Chapter Eight
Product, Services, and Brands:
Building Customer Value
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 8 - slide 1
Publishing as Prentice Hall
Product, Services, and
Branding Strategy
Topic Outline
• What Is a Product?
• Product and Services
Decisions
• Branding Strategy:
Building Strong
Brands
• Services Marketing
What Is a Product?
Products, Services, and Experiences
Product is anything that can be offered in a
market for attention, acquisition, use, or
consumption that might satisfy a need or
want
Experiences represent what buying the
product or service will do for the customer
What Is a Product?
Levels of Product and Services
Core benefits represent what the buyer is really buying.
Actual product represents the design, brand name, and packaging
that delivers the core benefit to the customer.
Augmented product represents additional services or benefits of
the actual product.
What Is a Product?
Product and Service Classifications
Consumer
products
Industrial
products
What Is a Product?
Product and Service Classifications
• Consumer products are products and
services for personal consumption
• Classified by how consumers buy them
– Convenience products
– Shopping products
– Specialty products
– Unsought products
What Is a Product?
Product and Service Classifications
Convenience products are consumer products and
services that the customer usually buys
frequently, immediately, and with a minimum
comparison and buying effort
• Newspapers
• Candy
• Fast food
What Is a Product?
Product and Service Classifications
Shopping products are consumer products and
services that the customer compares carefully on
suitability, quality, price, and style
• Furniture
• Cars
• Appliances
What Is a Product?
Product and Service Classifications
Specialty products are consumer products and
services with unique characteristics or brand
identification for which a significant group of
buyers is willing to make a special purchase effort
• Medical services
• Designer clothes
• High-end electronics
What Is a Product?
Product and Service Classifications
Unsought products are consumer products that the
consumer does not know about or knows about
but does not normally think of buying
• Life insurance
• Funeral services
• Blood donations
What Is a Product?
Product and Service Classifications
Industrial products are products purchased for
further processing or for use in conducting a
business
• Classified by the purpose for which the product is
purchased
– Materials and parts
– Capital
– Raw materials
What Is a Product?
Product and Service Classifications
Capital items are industrial products that aid in the
buyer’s production or operations
Materials and parts include raw materials and
manufactured materials and parts usually sold
directly to industrial users
Supplies and services include operating
supplies, repair and maintenance items, and
business services
What Is a Product?
Organizations, Persons, Places, and Ideas
Organization marketing consists of activities
undertaken to create, maintain, or change
attitudes and behavior of target consumers
toward an organization
What Is a Product?
Organizations, Persons, Places, and Ideas
Person marketing consists of
activities undertaken to
create, maintain, or
change attitudes and
behavior of target
consumers toward
particular people
What Is a Product
Organizations, Persons, Places, and
Ideas
Place marketing consists of activities undertaken to
create, maintain, or change attitudes and
behavior of target consumers toward particular
places
Social marketing is the use of commercial
marketing concepts and tools in programs
designed to influence individuals’ behavior to
improve their well-being and that of society
Product and Service Decisions
Individual Product and Service Decisions
Product and Service Decisions
Individual Product and Service Decisions
Product attributes are the benefits of the product
or service
• Quality
• Features
• Style and design
Product and Service Decisions
Individual Product and Service
Decisions
Product quality includes level and consistency
• Quality level is the level of quality that supports
the product’s positioning
• Conformance quality is the product’s freedom
from defects and consistency in delivering a
targeted level of performance
Product and Service Decisions
Individual Product and Service
Decisions
Product features are a competitive tool for
differentiating a product from competitors’
products
Product features are assessed based on the value to
the customer versus the cost to the company
Product and Service Decisions
Individual Product and Service
Decisions
Style describes the
appearance of the
product
Design contributes to a
product’s usefulness as
well as to its looks
Product and Service Decisions
Individual Product and Service
Decisions
Brand is the name, term, sign, or design—or a
combination of these—that identifies the maker
or seller of a product or service
Brand equity is the differential effect that the brand
name has on customer response to the product
and its marketing
Product and Service Decisions
Individual Product and Service
Decisions
Packaging involves designing and
producing the container or
wrapper for a product
Labels identify the product or
brand, describe attributes, and
provide promotion
Product and Service Decisions
Individual Product and Service
Decisions
Product support services augment actual products
Product and Service Decisions
Product Line Decisions
Product line is 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 outlets,
or fall within given price ranges
Product and Service Decisions
Product Line Decisions
Product line length is the number of items in the
product line
• Line stretching: is when a company lengthens its
product line beyond its current range.
• Line filling: occurs when companies add more
items within the present range of the line.
Line filling is when you add more product items to the existing products to
exploit the market gaps and decrease the competition. It could mean
offering different colors and designs of the same product.
Product and Service Decisions
Product Mix Decisions
Product mix consists of
all the products and
items that a
particular seller
offers for sale
Services Marketing
Types of Service Industries
• Government
• Private not-for-profit organizations
• Business services
Services Marketing
Nature and Characteristics of a Service
Services Marketing
Marketing Strategies for Service Firms
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
Services Marketing
Marketing Strategies for Service Firms
Interactive marketing means that service quality depends
heavily on the quality of the buyer-seller interaction
during the service encounter
• Service differentiation
• Service quality
• Service productivity
Services Marketing
Marketing Strategies for Service Firms
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
