Product Platform Notes

Creating a Product Platform

The First “P”: Product

• Product, not promotion, is the most important component of the marketing mix.
• Offer benefits, not just fear; tangible goods or services, not just brochures.
• Adopt these principles to succeed.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the First “P” (Product).
• Develop a Social Marketing Product Platform:
  • Core Product
  • Actual Product
  • Augmented Product
• Understand Design Thinking.
• Understand Branding.
• Consider Ethical Considerations for Product Platform.

Product: The First “P”

• A product is anything offered to a market to satisfy a want or need.
• Types include physical goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties, organizations, information, or ideas (Kotler and Keller 2005).
• In social marketing, major product elements include:
  • The benefit the priority audience wants in exchange for performing the behavior.
  • Goods and services promoted to the audience.
  • Additional product elements to assist the audience in performing the behavior.
• Goods are usually “consumed” or “utilized,” while services are intangible and do not result in ownership.

Developing the Social Marketing Product

• Traditional marketing theory identifies three product levels:
  • Core Product: The benefit the priority audience wants and expects in exchange for performing the behavior.
  • Actual Product: Any goods or services you will be influencing your priority audience to "buy."
  • Augmented Product: Additional product elements that you may develop, distribute, sell, or just promote.
• Examples are presented in Table 10.5 in your Textbook.

Core Product

• Core product – The central component of the product platform.
• Answers the questions:
  • What's in it for the customer to adopt the behavior?
  • What benefits will customers receive?
  • What needs will the desired behavior satisfy?
  • What problems will it solve?
• It is not the behavior itself, but the benefits the audience wants and expects when performing the behavior.
• According to the service-dominant logic model, a product has value only when a customer “uses” it, and this value (core product) is determined by the customer, not the marketer.
• Theodore Levitt: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”
• Example: No smoking campaign (refer to Textbook).

Actual Product

• Actual product – The specific tangible goods or services you want your audience to acquire, consume, participate in, and/or utilize—those related to the desired behavior.
• May be existing goods or services offered by:
  • For-profit companies (e.g., fruits and vegetables).
  • Nonprofit organizations (e.g., rapid HIV/AIDS test).
  • Governmental agencies (e.g., community swimming pool).
• Example: Diabetes Association of Sri Lanka’s F’Poon (serrated spoon) to decrease sugar consumption. (refer to Textbook page 330-331).

Actual Product: Branding and Sponsorship

• Additional components at the actual-product level may include brand names, the campaign’s sponsoring organization, and any endorsements and sponsors.
• Example: Text4baby, a free mobile information service providing pregnant women and moms with information to influence behaviors for their babies’ best start in life (refer to Textbook page 332-333).

Augmented Product

• Augmented product - Additional product elements provided or promoted along with the actual product.
• Provide encouragement, remove barriers, or sustain behavior.
• Examples:
  • A walking buddy.
  • A detailed resource guide and map of local walking trails.
  • Organized walking programs.
  • A journal for tracking exercise levels.
• Provide opportunities to brand and to “tangibilize” the campaign, creating more attention, appeal, and memorability.
• Example: Walk Boston – safe walking environment campaign (page 334).

Augmented Product: Tangible Goods and Services

• Decisions Regarding Tangible Goods:
  • Is there a need for new tangible goods that would greatly support the behavior change? (e.g., diabetes finger-prick blood tests)
  • Do current tangible goods need to be improved or enhanced? (e.g., compost bins)
• Decisions Regarding Tangible Services:
  • Services are often distinguished as offerings that are intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything.
  • Examples:
    • Education-related services (e.g., parenting workshops).
    • Personal services (e.g., escorts for students back to their dorms at night).
    • Counseling services (e.g., a crisis line for people considering suicide).
    • Clinical services (e.g., community clinics for free immunizations).

Augmented Product: Service Decisions

• Decisions Regarding Tangible Services:
  • Should a new service be developed and offered? (e.g., toll-free tobacco quitlines)
  • Does an existing service need to be improved or enhanced? (e.g., 800 number for questions about recycling)

Examples of Three Product Levels

Design Thinking

• Tim Brown (IDEO) describes design as focusing on making a product attractive, easy to use, and marketable.
• Design thinking focuses less on an object and more on an approach to designing products that fulfill human desires, solve problems, and create innovation.
• Design thinking is consistent with the product platform, beginning with determining the core product (the value the priority audience wants in exchange for adopting the behavior).
• Determining features of tangible goods and services (actual and augmented products) comes next.
• Elements of design (shape, size, color, sound, texture, process) are applied to arrive at the actual features.

Branding

• Brand – a name, term, sign, symbol, and/or design that identifies the maker or seller of a product (e.g., ENERGY STAR).
• Branding in social marketing is not as common, but encouraged to help create visibility and ensure memorability.

Branding Examples

• Nutrition: 5 A Day
• Pet Waste: Scoop the Poop
• Schoolchildren: Walking School Bus
• Water conservation: Water-Use It Wisely
• Energy conservation: ENERGY STAR