The Product and the Product Mix 185
keter to look at the user’s total consumption system:the way the user performs the tasks
of getting, using, fixing, and disposing of the product.^2 As Levitt notes: “The new
competition is not between what companies produce in their factories, but between
what they add to their factory output in the form of packaging, services, advertising,
customer advice, financing, delivery arrangements, warehousing, and other things
that people value.”^3
However, product augmentation adds cost, so the marketer must determine
whether customers will pay enough to cover the extra cost (of remote-control televi-
sion in a hotel room, for example). Moreover, augmented benefits soon become
expected benefits, which means that competitors have to search for still other features
and benefits. And as companies raise the price of their augmented product, some
competitors can offer a “stripped-down” version of the product at a much lower price.
Thus, the hotel industry has seen the growth of fine hotels offering augmented prod-
ucts (Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton) as well as lower-cost lodgings offering basic products
(Motel Six, Comfort Inn).
At the fifth level stands the potential product,which encompasses all of the possi-
ble augmentations and transformations the product might undergo in the future.
Here, a company searches for entirely new ways to satisfy its customers and distinguish
its offer. As one example, Marriott’s TownePlace Suites all-suite hotels represent an
innovative transformation of the traditional hotel product.
Product Classifications
In addition to understanding a product’s position in the hierarchy, the marketer also
must understand how to classify the product on the basis of three characteristics: dura-
bility, tangibility, and consumer or industrial use. Each product classification is associ-
ated with a different marketing-mix strategy.^4
➤ Durability and tangibility. Nondurable goodsare tangible goods that are normally
consumed in one or a few uses (such as 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. Durable goodsare tangible goods that normally
survive many uses (such as refrigerators). These products normally require more
personal selling and service, command a higher margin, and require more seller
guarantees. Services are intangible, inseparable, variable, and perishable products
(such as haircuts or cell phone service), so they normally require more quality
control, supplier credibility, and adaptability.
➤ Consumer-goods classification.Classified according to consumer shopping habits, these
products include:convenience goodsthat are usually purchased frequently,
immediately, and with a minimum of effort, such as newspapers; shopping goods
that the customer, in the process of selection and purchase, characteristically
compares on the basis of suitability, quality, price, and style, such as furniture;
specialty goodswith unique characteristics or brand identification, such as cars, for
which a sufficient number of buyers are willing to make a special purchasing effort;
andunsought goodsthat consumers do not know about or do not normally think of
buying, such as smoke detectors. Dealers that sell specialty goods need not be
conveniently located but must communicate their locations to buyers; unsought
goods require more advertising and personal sales support.
➤ Industrial-goods classification.Materialsandpartsare goods that enter the
manufacturer’s product completely. Raw materialscan be eitherfarm products(e.g.,