Marketing Management 3(2+1)

Lesson 14 : Product levels

Product levels

A product is just an offering made by the marketer for the consumers to benefit from purchase and use. This may wrap up with an idea that the product is decided by the marketer in only areas of designing and building elements that consumer accepts as consumables be it either goods, services or ideas. But specifically a product includes more than the expected consumables.

According to Levitt, a product can be conceived at four levels

• The generic product
• The expected product
• The augmented product
• The potential product

The basic for all these levels is the core benefit/product. Each level adds more customer value and these five levels constitute customer value hierarchy.

The core product is not the tangible product but is the ultimate benefit that a firm promises to give in a product / the customer will receive when they purchase a product. A marketer should define the core product clearly to achieve distinction in the market and for a profitable business. It is an answer to the consumer’s question of why to buy the product.
For eg. Fitness equipment for ladies – maintaining a healthy body and good shape will form the core concept, which may be achieved by the promises the machine manufacturer makes, like burning calories per day per hour and so on.

When a car is purchased, customers first view is to observe the convenience and speed. This would form the core benefit in that product.

The actual product or basic product would be the product in physical form itself. The terms “Core product” and “Actual product” have a very slight differentiation between them but it is vital that marketers understand this difference. A basic product contains benefits that are different from the core product. The actual product would be the product that is designed around the target market. It contains a set of characteristics that consumers normally expect and agree when the product is purchased. It is quantifiable in nature and has properties like color, branding, quality etc.

Considering the above example, the product or the actual machine forms the actual product. The machine can be portable one that can be carried to any place/ folding type which requires less space. The brands available and the quality of the product, the colours available in the product are also the features expected.

Considering the above car example, the product car would be the item which is aimed at a particular target market.

The augmented product is the non-tangible aspect of the product which centres around unique selling offer. Those aspects that allow the product to be differentiated from the competitors forms the augmented attribute. There are business which are dedicated completely in providing augmented products such as service centers, AMC centers etc.

The fitness equipment can be augmented with warranty for the product, easy maintenance, availability of service, and spares, AMC offered, service centers available etc apart from it being packed in an attractive manner

In terms of a car, the augmented product would be the warranty and the post sales service. The augmented product allows you to better position your product or service to the right target market.