Every conscious decision made by a company for a product

DECISIONS ABOUT Product Mix Level THE PRODUCT Product Line level TYPES DECISIONS ABOUT Functional Features THE TANGIBLE Style & Quality PRODUCT DECISIONS ABOUT Product services THE INTANGIBLE Branding & packaging PRODUCT

Product Mix Level

Product Line Level

The complete set of all products offered for sale by a company is called product mix.

A group of closely related products constitutes a product line.

WIDTH - The width of a product mix denotes the number of product lines it carries. For ex. Width= 2 (pasta and pasta sauces)

LENGTH The length of a product mix denotes the total number of brands in all of the companys product lines. For ex. Length =5 (3 pasta brands and 2 brands of pasta sauces)
DEPTH The depth of a product mix refers to average number of variants of the companys products. For ex. Depth = 4 (32 = 6 and 21 = 2) depth = 6+2=8/2=4

LENGTH Length of a product line is decided by the number of products/brands in the line. For ex. Length = 3 ( 3 pasta brands)

DEPTH Depth of a product line denotes the total no. of items under each brand in the line, in terms of variants, shades, models, pack sizes, etc. for ex. Depth = 6 (3 types of pasta brands 2 different sizes)

PL-1 (BATH SOAPS)

Dove Liril Pears Rexona Hamam Jai Moti Le Sancy

PL-2 (FABRIC WASH)

Surf Rin Wheel Sunlight Ala 501 etc.

PL-3 (BEVERAGES)
Bru Brooke Bond Red Label Lipton Green Label 3 Roses Taaza Taj Mahal Super dust etc.

PINK

25 gm

50 gm
75 gm

WHITE
BLACK

25 gm 50 gm 75 gm 25 gm 50 gm 75 gm

Which product category should we offer?

What are the groups and classes of customers for which our products are intended to serve?

Will we attempt to take a position of technical leadership or will we achieve greater success as a follower?

What are the business characteristics that each product line must meet in order to be included in the product mix?

Decision about the width of companys product mix by addition or elimination of product lines from the companys product mix

Addition Of New Product Line- Diversification

Elimination of existing product line- Divestment

What is the limit beyond which no product should be added?

What is the number of different products to be offered in the line?

What is the number of different models to be offered for each product in the line?

What are the business criteria that each product must meet in order to be included in the line?

Should we keep in the line unprofitable products in order to keep a customer happy or should we let the competitors have them?

Contraction of product line

Extension of product line

Line Stretching

Line Filling

It occurs when the company stretches its product line beyond the current range.

The aim is to enter a new price slot and a new market segment, which is not covered by the existing offers of firm the firm.

Stretching Down

Stretching Up

When a company serves the upper market, it can stretch its line downward by offering a new product in a lower price/quality. This is called stretching down.

HUL

Parker
Prestige Ariel

When a company serves the lower end of the market can make an upward stretch of its line by offering a new product in a higher price/quality.

Phillips Toyota etc.

The firm starts with its offers in the middle range and stretch both ways. It brings out offers for the upper as well as the lower ends of the market

HAIER LG SAMSUNG

It occurs when firm introduces more items to its existing line to plug certain gaps in its current range of offers. The intention is to see that it is seen as a full line company and customers do not go to competitors

Videocon CTV Videocon air conditioner

Conscious decision taken to reduce the number of items in a particular line is called line pruning.

Product quality The functional features of a product The style of the product

What level of quality should the company offer? How wide a range of quality should be represented by the companys offerings? How frequently and under what circumstances should the quality of a product (line) be altered? How much emphasis should the company place on the quality in its sales promotion?

What specific product features should be developed and made ready for the next product change?

Which of our competitors product changes should we copy?

Should we hold back certain new featuresand which ones- for possible slowdown in sales?

What product features should our company emphasize?

What should be the companys policy about the product design?

What should be the companys policy about the products induced obsolescence?

BRANDING PACKAGING PRODUCT SERVICES

A brand is a name, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them which is intended to identify the goods or services of one manufacturer or group of manufacturers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.
For ex. Nike, LG, Nestle, Godrej etc.

Strategic branding decisions

Tactical branding decisions

Individual Brand Names HUL- Dove, Lux, Pears, Lifebuoy, Liril (bathing soaps).

Surf, Rin and Wheel (detergents) Close-Up and Pepsodent (toothpastes) Fair & Lovely ( fairness cream)

HUL- Brooke Bond (tea and coffee products) Kissan (foods line) Lakme (beauty care line)

Nestle Maggi ( soups, sauces, pickles,

ketchups and jams)

Tata

Godrej

Videocon

Ranbaxy

Toyota Motors gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles are sold as Toyota Harrier in Japan ,Prius in North America. Hyundais car the Santro Xing, is given the name Atos Prime in certain overseas market.

The use of an existing brand name for entering a new product category is called brand extension.

Extended to other items in the same product line Extended to items in a related product line

Extended to items in unrelated product line

Surf Surf Ultra, Surf Excel, Surf Excelmatic, International Surf Excel, Surf Gentle

Colgate- Colgate Dental Cream, Colgate Gel, Colgate Total, Colgate Sensitive, Colgate Herbal, Colgate Cibaca

MAGGI (food brand)Maggi Noodles, Maggi Ketchup, Maggi Soup etc. NIVEA (skin care brand) Shampoo, aftershave, wrinkle lotion bath foam & baby care products

HMTMachine tools, bulbs, watches etc.

Companies add some value to an ongoing brand by improving product attributes and enhancing its overall appeal. For ex. New Horlicks, New Nescafe, New Bournvita etc.

Pepsi acquired Dukes two powerful brands Soda and Mangola. Godrej acquired GoodKnight.

A co-branding strategy is followed when a products brand bears two or more wellknown brand names. For ex. Ruffels chips with Heinz ketchup.

Selecting the brand name

Registering a trade mark

Monitoring brand acceptance

Package materials

Package aesthetics

Handling convenience

Package size

Product performance enhancing services Product life prolonging services Product risk reducing services

Decisions about the tangible/ physical service

Decisions about the intangible/augmented service

5th P of the marketing mix-Physical Evidence

facility exterior (for ex. Car park, signing)

facility interior (for ex. Lighting, temperature, interior design)

Tangibles (for ex., brochures, business documents, personnel uniforms)

How tangible should the service be?

What elements should they be used to make a service more tangible?

Which service quality dimensions should the company focus on?

How often and under which conditions change the quality of its services?

How much emphasis should the company give to service quality during sales promotion?

Decisions about the core service

Decisions about the supplementary services

Decisions about the branding

What are the basic functional characteristics of its services?

Which functional characteristics must be emphasized?

How differentiated should these characteristics be from competition?

Which process should be designed for delivering its services?

Which supplementary services would accompany the core service?

How much emphasis should be given to these supplementary services?

How differentiated will they be from competition?

Which processes should be designed for better delivering these supplementary services?

Information

Safekeeping

Order taking

Hospitality

Billing

Consultation

Payment

The types of product decisions that a manufacturing company has to take differ from those of a service company.
Product type decision at product mix and product line level. Tangible product decisions comprise functional characteristics, quality & style.

Intangible product decisions comprise branding, packaging and product services. Decisions about the physical services refer to physical evidence. Decisions for the intangible services comprise the core and supplementary services and their delivery processes