1. Network Products in Networked Markets The last decade has witnessed a shift from a focus on the value created by a single product to an examination of the value created by networks of products (product ecosystems or NETWORKED PRODUCT). Network products emerge at the intersection of three types of networks: User network User network Complements network Complements network Producer network Producer network Key Claims: Any or all of these networks add value or enhance the attractiveness of the associated focal product. Consumers allocate resources among competing products based on the perceived value added of any or all of these networks.

2. The Networked Product: Focal Product Producer network Other companies producing the same or similar product or service Complements network Services that permit consumption User network Other consumers

3. Linux as Networked Product: Ex.: Linux Operating System Producer network Other companies producing the same or similar product or service Complements network Application developers Maintenance and Repair Service Companies User network number of other companies that are using Linux (moderated by size, reputation, industry, etc. of these companies)

4. Remember: If you are dealing with a focal product that is a networked product Consumers allocate resources not only based on the objective and perceived quality of the focal product but based on the perceived value added to the focal product by the networks it has. Consumers allocate resources not only based on the objective and perceived quality of the focal product but based on the perceived value added to the focal product by the networks it has. Marketing of a networked product therefore is no longer limited to developing a marketing mix and a strategic position for the focal product. Rather, marketing needs to support network strength as well. Marketing of a networked product therefore is no longer limited to developing a marketing mix and a strategic position for the focal product. Rather, marketing needs to support network strength as well.

5. Examples? Focal Product Producer network Other companies producing the same or similar product or service User network Other consumers Complements network Services that permit consumption Video game market Satellite Radio HDTV Cars?

6. Epistemic Objects

7. Post-social Relations There is no lack of relations New forms of relations Relations with objects Provided these objects carry certain characteristics Provided these objects carry certain characteristics New forms of relationships/involvement/loyalties!!

8. Traditional Theories of the Object Use value Sign value Communal value Value for the self/identity

9. Traditional Theories of the Object Relations Consumers decommodify and singularize objects Consumers form emotional attachments to consumption objects (to tell stories, to remember, to represent, to commune/socialize) Consumers become involved with objects

10. The knowledge-based economy Objects contain more knowledge components As consumers learn about the object, more knowledge reveals itself

11. The Epistemic Object Objects of knowledge Change what they are and mean Interaction, observation, use, examination, and evaluation reveal them progressively, by increasing rather than reducing their complexity Object characterized by ‘lack’

13. Map of the Market

14. Object as Life Form Object can never be fully attainted by the consumer because it exists only as a sequence of absences It is never quite itself Any “fixedness” of the object is a temporary moment of stability in a chain of changes

17. Individualization Social theory Break down of traditional social institutions “Condemned to be free” – Sartre Modernity characterized by dissolution of social web and social relations risk risk

18. Postsocial Relations There is no lack of relations New forms of relations Relations with objects Provided these objects carry certain charactersitics Provided these objects carry certain charactersitics New forms of relationships/involvement/loyalties!!

19. Opportunities for Marketers insert knowledge/interactivity/poly-activity into products. insert knowledge/interactivity/poly-activity into products. Seek for ways to bring objects “to life.” Enable quasi-social relationships between product and consumer.