controlling supply and demand through pricing and promotion.
Pure goods and pure services
Pure goods don’t include any services. Ex shampoo or pasta
Pure services don’t include any goods. Ex consulting or math tutoring.
A meal at Pizza Hut falls in between
Customer benefit package
Core benefit
Customer benefit package: a bundle of goods and services that provide value to customers. When customers buy products they purchase more then just the good or service itself. It includes the core benefit and actual product
Core benefit: the basic benefit component of a product that consumers buy to satisfy their needs. Ex going to a concert the core benefit is entertainment. Motorcycle is transport. Most products also provide secondary benefits that help distinguish them from other goods and services that meet the same needs. Ex secondary Ben for motorcycle is ease of parking.
Actual product
Augmented product
Actual: the actual product layer is the product itself. The physical good or delivered service that provides the core benefit. Good life fitness is the actual gym that provides fitness. The core benefit of personal training may be weight loss but the actual product could be the person pushing you to work. The actual product includes the attributes that make it unique: brand name, features, packaging.
Augmented product: most marketers wrap the actual product in additional goods and services called the augmented product that sharpen the competitive edge. Ex warranties, free service installation…
Consumer products
Business products
Consumer products: products purchased for personal use or consumption.
Business products: products purchased to use either directly or indirectly in the production of other products
Consumer product categories pt 2
Specialty products and unsought products
Specialty products are expensive products that are seldom purchased. Perceived as so important that they’re unwilling to accept substitutes. Because of this distribution tends to be highly selective (consumers will go out of their way for the right brand) highly targeted audience ex lamborghinis, Tiffany jewelry etc
Unsought: goods and services that hold little or negative interest for consumers. Promotion tends to be aggressive to drum up interest. Ex blood donations and home warranties
Business product categories pt 1
Installations and accessory equipment
Installations are large capital purchases designed for long productive life. Ex industrial robots, new buildings and railroad cars.
Accessory equipment: smaller, movable capital purchases designed for a shorter productive life than installations. Marketing focuses on personal selling but includes less customization than installations. Ex perosnal computers, copy machines furniture.
Business categories pt 2
Maintenance repair and operating products
Raw materials
Mrop: small ticket items that businesses consume on an ongoing basis but don’t become part of final product. Marketing tactics emphasize efficiency ex brooms nails pens lubricants
Raw materials: farm and natural products used in producing other products marketing emphasizes price and service rather than product differentiation ex milk cotton turkeys oil
Business categories pt 3
Component parts and processed materials
Business services
Cppm: finished or partially finished products used in producing other products ex batteries for care and aluminum ingots for soda cans
Business services are those services that businesses purchase to facilitate operations. Marketing focuses on quality and relationships. Role of price can vary. Ex include payroll services, marketing research and legal services
Product differentiation
The attributes that make a good or service different from other products that compete to meet the same or smaller customer needs.
Winning products must embody a real or perceived difference versus the glut of goods and services that compete in virtually every corner of the market
Product quality, features, benefits
Check examples pg 152
Product quality
Quality level
Product consistency
Related directly to product value which comes from understanding your customer. A high quality product meets consumer needs.
Quality level refers to how well a product performs it’s core functions. You might think smart companies deliver highest possible level of performance but that’s seldom profitable or desirable.
The right level of product performance is the level that meets the needs of your consumers and those include price.
Product consistency is how reliably a product delivers it’s promised level of quality.
Features and benefits
Product features
Customer benefit
Product line
Product features are the characteristics if the product you offer. If it’s well designed each feature corresponds to a meaningful customer benefit.
Product line: group of products that are closely related to eachother in terms of either how they work or the customers they serve.
Ex indigos first product like was books. To meet the needs of book lovers they carry over a million different books in it’s product line.
A product mix is the total number of product lines sold by a single firm. Indigos includes books to electronics to toys
Decisions regarding how many items to include in each product like and in the overall mix can have a huge impact on a firms profits. W too few items in each like the company may be leaving money on the table. W too many the company may be spending unecessarily to support the weak links.
Cannibalization
Risk of adding new lines.
Cannibalization happens when a new entry eats the sales of an existing line. Dangerous when the new products are lower priced than the current ones.
ex gap added old navy for younger ppl and banana republic for older
If 20$ blue jean from old navy replaces a 50$ blue jean from gap they lost have the revenue on the sale.
