Product and Branding strategy

Product
• A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention,
acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need.
• Products include more than just tangible goods. It also includes
physical objects, services, persons, places, organisations and ideas.
• Services are products that consist of activities, benefits or
satisfactions that are offered for sale that are essentially intangible
and do not result in the ownership of anything.
• Examples are banking, hotel, haircuts and home repair services.
Levels of product
• Product planners need to think about the product on three levels since
each level adds more customer value.
• The three main levels are core product, actual product and the augmented
product.
• Core product: The problem solving services or core benefits that consumers
are really buying when they obtain a product.
• Actual product: A product’s parts, quality level, features, design, brand
name, packaging and other attributes that combine to deliver core product
benefits.
• Augmented product: Additional consumer services and benefits built
around the core and actual products.
Consumer products

• Consumer products are those bought by final consumers for personal

consumption. Marketers usually classify these goods based on consumer
shopping habits.
• Consumer products include convenience products, shopping products,
specialty products and unsought products.
• Convenience product: A consumer product that the customer usually
buys frequently, immediately, and with a minimum of comparison and
buying effort. Examples are soap, sweets, newspapers and fast food.
• Convenience goods are usually low priced, and marketers place them in
many locations to make them readily available when customers need
them.
Consumer products (Contd)
• Shopping product: A consumer product that the customer, in the process of selection
and purchase, characteristically compares with others on such bases as suitability,
quality, price and style.
• Examples of shopping products are furniture, clothing, used cars and major household
appliances.
• Shopping products marketers usually distribute their products through fewer outlets
but provide deeper sales support to give customers information and advice to help
them in their comparison efforts.
• Specialty product: A consumer product with unique characteristics or brand
identification for which a significant group of buyers are willing to make a special
purchase effort.
• Examples include specific brands and types of car, high-priced home entertainment
systems and photographic equipment, luxury goods, designer clothes and the services
of medical or legal specialists.
• Buyers normally do not compare specialty goods. They invest only the time needed to
reach dealers carrying the wanted products.
Consumer Products (Contd)
• Unsought product: A consumer product that the consumer either
does not know about or knows about but does not normally think of
buying.
• Most major new innovations are unsought until the consumer
becomes aware of them through advertising.
• Classic examples of known but unsought goods are life insurance,
home security systems, funeral services and blood donations.
• By their very nature, unsought goods require a lot of advertising,
personal selling and other marketing efforts.
Industrial products

• Industrial products are those bought for further processing or for use
in conducting a business.
• Thus the distinction between a consumer product and an industrial
product is based on the purpose for which the product is purchased.
• For example, if a consumer buys a lawnmower for home use, the
lawnmower is a consumer product.
• If the same consumer buys the same lawnmower for use in a
landscaping business, the lawnmower is an industrial product.
• There are three groups of industrial products: materials and parts,
capital items and supplies and services.
Industrial products (Contd)
• Materials and parts are industrial goods that become a part of the
manufacturer’s product completely, through further processing or as
components. They include raw materials and manufactured materials
and parts.
• Raw materials consist of farm products (wheat, cotton, livestock,
fruits, vegetables) and natural products (fish, timber, crude
petroleum, iron ore).
• Manufactured materials and parts include component materials
(iron, yarn, cement, wires) and component parts (small motors, tyres,
castings).
 Industrial products (Contd)
• Capital items: Industrial goods that partly enter the finished product, including
installations and accessory equipment.
• Installations consist of buildings (factories, offices) and fixed equipment (generators,
lifts).
• Accessory equipment includes portable factory equipment and tools (hand tools, lift
trucks) and office equipment (fax machines, computers, desks).
• These products do not become part of the finished product. They have a shorter life
than installations and simply aid in the production process.
• Supplies and services: Industrial products that do not enter the finished product at all.
• Supplies include operating supplies (lubricants, paper, pencils) and repair and
maintenance items (paint, nails, brooms).
• Business services include maintenance and repair services (window cleaning, computer
repairs) and business advisory services (legal, management consulting, advertising).
• Such services are usually supplied under contract.
Organisations, persons, places and ideas
• In addition to tangible products and services, in recent years
marketers have broadened the concept of a product to include other
‘marketable entities’ – namely, organisations, persons, places and
ideas.
• Organisation marketing consists of activities undertaken to create,
maintain or change the attitudes and behaviour of target consumers
towards an organisation.
• Both profit and non-profit organisations practise organisation
marketing.
• Business firms sponsor public relations or corporate advertising
campaigns to polish their images.
Organisations, persons, places and ideas
(Contd)
• Person marketing consists of activities undertaken to create, maintain, or change
attitudes or behaviour towards particular people.
• Politicians must be skilful in marketing themselves, their parties and their platforms
to get needed votes and programme support.
• Entertainers and sports figures use marketing to promote their careers and
improve their impact and incomes.
• Professionals such as doctors, lawyers, accountants and architects market
themselves in order to build their reputations and increase business.
• Place marketing involves activities undertaken to create, maintain or change
attitudes or behaviour towards particular places.
• Thus, cities, states, regions and even entire nations compete to attract tourists, new
residents, conventions and company offices and factories.
Organisations, persons, places and ideas
(Contd)
• Ideas can also be marketed since in one sense, all marketing is the
marketing of an idea, whether it be the general idea or the specific idea.
• Ideas, such as public health campaigns to reduce smoking, alcoholism,
drug abuse, child abuse and overeating; environmental campaigns to
promote wilderness protection, clean air and conservation; and other
campaigns such as education reforms, family planning, human rights
and racial equality.
• This area has been called social marketing, which includes the design,
implementation and control of programmes seeking to increase the
acceptability of a social idea, cause or practice among a target group.
Product decisions

