1. To define the meaning of products

2. To define the meaning of services

3. To differentiate products from services

4. To cite the factors determining  the need for products and services

The learners are able to:

1. To define a clear, concise, and easily understandable meaning of products and services.

2. To differentiate clear and easily understandable distinctions between products and services 

3. To cite factors the need for products and services.

You see a lot of businesses in your neighborhood, in the market, and in shopping malls. But have you ever considered classifying them into different types or kinds? Someday when you put up a business you are interested in, do you know what type of business you would want to go into?

two general types of business, namely: 

products 

and services

Meaning of Products and Services

Products -  referred to as goods, services, or merchandise

• produced in farms or manufactured in factories.

• produced by nature and are harvested from fruits and vegetables farms, fish from ponds and the seas, and animals raised in backyards and farms.

• these harvests are processed in factories in the form of canned and bottled goods.

Services -  activities or processes that are provided for using one’s expertise,

knowledge, and skill in a specific area, a job, and a profession or occupation

• to create, build, improve, shape, and transform objects

• examples:

plumbing

carpentry

masonry

fixing a car

doing surgery in a hospital

styling hair

sewing a dress

teaching children

cooking specialty dish

painting a house

waiting at a table at restaurant

Let's Do This!

Surf the Internet and look for different kinds of products and services that are highly in demand right now. Choose only one product and

one service. Study them carefully and explain why that product and service are highly in demand today. Gather all your information and present them in class.

Difference Between Products and Services

• products come to customers whereas customers come to services.

• Products can be stored and preserved, are tangible and concrete, and can be inspected or sampled before the customer buys them.

• Products such as car, house, real estate, jewels, can be owned and accumulated to build your wealth.

• wealth. Customers buy products for the value they see in it, whether it is food, school supplies, shoes, bags, cellphones, or a house.

• products are tangible and concrete,

• services - intangible and experiential, cannot be stored

Customers pay for services for the value they see in the result as given by the service provider, whether it is a carpenter, a doctor, a waiter, or a driver. It is an activity or process that can be experienced.

• example: a car is a product, driving the car is a service.

• experience you felt while the driver drives the car smoothly or otherwise tells you of the quality of service given to you.    

• You can see, touch, smell, and hold a product one wishes to buy, while service is like experiencing a massage inside a spa.    

• services are produced in the interaction between the customer and the service provider.

Factors Determining the Need for Products and Services

• needs and wants - no one will buy them if they don’t want them or believe they don’t need them.

-anyone that they want or need to buy what you’re offering unless you clearly understand what your customers really want.

-For example, if someone sees a beautiful bag inside a store as he/she is walking around, that person can suddenly decide to buy it right then

and there whether he/she really needed it or not.

• target market - point to know who the customer is and his/her needs or

-Identifying the customer is identifying the target market for that product or service

-For instance, if the product is toothpaste, you can ask the question: Who uses toothpaste? Since everyone uses toothpaste, perhaps you can create variants that will cater to specific groups of customers or target markets.

-The next question is: How much will be in demand for every variant?

-To answer this,

- require information on the demographics of a specific community where the business is

- Find out about the age, gender, occupation, socioeconomic profile, and lifestyle of the population in the community.

- If one variant is intended for children, the number of children in the community becomes your target market.

• benefit - product or service - earn more money or save money, then they will always buy - explain how they can save money from the product or service.

• relationship- building a relationship with the customers than in a product-based business - service provider builds up trust and reliability with the customers, it gains a strong relationship that can continue for the business to grow successfully.

• trust- Trust, in terms of a service-based business, means “you are the product.”

-to sell trust and confidence in yourself, your ability to perform and sell the services well enough when marketing a service, you need to instill trust and confidence in your abilities because instead of receiving a product in exchange for his/her money, the customer expects to receive good results.

• time - Selling a service means selling your time - When you sell a product, there is always time and work invested in creating or obtaining that product where it is sold to the customers repeatedly - if you are expected by the customer to

deliver good results within a given time, you always have to make sure that you are able to deliver effectively and efficiently,