What is a product?

What is a product?

Products are created as a result of an art or many arts.
A product can be characterized by

• Its means (how it is made),
• Material (what it's made of),
• Form (shape and style), and
• Function (how it works).

There are four classes of products:

• Information/signs
• Artifacts/physical objects
• Activities and services
• Organizations and systems

In marketing, the term “product” is often used as a catch-all word to identify solutions a marketer provides to its target market.
The term “product” to cover offerings that fall into one of the following categories:

• Goods
• Services
• Ideas

Goods – Something is considered a good if it is a tangible item. That is, it is something that is felt, tasted, heard, smelled or seen. For example, bicycles, cell phones, are all examples of tangible goods.

Services – Something is considered a service if it is an offering a customer obtains through the work or labor of someone else.
Services can result in the creation of tangible goods (e.g., a publisher of business magazines hires a freelance writer to write an article) but the main solution being purchased is the service.

Unlike goods, services are not stored, they are only available at the time of use (e.g., hair salon) and the consistency of the benefit offered can vary from one purchaser to another (e.g., not exactly the same hair styling each time).

Ideas – Something falls into the category of an idea if the marketer attempts to convince the customer to alter their behavior or their perception in some way.
Marketing ideas is often a solution put forth by non-profit groups or governments in order to get targeted groups to avoid or change certain behavior.


Types of Consumer Products

• Convenience Products
• Shopping Products
• Specialty Products

Convenience Products – These are products that appeal to a very large market segment. They are generally consumed regularly and purchased frequently.
Because of the high purchase volume, pricing per item tends to be relatively low and consumers often see little value in shopping around since additional effort yields minimal savings.

From the marketer’s perspective the low price of convenience products means that profit per unit sold is very low.
In order to make high profits marketers must sell in large volume.
Marketers attempt to distribute these products in mass through as many retail outlets as possible.

Shopping Products – These are products consumers purchase and consume on a less frequent schedule compared to convenience products.
Consumers are willing to spend more time locating these products since they are relatively more expensive than convenience products and because these may possess additional psychological benefits for the purchaser, such as raising their perceived status level within their social group.

Since the consumers are purchasing less frequently and are willing to shop to locate these products, the target market is much smaller than that of convenience goods.
Hence , marketers often are more selective when choosing distribution outlets to sell their products.

Specialty Products – These are products that tend to carry a high price tag relative to convenience and shopping products. Consumption may occur at about the same rate as shopping products but consumers are much more selective.
In fact, in many cases consumers know in advance which product they prefer and will not shop to compare products.
But they may shop at retailers that provide the best value.

In addition to the three main categories above, products are classified in at least two additional ways:

• Emergency Products
• Unsought Products

Emergency Products – These are products a customer seeks due to sudden events and for which pre-purchase planning is not considered. Often the decision is one of convenience (e.g., whatever works to fix a problem) or personal fulfillment (e.g., perceived to improve purchaser’s image).

Unsought Products – These are products whose purchase is unplanned by the consumer but occur as a result of marketer’s actions.
Such purchase decisions are made when the customer is exposed to promotional activity, such as a salesperson’s persuasion or purchase incentives like special discounts offered to certain online shoppers.


Components of a Product

A product is simply a marketing offering, whether tangible or intangible, that someone wants to purchase and consume.
In reality while decisions related to the consumable parts of the product are extremely important, the TOTAL product consists of more than what is consumed.


The total product offering and the decisions facing the marketer can be broken down into three key parts:

• Core Benefits
• Actual Product
• Augmented Product

• Core Benefits: The core product itself is the benefit the customer receives from using the product.

In some cases these core benefits are offered by the product itself (e.g., floor cleaner) while in other cases the benefit is offered by other aspects of the product (e.g., the can containing the floor cleaner that makes it easier to spread the product).

• Actual Product: The core benefits are offered through the components that make up the actual product the customer purchases.

For instance, when a consumer returns home from shopping at the grocery store and takes a purchased item out of her shopping bag, the actual product is the item she holds in her hand.
Within the actual product is the consumable product, which can be viewed as the main good, service or idea the customer is buying.

• Augmented Product: Marketers often surround their actual products with goods and services that provide additional value to the customer’s purchase.

While these factors may not be key reasons leading customers to purchase (i.e., not core benefits), for some the inclusion of these items strengthens the purchase decision while for others failure to include these may cause the customer not to buy.

Items considered part of the augmented product include:

• Guarantee
• Warranty
• Customer Service
• Complementary Products
• Accessibility