Product Line vs. Product Mix

When you are strolling the isles of a grocery store, you may see a ton of different types of chips or a bunch of different types of cereals. You pick the flavor you like and you go on without any other thought about it. Each of those products belong to a specific product line. A product line is a firm's complete set of all their products that are designed to satisfy a single need and or desire. You may like Doritos Cool Ranch chips, but those are only one product in their entire product line. A product line can often times get confused with a product mix. A product mix is all the product lines that a firm has to offer, sometimes it may be only one line, but other times it may be many. Avon, even though commonly know for their make-up, also has other product lines such as jewelry, and clothes. These three product lines make up Avon's product mix.

The first picture is of Excedrin's product line. You can see all the different types of Excedrin medicine, but they are all within the same product. Where as in the second picture it is Proctor and Gamble's product mix. There is a collage of all their different types of products ranging from batteries to chips to detergent to toothpaste. The product mix is not just one type of product and the different flavors or variations of that product, but it is all different products that fall under one company's name.

Co-Branding

An example of co-branding, which is an agreement between two brands to work together in marketing a new product, is the sports kit which was developed by Apple and Nike. It is a kit that links your Nike shoes to your iPod. It tracks your work out and then sends all the data to your iPod or iPhone. These two brands worked together to design a new form of working out that brings your data from your work out straight to your home.

Consumer's and Their Behavior While Shopping For Products

As consumers, we do not realize the different definitions of the types of products out in this world. To name a few there are shopping products, convenience products, unsought products, speciality products, and staples. When I first heard these words, I had no idea what any of this meant, but now when I walk into a store for I, as the consumer, pick up on all these different products and how they affect my shopping. A convenience product is something that is relatively low priced and you buy it without much comparison. For me that is candy bar. You can purchase candy bars at most anywhere. Every grocery store, corner mart, or gas station has it. I don't travel to every different store to try and find the best price because they all fall within a 10 cent difference of each other and there is no real need for me to go and seek out the cheapest. A shopping product is something you shop around for and compare all your options. My shopping product is when I had to buy a new computer. I use to have a Dell. When it broke, I sent it in to be repaired they somehow "lost" it. I did not just go out to the store and buy a brand new computer. I researched and looked at all different types of makers and models. Once I found the brand I liked best, I then looked and compared all the models within that line and what would give me the best product. A lot of thought went into this purchase and it was not just spur of the moment like it would be if I was to buy a candy bar. A staple product is something that is basic or necessary and is almost everywhere. No matter what kind of clothing store you go into you are sure to find undershirts. This would be an example of a staple. All clothing stores sell undershirts because they are basic and most everyone wears them for some use or another. No matter what kind of shopping you intend to do, the products that present themselves all have secret meaning behind them. Whether you just wanted to run to the store and buy milk because you were almost out or needed to buy a new computer, all these products are categorized which helps make the marketing of these products more directed to their needs and the shopping habits of those consumers.

Target Marketing

When it comes to consumers and their demographics, there are many different strategies marketers take to make sure that they are targeting the exact consumers they want. One strategy is geocoding. This is when web advertisements, print advertisements, and TV advertisements are customized so that when people log on to the internet in different places or live in different places, the advertising they are exposed to are to local businesses. Markets want to be aware of where their consumers live. For example, you do not want to try and market a down jacket for consumers who live in the Bahamas. Last semester, I studied abroad in Spain and whenever I would sign on to Facebook or Google the advertisements on these websites were now in Spanish and were all tailored toward events and activities that were taking place in Spain at that time. The advertisements were focused for teens to young adults, so it pertained to me more directly. The consumers are the most important part in a product line and markets need to make sure that they are taking into consideration consumer's demographics and so they can determine the best way to market their products to these consumers.

B2B (Business to Business) Marketing

A part of business to business marketing is outsourcing. Outsourcing has developed over the years and is becoming more common for companies to use people from different countries to do common in-house task and now do these tasks overseas. A common use is in the company's call centers. When a customer calls a company's toll free number or customer care number often times you are then connected with an operator who is working outside of the United States. I personally experienced when my Dell computer broke. Since Dell does not have a store, customers are forced to call in whenever you have a problem. When I called, I was connected with someone where I could not completely understand all the words that were exchanged and like-wise they could not understand me. In this situation I was not a fan of outsourcing because my phone call, which should have only taken a few minutes, turned into a much longer call due to the communication barrier. Also, when I would have a question they could not answer, they would have to put me on hold and transfer me to someone else to clarify. This turned into a lot of unnecessary hold time. Outsourcing can save costs for a company and often times can be very beneficial, but I think if a company is going to use outsourcing they should look at all their options and make sure that the people in the foreign call centers can understand and communicate English, understands that system of the company, and will be an asset to the company, not cause the customer more confusion and frustration than before they called.

