Strategic Marketing Management
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Chapter 15 : Product Branding and Customer Service Strategies
Nature of Product
The Generic Product
The Expected Product
The Augmented Product
The Potential Product
Developing Product Strategies
Product Differentiation
Product Positioning
Product Line Expansion and Contraction
Trading Up and Trading Down
Product Brand Strategy
Managing Existing Products
Product Decisions
Product Life Cycle and Marketing Strategy
Branding Strategy
Product Line Branding
Corporate Branding
Mixed Branding
House of Brands
Responsibility for Making Product Decisions
Product Quality Management
Total Quality Management
Customer service strategy
Branding Strategy and Customer Service
Chapter Summary
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A product can be considered as a combination of various tangible and
intangible factors. Each product has a personality which consists of four
factors – the generic product, the expected product, the augmented product,
and the potential product. Marketers have to develop and implement various
product strategies so as to achieve success in the market. Product
differentiation is one product strategy through which a product is projected
as being different from competing products in the market. Product
positioning is done to help customers perceive a product differently from
those of competitors. Product line expansion involves adding more products
to a company's product line while product line contraction involves
withdrawing products from an existing product line. In trading up, products
which are priced much higher than other products in the product line are
added to the product line. In trading down, products which are priced much
lower than existing products are added to a product line. Another important
product strategy is brand strategy. Important product brand decisions to be
taken include whether to go in for single brand, multiple brands, brand
extension, etc. |
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An organization has to ensure that all its products are managed well and that
no product or product line gets neglected. The product life cycle model
proposed by Theodore Levitt is very useful in making many product decisions.
According to the product model, successful products pass through four stages
during their lifetimes – the market development stage, market growth stage,
market maturity stage, and market decline stage.
Branding helps consumers to differentiate products offered by various
competitors. Branding helps organizations to retain their customers and also
to obtain legal protection against competitors who try to copy the features
of their products. In order to compete successfully in global markets,
products are expected to have high quality. Various concepts have evolved in
quality like TQM, Six Sigma, ISO Standards, etc. which helps organizations
to enhance the quality of the products they manufacture and thereby satisfy
the needs of customers. Customer service is very important for consumer
satisfaction and it has both a product component and a non-product
component. Many organizations give importance to building brand name over
customer service and this often ends in failure. Retaining existing
customers is relatively easier than gaining new customers. Organizations
have to keep this in mind and try to provide complete satisfaction to the
existing customers.
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Short Case Studies / Caselets