Branding
Brand, brand equity
Brand is a products identity that sets it apart from other players in the same category represents combo of elements like brand name symbol design rep image.
Extra money consumers will spend to buy that brand is brand equity =the overall value of a brand to an organization.
Product classification
Consumer products vs business products
Consumer product categories pt 1
Convenience+shopping
Convenience products are the inexpensive goods and services that consumers buy frequently with limited consideration and analysis. Distribution can be widespread examples include milk toothpaste chocolate or emerg products like advil plumbing services
Shopping products are the more expensive products consumers buy less frequently. Typically they search for best value and learn about features and benefits through shopping process. Distribution is widespread but more selective than for convenience products. Examples include computers maid services
Brand name
Line extensions
Brand extensions
Brand name. Catchy, memorable name=powerful. it can launch a good business to good heights.
1.short, sweet, easy to pronounce and spell
2. unique within the industry
3. good alliteration
Line extensions are similar products offered under the same brand name. could be new flavours, sizes, colors, forms…ex coca cola which offers version w lemon, lime vanilla, caffeine or without…
Brand extensions involve launching a product in a new category with the existing brand name. ex big brand has pens, glue, cigarette lighters
virgin has airlines, cellphones, cars, soft drinks
Licensing
see examples on pgs 164-165
Cobranding
Licensing means purchasing-for a substantial fee-the right to use another companys brand name or symbol. benefits are instant name recognition, established rep, proven track record. Best known licensing arrangements are character names like mickey mouse or bart simpson appearing on cereal to toys to underwear
Cobranding is when established brands from diferent companies join forces to market the same product. ex canadian tire markets debbie travis products
cobranding can offer advantages to partners by leveraging their strenghts to enter new markets and gain exposure. ex canadian tire can attract a female target audience while debbie gets more exposure for her home decorating products.
but cobranding can be risky if a partner makes a mistake, the fallout can damage the other partner as well.
National brands vs store brands
National
store
National brands are brands that the producer owns and markets. many are well know, widely available like pantene, tide…although an increasing number have opted to also carry their own versions called
store brands or private labels. walmart and costco have success w private label brands. they play a growing role in grocery stores too.
while canadians and consumers still feel store brands are equal quality to national, the overall positive image has declined.
Packaging
packaging does more than just hold the product. it can protect it, provide info, suggest product uses etc
important in the crowded world of grocery stores and mass merchandiesers. in avg super market the typical shopper passes 300 items per min and makes 20-70% decisions on impulse. package must clal out to target customer and differentiate product from all others lined up beside it.
ex. yogurt in a pouch that doesnt need a spoon, soup in microwave attracts parents that can toss into kids lunches.
Product life cycle
When marketers introduce new product, they hope itll last forever generating sales and profits. they realize it goes through a product life cycle –> a pattern of sales and profits that typically changes over time. the life cycle can be dramatically different across individual products and product categories, and predicting the exact shape and length of the life cycle is virtually impossible. most product categories move through the four stages…
step 1 introduction
step 2 growth
1: Time of low sales and non existent profit because companies invest in raising awareness about the product category. some categories stay in this phase for years like microwaves. others like memory sticks get through fast, some never go past.
2: During the growth period, sales continue to rise, but profits peak. competitors begin noticing emerging categories in the growth phase. they enter the market with new variations of existing products which further fuels the growth. portable mp3 players are in the growth phase, and a number of competitors are challenging apples hold on the market.
Step 3 maturity
Step 4 Decline
ex pages 167
3: During maturity, sales peak. profits decline as competition intensifies. once a market is mature, only way to gain more users is steal them from competitors. weaker players start dropping out. gasoline powered cars and network tv are in maturity.
4: during the decline period, sales and profits go down. reasons typical relate to technological change or change in consumer needs. for instance intro of world processing pushed typewriters into decline. change in consumer taste and habits pushed hot cereal into decline etc
familiarity w the product life cycle helps marketers plan effective strategies for existing products and identify profitable categories for new products.
individual products also have life cycles that usually follow the category growth pattern but sometimes vary dramatically. clearly it’s in the marketers best interest to extend the profitable run of an individual brand as long as possible. ways to make this happen; finding new uses for the product, changing the product, changing the marketing mix. m&ms created a splash by adding new colors based on customer voting.