Product Meaning

A product consists of a bundle of utilities involving various product features and accompanying services.

These utilities are created by a set of tangible, physical and chemical attributes assembled in an easily identifiable form. The product has a descriptive name and a brand name for easy identity.

A product can range from being a high-end customized offer like Ferrari Cars to very generic merchandise like detergent soap.

From the sophisticated patio furniture set to the toothpaste you use-everything falls under the definition of a product. Services are also sometimes highly customized to individual needs, like a legal service or a doctor treating a patient.

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But just like products, in many other occasions it is generic and catering to the need of the mass. Movies shown in a movie theatre is a good example of generic services or for that matter, electric supply provided at your home.

Product Meaning

Product Meaning (With Definitions)

It is necessary to see the product from a market perspective, rather than in solely physical or company-centred terms – a mistake often made by production-dominated companies.

This is certainly reflected in one of the most useful of definitions, the one proposed by the American Marketing Association who define a product as-

Anything which can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition or consumption including physical objects, services, personalities, organisations and desires.

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Our definition is more focused on what the customer perceives a product to be, so that a working definition might be-

Everything that the customer receives that is of value in terms of a perceived want, need or problem.

Though rather broad and vague, such a definition allows that:

1. Customers vary in their needs, wants and problems, and how they perceive them – there may be scope for varying product offerings in the market.

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2. Some products may appear to customer’s better value or more attractive, for various reasons, almost irrespective of producer intentions or objective measures of quality or product input.

3. Some product offerings will not make the grade with customers, and will fail commercially. Others may survive as weaker or marginal products, while a few, the classical ‘brand leaders’, will gain commanding market shares.

The term product applies not only to physical products, but also to services and other intangibles such as causes and ideas. For example, the major charity organisations such as Oxfam and Save the Children are as actively involved in making product offerings as the ubiquitous widget manufacturer in the West Midlands!

Even in the case of an everyday physical product such as washing-up liquid, there will be intangible extras and associations that are offered in addition to the outward product, e.g., the quality assurance of a known brand name and manufacturer source.

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Simply stated, the marketer needs to view the product as a multidimensional offering, a mix of tangible features and intangible services and attributes, bundled around a basic or core benefit.

The basic product represents the essential service or benefit on offer, e.g., an easily applied scuff-resistant shoe polish for children’s shoes. Usually the basic product will get to the most essential benefit of value to the customer, expressed in a product form. The real product will comprise the basic product and an additional ‘layer’ of tangible features that make up the listed product or service, e.g., design and colour, quality specification, brand name.

The total product will add to the listed product a number of intangible extras that augment the offering by adding utility through services (e.g., delivery, customer service), and perhaps subtle qualities and assurances of distinctive value to the customer.

It is probably worth noting that, in an era of increasing buyer sophistication and market competitiveness, marketing success is more likely to be achieved by those companies that manage to develop competitive advantage through original service offerings and combinations associated with the ‘penumbra’ of the total product and the potential it offers for development and differentiation. Alternatively stated, the critical part of the value chain has shifted from the base product and the production process, to the wider product and the extended organisation that supports it.

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The difficulty of separating the product from the product offering is even greater when considering well-known branded manufactured products.

Providing it is accepted that as a marketing concept the term product can refer equally to the essential need-satisfying object or service, or to this plus the other factors which make up a total product offering, the potential this subject has for confusion can be effectively eliminated.

Although most of the accepted definitions of a product were probably intended to refer to the need-satisfying object or service component of the product offering, in practice it will be seen that they apply equally to a product offering.

Product Meaning (With Concepts)

A product consists of a bundle of utilities involving various product features and accompanying services.

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These utilities are created by a set of tangible, physical and chemical attributes assembled in an easily identifiable form.

The product has a descriptive name and a brand name for easy identity.

Philip Kotler recognized three distinct concepts in a product.

They are:

1. Tangible product (represents the physical entity of the product).

2. Extended product (represents the services a product could render to the users).

3. Generic product (represents the benefits a buyer can get by buying the product), for example, refrigerator.

A single product may have different meanings to different users, For example, to some smokers; a cigarette is a means of comfort. Some others view it as an outlet for nervous tension.

Product acts as a tool to achieve corporate objectives, and it satisfies customers need.

