Do you want to know what is product and what are the different levels of product? You have spotted on the right place to know the answers of such questions. So let’s see first what is product or service and what are its different levels.
What is Product?
Any market offering that can be presented in order to obtain attention, attainment, utilization or expenditure that may fulfill a need or want.
Read More: Types of Product Classification
It includes organizations, services, physical objects, persons, places and ideas. “Pure” services are separated from physical products on the basis of inseparability, intangibility, differentiation and expiration.
What is Service?
Services are a kind of product that contains benefits, activities or satisfaction offered for sale necessarily intangible and does not consequence in the possession of anything.
Product should be carefully defined as it is a complex concept. It is present where the strategic planning start, as it is the first variable of the marketing mix.
Coordinated decisions on product lines, individual products and product mixes are required by product strategy.
Levels of Products & Services
There are three levels of product that can be viewed and offered to customers. So products and services should be considered by product planners keeping in view these three levels, which are as follow.
The Core Product
When customers purchases a product they really get basic and problem solving benefit which is regarded as the core product. It replies to the question that what the purchaser really purchasing?
The Actual Product
There are five features that unite with each other to provide the core benefit. These features are included in the actual product level and are as follow.
- Quality Level
- Design
- Features
- Packaging
- Brand Name
The Augmented Product
Any further gains and consumer services that are develop around the actual and core products are included in the category of augmented product.
Therefore, the product is not limited to a group of tangible characteristics. Products are viewed by consumers as complex set of gains that fulfill the needs of consumers. So during the building of products, the marketers should follow the following three steps.
- The basic needs of the consumers should be identified that the product will fulfill.
- Designing the actual product
- Determine the manners to enhance the product in order to produce a set of benefits that will effectively fulfill the desires of customers for an experience.
