#4 Products & Services

Question 1

What is a product/service?

Answer 1

Product: anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or a want

Service: a form of product that consists of activities, benefits or satisfactions offered that are intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything

Question 2

What is the product-service continuum?

Answer 2

Pure tangible good, tangible good with accompanying service, hybrid offer, service with accompanying good, service

Question 3

Levels of a product

Answer 3

Core product, actual product, augmented product

Question 4

Product Classifications

Answer 4

Consumer

• convenience
• shopping
• specialty
• unsought

Industrial

• raw materials
• capitalising goods
• services

Others

• organisation
• people
• places
• ideas

Question 5

What are Individual Product Decisions

Answer 5

PBLPP

1. Product Attributes
   - Product quality, features, style & design
2. Branding
   - Brand Name: selection & protection
   - Brand Sponsor: national, store, licensed, co-branding
   - Brand strategy: product category vs brand name (line extension, brand extension, multi-brands, new brands)
3. Labelling
   - identify, describe, promote
4. Packaging
   - establish a brand, to support positioning
5. Product Support Services
   - survey customers to access the value of current services
   - assess the costs of providing services
   - develop a package of services to delight customers

Question 6

What is the Product Line? How to make Product Line Decisions?

Answer 6

Product Line: number of items in a product line

• Stretching: lengthen beyond current range (downward or upward)
• Filling: lengthen within the current range

Question 7

Product Mix Decisions

Answer 7

• Width: number of different product lines
• Length: total number of items in the product
• Depth: number of versions of the product

Question 8

Nature of Service

Answer 8

1. Intangible
2. Inseparable
3. Variability
4. Perishability

Question 9

Service-Profit Chain

Answer 9

Internal Service Quality
Satisfied and Productive Service Employees
Greater Service Value 
Satisfied and Loyal Customers 
Healthy Service and Profit Growth

Question 10

Marketing Strategies for Service Firms

Answer 10

1. Marketing Service Differentiation
2. Managing Service Quality
3. Managing Service Productivity