产品和品牌策略.doc

【精品文档】如有侵权，请联系网站删除，仅供学习与交流产品和品牌策略.精品文档.第六章：产品和品牌策略最牛英语口语培训模式：躺在家里练口语，全程外教一对一，三个月畅谈无阻！太平洋英语，免费体验全部外教一对一课程：教学目的：通过产品与战略方案的讲授，使学生掌握关于“产品营销策略”的相关知识，并培养实际运用能力。教学重点：一家公司如何制定更好的品牌决策？教学难点：一家公司如何制定更好的品牌决策？教学时数：6 学时（讲授、咨询型课型讨论、实践）教学内容与步骤：Chapter 6Setting the product and branding strategyKotler on MarketingThe best way to hold customers is to constantly figure out how to give them more for less.Chapter Objectives In this chapter, we focus on the following questions: What are the characteristics of products? How can a company build and manage its product mix and product lines? How can a company make better brand decisions? How can packaging and labeling be used as marketing tools?What do business executives Roy Kroc (McDonalds) and Colonel Sanders (Kentucky Fried Chicken) have in common? They all have led or lead lives interesting enough to feature on AEs award-winning television show Biography. AEs Biography offers excellent lessons in product and brand management.1. The product and the product mixA product is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or need. Products that are marketed include physical goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, prosperities, organizations, information, and ideas.Product levelsIn planning its market offering, the marketer needs to think through five levels of the product. Each level adds more customer value, and the five constitute a customer value hierarchy. The most fundamental level is the core benefit: the fundamental service or benefit that the customer is really buying. A hotel guest is buying "test and sleep." The purchaser of a drill is buying "holes," Marketers must see themselves as benefit providers. At the second level, the marketer has to turn the core benefit into a basic product. Thus a hotel room includes a bed, bathroom, towels, desk, dresser, and closet. At the third level, the marketer prepares an expected product, a set of attributes and conditions buyers normally expect when they purchase this product. Hotel guest expect a clean bed, fresh towels, working lamps, and a relative degree of quiet. Because most hotels can meet this minimum expectation, the traveler normally will settle for whichever hotel is most convenient or least expensive.At the forth level, the marketer prepares mi augmented product that exceeds customer expectations.At the fifth level stands the potential product, which encompasses all the possible augmentations and transforming the product or offering might undergo in the future. Here is where companies search for new ways to satisfy customers and distinguish their offer. Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic is thinking of adding a casino and a shopping mall in the 600-passenger planes that his company will acquire in the next few years; and consider the customization platforms new e-commerce sites are offering, from which companies can learn by seeing what different customers prefer.Product hierarchyEach product is related to certain other products. The product hierarchy stretches from basic needs to particular items that satisfy those needs. We can identify six levels of the product hierarchy (here for life insurance): 1. Need family: The core need that underlies the existence of a product family. Example: security. 2. Product family: All the product classes that can satisfy a core need with reasonable effectiveness. Example: savings and income. 3. Product class: A group of products within the product family recognized as having a certain functional coherence Example: financial instruments.4. Product line: A group of products within a product class that am closely related because they perform a similar function, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same customers, or fall within given price ranges, Example: life insurance. 5. Product type. A group of items within a product line that share one of several possible forms of the product. Example: term life. 6. Item (also called stock keeping unit or product variant): A distinct unit within a brand or product line distinguishable by size, price, appearance, or some other attribute, Example: Prudential renewable term life insurance.Product classificationsMarketers have traditionally classified products on the basis of characteristics: durability, tangibility, mid use (consumer or industrial). Each product type has an appropriate marketing-mix strategy. DURABILIIY AND TANGIBILITY Products can be classified into three groups, according to durability and tangibility: 1. Nondurable goods are tangible goods normally consumed in one or a few uses, like beer and soap. Because these goods are consumed quickly and purchased frequently, the appropriate strategy is to make them available in many locations, charge only a small markup, and advertise heavily to induce trial and build preference. 2. Durable goods are tangible goods that normally survive many uses: refrigerators, machine tools, and clothing. Durable products normally require more personal selling and service, command a higher margin, and require more seller guarantees. 3. Service are intangible, inseparable: variable, and perishable, products. As a result, they normally require more quality control, supplier credibility, and adaptability. Examples include haircuts and repairs.CONSUMER-GOOOS CLASSIFICATION Tile vast array of goods consumers buy can be classified on the basis of shopping habits. We can distinguish among convenience, shopping, specialty, and unsought goods. Convenience goods are those the customer usually purchases frequently, immediately, and with a minimum of effort. Examples include tobacco products, soaps, and newspapers. Shopping goods are goods that the customer, in the process of selection and purchase, characteristically compares on such bases as suitability, quality, price, and style. Examples include furniture, clothing, used cars, and major appliances. Specialty goods have unique characteristics or brand identification for winch a sufficient number of buyers is willing to make a special purchasing effort. Examples include cars, stereo components, photographic equipment, and men's suits. Unsought goods are those the consumer does not know about or does not normally think of buying, eke smoke detectors. The classic examples of known but unsought goods are life insurance, cemetery plots, gravestones, and encyclopedias. Unsought goods require advertising and personal-selling support.INDUSTRIAL-GOODS CLASSIFICATION Industrial goods can be classified in terms of how they enter the production process and their relative costliness. We can distinguish three groups of industrial goods: materials and parts, capital items, and supplies and business services. Materials and parts ale goods that enter the manufacturer's product completely. They fall into two classes: raw materials and manufactured materials and parts. Raw materials fall into two major classes: farm products (e.g., wheat, cotton, live-stock, fruits, and vegetables) and natural products (e.g., fish, lumber, crude petroleum, iron ore). Manufactured materials and parts fall into two categories: component materials (iron, yarn, cement, and wires) and component parts (small motors, tires, castings). Component materials are usually fabricated further pig icon is made into steel, and yarn is woven into cloth.Capital items are long-lasting goods that