Study on Product, Services, and Branding Strategies
Product - Anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. These are physical objects, services, events, persons, places, organizations, ideas, or mixes of these entities. -it is a key element in the market offering Service - Any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Three Levels of Product: Core Benefit What the product is. Actual Product Product and service features, design, quality level, brand name, packaging. Augmented Product Additional consumer services and benefits. Product and Service Classifications Consumer Products Products bought by final consumer for personal consumption. Types of consumer products: o Convenience Products the product that the customer usually buys frequently, immediately, and with a minimum of comparison and buying effort. o Shopping Products goods that the customer, in the process of selection and purchase, characteristically compares on such bases as suitability, quality, price, and style. o Specialty Products consumer product with unique characteristics or brand identification for which a significant group of buyers is willing to make a special purchase effort. o Unsought Products products that the consumer either doesnt know about or knows about but doesnt normally think of buying. Industrial Products Products bought by individuals and organizations for further processing or for use in conducting a business Three groups of industrial products and services: o Materials and parts includes raw materials and manufactured materials and parts. Price and service are the major marketing factors; branding and advertising tend to be less important. o Capital items products that aid in the buyers production or operations, including installations and accessory equipment. o Supplies and Services supplies are the convenience products of the industrial field. Business services include maintenance and repair services, and business advisory services. Such services are usually supplied under contract. Organizational Marketing consists of activities undertaken to create, maintain, or change the attitudes and the behaviour of target consumers toward an organization. *Corporate image advertising is a major tool that a company use to market themselves to various publics.
*Total Quality Management(TQM) is an approach in which all the companys people are involved in constantly improving the quality of products, services, and businesses processes. Two Dimensions of Product Quality: Level Product quality means performance quality the ability of a product to perform its functions. Consistency Product quality means conformance quality freedom from defects and consistency in delivering a targeted level of performance. PRODUCT FEATURES - Characteristics of a product or service that helps boost its appeal to potential buyers, and might be used to formulate a product marketing strategy that highlights the usefulness of the product to targeted potential consumers. - A competitive tool for differentiating the companys products from competitors products. PRODUCT STYLE AND DESIGN STYLE - Describes the appearance of a product. It can be eye catching or yawn producing. DESIGN - Larger concept than style, it goes to the very heart of a product.
BRANDING
The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products BRAND - A name, term, sign, symbol, or design or a combination of these, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those competitors.
PACKAGING
It involves designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product. The package includes a products primary container. It can include a shipping package to store, identify, and ship the product.
LABELING
A particular area within the packing field that represents the outermost layer of the product Functions of Label: 1. Label identifies the product or brand 2. Label might also describe several things about product. 3. Label might promote the product through effective graphics.
PRODUCT SUPPORT SERVICES
Customer service is another element of product strategy. Survey customers periodically to assess the value of the current services and to obtain ideas for new ones. Assess the cost of providing these services. Develop a package of services that will both delight customers and yield profits to the company.
PRODUCT LINE DECISIONS
PRODUCT LINE - A group of products that are closely related because they function in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same types of outlets, or fall within given price range. A COMPANY CAN LENGTHEN ITS PRODUCT LINE IN TWO WAYS: 1. LINE STRETCHING Occurs when a company lengthens its product line beyond its current range. 2. PRODUCT LING FILLING Adding more items within the present range of the line
PRODUCT MIX DECISIONS
PRODUCT MIX (PRODUCT ASSORTMENT) -The set of all product lines and items that a particular seller offers for sale. -Each product lines consist of several sublines. -Each line and subline has many individual items.
Product Mix Dimensions: 1. Product Mix Width - This refers to the number of different product lines the company carries. 2. Product Mix Length - The total number of items the company carries within its product lines. 3. Product Mix Depth - This is the number of versions offered of each product line. 4. Product Mix Consistency - This pertains to how closely related product lines are to one another in terms of use, production and distribution.
Branding Strategy
Branding Equity - the positive differential effect that knowing the brand name has on customer response to the product or service. Brand Valuation is the process of estimating the total financial value of a brand. Consumer Equity the value of the customer relationships that the brand creates.
Major Branding Strategy Decisions
1. Branding Positioning Attributes - The least effective Benefits Beliefs and Values - Taps into emotions 2. Brand Name Selection Good Brand Names: Suggest something about the product or its benefits Are easy to say, recognize and remember
Are distinctive Are extendable Translate well into other languages Can be registered and legally protected Once chosen, the brand name should be protected.
3. Brand Sponsorship Manufacturers brand - National brand Private brand - A brand created and owned by a reseller of a product or service; Store brand Slotting fees payments from the manufacturers before the retailers will accept new products and find slots for them in their shelves. Licensed brand Co-brand the practice of using the established brand names of two different companies on the same product. 4. Brand Development
BRAND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
Line Extension using a successful name to introduce additional items in a given product category under the same brand name, such as new flavours, forms, colors, added ingredients, or package sizes. Brand Extension using a successful brand name to launch a new or modified product in a new category. Multibrands offers a way to establish different features ad appeal to different buying motives. It also allows a company to lock up more reseller shelf space. New Brands Megabrand strategies weeding out weaker brands and focusing their marketing dollars only on brands that can achieve the number one or number two market share positions in their categories.
SERVICE MARKETING is a form of marketing which focuses on selling services. Services can be tricky
to sell and the marketing approach for them is much different than the approach for products. PROVIDER OF SERVICES Government Private not-for-profit Business Organizations
NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SERVICE; 1. SERVICE INTANGIBILITY -services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before they brought; cannot have a real, physical presence as does a product SIGNALS OF SERVICE QUALITYinvolves a comparison of expectations with performance. EVIDENCE MANAGEMENTservice organization presents its customers with organized, honest evidence of its capabilities. 2. SERVICE INSEPARABILITY - they produced and consumed at the same time and cannot be separated from their providers; service has which renders it impossible to divorce the supply or production of the service from its consumption; from the point where it is consumed, and from the provider of the service. PROVIDER-CUSTOMER INTERACTION- special feature of marketing. 3. SERVICE VARIABILITY -their quality may vary greatly depending on who provides them and when, where, and how; since the human involvement of service provision means that no two services will be completely identical. 4. SERVICE PERISHABILITY -they cannot be stored for later sale or use.
MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR SERVICE FIRMS a good service firms use marketing to position themselves strongly in chosen target markets. service firms establish their positions through traditional marketing mix activities. SERVICEPROFIT CHAIN -chain that links service firm profits with employee and customer internal service quality Satisfied and productive service employee Greater service value Satisfied and loyal customers Healthy service profits and growth MARKETING IN SERVICE INDUSTRIES INTERNAL MARKETING -service firms must train and effectively motivate its customer-contact employees and all the supporting service people to work as a team to provide customer satisfaction; customer-centered. EXTERNAL MARKETING -orients its employees carefully and motivates them by recognizing and rewarding outstanding service deeds. INTERACTIVE MARKETING -service firm that recognizes that perceived service quality depends heavily on the quality of buyer and seller interaction. --service marketers have to master interactive marketing skills. --company must not only high-touch but also high-tech. Three major marketing tasks: 1. Managing service differentiation - Develop a differentiated offer, delivery and image. 2. Managing Service Quality - Delivering consistently higher quality than its competitors do. 3. Managing Service Productivity - Train current employees or better hire new ones and increase the quantity of the service by giving up some quality.