WHAT IS A PRODUCT?

Normally the word product brings to mind a physical object, such as an automobile, a television set, or a soft drink. And we normally use the expression products and services to distinguish between physical objects and intangible ones. But in thinking about physical products, their importance lays not so much in owning them as in using them to satisfy our wants. We don’t buy a car to look at but because it supplies transportation service. We don’t buy a microwave oven to admire but because it supplies a cooking service. Thus physical products are really vehicles that deliver services to us.

In fact, services are also supplied by other vehicles, such as persons, places, activities, organizations, and ideas. If we are bored, we can go to a nightclub and watch an entertainer (person): travel to a warm vacationland like Bermuda (place): engage in some physical exercise (activity): join a lonely-hearts club (organization), or adopt a different philosophy about life (idea). In other words, services can be delivered through physical objects and other vehicles. We will use the term product to cover all vehicles that are capable of delivering satisfaction of a want or need.

Manufacturers get into a lot of trouble by paying more attention to their products than to the services produced by these products. Manufacturers love their products but forget that customers buy them because they satisfy a need. People do not buy physical objects for their own sake. A tube of lipstick is bought to supply a service: helping the person look better. A drill bit is bought to supply a service: producing a needed hole. A physical object is a means of packaging a service. The marketer’s job is to sell the benefits or services built into physical products, rather than just describe their features.

Product planners need to think about the product on three levels. The most basic level is the core product, which addresses the question: What is the buyer really buying? A woman buying lipstick buys more than lip color. Charles Revson of Revlon saw this early: «In the factory, we make cosmetics; in the store, we sell hope». Thus, when designing products, marketers must first define the core of benefits the product will provide to consumers.

2. Дайте відповідь на запитання:

1) What are physical products?

2) How are services supplied?

3) When shall we use the term product?

4) Why do customers buy products?

5) What do the marketers first define when designing their products?

Заповнить пропуски відповідною формою дієслова to be: am, is, are, were, was, або have been, had been, will be. Перепишіть наступні речення, визначить у кожному з них часову форму та стан дієслова-присудка. Перекладіть речення на українську мову.

1. I saw him as I … getting off the bus.

2. We … going to have any important work to do in the next few days.

3. He took over as Director General ten years ago, and … running the firm successfully since then.

4. Our chief … discussing some affairs with our business partners for two hours last Wednesday.

5. Computers … taking decision for us in the future.

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