Chapter 9: Product Concepts

What is a product you ask? Taken straight from the book "It’s the starting point in creating a marketing mix. It’s everything, both favorable and unfavorable that a person received in an exchange. A product may be tangible like a pair of shoes, a service like a haircut, an idea like “don’t litter," or any combination of these three. Packaging, style, color, option, and size are some typical product features. All just as important are intangibles such as service, the seller’s image, the manufacturer’s reputation, and the way consumers believe others will view the product."

I like convenience products, an inexpensive item that merits little shopping effort. I don’t often do a lot of planning so it’s nice to purchase a convenient product which is provided to those who don’t do the needed planning and are in need something right away. What's interesting is that a shopping product would be more expensive than a convenience product and is found in fewer stores. These are often the type of products that one would compare several brands or stores on style, practicality, price, and lifestyle compatibility. I love when specialty products are distributed to only one or very few outlets in a geographic area, makes it so inconvenient for us consumers when we’re looking for an item which we can’t get.

I often like to observe the way a package has been assembled. The three most important functions of packaging are to contain and protect products, promote products, and facilitate the storage, use, and convenience of products. I liked the example they gave in the book of the packaging decision on Barbie. Very interesting.



Warranties: My favorite...Why is it that most warranties are up when we have a problem? If a warranty confirms the quality or performance of a good or service then we should be assured that the product should work properly for some time right? Also, note that all sales have an implied warranty under the Uniform Commercial Code.

Chapter 8: Decision Support Systems and Marketing Research

This chapter is neat because it teaches about a decision support system that is an interactive, flexible, computerized information system that enables managers to obtain and manipulate information as they are making decisions. Now how cool is that! Another thing to know about this chapter is the Marketing Research Process: #1: Identify and formulate the problem/opportunity, #2: Plan the research design and gather primary data, #3: Specify the sampling procedures, #4: Collect the data, #5: Analyze the data, #6: Prepare and present the report, #7: Follow up.

For me specifically, the one thing I remember about this chapter is Secondary Data. The quality of secondary data may pose a problem and very often do not give detailed information that would enable a researcher to assess their quality or relevance. If you ever become a researcher there are a few things you'll need to be sure to address. These important questions are: Who gathered the data? Why were the data obtained? What methodology was used? How were classifications developed and defined? When was the information gathered? Now primary data is different the secondary data. Primary data is information collected for the first time, used for solving particular problems under investigation. Primary data will answer a specific research question that secondary data cannot answer. There are many options for obtaining information: surveys, mall interviews, telephone interviews, mail surveys, questionnaires, focus groups, and executive interviews.

Chapter 7: Segmenting and Targeting Markets

Did you know that "market" means different things to different people? There is quite a variety of "markets" if you think about it, supermarket, stock market, labor market, fish market, and flea market. On an important note a market is 1) people or organizations with 2) needs or wants with 3) the ability and 4) the willingness to buy. If one of these characteristics is missing, it is not considered a market.

For a successful a segmentation scheme must produce segments that meet four basic criteria:
1) substantiality, 2) Identifiability and measurability, 3) Accessibility, and 4) Responsiveness.

Chapter 5: Consumer Decision Making

Hmmmm, consumer decision making...Stimulus? What is that? Input affecting one or more of the five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. It's fairly simple to understand... you have either external or internal stimulus. Internal is basically your inner desires for hunger or thirst and external is the influence you get from someone on the outside. Many times people on the outside give you a recommendation for a new place to eat, how to decorate or design something or you obtain information from an ad on tv or the radio.