Product Meaning (With Classifications)

The term “product” refers to any object or service that is capable of being created and sold at a price and which serves human need or satisfies a want. In short, a product is any commodity or service, offered for sale. It can be in physical or virtual form. Thus, a product has a combination of tangible and intangible benefits, features, functions, and uses.

It is because of these attributes that the customer buys the product. Examples of tangible products are bathing soap, shirt, a can of soft-drink, etc. Intangible products or better known as “services” can be in the form of medical advice from a doctor, or legal advice from a lawyer.

A product can range from being a high-end customized offer like Ferrari Cars to very generic merchandise like detergent soap. From the sophisticated patio furniture set to the toothpaste you use-everything falls under the definition of a product. Services are also sometimes highly customized to individual needs, like a legal service or a doctor treating a patient. But just like products, in many other occasions it is generic and catering to the need of the mass. Movies shown in a movie theatre is a good example of generic services or for that matter, electric supply provided at your home.

The products can broadly be classified on the basis of three factors which are as follows:

(A) Durability,

(B) Consumer Products, and

Product – Product is the first and most important element of the marketing mix. A Product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. It includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations and ideas.

Service – Any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.

Generic differences between products and services – There are generally four generic differences which distinguish services from products –

(a) Intangibility – it is difficult to have ownership on service

(b) Heterogeneity (variability) – it is difficult to imitate a service

(d) Simultaneity of production and consumption – participation of consumer in the process of service generation.

Product Meaning (With Features)

Usually the basic product will get to the most essential benefit of value to the customer, expressed in a product form. The real product will comprise the basic product and an additional ‘layer’ of tangible features that make up the listed product or service, e.g., design and colour, quality specification, and brand name.

It is probably worth nothing that, in an era of increasing buyer sophistication and market competitiveness, marketing success is more likely to be achieved by those companies that manage to develop competitive advantage through original service offerings and combinations associated with the ‘penumbra’ of the total product and the potential it offers for development and differentiation.

Alternatively stated, the critical part of the value chain has shifted from the base product and the production process, to the wider product and the extended organisation that supports it.

The consumer who buys a drill does not generally do so for the pleasures of owning a drill but in order to have a facility to make holes in things. Focusing too much attention on the product itself can lead an organisation into the marketing myopia trap. When thinking about products it is necessary to think in terms of the needs that the product fulfils.

Any product can be thought of in terms of a number of different layers above and beyond the basic consumer need that is being satisfied. For any particular type of product, there are certain basic or essential features, and these are likely to be identical across all products. Thus for example, all cars must provide a means of transport. These basic features can be thought of as the core or generic product.

However, at this level, all products are effectively the same. Differentiation begins to appear at the next layer-often described as the tangible or expected product. At this stage various features, which might be regarded as desirable from the point of view of the consumer, are added to the product.

These features will include brand names, certain types of packaging, different quality levels and other additional, nonessential features. It is typically at the level of the tangible or expected product that the greatest competition between different suppliers will emerge.

There is also a third layer in the product concept, that of the augmented product. The augmented product covers the additional aspects of the product offering, which go beyond what consumers might generally expect and hence provides a basis for the organisation to gain a competitive edge. Features of the augmented product are often in the form of customer service facilities.

Product Meaning (With Examples)

It is very difficult to define a product. The reason behind is the difficulty that the same product may have a different significance for the people of different nations. One product may be a necessity in one country whereas it may be a luxurious for the people of other country. Thus in order to serve an operational purpose the definition of product should be comprehensive.

A product is a set of attributes that satisfies a customer demand. It may be in the tangible form or in the form of service or idea. For example the attributes of a car are its model, fuel economy, speed, space, its engine etc. A person all around the world would prefer different set of attributes, while buying a model of car for himself.

The selling of a product to a customer also denotes the satisfaction level. A customer also buys satisfaction along with a product. The customer satisfaction is derived from the product attributes, other product features and characteristics. Therefore while defining the product objectives it must be defined in terms of the consumer needs for which the product is designed to satisfy them.

Thus a product cannot be defined in terms of its physical characteristics, but it must be defined in terms of the needs. It should be studied in the consumer’s terms and not in the manufacturer’s terms. If it is being defined in terms of consumer needs, the needs should be studied, not only in economic or physical terms but also in terms of social-psychological needs.

For example, a woman’s dress is seldom a functional objective. It may fulfill up to certain extent, the physiological needs of certain cases and in some cases, it may be for preservation of modesty. It is fulfilling psychological as well as social needs. The customer does not get only physical satisfaction from their functional aspects but also socio-psychological satisfaction.

