PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT

UNIT - I

Mukul Kumar Shrivastava

Assistant Professor, GGIMS
INTRODUCTION:
A product is any good, service, or idea that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or

need of the consumer, profitably.

The word “product” stems from the verb “produce”, from the Latin prōdūce “(to) lead or
bring forth”. Since 1575, the word “product” has been referred to anything produced.

In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a

want or need. In retail, products are called merchandise. In manufacturing, products are
purchased as raw materials and sold as finished goods. Commodities are usually raw

materials such as metals and agricultural products, but the term can also refer to anything
widely available in the open market.

In project management, products are the formal definition of the project deliverables that
form the objectives of the project.

In general, a product is defined as a “thing produced by labour or effort” or the “result of an

act or a process”.

‘Goods, Services, or Ideas:

Goods are a physical product capable of being delivered to a purchaser and involve the

transfer of ownership from seller to customer.

A service is a non-material action resulting in a measurable change of state for the purchaser
caused by the provider.

Ideas (Intellectual Property) are any creation of the intellect that has commercial value, but is

sold or traded only as an idea, and not as a resulting service or good. This includes

copyrighted property such as literary or artistic works, and ideational property, such as
patents, appellations of origin, business methods, and industrial processes.

Basic Concept of Product

Mukul Kumar Shrivastava
Assistant Professor, GGIMS
“A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or
consumption that might satisfy a want or need. It includes physical objectives, services,

person, places, organisation and ideas”. Philip Kotler

“A product is a set of tangible and intangible attributes including packaging, colour, price,
quality and brand plus the services and reputation of the seller. A product may be a tangible

goods, service, place, person or idea”. “A product should be considered as a bundle of

utilities consisting of various product features and accompanying services”. W. Anderson

A Brand is an identifying symbol, mark, logo, name, word, and/or sentence

that companies use to distinguish their product from others. A combination of one or more
of those elements can be utilized to create a brand identity. Legal protection given to a

brand name is called a trademark. In fact, the company is often referred to by its brand, and
they become one and the same.

A company's brand carries with it a monetary value in the stock market (if the company is

public), which affects stockholder value as it rises and falls. For these reasons, it's important
to uphold the integrity of the brand.

Once a brand has created positive sentiment among its target audience, the firm is said to
have built Brand Equity. Some examples of other products sold by the same

Mukul Kumar Shrivastava

Assistant Professor, GGIMS
Product Levels:
A product is more than a tangible ‘thing’ which meets the needs of a consumer and in
addition to a tangible value, this product also has an abstract value. So, Philip Kotler states

that there are five product levels that can be identified and developed in order to shape this
abstract value, he uses 5 levels in which a product is seen from the consumer’s perception.

These 5 Product Levels indicate the value that consumers attach to a product. The customer
will only be satisfied when the specified value is identical or higher than the expected value.

1. Core Product: This is the basic product and the focus is on the purpose for which the

product is intended. For example, a warm coat will protect you from the cold and the rain.
The more important benefits the product provides, the more that customers need the

product. A key element is the uniqueness of the core product. This will benefit the product
positioning within a market and effect the possible competition.

2. Generic Product: This represents all the qualities of the product. For a warm coat this is
about fit, material, rain repellent ability, high-quality fasteners, etc.

3. Expected Product: This is about all aspects the consumer expects to get when they
purchase a product. That coat should be really warm and protect from the weather and the

wind and be comfortable when riding a bicycle.

Mukul Kumar Shrivastava

Assistant Professor, GGIMS
4. Augmented Product: The Augmented Product refers to all additional factors which sets

the product apart from that of the competition. And this particularly involves brand
identity and image. Is that warm coat in style, its colour trendy and made by a well-known

fashion brand? But also factors like service, warranty and good value for money play a major
role in this. The goal is to deliver something that is beyond an expected product. It’s the

translation of the desire that is converted into reality.

5. Potential Product

This is about augmentations and transformations that the product may undergo in the

future. For example, a warm coat that is made of a fabric that is as thin as paper and
therefore light as a feather that allows rain to automatically slide down.

Five Product Levels: Marketing Strategy

For production companies, it is important to deliver products in an upward trend from ‘Core
Product’ to ‘Augmented Product’ and to have the potential to grow into the ‘Potential

Product’. Under the guise of stagnation means decline, innovative companies such
as Philips and Volkswagen focus on the latter category.

Added value of the Five Product Levels

Each level of the five product levels adds value for the customer. The more efforts

companies make at all levels, the more likely they stand a chance to be distinctive.

At the Augmented Product level, the competition is observed in order to copy certain

techniques, tricks and appearance of each other’s products. This makes it increasingly
difficult for a consumer to define the distinctiveness of a product.

To be able to tower over the competition, companies focus on factors which consumers
attach extra value to such as extreme packaging, surprising advertisements, customer-

oriented service and affordable payment terms.

This is not just about satisfying the customers and exceeding their expectations but also
about surprising them.

Mukul Kumar Shrivastava

Assistant Professor, GGIMS
Classification of Product

A product is of different types and are classified based on common characteristics.

