Customers do not buy products, they buy product benefits

- David Ogilvy

Good Marketing offers us a view of the world,

Bad marketing offers us a product to buy.
- Simon Sinek

Product Strategy
SUAS-MBASemII-Batch21-23-SMM
Strategic Marketing Management
Unit-III
March 2022

Text Reference:
Chapter 13, Setting Product Strategy,
Marketing Management 15th Ed. Kotler-Keller, Pearson
 Learning Objectives

Unit3: Branding & Tactical Strategies

Product Strategy
1. Product: Theodore Levitt’s Product hierarchy model
2. Product mix and Product line analysis
3. Multi-Branding Strategy
 Marketing Mix

• Product
• Price Offer Mix
• Place
• Promotion Promotion Mix
(Communication Mix)

Price

Customer
Value
Triad
Quality Service
 Product

• Product
• Anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy
a want or need, including physical goods, services,
experiences, events, persons, places, properties,
organizations, information and ideas. (10)

• Marketing planning begins with formulating an

‘offering’ to meet target customers need or wants
Customer Value Hierarchy Model

Hierarchy

Unanticipated Value

Desired Value

Expected Value

Basic Value

Core Value

Five Product Levels

 The Product Hierarchy
6. Item

5. Product
type
4. Product
line
3. Product
class
2. Product
family
1. Need
family
 Product Hierarchy

Hierarchy Level Example

Need Family Transport

Product Family Surface Transport, Seaways, Airways

Product Class Roadways, Railways, Hyperloop

Product Line Passenger Vehicles, Commercial

Vehicles
Product Type Compact, Sedan, Suv, Muv

Item Swift/ Ignis

 Product System & Product Mix

• Product System: Group of diverse but related items that function in a

compatible manner

• Product Mix or Assortment: Set of all products & items a particular seller
offers for sale
• Product Width- All the product lines on offer
• Product Length- All the products in all the lines
• Product Depth (Form, variants, fragrances/flv, size, color)
• Product Consistency
 Product Mix: HUL India (2021)
Beauty & Personal Care Home Care Food & Refreshment

Soap Skin C Hair C Oral C Fabric Kitchn/ T. Coff Food Supplem

Floor ents
Rexona Vaseline Sunsilk Close Surf Vim Taj Cornetto Boost
Up Excel Mahal
Dove GLOW Tressme Pepso Rin Cif Lipton Kwality Horlicks
& Lovely Dent Walls
Lifebuoy Lakme Bryl Wheel Domex BB Red Magnum Horlicks
Creem Label growth+

Lux Clear Clinic Sunlight PureIt BB Knorr Lite

Plus Taaza Horlicks
Axe Elle 18 Indulekh Comfort Marvella BB Anna Horlicks
a 3 Roses purna Mother
Breeze Sure Citra Love & Ultima Bru Kissan Horlicks
Care Protein+
Pears Tony Glow & Nature Hellman’s Women’s
&Guy Handsm Protect Horlicks
Hamam TIGI Ayush Pure Junior
Derm Horlicks
Liril Aviance Love, B VWash W=9 L=62 Avg L=7 Depth
Ponds & Planet

Beauty & PC= 30; Home care=11 ; Food & Refreshment= 21; Length= 62
 Expanding the Product Line

Dimension Action Example

Width Add a new Product Line EV/ Health Supplements

Length Stretch the product Line Upwards/ Downwards

Depth Add more Variants- Color/Sachets/ 1 ltr pack

Form/Fragrance/Flavor/
Color/Size
Consistency Bring in more consistency in End-use Related &
Product Line Coherent Product
Line-up
 Appraisal Of Each Product Line

• Regular Appraisal of running product lines is a must

• Reasons for Appraisal-
• Changes in Business Environment
• Customers Taste, Fashion & Preferences
• Extent of Competition
• Observe-
• Sales & profits
• Market Profile & Image
• Product Map
• Perceptual Map
 Managing Product Portfolio
Introducing new products
Increments to existing products

• Line stretching Adding variants (Depth)

• Down-market stretch New to Firm, Not to World

New to Firm, New to World
• Up-market stretch Radical Innovn
• Two-way stretch
• Line filling: Depth
• Line modernization,
featuring & pruning
 New-Product Development

• Organizing New-product development

New-product
Venture teams
department

Stage-gate Skunkworks
systems

Communities
Crowdsourcing
of practice