PRODUCT CLASSIFICATION

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