Products and Services

Product mix decisions

A company has several product lines has a product mix (product or compound) which consists of all product lines and items that a seller makes the sale.

The mix of products a company has four important dimensions:

Decisions of product lines

A product line is a set of products that are closely related because they function similarly, are sold to the same group of customers, marketed through the same kind of store or fall into a certain price range.

The most difficult decision of product line involves the extension of product line - the number of items from it. The extent of product line is influenced by the objectives and resources of a company:

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Decisions about products

In developing and marketing products and services some decisions must be made. These are: product attributes , establishment of brand , packaging , r ABELLING and support services and product support .

It is important to remember that when deciding on a product the company should take into account a large amount of public regulations especially in countries like Brazil, the Latin tradition, with a tradition of extending laws for much of social life.

Support services and product support

The support service and product support is a part of the company's offer to the target market, and may be a small part or a large part of total supply. They should meet the needs of customers while maintaining the company's profitability.

The company must design its support services and assistance to meet the needs of customers and regularly assess their value.

The Internet can do much to provide support services and customer support before imaginable due to costs, efficiently and inexpensively.

Labels

Labels can be attached to the labels from simple to design complex graphics products that are part of the package. At least the label identifies the product or brand. The label can also tell a lot about the product - who manufactured it, where it was produced, its contents, nutritional information, etc..

Before developing a label is important to check the legal provisions to be contained therein. Brazil has several laws and ordinances about it.

Packing

The container or wrapper is a product which may include three levels:

• primary container, the tube containing the Colgate, for example;

• secondary packaging: discarded when the product is about to be used (a small cardboard box containing the Colgate);

• transport packaging: serves to store, identify, and ship the product (a cardboard box with six dozen of the Colgate)

Now the function of packaging is more than that contain and protect the product. Now it is an important marketing tool. In fact it may be a chance that the seller has to influence the consumer.

Brand: establishment

Brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design - or a combination thereof - that identifies the manufacturer or seller of a product or service.

The consumer has the brand as part as an important part of the product and the establishment of the brand can add value to a product. Establishing brand has become so powerful that today almost nothing is sold without it.

The brand name helps consumers identify products that can benefit them. They also say something about the quality of a product - features, benefits and quality.

Brand strategy

There are four brand strategy for a company, line extensions (existing brand names extended to new shapes, sizes and flavors of a product category), brand extensions (existing brand names extended to new categories of products), multi ( added new brand names) or new brands (new brand names in new categories of products).

Figure from the book Principles of Marketing, Kotler's

Brand combined

Occurs when known brand names of different companies appear in the same product. In most enterprises marks a combined company licenses a well-established brand from another company to use in combination with one of their own brands.

The combination of brands offers many advantages. Since each one is dominant in different categories, combined they create a greater consumer appeal and heritage value. Also allow a manufacturer to extend the reach of its brand to a category that would have difficulty entering alone.

X brand manufacturers own brands

A company has four options as to the sponsorship of a brand: use a manufacturer's own brand, selling to dealers who use their own brand (retail brand or private label), trade marks or use a licensed brand combined with another company.

Establish their own brands can be difficult and the cost of holding inventory is high and promotion. However, they yield higher profit margins for dealers and give them unique products that competitors can not offer, resulting in increased traffic in the stores and more faithfully.

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