Consumer Behavior: Personality Traits

When marketers are thinking about ideas to help launch a product they need to take into consideration the type of consumer they will be targeting and how they can make the product seem appealing to all consumers. When designing the right market technique it is important to take in to consideration "The Big 5 Personality Traits." These traits are extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, and neuroticism or sometimes referred to as emotional intelligence. If a person is an extrovert, they are outgoing, social, and assertive. It is good to know what differentiates someone from an extrovert to an introvert because an introvert is more reserved, quiet, and are not outgoing. Keeping that in-mind, marketers want to make sure that their marketing strategy is not too racy; that would turn some of your potential introvert customers away. Openness of a consumer is also key for marketers to take into consideration. If someone is open to things that means they are willing and able to try new ideas and products. This is important when introducing a new product because there are going to be those consumers who are afraid to venture off from the product they are used to, but marketers can use research and find what it takes to get to the closed off consumers and make them willing to try new things and be a bit more open. Consumers who are open-minded on the other hand, don't necessarily have to stay with the clear cut product, but they are willing to try new things and be adventurous. All "The Big 5 Personality Traits" are very important to take into consideration when developing new products or even just trying to recreate an already existing product. You need to know the personality of your target market and make adjustments according to how you think people will react.

Market Research: Focus Groups

When doing research on a market, a way to gather beneficial data is through focus groups. Focus groups are groups of similar consumers in the same target market. This target market is often based on demographics and/ or psychographics. The discussion is centered around consumer perceptions, evaluations, and opinions of a product or service. A trained facilitator leads the discussion. Earlier this year, I was a member of a focus group. The researchers wanted to gather information about downtown Pullman and what would make it more attractive to college students. They wanted to know if downtown Pullman was to add more stores, what kind of stores would attract college students and would we travel into the town center if there were more stores focused towards us. There were seven students in my focus group with five people who were leading the research. We all gave feedback and the leaders recorded the conversations. I found this very beneficial because they were able to hear first hand what college students wanted to see and what would attract them to the town center of Pullman more often. The only thing that seemed a little bias was that it was all girls in the focus group and we were all friends; which lead to us all, for the most part, having the same views of what we wanted to see.

Marketing Planning: SWOT Analysis

A part of marketing planning is to use SWOT analysis. This allows a company to look at their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. By doing this, it creates a clear view of what is working for a company and/or the products the company produces and what is threatening them from emerging in a market. Marketers can use SWOT analysis to help redefine a product that is drowning in a market or how to emerge a brand new product into a market. If they can determine what the strengths of the product is, they can then use their marketing to make those strengths known and make consumers identify that product with those strengths. If there are weaknesses to an existing product, managers can figure out these weaknesses are and how they change chance of this product so it will strive in its market. They can use the help of marketers to eliminate any threats through positive product placement and re-identifying a product.

Needs Pyramid

In our first classes we learned about the need pyramid that shows our needs and the order they are placed in life. Each of these needs are intangible goods that we all seek to satisfy. In my management operations 301 class we are also learning about the hierarchy of needs and how they correlate with each other. These are all things that we want to be satisfied, but we cannot satisfy one need until the next need is satisfied. We much start at the bottom of the list, psychological needs, and slowly move our way up the pyramid to the highest need, self-actualiztion. The remaining needs in order are safety and security, love and belongingness, and self-esteem. We see these needs being reached everyday through marketing. Starting out on the simplest level of psychological, we see commercials and adds for snacks, beverages, and places to dine out. We may not realize it at first, but these advertisements are targeted to the simplest needs. We must satisfy this first need before we can move onto fulfilling the higher needs. In return to satisfying our needs, marketers the pyramid of needs into consideration while creating commercials. By satisfying one need with s certain product, we can then move on to the next good or service that will activate the next level of needs.