Anyone who thoroughly focuses on the conducts in a market discovers that products are at the center of marketing exchanges. Consumers buy products to solve their problems with an aim or an expectation of improving or altering their lives and existances. For instance, when someone spills some orange juice on the carpet at his/her home (the problem), he/she needs to clean the stain (altering the situation) from the carpet. He/she will look for the products (solutions) that whipes off stains.

Product is defined as anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. Products include not only goods but also services, events, persons, places, organizations, ideas, or a mixture of these.

Products have five levels , which are known as ‘customer value hierarchy’, with each level adding more customer value. Five levels of a product include; the core product, the generic product, the expected product, the augmented product and the potential product.

Core benefit of the product
• How would you describe the purpose of your product?

A core product is the fundamental need or want that consumers satisfy by consuming the product or service.

Generic product
• How would you describe the qualities of your product?

A generic product is a version of the product containing only those attributes or characteristics absolutely necessary for it to function.

Expected product
• What will your customers expect from your
product?

An expected product is about all aspects the consumer expects to get when he/she purchases a product.

Augmented product
• What sets your product apart from its competitions?

Augmented product is the inclusion of additional features, benefits, attributes or related services that serve to differentiate the product from its competitors.

Potential product
• What transformations may your product undergo in the future?

Potential product includes all augmentations and transformations the product might undergo in the future.

The product hierarchy stretches from basic needs to particular items that satisfy those
needs. We can identify six levels of the product hierarchy.

Need Family
• The product need is the primary reason for the existence of a product.

Product Family
• All the product classes that can satisfy a core need with reasonable effectiveness. In
product family, the core need satisfied by a product is the focus. 

Product Class
• A group of products within the product family recognized as having a certain functional coherence, also known as product category.

Product Line
• Product line is a group of products within a product class that are closely related because they perform a similar function, sold to the same customer groups, marketed through the same outlets or channels, or that fall within given price ranges.

Product Type
• A group of items within a product line that share one of several possible forms of the product.

Item or Product Variant
• A distinct unit within a brand or a product line distinguishable by size, price, appearance or some other attributes.

Products fall into three groups according to durability and tangibility:

1. Non-durable goods are tangible goods normally consumed in one or a few uses, such as cold drinks, shampoo and foods.

2. Durable goods are tangible goods that normally survive many uses, such as cars, washing machines, and household appliances.

3. Services are intangible, inseparable, variable, and perishable products that normally require more quality control, supplier credibility and adaptability.

Consumer products are products and services bought by final consumers for personal consumption.

Consumer products can be further classified into convenience products, shopping products, speciality products and unsought products. These products differ in the ways consumers buy them, and therefore, in how they are marketed.

Convenience products are consumer products that the customers buy frequently, immediately, and with a minimum comparison and buying effort.

Shopping products are products that a customer feels are worth the time and effort to compare with competing products.

Speciality products are products for which customers plan the purchase with great care, know exactly what they want, and will accept no substitutes.

Unsought products are either those about which customers are not aware, and thus don’t seek, or those that are known to but ignored by customers.

Industrial products are those purchased for further processing or for use in conducting a business. The big difference in the industrial products market is derived from the demand for final consumer products.

Industrial products can be classified into three groups of materials and parts, capital items, and supplies and services.

Materials and parts are goods that enter manufacturer’s product completely. This group includes raw materials and manufactured materials and parts.

Capital items are industrial products that aid in the buyer’s production or operations including installations and accessory equipment.

Supplies include operating supplies (lubricants, coal, paper, pencils) and repair and maintenance items (paint, nails, brooms).

The concept of a product includes other special products over and above tangible ones. They are services (airlines, hotels, hospitals), events (sporting events, festivals), organizations (Universities, museums, performing arts organisations), persons (artists, musicians, physician etc.), places (cities, regions, whole nations), ideas (remember the famous quotation by the founder of Revlon “In the factory, we make cosmetics; in the store we sell hope.”).

The product mix, also called product portfolio, is the full range of products offered by a firm.

The product mix of a company has four important dimensions:

• Product mix width

Product mix width refers to all the number of different product lines a company carries.

• Product mix length

Product mix length refers to the total number of items a company carries within its product lines.

• Product mix depth

Product mix depth refers to the number of versions offered for each product in the line.

• Product mix consistency

Product mix consistency refers to how closely various product lines are related to one another in terms of end use, production requirements, distribution channels, or some other way.

A brand is something (name, symbol, design, or other element) that identifies one seller’s product and differentiates it from all others.

Branding poses challenging decisions to the marketer. The important brand decisions involve brand positioning, brand name selection, brand sponsorship, and brand development.

Line extensions involve introduction of additional items in a given product category under the same brand name, such as new flavours, forms, colours, ingredients, package sizes, etc. Majority of new product launches by companies are line extensions.

On the other hand, brand extention means extending a current brand name to new or modified products in a new category. This is a powerful tool in brand development and management. It helps new products to acquire instant brand recognition, and faster acceptance.

Packaging is often the most important and most overlooked aspect of marketing. In the
last 10 seconds before the purchasing decision, consumers view packaging as a motivation to buy. Packaging involves designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product.

Developing new product ideas – and affective strategies to go with them – is often the key to a firm’s success and survival. But this is not easy and involves a series of steps which the organisation must carry out. These steps are summarised as:

• Idea generation
• Idea Screening
• Consept development and testing
• Business analysis
• Product development
• Test marketing
• Commercialization or launch

The consumer adoption process deals with the process by which the marketers try to understand how the potential customers try and come to learn about new products, new concepts, and new services offered by organizations.

The steps in the adoption process include:

(1) Awareness stage: The consumer becomes aware of the innovation but lacks information about it.

(2) Interest stage: The consumer is stimulated to seek information about the innovation.

(3) Evaluation stage: The consumer considers whether to try the innovation.

(4) Trial stage: The consumer tries the innovation to improve his or her estimate of its value.

(5) Adoption stage: The consumer decides to make full and regular use of the innovation.

There is a view that products like people, live a life. They are born, they grow up, they mature, and eventually, they die. A product life cycle is divided into five major stages: pre-introduction stage, introduction stage, growth stage, maturity stage, and decline stage.

In the pre-introduction phase, the product is not yet offered for sale, there are no revenues, profits, or market share.

In the introduction phase, large budgets must be separated for promotion because it is the first time of product–market meeting.

In the growth stage, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the product and word of mouth is starting to spread.

In the maturity stage, the product achieves as much as it is going to. This is probably the most competitive time for most products and businesses need to invest wisely in any marketing efforts they undertake.

In the decline stage, the product reaches its saturation point, new products replace the old. In this case, the price can start increasing, though the number of sales will decline.

There have been some criticisms of the concept and its application. The key criticisms of the PLC concept are;

Misleading strategy prescriptions: The product life cycle is a dependent variable that is determined by the marketing mix; it is not an independent variable to which firms should adapt their marketing programmes.

Fads: Not all products follow the classic product life cycle curve. Fads are fashions that are adopted very quickly by the public, peak early and decline very fast.

Unpredictability: The duration of the product life cycle stages is unpredictable. Critics charge that markets can seldom tell what stage the product is in.