Question

Hi, need help answering these business questions!

Define the term "product" and classify consumer products.

What is the difference between a product item, product line, and product mix? Give examples of each.

Share your thoughts on product warranties. How do they influence the buying decision?

Answer 1

Define the term "product" and classify consumer products.

Product can be a goods, service or idea which consists of bundle of tangible and intangible attributes which meets the consumer needs & these are received in exchange of money or some other unit value.

Consumer products are the products which are bought by the end customer for the personal use. The consumer products can be divided into four types

Convenience products :

This products are bought most frequently without much thought or planning. The example for such products are Soap, toothpastes, laundry detergents, fast food, sugar and magazines etc. Such products are usually low priced and easily available for the consumer whenever they need. Convenience products are highly market because most of the customer spending goes towards these purchase. And also the marketing of such products are challenging because there are many similar products are competing to gain the customer attention.

Shopping products: These consumer products needs consumer research & comparison of brands. Buying decision of the product mainly based on the product quality, price and style of the product. Shopping products are less frequently purchased and carefully compared, so the customer spend so much of their time and effort in collecting information & comparing the alternatives. Examples are clothing, furniture etc. Most effective marketing & advertising and heavy promotions are used to develop the brand preference & loyalty among the customer.

Specialty products : Such products have unique characteristics & brand identification for which specific group of customer is willing to make the special purchase effort. These type of consumer products needed special purchase effort , but applies only for specific customer. Example - computers. cameras. luxury cars, stereos.

Unsought products: These are the consumer products which either consumer does not know about or they does not consider buying it under normal conditions. They may be new products which do not have brand recognition . Example - certain types of insurance, pre-planned funeral services etc. Unsought products needs highest advertising, selling & marketing effort than other consumer products.

What is the difference between a product item, product line, and product mix? Give examples of each.

Product mix is set of all the products & items which a particular seller offers for the sale. It is also called as product assortment. It consists of various product lines. Example Samsung is the brand which offers mobiles, TV, washing machines, AC etc. Here TV is one product line, Mobile is another product line. Samsung offers many different products which are called as product lines, all together is called as product mix of Samsung. The product line is defined as the set of the products which are closely related and they performs the similar operations and targeted to same customer group and distributed with the help of similar distribution channel. Example- Samsung has many product line . They have different models of mobile phone which range from cheap to premium range. This type of product offering different models of different mobiles for the different group of customer is known as product line. A product item is the particular model, brand or size of the product within a line of product. Example- Armani's Slim fit suit in the chintz wool is one of the product from the line of suits.

Share your thoughts on product warranties. How do they influence the buying decision?

If the purchasing product is covered by the warranty , It will help to ensure your peace of mind. If the things do not works as expected then the warranty will allow to return, repair or replace the product. The warranty plays an important role in providing the assurance or guarantee to customer about the product.