PRODUCT DECISIONS

1. PRODUCT DECISIONS: Product decisions include followings.

1.1 INDIVIDUAL PRODUCT DECISIONS:

Companies have to develop strategies for the items of their product-lines. Marketers make individual product decisions for each product including: product attributes decisions, brand, packaging, labeling, and product-support services decisions.

a) Product Attributes: Developing a product or service involves defining the benefits that it will offer. These benefits are communicated to and delivered by product attributes such as quality, features, style and design.

i. Product Quality: Product quality is the ability of a product to perform its functions; it includes the product's overall durability, reliability, precision, case of operation and repair and other value attributes. Product quality includes level and consistency. Quality level is the level of quality that supports the product’s positioning. Conformance quality is the product’s freedom from defects and consistency in delivering a targeted level of performance

ii. Product features: A product can be offered with varying features. The company can create higher models by adding more features. Features are a competitive tool for differentiating the company's product from competitor's products. Product features are assessed based on the value to the customer versus the cost to the company.

iii. Product style and design: Another way to add customer value is through distinctive product style and design. Product is design is an elusive blend of form and function, quality and style, art and engineering.

b) Branding:
i. Brand: 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. Consumers view a brand as an important part of a product, and branding can add value to a product.

ii. Brand Equity: It is the value of a brand, based on the extent to which it has high brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, strong brand associations, and other assets such as patents, trademarks, and channel relationships. Powerful brand names command strong consumer preference and are powerful assets. Measuring the actual equity of a brand name is difficult.

c) Packaging: Packing means putting article into small packets, boxes or bottles for sale to ultimate consumers or for transport. The container is called the package, and it might include up to three levels of material. Old Spice aftershave lotion is in a bottle (primary package) that is in a cardboard box (secondary package) that is in a corrugated boxing (shipping package) containing six dozen boxes of Old Spice. The following factors have contributed to packaging’s growing use as a potent marketing tool:

• Self-service
• Consumer affluence
• Company and brand image
• Innovation opportunity
  

d) Labeling: Labeling is defined as a slip or tag attached with the product or with its package which provides necessary information about the product and its producer.

Labels may range from simple tags attached to products to complex graphics that are part of the package. At the very least, the label identifies the product or brand. It might also describe several things about the product that made it, where it was made, when it was made, its contents, how it is to be used and how to use it safety.

Contrary to common perception that these two processes are all about creating an image and decent presentation of a product, packaging and labelling have more relevant purpose and objectives. These include physical protection of product from destructive things that may spoil or ruin it, e.g. temperature, shock, vibration, etc. Other purposes include containment convenience, marketing, security, and dissemination of information about the use, transportation, storage or disposal of the product.

Designing the labels and packages of products require careful planning. Moreover, there are consumer safety regulations that every businesses should follow. It is the responsibility of every product manufacturer to respects these rules. Thus, before you start designing product labels and packaging, it makes good business sense to know what laws will affect you and what kind of materials will best suit your product.

Kinds of labels: There are four kinds of labels: 

1) Brand Label: It gives the brand name or mark. 

For example; Britannia Biscuits, Vicks Vaporub etc.
2) Grade Label: It gives grade or quality of the product by a number, letter or words.
For example, A grade, B grade or 1 and 2 category based on quality.
3) Descriptive Label: It gives details of product, its functions, price, warnings etc.
4) Information Label: It provides maximum information about the product. It contains fuller instructions on the use and care of the product.

1.2 PRODUCT LINE DECISION:

We have looked at product strategy decisions such as branding, packaging, labelling and support service for individual products and service. But product strategy also calls for building a product line.

Product line: Product line group of products which are closely related because they function in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same type of outlets, or fall within given price ranges.

Product lining is the marketing strategy of offering for sale several related products. Unlike product bundling, where several products are combined into one, lining involves offering several related products individually. A line can comprise related products of various sizes, types, colours, qualities, or prices.

Line depth refers to the number of product variants in a line.
Line consistency refers to how closely relate the products that make up the line are.
Line vulnerability refers to the percentage of sales or profits that are derived from only a few products in the line. If a line of products is sold with the same brand name, this is referred to as family branding.
Line stretching occurs when a firm lengthens its product line.
– Down Market Stretch: a firm introduces a lower price line. e.g. Kodak
– Up Market Stretch: company enters the high end of the market for more growth, higher margins, or to position itself as a full-line manufacturer. E.g. Toyota launched Lexus; Nissan launched Infinity; and Honda launched Acura
– Two – Way Stretch: Companies that serve the middle market can stretch their product lines in both directions, as the Marriott Hotel group did. Alongside its medium-price hotels, it added the Marriott Marquis to serve the upper end of the market, the Courtyard to serve a lower segment, and Fairfield Inns to serve the low-to-moderate segment.

Product Line Extension: Not a modified in their characteristics product, but a total new one, added to an organization's product line produces an extension of that product line.

Line filling is the type of product line extension to introduce new version of existing product in the market.

Line Featuring: A strategy in which certain items in a product line are given special promotional attention, either to boost interest (at the lower end of the line) or image (at the upper end)

Line Pruning: There is a tendency for product lines to lengthen over time. Hence a review must be carried out regularly. This review is what is termed as product line pruning. Product line pruning may also be defined as a method of shortening the product line by dropping a few items from the present product range.

1.3 PRODUCT MIX DECISION:
An organization with several product lines has a products mix. A product mix or product assessment consists of the entire product for sale. Product mix is an organization creates many products and, of course, sells them. So, the product mix is everything organization sells.

The product mix of an individual company can be described in terms of width, length, depth, and consistency.
The width refers to how many different product lines the company carries.
The length refers to the total number of items in the mix.
The depth of a product mix refers to how many variants of each product are offered.
The consistency of the product mix refers to how closely relate the various product lines are in end use, production requirements, distribution channels, or some other way.
Product differentiation involves developing and promoting an awareness in the minds of customers that the company‘s products differ from the products of competitors. This is made by using trade-mark, brand name, packaging, labeling etc.

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