Classification based on Usage:

This classification is based on WHO consumers the product: MAN or MACHINE.

MAN consumes the products which is further classified into Convenience goods,
Shopping goods and Speciality goods.

Convenience Products are usually low priced, easily available products that customer buys
frequently, without any planning or search effort and with minimum comparison and buying

effort.

Shopping Products are high priced (compared to the convenience product), less frequently

purchased consumer products and services.

Speciality Products are high priced branded product and services with unique features and

the customers are convinced that this product is superior to all other competing brands with
regard to its features, quality and hence are willing to pay a high price for the product.

MECHANICAL products or Industrial goods involves the materials ( raw materials such as

wood, cooper, aluminium) and parts (tiers, computer chips) , capital items such as
installations and equipment (cranes, bulldozers), accessory equipment ( hand tools,

computers, calculators), process materials (food preservatives), operating supplies ( papers,

pencils, oil).

Mukul Kumar Shrivastava

Assistant Professor, GGIMS
 Classification based on Durability:

This classification is based on WHEN the product is consumed i.e. HOW LONG the product

could be used once procured. There are Non-durable and Durable goods as well as
services.

The Non-Durable category consists of goods that are low priced and purchased frequently
such as shampoos, deodorants, etc.

The Durable goods are goods that are targeted for many uses. For this category,
more personal selling is required as well as guarantee to be provided, resulting in higher

margin. Relevant example can be the table or chair.

Classification based on Tangibility:

This classification is based on HOW the product is consumed i.e. Visibly or Invisibly.

The Intangible products are basically invisble Services rendered and are acts provided by
one party to another that are essentially intangible in nature and are usually manufactured

and consumed simultaneously. Example – Medical services, Transportation Services etc.

The Tangible products are all those items which are visible while in usage and has some
dimension. Example – Table, chair, fruit etc.

Mukul Kumar Shrivastava

Assistant Professor, GGIMS
Product Hierarchy:
Product hierarchy is the classification of a product into its essential components. It is
inevitable that a product is related or connected to another. The hierarchy of the products
stretches from basic fundamental needs to specific items that satiate the particular needs.

To understand the product hierarchy, we will have to look not at a single product but the
business as a whole. So, in this example, we can take Volkswagen as a company and we will
try to understand the Product hierarchy of Volkswagen.

1) Product need – Product need is the basic reason because of which the product exists. So
the need for cars to exist is because people want to travel. This is the basic product need

which is fulfilled by Volkswagen cars.

Mukul Kumar Shrivastava

Assistant Professor, GGIMS
2) Product family – The Product family defines the core need which the product satisfies.

When we are talking of the product family, we have to look at the complete business market
and not at the individual market. So when travel is the basic requirement, then there is an

option of Plane travel, train travel, roadways travel, travel via passenger cars or transport
vehicles. In this case, the Product family is passenger travel and the product family of

Volkswagen is Cars.

3) Product class – Product class and Product family are very similar in nature and can also

be treated as synonyms. For example – Volkswagen also manufactures bus which is a multi-
passenger transport vehicle and it also manufactures 2-seater luxury cars. Thus, when we

categorize different products within the company (and not outside the company like in
Product family) then it is known as product class. Mercedes, for example, exists in cars and

buses both predominantly. Thus, it has 2 common product classes where it is present.

4) Product line – The complete line of products within one class of products is known as the
product line. So, if we talk about Volkswagen passenger cars, then we have the Volkswagen

Polo and the Vento as well as different products within the Volkswagen product line. At the
same time, Audi is another brand owned by Volkswagen and is divided into multiple

product lines including the Q series. So, Q series is just one Product line and there would be
multiple such product lines of Audi. You can read more about product line and product mix

by clicking the link.

5) Product type – Within the Product line there are various product types. For example – If
we talk of Hyundai’s i20, then there is i20 Asta, i20 Magna as well as i20 Sportz. So i20

becomes a product type and the other models become product units.
Similarly, for any given series, within the series there are multiple models and these are the

product types. Audi’s Q6 or Q7 will also have various customized types on offer and these
are known as product types. They are offered to customers based on the budget of

customers and their requirement of features.

Mukul Kumar Shrivastava

Assistant Professor, GGIMS
6) Product unit – The final aspect in the Product hierarchy is the product unit which is also

known as the SKU. Continuing the above example, the Hyundai i20 Asta is one Product unit
and so is the Hyundai i20 Magna. So, if the product is an independent product and there is

no other product type dependent on it, then it is an individual product unit.

Whether you take Nestle, Patanjali, HUL, P&G or any such companies having multiple

products and strategic business units, you can divide the products based on the above
product hierarchy.

e- References:
https://www.marketing91.com
https://www.marketing91.com/pricing-strategies/
https://mktngmanagement.blogspot.com/2012/06/packaging-and-labeling.html
https://www.strategy-formulation.24xls.com/en620
http://eacharya.inflibnet.ac.in/data-server/eacharya

Mukul Kumar Shrivastava

Assistant Professor, GGIMS