Product, Services, and Branding Strategies

1. Product, Services, and Branding Strategies Chapter 8

2. The best way to hold customers is to constantly figure out how to give them more for less

3. Don’t just develop a product turn it into a brand and customers will favor no matter it is more for less or more for more.

4. Objectives • Be able to define product and know the major classifications of products and services. • Understand the decisions companies make regarding their individual products and services, product lines, and product mixes.

5. Objectives • Understand how firms build and manage their brands. • Know the four characteristics of services and the additional marketing considerations that services require. • Review additional product issues related to social responsibility and international marketing.

6. Definitions • Product • Anything offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or want.Salman, Kohinoor, Shirt, Sandwich, vacation, advice from doctor. • Service • Any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in ownership of anything. Banking, hotel, airline, retail, tax preparation, home repair services, Bashir’s marketing class, and so on.

7. What is a Product? • Products, Services, and Experiences • Market offerings, pure tangible goods, toothpaste, soap, salt; pure services, financial services, doctor’s exam, experiences, memorable, personal, take place in the consumer’s mind. • Levels (Each level adds more customer value) of Product and Services • Core benefit (lipstick – hope), actual product (Toyota), and augmented product (additional customer services and benefits) • Product and Service Classifications

8. Convenience Shopping Specialty Unsought Frequent purchases bought with minimal buying effort and little comparison shopping toothpaste, magazines, soap, newspapers. Low price Widespread distribution Mass promotion by producer What is a Product? Types of Consumer Products

9. Convenience Shopping Specialty Unsought Less frequent purchases requiring more shopping effort and price, quality, and style comparisons. Furniture, clothing, used cars. Higher than convenience good pricing Selective distribution in fewer outlets Advertising and personal selling by producer and reseller What is a Product? Types of Consumer Products

10. Convenience Shopping Specialty Unsought Strong brand preference and loyalty, requires special purchase effort, little brand comparisons, and low price sensitivity designer clothes, services of medical or legal specialists. High price Exclusive distribution Carefully targeted promotion by producers and resellers What is a Product? Types of Consumer Products

11. Convenience Shopping Specialty Unsought Little product awareness and knowledge (or if aware, sometimes negative interest) life insurance, cemetery plots Pricing varies Distribution varies Aggressive advertising and personal selling by producers and resellers What is a Product? Types of Consumer Products

12. What is a Product? • Product and Service Classifications • Consumer products • Industrial products • Materials and parts: cotton, fruits, fish, lumber, crude petroleum, petroleum. Price and service are major marketing factors; branding and advertising tend to be less important. • Capital items: factories, offices, generators, large computer systems, elevators, office equipments. • Supplies and services: lubricants, coal, paper, pencils, brooms, nails, window cleaning, computer repair.

13. What is a Product? • Product and Service Classifications • Organizations, persons, places, and ideas • Organizational marketing makes use of corporate image advertising. GE – “brings good things to life” • Person marketing applies to political candidates, entertainment sports figures, and professionals. Political leaders, doctors, professors, celebrities. • Place marketing relates to tourism. I love New York. • Social marketing campaigns promote ideas. Reduce smoking, alcoholism, drug abuse, overeating.

14. Individual Product Product Line Product Mix Product attributes Quality, features, style and design Branding name, term, sign, symbol, design. Helps in identifying and tells about product’s quality. Packaging product’s primary container, secondary package, shipping package. Labeling simple tags, complex graphics Product support services Product and Service (Development and Marketing) Decisions Key Decisions

15. Individual Product Product Line Product Mix Product line length Line stretching: adding products that are higher Lexus or lower Mercedes C-class cars. priced than the existing line Line filling: adding more items within the present price range Product and Service Decisions Key Decisions

16. Individual Product Product Line Product Mix Product mix width: number of different product lines carried by company Product mix length: Total number of items the company carries within its product lines. Product line depth: Number of different versions of each product in the line Product line consistency Product and Service Decisions Key Decisions

17. Branding Strategy • Brands are powerful assets that must be carefully developed / managed. • Brands with strong equity have many competitive advantages: • High consumer awareness • Strong brand loyalty • Helps when introducing new products • Less susceptible to price competition

18. Brand Positioning Brand Name Selection Brand Sponsorship Brand Development Three levels of positioning: Product attributes Least effective Benefits Beliefs and values Taps into emotions Building Strong Brand Key Decisions

19. Brand Positioning Brand Name Selection Brand Sponsorship Brand Development 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 Building Strong Brand Key Decisions

20. Brand Positioning Brand Name Selection Brand Sponsorship Brand Development Manufacturer brands Private (store) brands Costly to establish and promote Higher profit margins Licensed brands Name and character licensing has grown Co-branding Building Strong Brand Key Decisions

21. Brand Positioning Brand Name Selection Brand Sponsorship Brand Development Line extensions Minor changes to existing products flavors, forms, package sizes, colors, ingredients. Bombay chips. Brand extensions Successful brand names help introduce new products Dovedeodorant, vitamins, body wash, facial tissues, bar soap, shampoo. Multibrands Multiple product entries in a product category Close up, Pepsodent. New brands New product category Lexus Building Strong Brand Key Decisions

22. Continuously communicate: spend huge amounts. Brand experience; contacts and touch points. Enthusiastic brand builders: everyone lives the brand; not only brand managers Audit brands’ strength and weaknesses: ask? Brand Strategy Managing Brands

23. Services Marketing • Services • Account for 74% of U.S. gross domestic product. • Service industries include business organizations (airlines, banks, hotels, insurance companies, consulting firms), government (postal service, schools, hospitals, military services), and private not-for-profit organizations (museums, charities, churches, colleges).

24. Services Marketing • Characteristics of Services • Intangibility: airline passengers, • Consumers look for service quality signals • Inseparability: • Services can’t be separated from providers • Variability: • Employees and other factors result in variability • Perishability: • Services can’t be inventoried for later sale

25. Services Marketing • Service Firm Marketing Strategies • The Service-Profit Chain • Internal Marketing • Interactive Marketing • Managing Service Differentiation • Managing Service Quality • Managing Service Productivity: McDonald’s idea of technological hamburger and Bashir’s idea of e-(electronic) sandwich.

26. Additional Product Considerations • Product Decisions and Social Responsibility • Acquisitions and mergers • Legal compliance • Product liability issues • Warranties

27. Additional Product Considerations • International Product and Services Marketing • Special challenges: • Which products should be marketed internationally? • Should the products be standardized or adapted for world markets? • How should packaging be adapted? • How can other barriers be overcome?

28. Small is beautiful but large is powerful