Product Definition
|
|
Products are things that can be offered by manufacturers to note, asked, sought, bought, used, or consumed as fulfilling the needs of the market or the relevant market wants. Products offered include physical goods (such as motorcycles, computers, TV, text books), services (restaurants, lodging, transportation), people or individual (Madonna, Tom Hanks, Michael Jordan), where (Kuta Beach, Lake Toba) organization (Association of Indonesian Accountants, Boy Scouts, the United Nations), and the idea (Family Planning). Thus, the product can be tangible or intangible benefits that can satisfy the customer.
Concept, Level, and the Product Hierarchy
Conceptually, the product is the manufacturer’s subjective understanding of something that could be offered as an attempt to achieve organizational goals through the fulfillment of consumer wants and needs, in accordance with the competence and capacity of the organization and the market’s purchasing power. In addition, the product can also be defined as consumer perceptions described by the manufacturer through their products. In more detail, the concept of total product includes goods, packaging, brand, label, service, and warranty.
In planning or product offerings, marketers need to understand the five levels of products, namely:
Main Products / Products Core – Core Benefit
Core products have real benefits will be required and consumed by customers of each product. In the hotel business, purchased the main benefits of the guests are ‘rest and sleep’. For cinema, the audience actually buy ‘entertainment’.
Generic Products
Generic product is the basic product functions that can fulfill the most basic products (at least the product design in order to function). For example, the hotel is a building that has many rooms for rent.
Expected Products
Product expectations is a formal product offered by various attributes and condition as normal (proper) is expected and agreed to be bought. For example, hotel guests expect a clean bed, soap and towels, warm water, telephone, wardrobe, and tranquility.
Complementary Products – Augmented Product
Complementary products is a variety of product attributes or added features and benefits
services, so as to provide additional satisfaction and can be distinguished by a competitor product. For example, hotels can add TV facilities, shampoo, fresh flowers, check in and check-out fast, good room service, and others.
Potential Products
Potential products are all kinds of additions and changes that may be developed for a product in the future. Eg hotels add internet service facilities, video recorder with video cassette, a plate of fresh buahbuahan, and so on.
Each product is a hierarchical relation with certain products other. This product hierarchy starting from the basic requirement to certain items that can satisfy those needs. Product hierarchy of seven levels, namely:
1. Need family, the needs of core that forms product family. For example, a sense of security.
2. Product family, the entire class of products that can satisfy a core requirement / basis with an adequate level of effectiveness. For example, savings and income.
3. Product class is a set of products in the product family which is considered to have a certain functional relationship. For example, financial instruments.
4. Product line, which is a set of products in the classroom closely related products. For example, life insurance. This close relationship could be due to one of the following four factors, namely:
a. Same function.
b. Sold to the same customer groups.
c. Marketed through the same distribution channels.
d. The price is in the same scale.
5. Product types are the items in a product line that has a particular form of the many possible forms of the product. For instance term life insurance.
6. Brand, the name that can be connected / associated with one or more items in product lines that are used to identify the source or character of the item. For example, insurance Bumi Putera.
7. Items, namely a special unit within a brand or product lines that can be distinguished by size, price, appearance, or other attributes. Usually called also stockkeeping unit or product variant. For example, Asuransi Jiwa Bumi Putera renewable.