ucti_CHAPTER6.pptVIP

Products Levels of a product Product classifications Individual product decisions Product line decisions Product mix decisions International product decisions New product development process Product life cycle strategies At the end of the lesson, you should be able to: Explain how companies find and develop new-product ideas List and define the steps in the new-product development process Describe the stages of the product life-cycle (PLC) What is a product? Definitions: 1. Product – “anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need.” It includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organisations and ideas. 2. Services – “any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.” Levels of a product Three levels of a product: Levels of a product (cont.) Product planners need to think about the product on three levels: 1. The core product – the most basic level, which addresses the question: “What is the buyer really buying?” As the can be seen from the figure (previous slide), the core product stands at the centre of the total product. It consists of the problem solving services or core benefits that consumers seek when they buy a product. Levels of a product (cont.) Thus, when designing products, marketers must first define the core of benefits the product will provide to consumers. 2. The actual product – built around the core product. The physical version of the product. Actual products may have as many as five ……. Levels of a product (cont.) ….characteristics: a quality level, features, design, a brand name and packaging. All these and other attributes are combined to deliver core product benefits. 3. Augmented product – is built around the core and actual products by offering additional consumer services and benefits, for example, delivery and credit, installation, after sales service and