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Marketing mix - Product
Marketing mix - Product
We define product as anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. Products include more than just tangible objects, such as cars, computers, or cell phones. Broadly defined, “products” also include services, events, persons, places, organizations, ideas, or mixes of these. Thus an apple iPod, a Maruti Suzuki swift, and a café mocha at café coffee day are products. But so is a trip to Essel World in Mumbai, Fidelity online investment service, and advice from your family doctor.
The first thing you need, if you want to start a business, is a product. Therefore Product is also the first variable in the marketing mix. Product is the article which a manufacturer desires to sell in the open market. Product decisions are the first decisions you need to take before making any marketing plan. Before deciding on the product component there are some questions which you need to ask yourself.
What product are you selling?
What would be the quality of your product?
Which features are different from the market?
What is the USP of the product?
Whether the product will be branded as sub brand or completely new?
What are the secondary products which can be sold along with primary (Warranty, services)
Based on these questions, several product decisions have to be made. These product decisions will in turn affect the other variables of the mix. For example – You launch a car with is to have the highest quality. Thus the pricing, promotions and placing would have to be altered accordingly. Thus as long as you don’t know your product, you cannot decide any other variable of the marketing mix. However, if the product features are not fitting in the mix, you can alter the product such that it finds a place for itself in the marketing mix.
Production or product is rightly treated as the heart of the marketing mix. Customers purchase a product because of its attributes, features and benefits. These are the selling points of a product. They should be adjusted to the buying motives of consumers. A consumer/customer considers the total package of benefits available from the product and takes a decision to purchase the product. This suggests that various decisions regarding the product to be marketed need to be taken correctly. As a result, the product offered in the market will be a quality product. In addition, it will be utility oriented, attractive, convenient, property designed and branded. Even attractive packaging decision facilitates sales promotion.
The following aspects of a product need careful attention in marketing decision-making.
Product line and range
Style, shape, design, colour, quality and other physical features of a product
Packaging and labeling of a product
Branding and trade mark given to the product
Product innovation
Product servicing and channel of distribution
Product pricing
Guarantees and warranties of the product
Special features of the product from the marketing point of view
Managing product component involves product planning and development. Here, the decisions are required to be taken regarding product range, branding, packaging, labeling and other features of the product. The product manufactured for market should be as per the needs and expectations of consumers.
Product is the most powerful competing instrument in the hands of the marketing manager. It is the heart of whole marketing mix. If the product is not sound /attractive to the customers, no amount of sales promotion, appropriate channel selection or price reduction will help to achieve the marketing target. Hence, durability, quality, uses, etc. of the product are important from the marketing point of view.
Decisions on these aspects of a product are important as marketing is directly related to these aspects. Sales promotion measures will be useful but their role will be supplementary/ supportive. Such measures may not be effective if the product to be marketed is not of standard quality or if the brand or package is not attractive or if the product is not as per the requirements/expectations of consumers. This suggests that decisions relating to product are important /crucial in the marketing of a product.
Types of product
Types of product
Products are broadly classified into two categories – consumer products and industrial products. The classification of product id depicted in the diagram below
1.Consumer Products
Consumer products are products that the ultimate consumer purchases himself for direct use. The consumer purchases these consumer products to satisfy his personal needs and desires. Some examples of consumer products are toothpaste, eatables, textiles, computers etc and various such products.
Now there are many types of consumer products as well. Let us take at the classification of consumer goods based on the shopping effort involved:
A) Convenience Products
Those consumer products that are purchased immediately & frequently with little efforts and comparison are called convenience products. Such products improve or enhance user’s convenience. They are used in a day-to-day life. They are frequently required and can be easily purchased. They are purchased spontaneously, without much consideration, from nearby shops or retail malls.
Examples of convenience products include the following.
Candy
Biscuits
Toothpaste
razors
Newspapers
Soap
Fast Food etc.
The convenience products are placed at the front locations of the stores in abundance quantity so that they are easily available to the customers. The price of these products is kept lower.
B) Shopping Products:
This type of product is purchased less frequently & careful comparison is made by the customer on the price, quality, sustainability & style. In case of purchase of shopping products, increased time & effort is made by the customers in collection of information & comparison making. These products generally fall in the higher price range. Such products are pre-planned purchases. Following are some of examples of shopping products.
Clothing
Furniture
Major Appliances
Used Cars
Hotel & Motel Services
These products are distributed in fewer outlets by the marketer along with the strong sales support services that assist customers in their comparison making.
C) Specialty Products:
Specialty products are those consumer products that have brand identification or unique characteristics and an important group of customers are happy to purchase these products. Following are some of examples of specialty products.
Specific brand & kinds of cars
Photographic equipment with high price
Designer clothes
The services of legal or medical specialist
Artwork
Paintings
Sculptures etc.
