Exam 12: Setting Product Strategy

During a meeting,you were asked by the vice-president of marketing,to comment on the company's pricing strategy for its products.Recalling your marketing management course in college,your comments define the six situations involving product-mix pricing.List these six product-mix pricing strategies.

If the physical product cannot be easily differentiated,the key to competitive advantage lies in the pricing of the related "services" provided by the manufacturer.

Industrial-goods classifications based on terms of how the products enter the production process and their relative costs include such segments as materials and parts and capital items.Window cleaning services,consumable office supplies,personal computers,desks,paint,nails,and buckets are included in the classifications of industrial goods.List the other "classifications" including subclassifications for industrial goods.

Outline three guidelines for correctly implementing a bundling strategy.

What is the importance of guarantees?

A guarantee's greatest contribution to a product's success is that it decreases the buyer's perceived risk in the purchase of the product.

Capital items are long-lasting goods that facilitate developing or managing the finished products.

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

Realizing that although household products is a huge category,taking up an entire supermarket aisle or more,it is an incredibly boring one,the founders of Method Products designed a sleek,uncluttered dish soap container that also carried functional advantages,such as ease of dispensing soap and cleaning.Method is competing in the crowded market for household products on the basis of superior ________.

The product hierarchy stretches from basic needs to particular items that satisfy those needs.

Line filling,if overdone,may result in self-cannibalization and increased customer loyalty.

Pure bundling occurs when a firm offers goods both individually and in bundles.

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.

Every company's product line covers a certain part of the total possible range of products and consumer levels.

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

Design can shift consumer perceptions to make brand experiences more rewarding.

What are the situations in which guarantees are most effective?

Ingredient branding can take on a form called "self-branding" in which the company advertises its own branded ingredients.

The four product-mix dimensions (length,width,depth,consistency)permit the company to expand its business.

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?