The Marketing Mix - Product

For everyone wondering... What exactly is the Marketing Mix? ...

Well, Kotler and Armstrong (2010) define the marketing mix as “The set of controllable tactical marketing tools – product, price, place, and promotion – that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market."


The first tool that will be discussed is "Product".

What is a product?

A product can be classified as a good, service or an idea. This tool deals with "researching consumers products wants and designing a product with the desired characteristics" (Dibb et al., 2016)

There are 3 levels of Product:

• Core
• Actual
• Augmented 

There are so many products nowadays that one cannot even keep track of them all. For example, the famous and renown business, Apple, have a variety of different products on the market to choose from. They have the iPhone, the iPad, the iWatch, the iPod and multiple computers and laptops. However, when purchasing a product, there are many elements to take into consideration that come along with it!

Core – Dibb et al., (2016) describe a Core product to be "The level of a product that provides the perceived or real core benefit or service"

The Core element is not tangible, meaning its not the product itself but its the benefits the product brings with it. For example Apples iPhone's will include Core elements such as: having the newest software, a HD camera, free calls (Facetime), enhanced retina display, having a voice activated assistant (SIRI) and having the choice of downloading more than 800,000 apps on your phone (Apple, 2016).

Actual – 

Dibb et al., (2016) describe an Actual product to be "A composite of the features and capabilities offered in a product, quality and durability, design and product style, packaging and brand name."

The Actual element is the actual product itself, such as the iPhone, the iPad, the iPod, the iWatch, the laptop, the computer, the accessories etc. The brand name comes along with great importance to many consumers/customers. To many, just knowing that they have a product of Apple makes them feel part of a common community and feel as though they have a special product.

Augmented – 

Dibb et al., (2016) describe a Augmented product to be "Support aspects of a product, including customer service, warranty, delivery and credit, personnel, installation and after-sales support."

The Augmented element is the non-physical part of the product, the added value. What can influence an individual of a potential purchase is the overall level of customer service provided. Whereby when customers feel as though they are being treated right/wrong makes a huge difference to their purchase. Also, the warranty, the after-sales support and advice will be of concern to many consumers. 

                                           

The product life cycle (PLC) is defined by Dibb et al as "The four major stages through which products move" 

• Introduction
• Growth
• Maturity
• Decline

A new product is introduced into the market; it grows; it matures; and when it loses appeal and sales decline, it is terminated. (Dibb et al., 2016)

Apple's product life cycle tends to differ from the original cycle as shown above. 

Their products are typically introduced with great fanfare and sales immediately skyrocket, level off and rapidly decline as the next model is introduced in about a year. This is a marvellous approach for companies that can attain the status of a fashion icon. (Strategosinc.com, 2016)

Each year thousands of products are released yet so many fail. However despite of so many of them failing, a way to always gain success is to provide a product with a significant benefit for the customers, that way they have no other choice but to buy it... why? Because now they can say they "I Need it!"