Marketing - Product Layers - Product Components Concept - Essay Writing Assessment Answer

January 04, 2017
Author :

Solution Code: 1AECH

Question: Marketing

This assignment falls under Marketing which was successfully solved by the assignment writing experts at My Assignment Services AU under assignment help service.

Marketing Assignment

Assignment Task

The Total Product Concept is made up of the Product Considerations, the Product Layers and the Product Components and is one of the three marketing mega-concepts of this unit.

Task:essay topic

Explain the Product Layers [including appropriate examples]. Also provide a summary of the Product Components concept, then select three of its components and explain them using appropriate examples.

The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate your learning of marketing. Although using an example is preferable, students are advised to focus on the unit concepts and focus less on describing the example

How the unit concepts relate to the example and vice versa is what should be made clear and emphasised.

The academic essay is rarely employed outside of universities and it is unlikely a future employer will ask for an essay. However, an academic essay has the same structure as a business presentation and is therefore important part of a student’s learning journey.

The assignment file was solved by professional Marketingexperts and academic professionals at My Assignment Services AU. The solution file, as per the marking rubric, is of high quality and 100% original (as reported by Plagiarism). The assignment help was delivered to the student within the 2-3 days to submission.

Looking for a new solution for this exact same question? Our assignment help professionals can help you with that. With a clientele based in top Australian universities, My Assignment Services AU’s assignment writing service is aiding thousands of students to achieve good scores in their academics. Our Marketingassignment experts are proficient with following the marking rubric and adhering to the referencing style guidelines.

Solution:

Product marketing

Introduction

Marketing is the act of displaying the goods and services to the customers so that they can buy the services. Every company always has a goal when creating an advertising or marketing campaign. The marketers normally have the purpose of making money through strategies that reach different demographic areas and a brand image that is essential for the product purchase by the consumers. Total product is the concept of how companies, as well as sell persons, can analyze a product or an idea and sell it in an efficient manner that will meet the sales objectives (Vliet, 2013). It delineates a product using the generic, expected, augmented, and potential product dimensions. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the product lines and product concept components in the process of marketing a particular product in the competitive market.

Product lines

The idea of the three layers of a product comes into play in the final stages of the business product or the product analysis. Like any other business, Martin and Holland (2011) point out that a product also has its layers. The product is divided into three levels which are a series of different benefits and features that help in its segmentation positioning and targeting. As a result, it is the three layers of a product that defines the product in a better manner. These layers include the core product, augmented product, and the actual product. However Vliet (2013) notes that there are five product layers according to Kotler Philip. Kotler adds the generic, potential, augmented, expected, and core products as the major product layers.

Core product

Core product involves the tangible nature and benefits of the product. It is the most essential level, presenting what people set out to purchase as well as the benefits the producer would like the buyers to get from the product. For example, a camera is expected to take a picture while the producer will ensure that the buyer also benefits from the high definition videos, face recognition, and the wide lens among other benefits. It is thus essential for the designers to list the core benefits of a product that will be of importance to the user. On the other hand, launching a car manufacturing unit, the core product would be convenience the car offers to the customers. The customers can as well travel by taxi or bus, but they prefer cars due to convenience and status symbol (Pearson, Nixon & Drongelen, 2010).

Actual product

It is the level two of the product level that translates the core product benefits into the specific products that the customers will purchase. There may be competitors that offer the same product benefits. The actual level is thus aimed at designing products that will persuade the customers to purchase the product. It thus involves deciding on quality level, product features and services, branding, styling, and packaging as pointed out by Guy Lord and Bhasin (2015) For example, there are many smartphones manufacturing companies across the global industries. However, Apple still emerges the best manufacturer with its phones preferred by many customers as a result of the product design. The customers even pre-order or even camp overnight outside the retail stores of the Apple companies so as to be the first ones to buy the product. In other words, the actual product is what is manufactured after deciding on the choice of the core product. In such a case, a core product with a status symbol will require an actual product with a very high quality and price that can win the status symbol in the market. Actual products can be quantified in nature and have specific properties such as color, quality, branding etc.

Augmented product

It is the level three of the product level involving the decision on the additional non-tangible benefits that can be offered by a product to the user. In his study, Vliet (2013) denotes that the business industry is currently coupled with stiff competition and every organization comes up with strategies to outweigh the others in the market. As a result, the competition is based on the help lines, after sales services, cheap delivery, and warranties. It also means the things that the product may not offer, but customers tend to find them very useful. The non tangible importance like the warranties tend to give customers the confidence and also demonstrate the faith the producers have in the quality of the products. However, Mathew (2012) denotes that the ubiquitous importance of some of the augmented benefits has become part of the benefits of level three into the expectation of customers. For example, customers buying cars expect the cars to have the warranties from the manufacturers. Uyeda, Caetano, and Pennell, (2015) also describes the augmented product level as the additional factors that set the product apart from those of the competitors. It hence involves the brand image and identity. For example, a court may be warm, of style, good color and fashion trending. However, factors such as warranty, good value, and services also play a big role in the process of winning the customers.

