Classification of Products
The most common basis for classifying consumer products is based on buyer behavior. The classification is based on differences in the buying behavior of the people who buy the prod- ucts (it is basically how you perceive and buy the products) not on the differences in the products themselves. The system works because many consumers behave alike in buying a given type of product. This helps marketers in making generalizations to guide development of their marketing mixes. Four classes of consumer products are (1) Convenience products (2) Shopping products (3) Specialty products, and (4) Unsought products.
Convenience products-
They are basically low-priced, nationally advertised items like cigarettes, toffee, or blades and matchboxes. These are bought frequently but consumers rarely shop actively for them because they are low value items whose price and quality do not justify active involvement. They are widely available at many outlets. Three subclasses are:
1. Staple Products: this includes milk, bread, eggs, butter which are bought routinely because the family regularly consumes them. The decision to buy these products is programmed after the first time when the consumer puts them on his list of regular items.
2.Impulse Products: Purchases of Impulse products are absolutely unplanned exposure to the product triggers the want. The desire to buy staple products may cause the consumer to go shopping. The desire to buy impulse is a result of the shopping trip. This is why impulse products are located where they can be easily noticed. Stardust and Savvy magazines, toffees and chocolates (placed at a child’s eye-level) are examples of impulse products.
3.Emergency Products: Purchases of emergency products result from urgent and compelling needs. Often a consumer pays more than if this need had been anticipated. Example of this would be hotels permit shops vending toothbrushes and shaving blades set up in their lobbies to cater to travelers who have forgotten theirs at home.
Shopping Products-
These products involve price and quality comparisons. Shoppers spend more time, cost and effort to compare because they perceive a higher risk in buying these products. Shopping products can be homogeneous or heterogeneous.
1.Homogeneous Shopping Products: they are products, which are considered to be alike. Just suppose you want to buy a colour television, you are aware that most of the brands are very similar then you will limit your shopping effort to price comparisons. Thus sellers tend to engage in price competition. But most of the time you will find that the manufacturers may also stress upon on the differences on the basis of design and try to distinguish between the physical product and its product related services. One might set up service centers to differentiate its product from rivals. A retailer might advertise that the Color TV’s price includes 6 months or free interest financing. Consumers who want to stretch their disposable incomes are more likely to consider a product as a homogeneous shopping product than as a convenience product.
2.Heterogeneous Shopping Products they are product that are considered to be unlike or non- standardized. Consumers shop for the best price quality combination. Price often is secondary to style and quality when price comparisons are difficult to make. Using price to compare clothing, jewellery, cars, furniture and apartments is tough because quality and style vary within each product class. Just suppose a couple is searching for a flat may spend a lot of time comparing decor, floor plans, distance from stations and so on. Once they find the right one, price becomes important. If the rent is reasonable compared to the alternatives, they probably will lease it.
Special Products-
In this case you as a consumers will make a special effort to buy specialty products. For these products consumers have strong convictions as to brand, style, or type. Mitsubishi Lancers, Ray- Ban glasses, Leica Cameras and Johnny Walker Scotch Whisky are examples. Consumers will go out of their way to locate and buy these products because they perceive quality and other benefits in owning them. There is no Comparison Shopping. Doctors, Lawyers and Accountants who enjoy a large following are selling specialty products. Marketers try to create specialty status for their products with advertising phrases like “accept no substitutes”, “‘insist on the real thing”, and so on. They build customer loyalty when consumers consider their brands to be specialty products. But specialty product can be less intensively distributed than a convenience or shopping product because buyers will search to find it.
Unsought Products-
They are products which are present in the market but the potential buyers do not know that such product exist or there can be a possibility that the buyer don’t want it. There are two types: regularly unsought products and new unsought products.
Like Life Insurance, a lawyer’s services in contesting a will, a wreath and a doctor’s services in an emergency are regularly unsought products. These are basically existing products but the consumers do not want to buy this product now, although they may eventually purchase them. Marketers face a tough challenge in persuading consumers to buy their new unsought products. The marketer’s task here is to inform target consumers of the products existence and stimulate demand for it. Oral polio vaccine was once a new unsought product. But heavy promotion and acceptance of the product practically eradicated polio.
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