[Marketing Miscellaneous Talk 16] Products, Services and Brands-Building Customer Value

For any company, products and services are the source of customer service and profits, so what is the product?

A product is defined as anything provided to the market to attract attention, obtain, use or consume to satisfy desires or demands, including not only tangible products, but also services, events, people, places, organizations, ideas or combinations of the above.

Service is a product form, which consists of activities, benefits or satisfaction, and is used for sales. Essentially intangible, the sale of services will not bring about the transfer of service ownership.

A: Products, services and experiences.

In the market supply, the product is the most critical factor. Marketing mix planning begins with designing valuable things for target customers, which is the basis for enterprises to establish profitable relations with customers.

With the increasing commercialization of products and services, many enterprises not only simply manufacture products and deliver services, but also devote themselves to creating and managing customers' experience of enterprises and brands, such as Disney creating dreams and unforgettable memories for consumers;

The level of products and services

Product planners need to consider three levels of products and services (see Figure 8- 1). Each level will increase customer value.

The most basic layer is the core customer value, asking what the buyer really buys. When designing products, marketers must first determine the core interests or services that customers pursue to solve problems;

At the second level of products, product planners must build a physical product around the core interests of products, and they need to build the characteristics, design, quality level, brand name and packaging of products and services;

Finally, planners should provide customers with some additional services and benefits in order to expand products around core interests and physical products.

C: classification of products and services

According to the types of customers who use products and services, products and services can be divided into two categories-consumer goods and industrial supplies.

Broadly speaking, products also include other contents that can be sold.

Consumer goods are products purchased by final consumers for personal consumption. According to the way customers buy products, marketers further divide consumer goods into convenience products, shopping products, special products and non-desired products.

● Convenient (convenient? Product) is a product and service that consumers often buy; Make almost no comparison when buying, and make up your mind quickly.

● shoppingproduct is a product and service that consumers buy less frequently, and its applicability, quality, price and style will be carefully compared.

● Specialty (specialty? Products) have unique characteristics or brand recognition characteristics; Some important groups will buy it.

● Goods that you don't want (what you want? Product): consumer goods that customers either know or know but generally do not consider voluntary purchase.

Industrial products are products purchased for further processing or commercial operation. The obvious difference between consumer goods and industrial products lies in the purpose of purchase. There are mainly three types of industrial products and services: materials and parts; Capital projects; Accessories and services.

Organization, people, places and concepts: In addition to tangible products and services, the concept of products can be further extended to other "saleable"-organizations, people, places and concepts.

Marketers make product and service decisions at three levels: single product decision, product line decision and product combination decision.

A: Personal product and service decisions

Product Attributes-Brand-Packaging-Labeling-Product Support Services

B: product line decision

Product line is a group of closely related products, which function in a similar way, are sold to the same customer group, distributed through the same type of channels or belong to a given price range.

There are two ways for enterprises to expand product lines: product line filling and product line extension.

Product line filling refers to adding some new product items to the existing product line.

Product line extension (product? Line stretching) if the enterprise goes beyond the existing scope to increase the length of its product line.

C: product mix decision

All products and product items sold by an enterprise constitute its product portfolio (product portfolio or product portfolio). Enterprise portfolio includes four important dimensions: width, length, depth and consistency.

A: Brand equity

Brand equity is a differentiation effect, which makes brand name affect consumers' reaction to products and their marketing. It is a measure of a brand's ability to gain consumer preference and loyalty. A strong brand is the basis for establishing a profitable and stable relationship with customers.

Build a strong brand

brand management

Enterprises should manage their own brands with care.

First of all, we must constantly communicate brand positioning with customers. Advertising activities can help create brand awareness, brand knowledge and even brand preference. However, in fact, maintaining the brand depends not on advertising, but on brand experience.

If the brand positioning of an enterprise is to be successful, employees must also participate. Therefore, enterprises must cultivate employees to establish the idea of "customer-centered".

Finally, enterprises need to regularly review brand strengths and weaknesses. Through brand audit, enterprises can know which brands need more support, which brands should be removed, and which brands must be repositioned due to changes in consumer preferences or the emergence of new competitors.

Answer: The essence and characteristics of service.

When designing marketing plan, enterprises must consider four characteristics of service: intangibility, inseparability, variability and easy disappearance.

B: the marketing strategy of service enterprises

Excellent service enterprises, like manufacturing enterprises, establish a strong position in the selected target market through marketing.

The profit of service enterprises is linked to the satisfaction of employees and customers, which is the so-called "service-profit chain".

Chain). This chain includes five connections:

Internal service quality: excellent employee selection and training, high-quality working environment and strong support from employees who directly serve customers will bring …

Satisfied and efficient service personnel: more satisfied, loyal and diligent employees, which will bring ...

Higher service value: creating customer value and providing services more effectively and efficiently, which will bring …

Satisfied and loyal customers: satisfied customers will remain loyal, repeat purchases and recommend them to other customers, which will bring ...

● Healthy service profit and growth: excellent service enterprise performance.

C: Service enterprises are faced with three marketing tasks: improving the degree of service differentiation, service quality and service productivity.

Service differentiation management

Providing differentiated sources, methods and images is an effective way to deal with price competition. Products can contain innovative features, which distinguish the products of enterprises from competitors.

Implementation measures: more capable and reliable customer contact personnel; Improve the hardware environment for providing services; Re-plan the service delivery process.

Service quality management

Service enterprises can achieve differentiation by providing higher quality than their competitors: they need to empower front-line service employees-giving them the power, responsibility and motivation to identify, care for and meet customer needs.

Service productivity management

Enterprises should avoid excessive pursuit of productivity at the expense of quality.

1. The connotation of products is very broad: it includes not only tangible products, but also services, events, people, places, organizations, ideas or a combination of the above. So what we are talking about here is a big product concept, and all valuable products that can be used to establish a value relationship with customers can become products;

2. Service is also an important product: in the era of developed Internet, physical products are saturated, and service products are paid more and more attention and become important product types, such as knowledge services and information services.

3. It is necessary to understand the customer's "customer core value", that is, the basic needs and desires of customers, and the packaging on this basis is valuable;

4. Product is the starting point of everything, and it is also the most critical factor among the 4P elements: product is the source of value, and all other channels and promotions are based on this, so it is the most worthwhile effort, and the creation of product advantages can also greatly improve the efficiency of publicity and channels;

5. The promotion strategies of different types of products may be obviously different: for example, the maintenance and transformation of old customers is particularly important for products that need to be purchased frequently; For products that are purchased very infrequently, it may be more wise to continuously develop new customers;

6. Brand is also a part of product value: besides physical products and services, brand itself is also a kind of value. For example, people who support the same brand can become a community, get mutual support and become a symbol of social value.

7. The brand is not based on advertising, but on the brand experience itself, products, services, employees, etc. We always dream that brands can solve everything. As long as you make a brand and have popularity, you will have everything, but in fact, no matter what factors, you must build on the basis of continuously providing value to customers. If there is something wrong with the product itself or the service itself, exaggerating publicity may still have a negative effect;

8. Service quality should be related to employees' interests: in order to improve customer service quality, we must find ways to enhance employees' enthusiasm, so we must make necessary settings to make service quality closely related to employees' interests.