facilitate developing or managing the finished product. They include two groups: installations and equipment, installations consist of buildings (factories, offices) and equipment (generators. drill presses, mainframe computers, elevators). Installations are major purchases.Supplies and business services are short-lasting goods and services that facilitate developing or managing the finished product. Supplies are of two kinds: maintenance and repair items (paint, nails, brooms), and operating supplies (lubricants, coal, writing paper, pencils). Together, they go under the name of MRO goods. Supplies are the equivalent of convenience goods; they are usually purchased with minimum effort on a straight rebury basis. They am normally marketed through intermediaries because their low unit value and the great number and geographic dispersion of customers. Price and service are important considerations, because suppliers are standardized and brand preference is not high.Product mixA product mix (also called product assortment) is the set of all products and items that a particular seller offers for sale. Kodak's product mix consists of two strong product lines: information products and image products. NEC's (Japan) product mix consists of communication products and computer products. Michelin has three product lines: tires, maps, and restaurant-rating services. A company's product mix has a certain width, length, depth, and consistency. These concepts are illustrated in Table 14.1 for selected Procter & Gamble consumer products.The width of a product mix refers to how many different product lines the company carries. The length of a product mix refers to the total number of items in tile mix. The width of a product mix refers to how many variants are offered of each product in the line. The consistency of the product mix refers to how closely related the various product lines are in end use, production requirements, distribution channels, or some other way.These four product-mix dominions permit the company to expand its business in four ways. It can add new product lines, thus widening its product mix. It can lengthen each product line. It can add more product variants to each product and deepen its product mix. Finally, a company can pursue more product line consistency.Product-line decisionsA product mix consists of various product lines. In General Electric's Consumer Appliance Division, there are product-line managers for refrigerators, stoves, and washing machines. At Northwestern University, there are separate academic deans for the medical school, law school, business school, engineering school, music school, speech school, journalism school, and liberal arts school.Product-line analysis Product-line managers need to know the sales and profits of each item in their line in order to determine which items to build, maintain, harvest, or divest. They also need to understand each product line's market profile.Product-line lengthA product line is too short if profits can be increased by adding items; the fine is too long if profits can be increased by dropping items. Product lines tend to lengthen over time. Excess manufacturing capacity puts pres sure on the product-line manager to develop new items. The sales force and distributors also pressure the company for a more complete product line to satisfy customers; but as items are added, several costs rise: design and engineering costs, inventory-carrying costs, manufacturing-changeover costs, order-processing costs, transportation costs, and new-item promotional costs. A company lengthens its product line in two ways: by line stretching and line filling. LIN E SIRETCHING Every Companys product line covers a certain part of the total possible range. For example, BMW automobiles are located in the upper price range of the automobile market. Line stretching occurs when a company lengthens its product line beyond its current range. The company can stretch its line down market, up market, or both ways.LINE FILLING a product line can also be lengthened by adding more items within the present range. There are several motives for line filling: reaching for incremental profits, trying to satisfy dealers who complain about lost sales because of missing items in the line, trying to utilize excess capacity, trying to be the leading full-line company, and trying to plug holes to keep out competitors.Line modernization, featuring, and pruningProduct lines need to be modernized. A company's machine tools might have a 1950s look and 1ose out to newer-styled competitors' lines. The issue is whether to overhaul the line piecemeal or all at once. A piecemeal approach allows the company to see how customers and dealers take to tile new style. It is also less draining on the company's cash flow, but it allows competitors to see changes and to start redesigning their own lines. In rapidly changing product markets, modernization is carried on continuously. Companies plan improvements to encourage customer migration to higher-valued, higher-priced items. Microprocessor companies such as Intel and Motorola, and soft-ware companies such as Microsoft and Lotus, continually introduce more advanced versions of their products. A major issue is timing improvements so they do not appear too early (damaging sales of the current line) or too late (afar tire competition has established a strong reputation for more advanced equipment). The product-line manager typically selects one or a few items in the line to feature. Sears will announce a special low-priced washing machine to attract customers. At other times, managers will feature a high*end item to lend prestige to the product line. Sometimes a company finds one end of its line selling well and the other end selling poorly. The company may try to boost demand for the slower sellers, especially if they are produced in a factory that is idled by lack of demand. This situation faced Honeywell when its medium-sized computers were not selling as well as its large computers; but it could be counter argued that the company should promote items that sell well rather than try to prop up weak items. Product-line managers must periodically review the line for deadwood that is depressing profits. Unilever recently cut down its portfolio of brands from 1600 to 970 and may- even prune more, to 400 by 2005. The weak items can be identified through sales and cost analysis. A chemical company cut down its line from 217 to the 93 products with the largest volume, the largest contribution to profits, and the greatest long term potential. Pruning is also done when the company is short of production capacity. Companies typically shorten their product lines in periods of tight demand and lengthen their lines in periods of slow demand.2. Brand decisionsWhat is a brand? A brand is a complex symbol that can convey up to six levels of meaning:" 1. Attributes: A brand brings to mind certain attributes. Mercedes suggests expensive, well- built, well-engineered, durable, high prestige automobiles. 2. Benefits: Attributes must be translated into functional and emotional benefits. The attribute “durable” could translate into the functional benefit “I wont have to buy another car for several years.” The attribute "expensive” translates into the emotional benefit "The car makes me feel importer and admired." 3. Valu