Unit 4

Product

TEXT A

What is a Product

People satisfy their needs and wants with products. We will define products broadly to cover anything that can be offered to someone to satisfy a need or want. Normally the word product brings to mind a physical object, such as an automobile, a television set, or a soft drink. And we normally use the expression products and services to distinguish between physical objects and intangible ones. But in thinking about physical products, their importance lies not so much in owning them as in using them to satisfy our wants. We don’t buy a car to look at but because it supplies transportation service. We don’t buy a microwave oven to admire but because it supplies a cooking service. Thus physical products are really vehicles that deliver services to us.

In fact, services are also supplied by other vehicles, such as persons, places, activities, organizations, and ideas. If we are bored, we can go to a nightclub and watch an entertainer (person): travel to a warm vacationland like Bermuda (place): engage in some physical exercise (activity): join a lonely-hearts club (organization), or adopt a different philosophy about life (idea). In other words, services can be delivered through physical objects and other vehicles. We will use the term product to cover all vehicles that are capable of delivering satisfaction of a want or need. Occasionally we will use other terms for product, such as offers, satisfiers, or resources.

Manufacturers get into a lot of trouble by paying more attention to their products than to the services produced by these products. Manufacturers love their products but forget that customers buy them because they satisfy a need. People do not buy physical objects for their own sake. A tube of lipstick is bought to supply a service: helping the person look better. A drill bit is bought to supply a service: producing a needed hole. A physical object is a means of packaging a service. The marketer’s job is to sell the benefits or services built into physical products, rather than just describe their features. Sellers who concentrate on the product instead of the customer’s need are said to suffer from «marketing myopia.»

Product planners need to think about the product on three levels. The most basic level is the core product, which addresses the question: What is the buyer really buying? As Figure 9-1 illustrates, the core product stands at the center of the total product. It consists of the problem-solving services or core benefits that consumers seek when they buy a product. A woman buying lipstick buys more than lip color. Charles Revson of Revlon saw this early: «In the factory, we make cosmetics; in the store, we sell hope.» Theodore Levitt has pointed out that buyers «do not buy quarter-inch drills; they buy quarter-inch holes.» Thus, when designing products, marketers must first define the core of benefits the product will provide to consumers.

The product planner must next build an actual product around the core product. Actual products may have as many as five characteristics: a quality level, features, design, a brand name, and packaging. For example, Sony’s Handycam Camcorder is an actual product. Its name, parts, styling, features, packaging, and other attrib­utes have all been combined carefully to deliver the core benefit—a convenient, high-quality way to capture important moments.

Figure 1. Three levels of product

Finally, the product planner must build an augmented product around the core and actual products by offering additional consumer services and benefits. Sony must offer more than just a camcorder. It must provide consumers with a complete solution to their picture-taking problems. Thus, when consumers buy a Sony Handycam, Sony and its dealers also might give buyers a warranty on parts and workmanship, free lessons on how to use the camcorder, quick repair services when needed, and a toll-free telephone number to call if they have problems or questions. To the consumer, all of these augmentations become an important part of the total product.

Therefore, a product is more than a simple set of tangible features. Con­sumers tend to see products as complex bundles of benefits that satisfy their needs. When developing products, marketers first must identify the core consumer needs the product will satisfy. They must then design the actual product and find ways to augment it in order to create the bundle of benefits that will best satisfy consumers.

І. Key terms:

Actual products — товар у реальному виконанні — a product’s parts, quality level, features, design, brand name, packaging, and other attributes that combine to deliver core product benefits.

Augmented products — товар з підкріпленням — additional consumer services and benefits built around the core and actual products.

Consumer products — споживчі товари — products bought by final consumers for personal consumption.

Core products — сутність товарів, товари за задумом — the problem-solving services or core benefits that consumers are really buying when they obtain a product.

Packaging — упаковка — the activities of designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product.

Myopia — міопія, короткозорість — inability to look into future.

ІІ. Vocabulary notes:

produce, n.

1. things that have been produced — продукція; продукт; виріб;

2. home produce — товари вітчизняного виробництва; raw (agri­cultural) produce — сировина; сільськогосподарські продукти; pro­duce control — контроль (регулювання) виробництва; produce de­part­ment — виробничий відділ; produce line — технологічна (потокова) лі­нія; produce manager — начальник виробничого відділу; produce line — серійний літак; short-run produce — малосерійне виробництво;

3. результат, наслідок;

4. produce exchange — продуктова біржа;

5. produce merchant — торговець продуктами;

produce, v.

1. create sth. by making manufacturing, growing.

2. пред’являти, показувати; produce your tickets — пред’явіть квитки;

3. фінансувати виробництво;

4. producer’s stock — сировина;

product, n.

1. thing or substance produced by a natural or manufacturing process — продукт, продукція, виріб, напівфабрикат; farm’s pro­duct — сільськогосподарські продукти; gross national product — ва­­ловий продукт країни;

2. результат, наслідок;

3. добуток;

production, n.

