Characteristics of products.

Product Levels: The

Customer-Value Hierarchy

• The fundamental level is the core benefit: the service or benefit the customer is really buying.

• At the second level, the marketer must turn the core benefit into a basic product. Thus a hotel

• At the third level, the marketer prepares an expected product, a set of attributes and conditions

• At the fourth level, the marketer prepares an augmented product that exceeds customer expectations.

• At the fifth level stands the potential product, which encompasses all the possible augmentations

Product Classifications

Marketers classify products on

the basis of durability,

tangibility, and use

(consumer or industrial).

• Staples are convenience goods consumers

• Impulse goods are purchased without any planning or

search effort.

• Emergency goods are purchased when a need is urgent.

Shopping goods are those the consumer characteristically compares on such bases as

suitability, quality, price, and style. Homogeneous shopping goods are similar in quality but different enough in price to

justify shopping comparisons.

Heterogeneous shopping goods differ in product features and services that may be more important than price.

Specialty goods have unique characteristics or brand identification for which enough buyers

Unsought goods

INDUSTRIAL-GOODS CLASSIFICATION

Materials and parts are goods that enter the manufacturer’s product completely.

C a p i t a l i t e m s a r e l o n g - l a s t i n g g o o d s t h a t f a c i l i t a t e d e v e l o p i n g o r m a n a g i n g t h e

f i n i s h e d p r o d u c t .

Supplies and

business services

S u p p l i e s a n d b u s i n e s s s e r v i c e s a r e s h o r t - t e r m g o o d s a n d s e r v i c e s t h a t f a c i l i t a t e d e v e l o p i n g

o r m a n a g i n g t h e f i n i s h e d p r o d u c t .