Marketing Mix: Product, Branding & Development

• This session discusses marketing principles, focusing on the marketing mix and specifically, the product aspect.
• The session dates are April 3, 2025, and May 3, 2025.

Course Schedule

• Session 9 focuses on the first part of the "4Ps: Product."
• Chapter 11 pertains to product, branding, and packaging decisions. Chapter 12 addresses developing new products. Chapter 13 covers service, the intangible product.
• Session 10 discusses the second part of the 4Ps: Product.
• Sessions 11 and 12 focuses on promotion, price and place
• The first quiz covers sessions 8 and 9, specifically addressing product branding, service and development of new product.

Marketing Mix Quizzes

• Quiz 1 occurs during Session 10 on either March 18 or 19, 2025 and covers Sessions 8 and 9, specifically addressing product branding, service, and development of new product.
• The quiz is a short, closed-book assessment with 15 multiple-choice questions, contributing 30% to the grade.

Final Group Project

• The first step is to prepare a group charter, and the deadline is in the past.
• Groups should discuss expectations, communication plan, roles, potential obstacles, and conflict resolution, following guidelines in the Group Charter Instructions.
• The second step involves brainstorming product ideas, which can be physical, tangible products, services, or apps.
• In Session 10 present 1 slide about the product idea on (11/03 and 12/03).
• Emails will be responded to max 2 business days and including the group number in questions about it will expedite replies.

STP (Segmenting, Targeting, Positioning)

• STP involves segmenting the market, targeting specific segments, and positioning the product to appeal to those segments.
• Segmentation identifies differences across groups and similarities within groups.
• Variables for identifying segments include geographical location, demographics, psychographics, benefits sought, and behavior.
• These segments are evaluated based on whether they are identifiable, substantial, reachable, responsive, and profitable.

The Marketing Mix

• The marketing mix consists of the "4 Ps": Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.
• Product involves creating value. Price focuses on capturing value. Place is about delivering value and Promotion concentrates on communicating value.

Defining A Product

• A product is anything of value offered to a consumer through a voluntary marketing exchange.
• The value given to customers results from all four P's.
• Core benefit: problem-solving benefits consumers are seeking.
• Actual Product: attributes to deliver benefit to consumers. It encompasses features, quality level, packaging, design, and branding.
• Augmented product: non-physical aspects that enhance consumption. Includes services like delivery, support, etc.

Designing or developing a product

• Start with the core benefit > actual product with attributes > augment benefits with better service to round out the market.

Defining Service

• A service is an intangible offering involving a deed, performance, or effort.
• Services cannot be physically possessed or separated from the producer.

Differences between products and services

• Intangibility: Services cannot be touched, tasted, or seen. Meaning it's hard to convey benefits or price them
• Inseparability: Service and use are inseparable. Buyers rarely get to try and the experience can't be reverted.
• Heterogeneity / Variability: Quality of a service can vary because it relies on humans. It's hard to standardize the service and humans need to be replaced with machines.
• Perishability: Services cannot be stored for later use, and will dissipate over time.
• Its hard to match demand and supply and creative provisioning is needed, like subscription models.

Product Life Cycle (PLC)

• The PLC includes stages like development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline, each with distinct sales and profit trends.
• Development Stage: The company finds and develops new ideas <> Introduction Stage: The product is "born" into the world, requiring heavy promotion to build awareness <> Growth Stage: Market acceptance occurs, share, and loyalty are established <> Maturity Stage: The market position stabilizes and plateaus <> Decline Stage: Sales and profits decrease and the product is discontinued.
• Each product's PLC can be different in terms of time, stage progression, and marketing strategies need to be adapted to the current stage. Sales, profits, and trends are used as metrics.

Reasons for Innovations in New Products

• Firms innovate to meet changing consumer needs, address market saturation, and diversify risks.

Types of Innovations

• Sustaining innovations: aim to maintain a product's position in an existing market.
• Disruptive innovations: are new business models or tech that disrupt the current market.
• Incremental innovations: Gradual developments on current products.
• Radical innovations transform industries and have breakthrough technologies.

A product's key points or attributes to success

• Relative advantage: being better than existing options
• Compatibility: aligning with needs and cultures
• Observability: ease of seeing the benefits
• Complexity and triability: easier to sell if its easy to use, and can be tested first.

Brands and branding

• A brand is a combination of elements which identifies the maker to consumers. It has to be perceived by consumers.
• Brand elements encompass name, logo, characters, slogans, and jingles.
• Brand equity comprises consumer awareness and understanding of the brand.
• Awareness builds awareness from promotions, associations build mental and emotional links and loyalty happens when repeat customers buy the products over others.
• Brand elements and associations help consumers make distinctions, especially when products are similar. If consumers have strong brand associations, they may exclusively buy the product anyway.

Brands architecture

• Naming has to be considered during brand architecture to pick the right name.
• Brand Architecture:
  • With a Branded House, sub-brands use the same master brand.
  • A House of Brands has various brands operating independently.
  • Hybrid brands: mix these approaches.
• Concerns related to branding depend on parent's strength, number of product brands, attribute fit, brand uniqueness, and potential dilution.
• The more brands a firm has, the higher the likelihood of it leveraging that firms reputation.

Ownership of Brands

• A manufacturer is a national brand <> A retailer or store will use private labels instead.
• Manufacturer brands are costly to develop and maintain, retailer ones are not costly, but have poor associations.