The customers of such products can make enough effort with them for reaching relevant dealers. However, they do not compare the specialty products normally. The demand for such specialty products is usually pretty limited and the prices are high.
D. Unsought Products
Those consumer products that are either not known to the customers or they are known, but customers do not usually consider them to purchase. The important innovations are usually included in the category of unsought products because the customers get the awareness through advertisement. Following are the examples of unsought products.
Life Insurance
Blood donation to Red Cross
A lot of personal selling, advertising & marketing efforts are required for unsought products.
2. Industrial Products
Those products that are purchased that are buying for further processing or for use in operating a business are called industrial products. So the main difference between industrial and consumer product is based on the purpose of purchase of the product. For example, if a lawn mower product is purchased for use around the house, then this lawn mower is categorized in the consumer product. But if the same lawn mower is purchased for use in landscaping business, then this is categorized as an industrial product. Following are some of the three product classification of industrial products.
A) Material & Parts
Raw materials, natural products & manufactured materials are included in the category of material & parts. Farm products & natural products are included in raw material part like cotton, wheat, vegetables, fruits, fish, crude petroleum, iron etc. Component materials & component parts are included in the manufactured area like yarn, wires, cement, iron, tires, small motors etc. Manufactured material & parts are mostly sold to the industrial users directly. Major marketing factors employed in this category are price & service. The advertising & branding is not so much important. Also the demand of the industrial products is derived demand, which is derived from the consumer demand.
B) Capital Items
Those industrial products that assist the production & operation of customer are called capital items like accessory equipment’s & installations. Building & fixed equipment’s are included in the installations. Office equipment & portable factory equipment are included in the accessory equipment. Accessory equipment’s have much shorter lifetimes & they are only helpful in the process of production.
C) Supplies & Services
Supplies contain repair & maintenance items and operating supplies like nails, paint, lubricants, pencil, paper, coal etc. The supplies are regarded as the industrial convenience products because they are purchased with little effort & time. Business advisory services and repair & maintenance services are included in business services category. These services are given under some contract.
Level of product and services
Level of product and services
In planning its market offering, the marketer needs to address five product levels. Each level adds more customer value, and the five constitute a customer value hierarchy.
The fundamental level is the core benefit: the service or benefit the customer is really buying. A hotel guest is buying "rest and sleep." The purchaser of a drill is buying "holes”. Marketers must see themselves as benefit providers.
At the second level, the marketer has to turn the core benefit into a basic product. Thus a hotel room includes a bed, bathroom, towels, desk, dresser, and closet.
At the third level, the marketer prepares an expected product, a set of attributes and conditions buyers normally expect when they purchase this product. Hotel guests expect a clean bed, fresh towels, working lamps, and a relative degree of quiet. Because most hotels meet this minimum expectation, the traveler normally will settle for whichever hotel is most convenient or least expensive.
At the fourth level, the marketer prepares an augmented product that exceeds customer expectations. In developed countries, brand positioning and competition take place at this level. In developing countries and emerging markets such as China and India, however competition takes place mostly at the expected product level.
Differentiation arises on the basis of product augmentation. Product augmentation also leads the marketer to look at the user's total consumption system: the way the user performs the tasks of getting and using products and related services. As Levitt observed long ago; competition is not between what companies produce in their factories, but what they add to their factory output in the form of packaging, services, advertising, customer advice, financing, delivery arrangements, warehousing and other things that people value.
Something should be noted about product-augmentation strategy. First, each augmentation adds cost. Second, augmented benefits soon become expected benefits and necessary points-of-parity. Today's hotel guests expect cable or satellite television with a remote control and high speed Internet access or two phone lines. This means competitors will have to search for still other features and benefits. Third, as companies raise the price of their augmented product, some competitors offer a "stripped-down" version at a much lower price. Thus alongside the growth of fine hotels like Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton, we see the emergence of lower-cost hotels and motels like Motel 6 and Comfort Inn, which cater to clients who simply want the basic product.
At the fifth level stands the potential product, which encompasses all the possible augmentations and transformations the product or offering might undergo in the future. Here is where companies search for new ways to satisfy customers and distinguish their offer. For instance, in an era when customers are demanding ever-faster Internet and wireless connection, Verizon is investing its capital in creating a raft of potential products.
References
References
http://kalyan-city.blogspot.in/2010/05/marketing-marketing-mix-4-ps-of.html
http://marketingmix.co.uk/
http://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/marketing-mix-basic-4ps
http://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-4-ps-marketing/
http://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-duracell/
https://www.thebalance.com/marketing-mix-what-is-it-and-how-to-use-it-1794425
https://www.businessstudynotes.com/marketing/principle-of-marketing/product-classification-categories-of-products/
https://www.toppr.com/guides/business-studies/marketing/product/
https://www.marketing91.com/importance-marketing-mix/
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