Products: Types and Characteristics

Definition of a Product

In marketing, a product is an object or a system that is made available for consumer use through the process of marketing. Product widely means literally anything that can be offered in a market keeping its demand in close connection. This ‘Product’ has various other names, like in the retailing sector product is known as ‘merchandise’, while in manufacturing industries the same thing is known as ‘raw materials’ and further sold as a ‘finished good’. A product is an item that is offered for sale, this product can be a good or even a service. 

Note: The product is made at a cost and each of this is sold at a distinct price manipulated by the demand and supply forces. In this section we will detail our view in this topic of ‘Product’.

Advantages and Examples of Product

There are various advantages of classifying the products. The example can be sited as - travelling in a car which is owned by the traveller, in a hired car, and by train, bus or plane this was clear from the journey which could be made by using a purchased physical objects like the car, petrol and so on, or only by purchasing the service offered by the car from the hire company or one of the organisations that provide alternative modes of transport.

This interesting example since although the use of a hire car or other transport provider involves this purchasing a service which is used for the traveller’s own car and this involves purchasing the additional essential physical objects with at least two mandatory service products.

Types of Product

In the market there are general categories of various products. 

The types of products which can be studied under the following heads are:

1. Consumer Product which is subdivided into Convenience Goods and Speciality Goods.

2. Industrial Product subdivided into Capital, Plant, Equipment, Accessories, Materials and Components.

3. Services divided into Pure Service and Major Service 

The three main categories which are the Consumer Products, Industrial Products and Services are vivid and distinctive in the product market.

1. Consumer Products Examples

Consumer products are those products which are classified as the way they meet the necessity of purchasing. They are purchased with the basis of the characteristics of the products. The three main types of consumer product are - consumables, durables and services. 

Consumables are those products which are being used up in the process of satisfying the need for the need they are purchased. 

Example of a consumer product is the can of coca-cola drink which helps in quenching the thirst of the consumer who buys the product himself.  

Consumable consumer products can again be further divided into: 

• Convenience goods

• Speciality goods.

2. Industrial Product Examples

Industrial products are those business products which are bought by organisations who manufactures or supplies the products or provides the services. Industrial Products are not bought for their own personal consumption, but to contribute an organisational objective. Industrial Products are destined to further processing further. 

In economist language they are known as intermediate products or as inputs which is meant as the demand for this kind of product will further depend upon the final market that is being served by the organisation. This relationship is termed as the ‘derived demand’. For this reason, the industrial products in the markets are subject to higher fluctuations in demand and periodic cycles of activity than is usual for a consumer product.

The product depends upon the relationship between the product and the purchasing organisation. Depending upon the user, a computer also may be classified either as a capital equipment item under industrial goods.