It is from the attributes about their appearance and style, their perception about the image of the product etc. Therefore it is not justified to define a product on the basis of its features. Thus the concept of a product should include the assessment of social and psychological needs and their satisfaction and it must involve its functional aspects.

A product is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or need. Products that are marketed include physical goods, services, events, people, ideas, information, places, properties and organisations.

Products are tangible, intangible or both. Products of manufacturing units like pens; cameras, phones, cosmetics etc., are tangible products whereas products of the service industry are intangible. An example of intangible services is the feeling of motivation after hearing a motivational speaker.

A product may be a good plus service too. In such a case it is both tangible as well as intangible for example the food that you eat in a restaurant is the tangible product, whereas the feeling of eating in the luxurious atmosphere of the hotel is the intangible product.

Nowadays most products come in a dual package of good plus service and hence most products are both tangible as well as intangible. In fact a ‘Product’ means not just the physical product but includes all the services both before and after sales services, and the prestige that is felt upon the ownership of the product.

A product is a bundle of all kinds of satisfaction both material and non-material, ranging from economic utilities to socio- psychological satisfaction. It is thus a bundle of physical, service and symbolic particulars expected to give satisfaction or benefit to the consumer.

Product Meaning

As every person uses a number of products in his day to day life, he shall be undoubtedly well known to the product. However, this term i.e., product can hardly defined by a common man when we intends to its commercial meaning. It is so because there is wide difference in the meaning of product as we understand it in common parlance and when it is used in the field of marketing.

It has inclusive meaning in marketing. The meaning of product in general is – “a thing with physical and chemical properties and which has an identifiable shape”. It is in fact, a narrow meaning of a product. Every product category has a universally descriptive name like steel, car, shoes, toothpaste etc.

In the field of marketing the product is applied in its wider meaning every brand under it is a distinct product. For example, “Surf” and “Wheel” detergent powders will be said separate products, while both powders in narrow meaning are only one product. When we analyse in little more depth, surf powder in its several sizes and packets as available in the market are distinct products from the angle of marketing.

Similarly, the Surf Power being sold on its full price and this very powder which is being sold on higher price but with any sized article are also considered distinct products in themselves.

Every business concern is engaged in marketing its products either directly or indirectly. For example, a laundry engaged in sale of cloth washing service walks on the same road at which the retailer of garments sells the clothes. Every business concern engaged in sale of any product sells coincide the services too as a part and parcel of that product concerned.

The consumer buys the products because he received psychological and physical satisfaction from that product. A seller therefore, does not sell the product and actually he sells the physical and mental satisfaction through this process. For example, a lady does not give any special care to the ingredients used for manufacturing cosmetic items or to the process of its manufacture while buying them.

She only thinks whether the item proposed will make her more attractive and beautiful? In other words, she is interested to the satisfaction obtained from cream, powder and lipstick and not in them at all. Concept of George Fisk in this context is notable. He has said that – “Product is a cluster of psychological satisfaction”.

Product Meaning

A product is a bundle of utilities derived from the consumption of a good or service. A product may be a good, a service or just an idea. Kotler has defined product as follows – A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption and that might satisfy a want or need. It includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations and ideas.

Product planners should think about the product on three levels – The most basic level is the core product; it stands at the centre of the total product. It provides core benefits which consumers seek when they buy a product. The product planner must next build an actual product around the core product.

Actual products have as many as five features — a quality level, features, design, a brand name and packaging. Finally, the product planner must build an augmented product around the core and actual products by offering additional consumer services and benefits. When developing products, marketers first identify the core consumer needs the product will satisfy.

They must then design the actual product and find ways to augment it in order to create the bundle of benefits that will best satisfy consumers.

Product Meaning (With Different Forms of Products)

The term ‘product’ is often wrongly used as a synonym for a physical object. It is wrong to limit the meaning of product to only goods. Product is a wider term and includes anything that could be offered to satisfy needs and wants.

‘A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need; a wide range of potential satisfiers are included in the ambit of the meaning of product to include physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations, and ideas’.

This definition encompasses anything capable of solving consumer problems and providing satisfaction. Product is the centerpiece of marketing exchange and is not limited to transfer of a physical object. Services, For example- do not involve transfer of physical objects.

