Several
product classification systems have been devised for the efficient marketing of products and services.
In the first place, all products and services can be broadly grouped into
two major classes on the bases of the types of consumers that use them. These classes are: consumer products
and industrial products. In the second place, these two groups are
further subdivided into various subgroups
CONSUMER PRODUCT
These are
goods or services bought by the final consumer for personal consumption, in such a form that they may be used
without further commercial processing.
The purpose of the marketing process is the satisfaction of consumers.
Hence, to develop and market products effectively, it is necessary to
know how customers feel about the products most especial y their basis of
choice. It follows from here that any sub-division of consumers goods should be
based on consumer behaviour. In this regard, all customer goods can be separated
into four categories.
( a)Convenience products
A closer examination of these categories of products will reveal that they differ in the ways consumers buy them, hence there are differences in how they are marketed.
CONVENIENCE PRODUCTS
Convenience products are those
products and services for which the probable gain from making price and quality
comparisons is thought to be small relative to the value of the customer in time
and efforts Examples include cigarettes, soap, newspapers, magazines, chewing gums and most grocery
products. These products
are frequently and readily purchased, require little service or selling efforts,
are not very expensive, and may even be bought by habit.
Convenience
products can be subdivided further into three types, based primarily on how
customers think about and buy such products:
(i )Staples products
( i i i ) Emergency products.
Staples: Staples such as food and drug items
used regularly in every household, are usually bought without much
thought beyond the initial decision to buy such products. Staples are usual y
purchased frequently. Here branding
becomes important since brand
recognition or preference helps the customer reduce his shopping effort.
In addition, if prices change occasionally on these items, he does not need to reconsider which items to
purchase, since he can make do with familiar ones.
Usually, staple items are offered for
sale in many convenient places because of customers’ reluctance to search very
far. Hence, they an found mostly in food stores, drugstores, supermarkets
etc.
Impulse Products:- These are products which customers typically do not seek, they are
often purchased with little planning or search effort. These products
are normally widely available. This is why candy bars, magazines, etc are
placed next to checkout counters in many stores since shoppers may not otherwise think of buying them.
It has been
observed that as the income and buying power of customers grow, the number of impulse items seems to
the expanding. We should however note that not all impulse items are purchased
for emotional reasons alone. To be sure, these products may satisfy both
emotional and economic motives.
Emergency Products:- These are purchased only when the
need is urgent, and are thus purchased less frequently. Considerations for
price and quality are of little importance if the need is immediate enough.
Examples include ambulance services, umbrellas or raincoats during a rainstorm.
SHOPPING PRODUCTS
Shopping product are those for which the probable gain from making price,
style, suitability and quality comparisons is thought to be large relative to
the time and effort needed to shop properly for these products. Consumers spend
much time and efforts in gathering information and making comparisons when buying shopping product. Examples
include furniture, clothing, used cars, and major appliances.
Shopping products can be subdivided into two classifications, depending
on what customers are seeking;
(1) homogenous and (2) heterogeneous.
Homogenous Shopping products are seen by the
consumer to be similar in quality
but different enough in price to justify shopping comparison. Examples
here include refrigerators, television sets, and automobiles. Thus, each
competitor has an almost perfect elastic demand curve. In such a case, a slight
price cut would substantially increase sales volume, therefore, we might expect price competition among the
various competitors in the market.
Heterogeneous:-Shopping products are seen by the consumer as nonstandardized,
hence wants to inspect for quality and suitability because the product features are more important
than price.
It is important therefore
that a seller of heterogeneous shopping products carry a wide assortment to
satisfy individual tastes. In addition, the seller must have well-trained
salespeople to give information and advice to customers since they often
prefer to be guided. Furthermore, draperies, dishes and clothing are good
examples of this category of shopping product.
Speciality products
Speciality products are those consumer products with unique
characteristics or brand identification for which or significant group of
buyers is willing to make a special purchase effort. The special effort the
consumer makes is not to compare the product with others, but merely to locate
it, hence searching in the shopping products sense does not take place here.
Specialty products are usually
specific branded items rather than product categories, i.e. they are specific products which have
passed the brand preference stage and reached the brand insistence
stage. For instance, consumers have been observed asking for a drug product by its brand name, and when
offered a substitute actually leaving the store in anger.
Some well-advertised food and drug products seem to have carved out a market for
themselves. If they achieve the brand insistence stage, we refer to them as
speciality products. The demand for speciality products is relatively inelastic
at least within reasonable price ranges since customers are willing to insist
upon the product. Typical examples of speciality products include specific
brands and types of cars, high-priced photographic equipment and custom-made men’s suits.
UNSOUGHT PRODUCTS
These are consumer products that the consumer
either does not know about or knows about, but does not normal y think of buying. There seem to be two types
of unsought products: Almost all new products in the introductory stages may be
classified as “Unsought” until the consumer becomes aware of
them through advertising.
Yet there are some consumer products that seem to perpetually remain unsought for
the majority of potential customers. Aggressive and continuous promotion is, therefore, necessary for both types to move new products out of this
category and simply to sell the later group (which very often never gets out of the introductory
stage). Examples of unsought products include life insurance,
encyclopedias, and blood donation to the Red Cross.
INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS
Industrial products are those purchased for further processing or for use in conducting a business. When this description is compared with that of consumer products, it would be seen that the distinction between then is simply based on the purpose for which the particular product was bought.
For example, if a consumer buys a camcorder for the recording of important event for personal and private use, the camcorder is seen as a consumer product If on the other hand, the consumer buys the same camcorder for the recording of events such as wedding, funeral, birthdays with the intention of receiving financial rewards, this camcorder is considered an industrial product.
The industrial product can be classified
into three groups:
( a ) Materials and parts
(b )
( c)Supply and services
MATERIALS AND PARTS
These are industrial products that enter
the manufacturer’s product completely, including raw materials and manufactured materials and parts.
Raw Materials include farm products (e.g. Maize, wheat, cot on,
cocoa beans, livestock, fruits, vegetables etc) and are supplied by many small producers who turn them over to
marked intermediaries that process and sell them. The other component of raw
materials are natural products (e.g. lumber, fish, crude petroleum, iron ore
etc). They usually have great bulk and low unit value, and require a lot of
transportation to move them from producer to user. They are also supplied by
fewer but lager producers, who often tend to supply these products directly to industrial
users.
Manufactured materials consist of component materials
(e.g. yam, cement, wires, iron etc) and component parts (e.g. castings,
engines, tires, bulbs etc).
CAPITAL ITEMS
SUPPLIES AND SERVICES
CONCLUSION
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Production is the first and the most important element
in the marketing mix. A product can be defined as a set of tangible and
intangible attributes, including packaging, colour, price, quality and brand,
plus the seller’s services and reputation. A product may be a good, service,
place, person or idea. In essence, then, consumers are buying much more than a
set of physical attributes when they buy a product. They are buying want
satisfaction in the form of the benefits they
expect to receive from the product.
Recap
To manage its products effectively, a
firm’s marketers must understand the full meaning of a product, which stresses
that consumers are buying want satisfaction. Products can be classified
into two basic categories i.e., consumer products and industrial products. Each
category is then subdivided, because a different marketing program is required for each distinct group of
product.
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