PRODUCT

Product Anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or a need – physical goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties, ideas, organizationsProduct levels

(i) Core benefit – Fundamental service the customer is buying(ii) Basic Product – Marketer turns core benefit into a basic product(iii) Expected product – Set of attributes and conditions a buyer expects when he buys a product(iv) Augmented product – Exceeds customer expectations(v) Potential product – Encompasses all possible augmentations and transformations the product may

undergo in the futureEg. IT Service : Basic product – Software; Exp. Product – Service; Augmented prod – SLAs, maintenance service, quality; Potential Product – move up the value chain into consulting Product Classification

Consumer Goods

Convenience Shopping Unsought Specialty

Staples Impulse Emergency Homogenous heterogenous

Product Mix Set of products and items that a seller offers for sale. Width Number of different product lines offeredLength Total number of items in the mixDepth Number of variations of each product in the lineConsistency How closely related the product lines are in end use, production requirements, distribution channels etcProduct line decisions

(i) Product-line analysis – To decide which products in a line to build, maintain, harvest or divest. Decisions are taken on the basis of Sales and Profits(categorise based on margins and volumes), and the Market Profile (product mapping to identify untapped niches).

(ii) Product-line lengthUpselling – Maruti Zen to Esteem to BalenoDownselling - Cross-selling – Banks offer services like savings, insurance, tax planning, fixed deposits Line StretchDownmarket stretch – Parker pens flooded market with low-priced pens IT companies going for BPO Bajaj Boxer that was launched as a flanker brandUpmarket stretch – Hyundai Sonata; Maruti BalenoIT companies moving into consultingTwo-way stretch – Marriot hotels; Infosys and CTS offer BPO and consulting

Line Filling – Adding more items within the present range. Beware of cannibalization and customer confusion. Just-noticeable difference needed. Eg. HLL soaps; ITC cigarettes

(iii) Line modernization, featuring and pruning

BRANDING

Brand name, term, sign, symbol, design or a combination of them to identify goods or servies of a seller and differentiate from competitorMeanings conveyed Attributes, Benefits, Values, Culture, Personality, User BeliefsResearch approaches to understand brand meaning Values

- word associations - personifying the brand Benefits- laddering up to find the brand essence

AttributesBrand identity Not built by advertising but by the brand experienceBrand Marketer’s promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits and services consistently Brand Hierarchy Unknown - Brand Awareness - Brand Acceptability - Brand preference - Brand Loyalty Brand Equity Positive differential effect that knowing the brand name has on customer response Extent to which customers are willing to pay more for the particular brand

Cult Brand Apple, Goldflake smokers in Calcutta, MatrixBrand name decisions

(i) Individual Names – Company does not tie its reputation to the product HLL – Surf, Brooke Bond, Lux, Ponds

P&G – Ariel, Pringles, Pantene(ii) Blanket family name – Strong positive association

Toshiba, Virgin, Reliance, Tata(iii) Separate family names – Used when the company is in very diversified product lines

ITC – Will Lifestyle- Sheraton – Sundrop Oil – Kitchens of IndiaRPG Group – Music World-Food World – Giant

(iv) Corporate name + individual name – Maruti, Nokia

Brand building toolsPublic relations, sponsorships, clubs and consumer communities, factory visits, trade shows, social cause marketing, event marketing, celebrity personality, high value for money etc

Brand Strategy decision Functional brand Image brand – Marlboro man, Mont Blanc pen Experiential brand – Eg. Disneyland, California winery

Line Extension Bajaj – Pulsar, Boxer, Chetak; Kelloggs cereals Higher chance of survival than brand extension

Brand Extension Beware of brand dilution Reliance – telephone, textile, oilMulti-brand Extension Protect its share and get more shelf space by setting up flanker brands HLL – Hamam, Lifebuoy, Lux Toyota – Lexus; Honda – Accura; Matsushita – National, PanasonicCo-branding MTV-Citibank cards; Allianz-Bajaj; Jet Airways-Citibank card

Top 5 brands in IndiaORGMARG conducted The Economic Times Survey of India’s Most Trusted brands :LuxColgateRinThums-UpDettolFair&Lovely

4 out of top 10 are HLL brands

Top 5 brands in the worldBusinessweek’s top 100 global brands – August 2003Criteria for selection : global in nature, deriving 20% or more of sales from outside their home country

Coca-ColaMicrosoftIBMGEIntelNokiaDisneyMcDonaldsMarlboroMercedes