PRODUCTS & SERVICES By Terri Yueh

Getting to know the Terms Customers: people who buy ‘ everyday ’ services such as train travel or telephone services. Consumers: people who buy products or services for their own use. Clients or Clientele: people who use the services of a social services agency; the persons who make habitual use of the services of another person, as the clientele of a lawyer, doctor, notary, etc. Patron: a regular customer Shopper: someone who visits stores in search of articles to buy Warrantee: a customer to whom a warrant or guarantee is given

Asking about Products What is the name of the product? Who is the product designed for? What is it made of? What can it do? What size is it? What are the special characteristics or features? How much does it cost?

Talking about Services Name of company Type of company Services Stargate is a major teleconferencing company. It provides a variety of teleconferencing services. It helps companies to conduct meetings around the world.

Thinking about Marketing  Marketing is the process of planning, designing, pricing, promoting and distributing ideas, goods, and services, in order to satisfy customer needs, so as to make profit.  Market segment: Women are a particularly interesting target for the Volvo V 70. They are an important market segment for Volvo.  Market segmentation: The GET software company divides the software market into large companies, small companies, home office users, and leisure users. This is its market segmentation.

What are the 4 Ps? The 4 Ps are  Product: deciding what to sell  Price: deciding what appropriate market prices to charge  Place: deciding how it will be distributed and where people can buy it  Promotion: deciding how the product will be supported with advertising, special activities, etc.

About Promotion  Promotion is all the activities supporting the sale of a product, including advertising.  A promotion describes a special offer such as a discount or reduced price, a free sample, a free gift, or some competitions with prizes.  Cross-promotion is where customers buy one product, and they are recommended to buy another product that may go with it.  Loyalty Cards

Loyalty Cards Read the extracts from the Longman Business English Dictionary: The dictionary definition of a loyalty card stresses the benefit to customers, but what are the benefits to the firm or store which issues the loyalty card? When applying for your loyalty card, the store may ask for your name, mail address, telephone number, address, birthday, marital status, family size, car ownership, salary range, employment status, etc. From this information, the store can gain access to your credit record. Are you happy that the store should hold all this information about you?

Loyalty Cards A loyalty card identifies each customer with a unique identification number so the store’s central database can track every single purchase recording the item, price, date, time and location of the purchase. In this way, the store can track loyalty to specific stores, brands, item types and price range choices. The information about your lifestyle and purchases is valuable to the store but also to other companies. Stores with loyalty cards may sell this information to other companies so they can target you with junk mail, spam (junk ), telephone cold calls and other marketing offers. As a business person, would you like to know the information about your customers? How would you use it?

Products & Brands Why do companies need to create brands? What are the important characteristics of a brand? Why has Chanel No 5 been successful for so long? Marilyn Monroe I slept in nothing but Chanel No. 5! Nicole Kidman

Products & Brands  Brand: a name a company gives to its products so they can be easily recognized.  Branding: creating brands and keeping them in customer ’ s minds through advertising, pacjaging, etc.  Brand Awareness (Recognization): how much people recognize a brand  Brand image & Brand identity ref: