Product Management Lesson 1 - Products and Product Types

Product – A product can be anything which can be used by some user(s). It shall satisfy some need/usage. This could be anything physical, service, conceptual idea etc. or a combination of these. A physical Air conditioner, a website, a mobile application – anything can be considered as a product. Product at high level is classified into Four major categories.

Core Product – This is not the actual physical product. This you cannot touch, but you can feel and is the most important quality or the benefit of the core product. For eg:- If you are considering an air conditioner as the actual physical product, core product means the temperature control (hot/cold) it provides. Or if you are considering a mobile phone as an example, its core products includes the facilities the phone provides (calling/messaging etc.)

Actual Product – This is the actual physical tangible product. In the above examples, actual product means the AC or the Mobile Phone. For the ordinary man, the term product means – it’s the actual product, which you can touch.

Augmented Product – The non-physical parts of an actual product, where the user may/may not pay for. It’s more of a value add kind. In the above examples – installation, warranty, maintenance, after sales service etc. comes under augmented product category.

Service – There is a fourth category of product, which consists of activities, benefits or a service offered by the actual product, which is not tangible, which cannot be separated from the actual product. Banking, Travel (any mode), usage of most of the websites etc. comes under this category.

Product Categories – A product is categorized as a particular type based on the end user of the product. The product is termed as a ‘consumer product’ if the end user is a consumer. Any product which we are buying for the use at our home can be considered as a consumer product (For example; Television, Mobile Phone etc.). The second type of product category is called Business Product, where the end user uses the product for some business purpose (resell, making some other goods, packaging some other goods etc.)

Convenience Product: – Any product which is frequently bought by the customer without much market research. This could be bought very frequently and is widely available across the shops. These types of products are generally having lesser price and require huge volume sales for making profit. Examples could be a tooth paste, biscuit, cigarette etc. Normally, consumers will be buying their favorite brand of convenience products.

Shopping Products: - Normally users will be spending some quality time in a market research, comparing the product with its competitors etc. happen before buying a shopping product. Products of this category are bought very rarely. Generally these category products are towards the higher price range. This could be a vehicle, certain furniture etc.

Specialty Products: - The category of products which is very limited and is fairly very high priced. Normally only the elite class customers would be able to buy these specialty products. Rolls Royce Phantom series of cars, Rolex watch etc. comes under this category.

Unsought Products: - These types of products’ availability are generally unknown to the customers till a need arises or they actually sees the product. A fire extinguisher, a smoke detector, an insurance etc. falls under this category.  

Above graph shows the price variation for each of the different product categories. If you plot a graph for the availability of the products, the graph will be opposite (Availability of the Specialty products will be very less, but for the convenience products will be very huge).