Product:: Characteristics of A Product
Product:: Characteristics of A Product
Product:: Characteristics of A Product
A product is the item offered for sale. A product can be a service or an item. Every
product is made at a cost and each is sold at a price. The price that can be charged
depends on the market, the quality, the marketing and the segment that is targeted.
Each product has a useful life after which it needs replacement, and a life cycle
after which it has been re-invented.
Characteristics of a product:
Types of product:
A company sells different products (goods and services) to its target market.
They can be classified into two groups, such as:
1. Consumer Products: Consumer products are those items which are used by
ultimate consumers.
Convenience Products:
Such products improve or enhance users’ convenience. They are used in a day to
day life. They are frequently required and can be easily purchased. For example;
soaps, biscuits, toothpaste, razors and shaving creams, newspapers, etc. They are
purchased spontaneously, without much consideration, from nearby shops or retail
malls.
Shopping Products:
These products require special time and shopping efforts. They are purchased
purposefully from special shops or markets. Quality, price, brand , fashion , style,
getup,colour , etc., are important criteria to be considered. They are to be chosen
among various alternatives or varieties. Gold and jewellery,footwear, clothes and
other durables (including refrigerator, television, wrist watches, etc.)
Speciality Products:
These are goods with unique characteristic or brand identification for which a
sufficient number of are willing to make a special purchasing effort. Consumers
have strong convictions towards the brand, style or type. Example: Cars, High end
watches etc.
Unsought Products:
These are the products available in the market but the potential buyers do not know
about its existence or they do not want to purchase them. There are two types:
● Regularly Unsought Products: The products which exist but the consumers
do not want to purchase them as of now, but might eventually purchase
them.
● New Unsought Products: The marketers’ task is to inform target consumers
of the existence of the product, stimulate demand and persuade them to buy
it. Example: Oral Polio Vaccine, which was once unsought due to heavy
promotion and persuasion by the Government has lead to eradication of
polio.
2. Industrial Products:
Industrial products are used as the inputs by manufacturing firms for further
processes on the products, or manufacturing other products. Some products are
both industrial as well as consumer products. Machinery, components, chemicals,
supplies and services, etc., are some industrial products.
Some companies, for example, electricity, cements, petrol and coals, etc., sell their
products to industrial units as well as to consumers. As against consumer products,
the marketing of industrial products differs in many ways.
Materials and Parts: These are goods that are used for manufacturing the
product. It includes raw materials, and manufactured parts and materials.
Capital items: They are the goods used in producing the finished goods. It
includes tools, machines, and computers.
Supplies and Business Services: They are goods which are required for
developing or managing the finished products. Example: Paints, lubricants,
stationery etc.
Packaging:
Packaging is the activity of designing and producing the container or wrapper for
product. It is an important and effective sales tool for encouraging the consumers
for buying. It is powerful medium for sales promotion . It must perform all the
basic function such as protection, ease of handling and storage, convenience in
usage etc and should not be deceptive and convey any deceptive message. It is the
best way of attracting the consumers for buying the products.
● Act as promotional tool: Good package can sell the product easily and
quickly as it works as a promotional tool. As a promotional tool it does self-
advertising, displaying, publishing and acts as an advertising medium. It is
the package, size, design, colour combinations and graphics that decide that
decide its ability to attract the valuable attention of customers or the
prospects.
● Allows easy product mix: Product mix relates to the product lines and an
assortment of sizes, colours, measures, grades, package types etc. Offered by
the selling house. Change in product mix can be possible as packaging helps
to influence weight, size and dimensions of the product. Packaging helps to
allow the product mix easily for the consumers.
Importance of packaging:
The importance of packaging is as follows:
Advantages of Branding:
Labelling:
Labelling is regarded as part of marketing as packing decisions involve the
labelling requirements. A label contains all the necessary information in relation to
the product. This process is called Labelling. For example, the Green Dot
corresponds to Environmental Symbol. A label for a food product must contain the
manufacturing date, expiry date , price, composition, storage conditions, etc.
Safety warnings are required on labels of all potentially hazardous products and
packages.
A good label contains the following features:
Calvin klein:
Calvin Klein is a global lifestyle brand that exemplifies bold,
progressive ideals and minimal aesthetic.After nearly 50 years, Calvin
Klein continues to be a cultural catalyst across the globe by embracing
tension, sparking ideas and creating unforeseen realities.
Calvin Klein perfume range include:
● Reveal for him and her.
● Deep Euphoria.
● Dark obsession
Gucci:
Influential, innovative and progressive, Gucci is reinventing a wholly modern
approach to fashion. Under the new vision of creative director Alessandro Michele,
the House has redefined luxury for the 21st century, further reinforcing its position
as one of the world’s most desirable fashion houses.Gucci products represent the
pinnacle of Italian craftsmanship and are unsurpassed for their quality and attention
to detail.
Gucci perfume range include:
● Bloom
● Guilty
● Envy
Dior:
The company designs and retails ready-to-wear, leather goods, fashion
accessories, footwear, jewelry, timepieces, fragrance, makeup, and skincare
products while also maintaining its tradition as a creator of recognized haute-
couture.While the Christian Dior label remains largely for women's offerings, the
company also operates the Dior Homme division for men and the baby Dior label
for children's wear. Products are sold throughout its portfolio of retail stores
worldwide, as well as through its online store.
● Pure poison
● Addict
● Miss Dior
Yardley London:
Rich and varied heritage. The fragrance that has defined Yardley London for
nearly 400 years. A succession of Royal Warrants, innovations and new products
were testament to the popularity of the quintessential English fragrance. The
Cleaver family established Yardley London, creating the soap and perfumery
business we know today. The business thrived and prospered, its famous
advertising becoming a hallmark of the times. Victorian era at its height Yardley
exported its first products to the USA, a range of English lavender soaps, naturally.
Yardley perfume range include:
● English lavender
● Flora jade
● 1770
● Charlie gold
● Charlie sunshine
● Charlie white
CONCLUSION:
A product is one that satisfies a need or want. Through satisfaction of needs,
manufactures can achieve their goals, maximize profits etc. Branding, will serve as
an aid in product recognition, promotion and over all growth over the products that
are unbranded. Packaging plays a key role in keeping the product intact and
helping in its usage. Survey results reveal that people buy perfume mainly for its
smell then brand while appearance and price are equally looked upon.
visibility of
1) Calvin Klein
2) Gucci
3)Dior
4) Yardley London
5) Charlie Revlon
DATA: In this project, Survey method has been used to collect data.