Exam 13: Setting Product Strategy

A manufacturer is contemplating introducing a product that is inferior to its competition in its performance, design, and functionality. However, the manufacturer believes that "good brand marketing" can overcome these shortfalls. Why is this thinking incorrect?

Using the ________ level of the product hierarchy to market its soups, Campbell Soups feature the company name first, then the soup variety on their packaging.

A Maserati sports car is considered a convenience good because interested buyers will travel far to buy one.

If the variants within the Tide product under P&G's detergent line included Tide with Acti-Lift, Tide Plus Febreze Freshness Sport, Tide Plus Febreze, Tide Free, Tide Plus Downy, Tide Coldwater, Tide TOTALCARE, and Tide Free for Coldwater, and all were available in Pods, Liquids, Liquids for HE machines, and Powder formats, the width of the product mix would be 32 because there would be 32 distinct variants.

Product-mix pricing can involve a number of pricing strategies for the brand manager. List each of these strategies and briefly define each.

What are the situations in which guarantees are most effective?

________ found a highly creative way to address the problem of proliferating plastic bottles with its "Waste<Less" line and helped farmers grow cotton with less water for its "Water<Less" line.

What types of goods are purchased frequently, immediately, and with minimum effort by the consumers?

Happy Home Products produces detergents, toothpaste, bar soap, disposable diapers, and paper products. This company has a product ________ of five lines.

A winning formula for many ________ brands is craftsmanship, heritage, authenticity, and history, often critical to justifying a sometimes extravagant price.

A pricing system in which there is a "fixed" fee and then a variable "usage" fee is called bundling.

Products such as insurance, cemetery plots, and smoke detectors are examples of ________ goods that are products that the consumer does not know about or does not normally think of buying.

The ________ of the product mix refers to how closely related the various product lines are in end use, production requirements, distribution channels, or some other way.

Packaging includes the activities of designing and producing a container for a product.

To avoid "feature fatigue," companies must be careful to prioritize those features that are included and find unobtrusive ways to provide information about how consumers can use and benefit from the feature.

Because they are intangible, durable goods normally require more quality control, supplier credibility, and adaptability than either services or nondurable goods.

Warranties are formal statements of expected product performance by the manufacturer.

You know that marketers have traditionally classified products based on characteristics of durability, tangibility, and use. You also know that each product type has an appropriate marketing-mix strategy attached. In analyzing your company's products, you decide to list each of these products and the appropriate marketing-mix strategy to understand where your products "fit." List these products and their appropriate marketing-mix strategies.

When the physical product cannot be easily differentiated, the key to competitive success may lie in adding valued services and improving their quality. The main service differentiators are ordering ease, delivery, installation, ________, customer consulting, maintenance, and repair.

Industrial goods can be classified in terms of how they enter the production process and their relative costliness. Identify the three groups of industrial goods.