1. Chapter 7: Products, Services, & Brands
Abdullah Sultan, PhD

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What Is a Product?
Products are:
Anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption and that might satisfy a want or need.
Includes physical objects, services, events, persons, places, organizations, ideas, or some combination thereof.
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What Is a Service?
Services are:
Any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.
E.g., banking, hotel, airline, retail, tax preparation, home repairs.
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4. Products, Services and Experiences
Marketing offerings:
Includes both tangible goods and services, as well as combinations of both.
Pure good: Camay soap
Pure service: Legal representation
Combination: Restaurant meal
Creating and managing customer experiences will differentiate your marketing offers from the competition.
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5. Levels of Product and Services
Core customer value:
What the consumer is really buying
Actual product:
Includes the brand name, features, design, packaging, and quality level
Augmented product:
Additional services and benefits such as delivery and credit, instructions, installation, warranty, and service
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6. Product and Service Classification
Industrial products:
Those purchased for further processing or for use in conducting business
Distinction between consumer and industrial products is based on the purpose for which an item is bought.
Consumer products:
Products and services bought by final consumers for personal consumption
Also included are other marketable entities
Classified by how consumers buy them
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7. Types of Consumer Goods
Convenience goods:
Purchased frequently and immediately with little comparison shopping
Low priced
Mass advertising and promotion
Widespread distribution with many convenient locations
E.g., candy, soda, newspapers
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8. Types of Consumer Goods
Shopping products:
Bought less frequently, more planning and effort, brand comparisons on basis of price, quality, style
Higher price
Selective distribution in fewer purchase locations
Advertising and personal selling is undertaken by both producer and reseller
E.g., furniture, clothing, cars, appliances
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9. Types of Consumer Goods
Specialty products:
Strong brand preference and loyalty, special purchasing effort, little comparison shopping
High price
Exclusive distribution in only one or a few outlets per market area
Carefully targeted promotion by both producer and reseller
E.g., Lamborghini, Rolex watches
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10. Types of Consumer Goods
Unsought products:
Little product awareness or knowledge of the brand, sometimes negative interest
The consumer either does not know about or knows about but does not normally think of buying
Pricing strategies vary
Distribution strategies vary
Require aggressive advertising and personal selling by both producer and resellers
E.g., life insurance, cemetery plots, organ donations
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11. Types of Industrial Goods
Materials and parts:
Raw materials, manufactured materials, and parts
Capital items:
Products that aid in buyer’s production or operations (e.g., machines, lands, buildings)
Supplies and services:
Operating supplies, maintenance, and repair items
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12. Other Market Offerings
Organization:
Profit (businesses) and nonprofit (schools and churches)
Person:
Politicians, entertainers, sports figures, doctors, and lawyers
Place:
Create, maintain, or change attitudes or behavior toward particular places (e.g., tourism)
Ideas (social marketing):
Public health campaigns, environmental campaigns, family planning, or human rights
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13. What Do Consumers Look For When Making Product Decisions?
Product attributes
Branding
Packaging
Labeling
Product support services
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14. Product and Service Attributes
Product quality dimensions:
Performance quality
Conformance quality
Product feature considerations:
Value to consumer
Cost to company
Managers need to balance between value and cost
Product style and design (marketing research):
How will it influence the user experience?
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Branding
Branding involves building and managing brands.
A brand:
Is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of these, that identifies the products or services of one seller or group of sellers and differentiates them from those of competitors.
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Branding
Advantages to buyers:
Helps identify products
Cue to product quality and consistency
Advantages to sellers:
Basis for product’s quality story
Provides legal protection
Helps to segment markets
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Packaging
Packaging:
Involves designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product
Ideally, good packages should:
Help to market the brand
Protect the contents
Provide convenience and ease of use
Ensure product and user/child safety
Address environmental concerns
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Labeling
Labeling refers to printed information appearing on or with the package.
Performs several functions:
Identifies product or brand
Describes several things about the product
Promotes the product through attractive graphics
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19. Product Support Services
Monitoring of support services is key:
Talk with customers to assess the value and quality of current services and to obtain ideas for new services.
Fix problems and put together a package of new services that delights the customers and yields profits for the company.
New technologies can often enhance many support service offerings.
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Brand Equity
Brand equity:
Is the positive differential effect that knowing the brand name has on customer response to the product or service.
Is a valuable asset that offers many competitive advantages.
Builds strong and profitable customer relationships that result in loyal customers.
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21. Major Brand Strategy Decisions
Brands are assets that must be carefully developed and managed via:
Brand positioning
Brand name selections
Brand development
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Brand Positioning
Marketers can position brands at any of three levels:
Product attributes (e.g., The Body Shop talks about their products’ natural ingredients, unique scents, and special textures; But easily copied by competitors).
Product benefits (e.g., Volvo (safety), FedEx (on-time delivery, Lexus (quality)).
Beliefs and values (Starbuck’s offers memorable experience, Ritz-Carlton offers luxurious rooms),
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Brand Name Selection
Desirable qualities for a brand name:
It should suggest the product’s benefits and qualities (e.g., Beautyrest (beds), Curves (women’s fitness centers), Die Hard (batteries)).
It should be easy to pronounce, recognize, and remember (Tide, Dove, Pepsi).
It should be distinctive (Lexus vs. Apple).
It should be extendable (Sony vs. Kleenex).
It should translate easily into foreign languages (Exxon vs. Enco in Japan).
It should be capable of registration and legal protection.
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Brand Development
Line extension:
Introduction of additional items in a given product category under the same brand name (e.g., new flavors, forms, colors, ingredients, or package sizes; Pepsi offers deferent flavors of soft drinks).
Brand extension:
Using a successful brand name to launch a new or modified product in a new category (Dove Soap and Dove Shampoo, Mercedes Benz and Mercedes trucks, Al-ghanim cars and Al-ghanim electronics).
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Brand Development
Multibranding:
Offers a way to establish different features and appeal to different buying motives (Pepsi offers deferent drinks and snacks).
New brands:
Developed based on belief that the power of its existing brand is waning and a new brand name is needed. Also used for products in new product category (Toyota and Lexus, Apple computers and Apple iPod, Sony and Playstation).
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