Many marketing exchanges are about flow of ideas like ‘quit smoking’ and indulgence in some experience. Product is the reason why consumers part with their money. It opens revenue streams for a marketer.

Different forms of products can be exemplified by the following examples:

1. Physical object (e.g., iPhone, HP printers, Dove)

2. Person (e.g., Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Baba Ramdev)

3. Place (e.g., Kerala, Las Vegas, Uttaranchal)

4. Service (e.g., Looks Salon, Escorts Heart Hospital, Indian School of Business)

5. Organization (e.g., HUL, Child Rights and You (CRY), Help Age)

6. Idea (e.g., Vote for democracy, Don’t drink and drive)

7. Experience (e.g., Disney, Hard Rock Cafe)

This list of products is not mutually exclusive. A combination of these could be marketed by an organization. For instance, Maruti provides a combination of physical object (car) with a variety of services (after-sales service, insurance, credit service, and disposal services) to its customers.

In the same fashion, Vandana Luthra’s VLCC combines services (slimming, beauty, and fitness) with physical products (facials, toners, kajal and body lotion). Similarly, marketers of whiskeys (product) promote responsible drinking (idea).

Product Meaning

The product is meant for consumers for whom it is produced and therefore it must be to their satisfaction. To make the product to the satisfaction of consumers, product planning is necessary.

Consumers will buy only what suits them, and not what the company is manufacturing or presenting. The product planning is, therefore, of special importance in foreign markets to get the success. Taking the special view of the level of competition in world markets, an exporting firm must develop the product what the prospects in the foreign markets need. Each foreign market is different.

What is acceptable in U.K. may not be acceptable in USA or Federal Republic of Germany. Choices or tastes may differ. Thus export markets need a different approach to product planning. In general the ‘product’ being offered to foreign customers must have something special, either in terms of attraction or advantage what will motivate them to opt for this in preference to others. This is the crux of the product planning for exporters.

Here, it is important to understand the meaning of ‘product” and ‘product type’. ‘Product type’ is the aggregate of various ‘products’ performing the same type of function or giving the same type of satisfaction. ‘Product’, on the other hand, satisfies the interest of a specific segment of the consumers.

For example, car is a ‘product type’ but a specific brand of car, say ‘Toyota car’ is a product. Here, we are discussing the product and not the product type. Likewise, a new product does not mean a new product type but a product that differs in only a limited number of ways from the established product is a new product.

Product includes tangible product or intangible product or service being sold, together with packaging, image, brand name and warranty. In addition, a product includes physical attributes that influence consumers’ perceptions and also it relates to the ‘business concept’.

From the consumer’s viewpoint, price involves sacrifice and from the entrepreneur’s viewpoint, it is the unit of income. Prices communicate information about value, image and competition and influence decisions about distribution, market segmentation, product features and related services.

The act of communication which provides consumers with information about a company’s product is promotion and it is through promotional activities that the venture attracts customers. Promotion includes advertising, persona selling, direct market, public relations and other creative methods of bringing buyers and sellers together.

Lastly, placement often referred to as distribution is concerned with how products or services are made available to customers. Distribution means the physical channels of transporting products from manufacturers to end-users, warehousing, wholesaling and retailing.

A market strategy is a consciously formulated plan which shows how the venture will create a market segment. An effective marketing strategy provides guidelines for the entrepreneur regarding expected results, allocation of resources, responsibilities for marketing and ways in which the enterprise will be controlled.

Expected results constitute the entrepreneur’s strategic marketing objectives. Allocation of resources reflects what a firm has to use and the tactics employed to achieve results. Responsibilities are those activities enquired to implement a marketing plan. Control issues concern methods of feedback necessary to track performance. Feedback provides planning information for future decisions.

In general usage, a product is any object which has an identifiable physical existence. According to this concept, a product has some physical, chemical properties. But in marketing, the meaning of product is very wide. According to Philip Kotler, “A product is a bundle of physical service and symbolic particulars expected to yield satisfaction of benefits to the buyer.” Thus a product incorporate facility, service or an instrument of satisfaction to the buyer who buys it.

“A product is the bundle of utilities consisting of various product features and accompanying services.” -W.Anderson

“A product is complex of tangible and tangible attributes, including packaging color, price, manufacturer’s prestige and manufacturer’s and retailer’s services which the buyer may accept as offering satisfaction of wants or needs.” -W. J. Stanton

The definition of Stanton states that if any physical property is changed, a new product is created.