• Marketers make product decisions at three levels: individual product

decisions, product line decisions and product mix decisions.
• Individual product decisions: This looks at decisions relating to the
development and marketing of individual products, namely product
attributes, branding, packaging, labelling and product-support services.
• 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 outlet, or fall within given price
ranges.
• Product mix: The set of all product lines and items that a particular seller
offers for sale to buyers.
The Concept of Branding
• 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 of competitors.
• Branding helps buyers in many ways:
• Brand names tell the buyer something about product quality. Buyers who
always buy the same brand know that they will get the same quality each
time they buy.
• Brand names also increase the shopper’s efficiency.
• Brand names help call consumers’ attention to new products that might
benefit them. The brand name becomes the basis upon which a whole
story can be built about the new product’s special qualities.
The Concept of Branding (Contd)
• Branding also gives the supplier several advantages:
• The brand name makes it easier for the supplier to process orders and
track down problems.
• The supplier’s brand name and trademark provide legal protection for
unique production features that otherwise might be copied by
competitors.
• Branding enables the supplier to attract a loyal and profitable set of
customers.
• Branding helps the supplier to segment markets.
Branding strategy: Building strong brands
• Brands are viewed as the major enduring asset of a company, outlasting the
company’s specific products and facilities.
• Thus, brands are powerful assets that must be carefully developed and
managed.
• Brands vary in the amount of power and value they have in the marketplace.
• Some brands are largely unknown to most buyers. Other brands have a high
degree of consumer brand awareness.
• Finally some brands command a high degree of brand loyalty.
• Brand equity: The value of a brand, based on the extent to which it has high
brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, strong brand associations,
and other assets such as patents, trademarks and channel relationships.
• Brand equity is the positive differential effect that knowing the brand name has
on customer response to the product or service.
Brand positioning

• Marketers need to position their brands clearly in target customers’ minds.

• But a brand is a complex symbol that can convey several levels of meaning:
• Attributes: A brand first brings to mind certain product attributes. For example,
Mercedes suggests such attributes as ‘well engineered’, ‘well built’, ‘durable’, ‘high
prestige’, ‘fast’, ‘expensive’ and ‘high resale value’.
• The company may use one or more of these attributes in its advertising for the car.
• Customers do not buy attributes, they buy benefits. Therefore, attributes must be
translated into functional and emotional benefits.
• For example, the attribute ‘durable’ could translate into the functional benefit.
• The attribute ‘expensive’ might translate into the emotional benefit.
• The attribute ‘well built’ might translate into the functional and emotional benefit
Brand name selection

• Selecting the right name is a crucial part of the marketing process.

• A good name can add greatly to a product’s success.
• However, finding the best brand name is a difficult task.
• It begins with a careful review of the product and its benefits, the target
market and proposed marketing strategies.
• Desirable qualities for a brand name include the following:
• It should suggest something about the product’s benefits and qualities.
• It should be easy to pronounce, recognise and remember thus short names
help.
• The brand name should be distinctive.
• The name should translate easily (and meaningfully) into foreign languages.
Managing brands

• Companies must carefully manage their brands. First, the brand’s positioning must
be continuously communicated to consumers.
• Major brand marketers often spend huge amounts on advertising to create brand
awareness and to build preference and loyalty.
• Such advertising campaigns can help to create name recognition, brand knowledge
and maybe even some brand preference.
• Companies can carry on internal brand building to help employees to understand,
desire and deliver on the brand promise.
• Many companies go even further by training and encouraging their distributors and
dealers to serve their customers well.
• Finally, companies need to periodically audit their brands’ strengths and
weaknesses.