Chapter 8: Product, Services, and Brands - In Depth Notes

What Is a Product?

• A product can be defined as anything offered in a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that satisfies a need or want.

• Experiences: Products & services provide experiences that fulfill customer desires (e.g., holidays, cinema).

Levels of Product and Services

• Core Product: The fundamental benefit or solution the product provides.

• Actual Product: The tangible product that delivers the core benefit, including design, features, packaging, and brand name.

• Augmented Product: Additional services or benefits that enhance the product (e.g., customer service, warranty).

Product Classifications

• Consumer Products: Products for personal consumption, categorized by consumer buying habits:

  • Convenience Products: Bought frequently and with minimal effort (e.g., newspapers, candy).

  • Shopping Products: Compared carefully (e.g., furniture, cars).

  • Specialty Products: Unique characteristics, consumers make a special effort to buy (e.g., designer clothes).

  • Unsought Products: Not actively sought by consumers (e.g., life insurance, funeral services).

• Industrial Products: Intended for further processing or use in business:

  • Classified as materials/parts, capital items, and supplies/services.

Product Attributes and Decisions

• Attributes include:

  • Quality: Consistency and level of performance.

  • Quality Level: Supports product positioning.

  • Conformance Quality: Freedom from defects.

  • Features: Competitive tools that differentiate products; assessed based on customer value vs. company costs.

  • Style & Design: Aesthetic aspects and practical utility of a product.

Branding Strategy: Building Strong Brands

• Brand: Identifies the maker/seller of a product or service; includes names, terms, signs, or designs.

• Brand Equity: The differential effect branding has on customer response.

• Key strategies include:

  • Product Attributes: Features and benefits of the product.

  • Desirable Brand Qualities: Should be beneficial, memorable, distinctive, translatable, and legally protectable.

  • Brand Sponsorship Types: Manufacturer's brand, private brand, licensed brand, co-branding.

Marketing Strategies for Service Firms

• Nature of Services: Intangible, inseparable, variable, and perishable.

• Service-Profit Chain: Links service profits to employee and customer satisfaction:

  • Focus on internal service quality, employee satisfaction, value, and customer loyalty.

• Internal Marketing: Prepares employees to provide customer satisfaction.

• Interactive Marketing: Highlights the significance of customer interactions during service delivery.

Managing Service Quality and Productivity

• Service Differentiation: Offer unique features, have reliable customer contact processes, and manage brand image effectively.

• Service Quality Management: Ensures each interaction maintains higher standards than competitors.

• Service Productivity Management: Cost strategies to manage employee recruitment, training, and service quality.