Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods

What is a consumer product?

• Bought by final consumers for personal consumption

• Differ in the way consumers buy them

What is a industrial product?

• Bought for further processing or for use in conducting a business

• Bough by other businesses, not consumers

What is a convenience product?

• Bought frequently

• Little planning or shopping effort

• Low customer involvement

What is a shopping product?

• Bought less frequently

• Customers are careful about suitability, quality, price, brand, style etc

What is speciality products?

• Unique characteristics or brand

• Buyers make a special effort when buying

What were the features of convenience products?

• Price: Tends to be low

• Place: Widespread distribution

• Promotion: Mass promotion

What are the features of shopping products?

• Price: Tends to be higher

• Place: Selective distribution (fewer outlets)

• Promotion: Advertising by producers and resellers

What are the features of speciality products?

• Price: High

• Place: Exclusive distribution or limited outlets

• Promotion: More carefully targeted

What are the features of industrial products?

• Materials and Parts:

  • Raw materials, components etc

  • Mostly sold to other industrial users

  • Price and service key issues

• Capital Items:

  • Industrial products used in production or operations

  • E.g. IT systems, building infrastructure

• Supplies and services:

  • Operating supplies (e.g. energy) and business services (e.g. maintenance, security)

What are the key features of marketing industrial products?

• Specialist buyers and sellers: Buyers are business- Will have specialist requirements and more experience. Often dealing with professional ‘Buyers’

• Buyer-seller relationship: Strong emphasis on customer relationship management and repeat business

• Transaction value: Purchase value is often substantial in a single transaction (e.g. bulk purchase contract)

• Quality and Price: Greater emphasis on product quality and price (where there are acceptable alternative products). Price is often negotiated by the buyers

• Support: Greater requirement for after-sales support