1. Chapter 8 - Product, Services, and Branding Strategy
Market offerings may consist of a combination of goods and services
Product: Anything offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a
need or want.
Service: A form of product that consists of activities, benefits or satisfactions offered for sale that are
essentially intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything.
Experience: Experiences represent what buying the product or service will do for the customer. They are
used to differentiate offerings.
•Levels of Product and Services
Core benefit,
Actual (Quality level , Features , Brand name, Packaging)
Augmented product (Warranty, Customer Training, After Sales Service)
•Product and Service Classifications
Consumer products and industrial products
Product Classification Schemes
1. Durability, 2. Tangibility, 3. Use
Product Classifications
1. Consumer products: Products & Services for Personal Consumption.
They are classified by how consumers buy them.
Convenience Products Shopping Products
 Buy frequently & immediately  Buy less frequently
 Low priced  Higher price
 Mass advertising  Fewer purchase locations
 Many purchase locations  Comparison shop
i.e Candy, newspapers i.e Clothing, appliances, Furniture, Cars
Specialty Products Unsought Products
 Special purchase efforts  New innovations
 High price  Products consumers don’t want to think about
 Unique characteristics these products
 Brand identification  Require much advertising & personal selling
 Few purchase locations i.e Life insurance, blood donation
2. Industrial products: Purchased for further processing or for use in conducting a business
Materials and parts include raw materials and manufactured materials and parts usually sold
directly to industrial users
 Capital items are industrial products that aid in the buyer’s production or operations
 Supplies and services include operating supplies, repair and maintenance items, and
business services
Product and Service Decisions
1. Individual Product
a. Product attributes: Describe the main product features, major benefits received by those who use
the product : Quality, features, style and design
Quality: Quality is when our customer come back and our products don’t
Performance Quality
Conformance Quality
Features: are competitive tools for differentiating a product from competitors’ products
Product features are assessed based on the value to the customer versus the cost to the
company
Design & Style:
 Design is larger concept. It contributes to a product’s usefulness as well as to its
looks
 Style describes the appearance of the product
 Good design starts with a good understanding of customer need
 Examples: P& G’s Swiffer, Kryptonite
b. Branding
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2. c. Packaging 5th P: All the activities of designing and producing the container for a product.
Packaging has been influenced by…
 Self-service
 Consumer affluence
 Company/brand image
 Innovation opportunity
d. Labeling:
Functions of Labels:
 Identifiers
 Grades
 Describes
 Promotes
e. Product support services
2. Product Line A group of products that are closely related because they may:
• function in a similar manner
• be sold to the same customer groups,
• be marketed through the same types of outlets
• fall within given price ranges
a. Product line length
 Line stretching: adding products that are higher or lower priced than the existing line
 Line filling: adding more items within the present price range
b. Product line length
3. Product Mix: Also known as product assortment. Consists of all the product lines and items that a
particular seller offers for sale
• Product mix width: Number of different product lines carried by company
• For Example: Colgate offers personal care products-(4,5) (soft-soap, body wash, etc)
3M (60,000), Wal-Mart (100,000 to 120,000), GE (250,000)
• Product mix depth: Number of different versions of each product in the line (Lifebuoy)
• Product mix consistency: How closely related various products lines-in use, production
requirement, distribution
Brand: Brand represents the consumer’s perceptions and feelings about a product and its performance. It
is the company’s promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits, services, and experiences
consistently to the buyers
(Old Definition) A name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the
goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.
The Role of Brands
 Identify the maker
 Simplify product handling
 Organize accounting
 Offer legal protection
 Signify quality
 Create barriers to entry
 Serve as a competitive advantage
 Secure price premium
Brand Equity: The differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the
marketing of that brand.
Branding Strategy: Brands with strong equity have many competitive advantages:
High consumer awareness
Strong brand loyalty
Helps when introducing new products
Less susceptible to price competition
Brand Elements: Brand Names, URLs, Logos, Symbols, Characters, Slogans,
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3. Companies often create product icons to develop an identity for their products. Many made-up creatures
and personalities, such as safeguard and Michelin, are widely recognized figures in popular culture.
Marinda these days is trying to create one
Brand Element Choice Criteria
1. Memorable 2. Meaningful 3. Likeability
4. Transferable 5. Adaptable 6. Protectible
Slogans
•Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there
•Just do it
•Nothing runs like a Deere
•Help is just around the corner
•Save 15% or more in 15 minutes or less
Brand Strategy
•Brand Positioning: Three levels of positioning
1. Product attributes (Least effective)
2. Benefits
3. Beliefs and values ( Taps into emotions)
•Brand Name Selection:
Good Brand Names:
•Suggest something about the product or its benefits
•Are easy to say, recognize and remember
•Are distinctive
•Are extendable
•Translate well into other languages
•Can be registered and legally
protected
•Brand Sponsorship
•Manufacturer brands
•Private (store) brands
•Costly to establish and
promote
•Higher profit margins
•Licensed brands
•Name and character
licensing has grown
•Co-branding
•Advantages /
disadvantages
•Brand Development
Four Brand Strategies
Services Marketing
Services: Service industries include business organizations, government, and private not-for-profit
organizations.
Accounts for 74% of U.S. gross domestic product.
Accounts for more than 80% of UK GDP
Characteristics of Services
1. Intangibility
Services can’t be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before purchasing
Consumers look for service quality signals
2. Inseparability
Services can’t be separated from providers
3. Variability
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4. Quality of service depends upon who provides them & when, where and how.
Employees an d other factors result in variability
4. Perish ability
Services can’t be stored/inventoried for later sale
Marketing Strategies for Service Firms
In addition to traditional marketing strategies, service firms often require additional strategies
• Service-profit chain links service firm profits with employee and customer satisfaction
• Internal marketing means that the service firm must orient and motivate its customer contact
employees and supporting service people to work as a team to provide customer satisfaction
• Internal marketing must precede external marketing
• Interactive marketing means that service quality depends heavily on the quality of the buyer-
seller interaction during the service encounter
1. Service differentiation
2. Service quality
3. Service productivity
1. Managing service differentiation creates a competitive advantage from the offer, delivery, and
image of the service
• Offer can include distinctive features
• Delivery can include more able and reliable customer contact people, environment, or
process
• Image can include symbols and branding
2. Managing service quality provides a competitive advantage by delivering consistently higher
quality than its competitors
• Service quality always varies depending on interactions between employees and
customers
3. Managing service productivity refers to the cost side of marketing strategies for service firms
• Employee recruiting, hiring, and training strategies
• Service quantity and quality strategies
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