Summary of all material of chapter 8 until 17 (exam material block 4) of the book Principles of Marketing by Kotler for the course Marketing Intermediate
A product is anything that can be offered in a market for attention, acquisition, use,
or consumption that might satisfy a need or want.
A service is a product that consists of activities, benefits or satisfaction that is
essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.
Experiences represent what buying the product or service will do for the customer.
Products can be classified into two categories:
- Consumer products: revolves around convenience, shopping, specialty, unsought
- Industrial products: based on the purpose; purchase for further processing or
business use, material & parts, capital items, supplies and services.
Consumer products include:
Convenience products (e.g. bread) Shopping products (e.g. clothing)
Frequently and immediately bought Less frequently purchased
Minimum of buying effort and Compared on suitability, quality,
comparison price and style
Usually low priced Relatively higher priced
Widely available Sold in fewer outlets
Specialty products (e.g. cars, perfume) Unsought good (e.g. life insurance)
Unique characteristics or brand Unwanted or unknown products
identification Potential buyers are not motivated
Significant group of buyers is willing to Require persuasive advertising
make a special purchase effort and personal selling support
High involvement Low purchase frequency
Strong brand preference
Limited distribution
Industrial products are those products purchased for further processing or for use in
conducting a business. So, the distinction between a consumer product and an
industrial product is based on the purpose for which the product is purchased. If a
consumer buys a lawn mower for use around home, it’s a consumer product. If the
same consumer buys the same lawn mower for use in a business, it’s an industrial
product.
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,The three groups of industrial products and services are materials and parts, capital
items, and supplies and services.
Materials and parts: include raw materials as well as manufactured materials
and parts. Raw materials consist of farm products (wheat, cotton, fruits etc.)
and natural products (fish, lumber, etc.). manufactured materials and parts
consist of component materials (iron, yarn, cement, wires) and component
parts (small motors, tires etc.). Price and service are the major marketing
factors; branding and advertising tend to be less important.
Capital items: industrial products that aid in the buyer’s production or
operations, including installations and accessory equipment. Installations
consist of major purchases such as buildings (factories, offices) and fixed
equipment (generators, drill presses, elevators etc.) Accessory equipment
includes portable factory equipment and tools (hand tools, lift trucks) and office
equipment (computers, desks). They have a shorter life than installations and
simply aid in the production process.
Supplies and services: supplies include operating supplies (coal, paper,
pencils) and repair and maintenance items (paint, nails, brooms). Supplies are
the convenience products of the industrial field because they are usually
purchased with a minimum of effort or comparison. Business services include
maintenance and repair services (window cleaning, computer repair) and
business advisory services (advertising, consulting). Such services are usually
applied under contract.
Besides traditional marketing, service firms also need to apply:
▸ Company – Customers: external marketing
▸ Employees – Customers: interactive marketing
▸ Employees – Company: internal marketing
Marketing myopia is focusing only on existing wants and losing sight of underlying
consumer needs.
Chapter 9 .
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,New-product development = the development of original products, product
improvements, product modifications, and new brands through the firm’s own product
development efforts.
Why do so many new products fail? Several reasons:
– Company may overestimate market size
– Actual product may be poorly designed, incorrectly positioned, launched at the
wrong time, priced too high, poorly advertised.
– High-level executive might push a favorite idea despite poor marketing
research findings.
There are eight steps in the new-product development process.
1. Idea generation: the systematic search for new-product ideas.
2. Idea screening: screening new-product ideas to spot good ideas and drop poor
ones as soon as possible.
3. Concept development and testing: product concept is a detailed version of
the new-product idea stated in meaningful consumer terms. Concept testing is
testing new-product concepts with a group of target consumers to find out if the
concepts have strong consumer appeal.
4. Marketing strategy development: designing an initial marketing strategy for
a new product based on the product concept.
5. Business analysis: a review of the sales, costs, and profit projections for a
new product to find out whether these factors satisfy the company’s objectives.
6. Product development: developing the product concept into a physical product
to ensure that the product idea can be turned into a workable market offering.
7. Test marketing: the stage of new-product development in which the product
and its proposed marketing program are tested in realistic market settings.
8. Commercialization: introducing a new product into the market.
New-product development processes must always revolve around customer wants.
Customer-centered new-product development = new-product development that
focuses on finding new ways to solve customer problems and create more customer
satisfying experiences.
Good new-product development also requires a total-company, cross-functional effort.
Team-based new-product development = new-product development in which
various company departments work closely together, overlapping the steps in the
product development process to save time and increase effectiveness.
Each product has its own product life cycle (PLC): the course of a product’s sales
and profits over its lifetime. The PLC has five stages:
1. Product development begins when the company finds and develops a new-
product idea. During product development, sales are zero, and the company’s
investment costs are higher.
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, 2. Introduction is a period of slow sales growth as the product is introduced in the
market. Profits are nonexistent in this stage because of the heavy expenses of
product introduction.
3. Growth is a period of rapid market
acceptance and increasing profits.
4. Maturity is a period of slowdown in
sales growth because the product
has achieved acceptance by most
potential buyers. Profits level off or
decline because of increased
marketing outlays to defend the
product against competition.
5. Decline is the period when sales
fall off and profits drop.
The PLC concept also can be applied to what are known as styles, fashions and fads,
which have special life cycles.
Style = basic and distinctive mode of
expression.
Fashion = a currently accepted or popular
style in a given field.
Fad = a temporary period of unusually high
sales driven by consumer enthusiasm and
immediate product or brand popularity.
Marketers must consider two additional
product issues. The first is social responsibility. This includes public policy issues and
regulations involving acquiring or dropping products, patent protection, product quality
and safety, and product warranties. The second involves the special challenges facing
international product and services marketers. International marketers must decide
how much to standardize or adapt their offerings for world markets.
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