Products, Services and Brands

The Product-Service Continuum Sugar Restaurant Education Pure Tangible Good Pure Service Offer another example of a pure service.

What Is a Product? Anything offered to a market that satisfies a want or need. Includes: physical objects, services, events, persons, places, organizations, ideas, or some combination thereof.

What Is a Service? Activities, benefits, or satisfactions offered to a market that are essentially intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything. Examples: banking, hotel, airline, retail, tax preparation, home repairs.

Consumer Experiences In-store Theater is more important than ever Consider ALL consumer touch-points Eliminate shopping drudgery Work fun into the shopping experience, but don’t overdo it Knot Tying Clinic Art Gallery Entrance

Three Levels of Product

Convenience & Shopping Products Convenience Goods Bought frequently and immediately Low price Many purchase locations Examples: candy, soda, newspapers Shopping Goods Bought less frequently High price Fewer purchase locations Comparison shop Examples: cars, furniture, appliances

Specialty & Unsought Products Specialty Products Special purchase efforts High price Unique characteristics Brand importance Few purchase locations Example: Rolex watches, Ferrari cars Unsought Products New innovations Consumers may not want to purchase or think about them Examples: blood donation, cemetery plots, insurance

Individual Product Decisions

Product & Service Attributes Quality Performance quality Conformance quality Benefits vs. Features Consumers generally value benefits, not features Style and design Influences product choice and experience

Branding A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of these that identifies the maker or seller of a product or service. Product = “Body” Brand = “Soul”

Branding - Advantages Advantages to buyers: Advantages to sellers: Eases product identification Simplifies the purchase process Signal of quality “Repository of Trust” (- Jordan) Advantages to sellers: Drive loyalty to company and its products Provides legal protection Helps segment markets (i.e. “Branded Variants”)

How Branding Happens

Packaging Container, wrapper or “external face” for a product. Good packages market the brand effectively protect the internal elements protect the external elements don’t become “stale” over time ensure product safety are responsive to local environmental and social concerns

Innovative Packaging Dutch Boy’s packaging innovation offers paint in plastic containers with twist-off tops. The paint container is easy to carry, doesn’t need a screwdriver to pry open, doesn’t dribble when poured, and doesn’t take a hammer to bang the lid shut.

Labeling Printed information appearing on or with the package. Performs several functions: Identifies or reinforces identification of product/brand Provides “valuable” information about product contents or ingredients Co-promotes the product along with packaging

Labeling The FDA now requires food manufacturers to list trans fat on the Nutrition Facts portion of product labels.

The Ethics and Legality of Labeling

Product Line Decisions Group of products with slight variations (flavors). Product Line Stretching Downward Upward Both directions Product Line Filling Examples Ice Tea Pet Foods

Product Line Stretching - Marriott Marriott offers a full line of hotel brands, each aimed at a different market.

Product Mix Decisions Product mix: Product mix decisions: What combination of products do we carry? Product mix decisions: Product Line Length: the number of items in a line. Product Line Width: the number of different product lines the company carries. (i.e. Wal-Mart has toys, food, cards, clothes, music, etc.) Product Line Depth: the number of versions offered of each product in the line. ( 2 or 3 different sizes)

Is variety a consumer blessing or curse? Question du Jour Is variety a consumer blessing or curse?

Brand Loyalty & Brand Equity Definition: Willingness to re-purchase due to favorable brand impressions How measured? Brand Equity Definition: The positive effect that knowing the brand name has on consumer response to the product. Psychological Value Financial Value The Link between Brand Loyalty & Brand Equity

Major Brand Strategy Decisions

Brand Positioning Brands can be positioned at three levels: Product features/ attributes Least desirable Easily copied Brand benefits Beliefs and values Hits consumers on a deeper level, tapping “universal” emotions.

Brand Name Selection Good Brand Names: Straightforwardly suggest the product’s benefits and qualities. Are easy to spell, pronounce, recognize, and remember. Are distinctive and memorable. Are extendable into different product lines (i.e. facilitate brand extensions). Translate easily into foreign languages. Provide the maximum legal protection from infringement.

Brand Name Selection Boudreaux’s Butt Paste is a real product used in the treatment of diaper rash. Is this a good brand name? Good Brand Names: Straightforwardly suggest the product’s benefits and qualities. Are easy to spell, pronounce, recognize, and remember. Are distinctive and memorable. Are extendable into different product lines (i.e. facilitate brand extensions). Translate easily into foreign languages. Provide the maximum legal protection from infringement.

Brand Sponsorship Manufacturer’s brands Private-label brands Also called “National Brands” (Tide, Coke, Pringles, etc.) Private-label brands Also called “Store” or “Distributor” Brands (Stop & Shop’s “Mi Casa”, Costco’s “Kirkland”) Store vs. Private Label Trends Co-branding – “Tag-team Branding” (Waffle House and Minute Maid OJ) Ingredient Branding (“Intel Inside”) Mi Casa brand products are only available at Stop & Shop stores.

Brand Development Strategies

Line Extensions

Brand Development – Multibranding & New Brands appeal to different buying motives and segments Example: Toyota sells Corolla, Camry, Scion, Yarris New brands: waning power of existing brands products in new product category Can develop (Black & Decker develops De Walt) or buy (i.e. Wendy’s buys Baja Fresh)

Services

Four Service Characteristics

Four Service Characteristics – Restaurant Example How do the service characteristics of intangibility, variability, inseparability, and perishability relate to restaurants?