Module 4: The Marketing Mix - Products, Services & Ideas

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering offerings, product portfolio structure, new product development, product life cycle, and service marketing principles from Module 4.

Core benefit

The fundamental need or value that a customer is trying to satisfy through an offering.

Actual product

The tangible features, design, quality level, packaging, brand name, and styling of an offering.

Augmented product

Non-physical attributes and supporting extras that extend an offering's value, such as warranties, delivery, customer service, applications, and community.

Convenience products

Consumer items characterized by low shopping effort, low cost, and frequent purchase, requiring strategies that make them easy to find and choose.

Shopping products

Consumer items for which customers systematically compare options, requiring strategies that offer clear evidence, reviews, and distinct differences.

Specialty products

Consumer items for which buyers seek something specific, requiring marketing strategies that protect uniqueness and brand image.

Unsought products

Offerings that consumers do not actively seek out or know about, requiring strategies focused on creating need recognition and building trust.

Product item

A distinct specific version or SKU of a product, defined by unique characteristics such as size, flavor, or model.

Product line

A group of closely related product items within a single category or family offered by a business.

Product mix

The complete ensemble of all product lines and items offered for sale by a single company.

Line Depth

The total number of individual product variations or options offered within a specific product line.

Line Width

The total number of different product lines carried and offered by a company.

Product Life Cycle

A framework describing the stages an offering passes through in the market over time—Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline—which dictate strategic marketing priorities.

Continuous innovation

A minor modification to an existing product that requires minimal change in consumer behavior and imposes a low learning burden.

Dynamically continuous innovation

A product innovation that requires some degree of consumer behavior modification, requiring marketers to build a transitional bridge for adoption.

Discontinuous innovation

A major technological or conceptual breakthrough that forces significant changes in consumer behavior and requires extensive customer education.

Intangibility

A defining characteristic of services stating that they cannot be seen, touched, or physically inspected prior to purchase.

Inseparability

A service characteristic where the provider, the delivery process, the customer, and the experience are concurrently connected during production and consumption.

Variability

A service characteristic indicating that quality fluctuates depending on who provides the service, when and where it is provided, and under what circumstances.

Perishability

A service characteristic meaning that unused capacity cannot be stored, saved, or resold for future use.

Services Marketing Triangle

A strategic model highlighting three essential relationships: making promises (Company to Customers / External Marketing), enabling promises (Company to Employees / Internal Marketing), and keeping promises (Employees to Customers / Interactive Marketing).

Service-Profit Chain

A model demonstrating that internal employee support and training drive employee satisfaction, which enhances customer value and loyalty, ultimately resulting in organizational revenue growth and profitability.

Expectation gap

A service failure that occurs when a company misunderstands or incorrectly interprets what customers expect from an experience.

Delivery gap

A breakdown in service quality where the actual service performance delivered by staff fails to meet established company standards.