Generic and potential levels

The generic product dimension tends to provide essential benefits addressing the basic function of the product. It is at this level that the client realizes the basic definition of the product as well as the needs it can meet. On the other hand, the potential product dimension tends to consider features of a product and better ways of improvement that can be adopted by the manufacturing company. The objective can be achieved through market research as well as the analysis of the needs of the customers. The manufacturing company can hence update a product once the value added becomes a norm expected by the customers in the market.

It is hence important to note that all the product levels add much value for the customers. The more effort made by the manufacturing companies in all the levels, the more likely the companies will stand the chance of being distinctive. Mathew (2012) notes that at augmented level, many organizations observe competition so as to copy certain tricks and the techniques as well as the appearance of the products from the competitors. It thus makes it increasingly difficult for the consumers to define the differentiation or distinctiveness of the product. As a result, towering over competition requires the manufacturing companies to focus on the factors that the consumers tend to attach extra value to so as to take advantage of the market. These include surprising advertisement, extreme packaging, affordable payment terms, and customer oriented services among others. Becoming unique or standing out in a competitive market thus does not only involve satisfying the buyers or exceeding the market expectations but surprising them as well.

Summary of the component of a product concept

A product concept is defined as a universal hypothesis of a business that assumes that consumers desire a product that has better performance, quality, and features than the services or products that are available in the market. It is the major driving force of a business organization to create a cutting-edge of products which are superior to the similar products. For instance, most of the computer manufacturing companies use the product concept in consistently developing software programs and hardware components with better performance than their competitors. Similarly, cosmetic companies, clothing designers, car manufacturers, and cell phone companies are all examples of companies that value the product concept in constantly creating products that outshine other products that are already in the stores (Mathew, 2012).

While the product concepts are innovation springboards, they as well cause a false sense of the production security for the producers and manufacturing companies. For instance, fixing a new gadget in a new car makes the manufacturer to falsely believe that the buying customers are in need of the gadget. As a result of the line of thinking, Uyeda, Caetano, and Pennell, (2015) point out that the companies might strategize whole marketing plans around the same gadget and come to realize later that the targeted customers are not interested in the gadget. In some cases, those who are interested in the gadget cannot even purchase the car. In such cases, the sales objectives are not realized and the marketing dollars are wasted leading to failure in the whole business plan.

Explanation of selected components and their examples

According to Guy Lord and Bhasin (2016), the product component describes the core purpose of the services or products, the uniqueness, and the promise of fulfilling the unmet customer expectations. It hence provided a factual summary of the benefits of the products and then differentiates the product from other competitors. As a result, the product has three major components, i.e. an attractive headline, benefits of the product, success factors, and reasons for believing in the product.

Reasons for believing in the product

The company should explore the reason as to why the clients can strongly depend on specific product qualities such as the technical specifications and the quality of the ingredients of the product among other reasons (Mathew, 2012). For example, bicycles can have information on the composite materials within the frame together with its lightweight construction. In other cases, celebrity endorsements can as well be a part of the concept statement for many manufacturing companies. For a laptop, it could be the processor with a high sped, good monitor specifications or hard disk.

Attractive headlines

There is need of us good headline that can attract the attention of buyers in the market when the products are on display or during advertisements. For instance, a headline like the fastest product in the market, or best value in the market today can form a good headline for a product. Once the targeted customers start to pay attention to the product, the concept statement should clearly highlight the importance or benefits of the product to customers. For examples, a laptop may have a superior performance, but uses very little power, hence making the battery to last longer while not connected to the power source.

Success factors

A good product concept statement should be able to evoke feelings and moods without explicitly indicating the purpose or aim of the product, but instead let the buyer visualize the benefit of the product by themselves. It needs to use a simple language and not a technical jargon, should be realistic and clear, according to Pearson, Nixon, and Drongelen, (2010). For example, a bike can have a statement like enjoying the superior performance and handling of the bike at reasonable prices and backed by best business warranties and a 5-year track record and exceptional quality.

Conclusion

The product design personnel have the responsibility of designing a new product in several ways since the company has varying sources of exploring multiple designs and approaches. In the process, the benefit to the consumer should be so clear, so as the bring purpose, cohesion, and clarity to the development and design process. The products should be tested as well as the accompanying marketing statements prior to the launching of the product. The product layers and the product component concepts together helps in ensuring a company tracks the consumer behavior as well as the changes in the consumer preferences. By highlighting the different aspects of the product, the company will be able to adopt effective strategies for influencing the buying behavior of the consumers to their advantages.

This Marketingassignment sample was powered by the assignment writing experts of My Assignment Services AU. You can free download this Marketingassessment answer for reference. This solvedMarketingassignment sample is only for reference purpose and not to be submitted to your university. For a fresh solution to this question, fill the form here and get our professional assignment help.

RELATED SOLUTIONS

Order Now

Request Callback

Tap to ChatGet instant assignment help

Get 500 Words FREE