1. action of manufacturing, extracting, etc. — виробництво, виготовлення; mass production (manufacturing) — масове (серійне) виробництво; production of commodities — виробництво предметів широкого вжитку;

2. продуктивність; вироблення; production is falling off — продуктивність знижується;

3. продукція, продукт, виріб;

4. вистава, спектакль;

productive, adj.

producing or able to produce goods or crops — продуктивний; productive mine — багатий рудник; productive capacity — продуктивна здатність; родючість; productive labour — продуктивна праця;

productivity, n.

1. ability to produce (e.g. goods or crops); state of being productive — продуктивність; productivity of labour — продуктивність праці; productivity of wages — відрядно-прогресивна оплата праці;

2. productiveness = productivity — продуктивність;

producer, n.

person, company, country, etc. that produces goods or materials — виробник, виготовлювач; режисер-постановник, продюсер; особа, що фінансує постановку вистави (виробництво фільму); Aм. влас­ник кіностудії; producer’s goods — засоби виробництва; producer’s stock — сировина для переробки;

producible, adj.

producing or able to produce goods or crops — вироблюваний; те, що може бути вироблене;

distinguish, v.

the difference between one person (or thing) and another — відрізняти, розрізняти; побачити, помітити, розпізнати, пізнати; відокремлювати, розділяти, відособлювати; характеризувати, відзначати; бути відмітною ознакою; виділяти, робити помітним; to distinguish oneself by sth — відзначитись чимось; стати відомим завдяки чомусь;

distinguishable, adj.

showing remarkable qualities (use pred.) — помітний, відмінний; видимий; гідний уваги;

distinguished, adj.

showing remarkable qualities — відомий, видатний; distinguished writer — видатний письменник; високопоставлений, поважний, знатний, вельможний, заслужений; вишуканий, витончений, надзвичайний; відмінний, бездоганний;

distinguishing, adj.

відмінний, характерний;

activity, n.

1. (a) being active or lively; (b) busy or energetic action — діяльність; активність, енергія, спритність;

2. pl. — дії, діяльність (у певній галузі); his manifold activities were appreciated by others — його багатогранну діяльність було визнано іншими; literary activities — літературна діяльність;

active, adj.

1. doing things; energetic — активний, діяльний, енергійний, жвавий; active mind — жвавий розум;

2. екон. пожвавлений;

3. діючий, той, що діє; active volcano — діючий вулкан;

4. дійсний, справжній, дієвий, дійовий; active help — справжня допомога;

5. фін. відсотковий; той, що надає відсотки; активний;

actively, adj.

1. активно, діяльно, енергійно, жваво;

2. ефективно;

activist, n.

person who takes or supports vigorous action, esp. for a political cause — активіст; енергійний діяч;

activize, v.

активізувати;

entertain, v.

1. receive sb as a guest; provide food and drink for sb; — приймати гостей; виявляти гостинність; влаштовувати прийоми (гостей); We often entertain at (to) dinner — запрошувати друзів на обід; пригостити друзів обідом; they like to entertain — вони гостинні; вони люблять приймати гостей;

2. плекати (надію тощо); to entertain a purpose — виношувати задум;

3. брати до уваги, ураховувати;

4. розважати, забавляти, тішити; to entertain oneself — розважатися, бавитися;

5. підтримувати (розмову);

6. відволікати, заманювати;

7. тримати на службі, наймати ; to entertain doubt about sth — сумніватися в чомусь; to entertain a suggestion — відгукувати- ся на пропозицію; to entertain a request — задовольнити про- хання;

entertainable, adj.

допустимий, прийнятний; той, що підлягає розгляду (обговоренню) (про ідею тощо);

entertainer, n.

person who entertains, esp. professionally — господар, господиня (що приймає гостей); естрадний артист, конферансьє;

entertaining, adj.

amusing and pleasing — цікавий; забавний, розважний;

entertainment, n.

entertaining or being entertained

1. видовище, вистава;

2. естрадний концерт, дивертисмент;

3. книжки для легкого читання;

4. розвага, забава, втіха; to give (afford) an entertainment — влаштувати, тішити;

5. прийом (гостей), вечір, вечірка, бенкет; to give an entertain­ment — влаштувати прийом (бенкет);

6. гостинність;

7. пригощання;

8. наймання;

9. платня (прислуга);

10. підтримка, утримання когось;

11. приймати (пропозиції тощо);

ІІІ. Answer the following question:

1. What do people satisfy their needs and wants with?

2. What does the word product bring to mind?

3. What for do we normally use the expression products and services?

4. What does products importance lie in?

5. What for do we buy physical products (e.g. a car or a microware oven)?

6. What are physical products?

7. What are services supplied by?

8. Why do manufactures get into a lot of troubles?

9. Why do manufacturers love their products?

10. What do manufacturers forget?

11. What do product planners need to think about?

12. What must marketers first define when designing products?

13. How must the product planner build an augmented product around the core and actual products?

14. What five characteristics may actual products have?

15. How do consumers tend to see products?