The Total Product Marketing Concept. Insert Name. Institutional Affiliation

Transcription

1 1 The Total Product Marketing Concept Insert Name Institutional Affiliation Tutor Date

2 2 The Total Product Marketing Concept Abstract The success of an organization is largely driven by the level of demand for the organization s products. This affects their sales, their market share and consequently the organization s level of profit. Since marketing is basically the process through which the organization gets their product to its consumers, it is considered a foundational principle of business. The following essay looks into one of the mega marketing concepts. It begins with an introduction of marketing as a concept and its objectives. This is followed by an analysis of the total product marketing concept complete with the dimensions it entails and how these apply in business by quoting abstract examples. Introduction Marketing is defined as the action of moving an organization s product from the concept stage to the consumer through promotion strategies including but not limited to advertising and market research (Pride and Ferrel, 2016). There are five main objectives for marketing 1. To increase market share 2. To determine customer needs and satisfy them 3. To increase a product s demand 4. To create goodwill and improve an organization s public image 5. To generate profits (Hoffman and Bateson, 2010) Marketing is one of the main building blocks of a business alongside finance and operations. Sales, the strength of a brand and eventually the level of demand among others is directly affected by the effectiveness of marketing. In the past marketing was pegged to four main Ps;

3 3 promotion, pricing, place and product. Philip Kotler coined the term mega marketing asserting that marketing contained a lot more concepts than the four Ps and advocating especially for the consideration of extra Ps including public relations and power. The following essay however looks into one of the deeper concepts of mega marketing; the total product concept. This concept was introduced in 1980 by Theodore Levitt. The total product concept as the name suggests, involves the analysis of a market and product in order to make sales more effective (Srinivasan et al., 2012). This concept outlines four main dimensions that should be applied by organizations in order to better understand the market and the product. The four dimensions are the expected, the generic, the potential product and the augmented. The purpose of the essay is to analyse the total product concept as a viable marketing strategy by outlining its dimensions and determining how they apply in a business context. A product usually has many features that must be exploited to provide value for customers and consequently maximize profits. Most basically marketers must ensure that the product they promote satisfies the wants and needs of the organization s customers. This is based on the understanding that consumers buy solutions to problems in the form of products. The following is an analysis of the total product concept in this regard (Srinivasan et al., 2012).

4 4 The Total Product Concept Product is one of the Ps of the marketing mix and usually makes up the main agenda of marketing. It embodies the whole solution to consumer needs that the organization comes up with and it therefore makes sense to analyse the product as the foundational basis of marketing. The following is the breakdown of the total product concept according to the four dimensions that govern it according to its founder Theodore Levitt. The Core Product The core product is the most important and basic level of the total product concept. At this stage the marketer simply examines and looks into the needs and wants of the organization s customers. This determines what the products main attributes will be. The designer should list all the needs they want the product to meet and ensure that these are in tandem with the consumers wants and needs. For instance, a mobile phone can perform the basic functions of making phone calls and receiving phone calls, but the consumer may want other functions such as the ability to make video calls, a camera, a calculator and the ability to access the internet. The core product would be the ability to communicate and would remain standard throughout the marketing process. The core product is determined by the dominant factor or benefit that a consumer expects when they purchase a product (Noseworthy, Cotte and Lee, 2011). The core product determines how successful the marketing of the product will be as it outlines the benefits that the consumer gets. In order for the product to stay ahead of competition the core product must meet the needs of the consumer holistically and in essence in a much better dimension that substitute

5 5 products. The core product remains the same in spite of other changes that may be made to the consumer. The Expected The expected product as the name suggests simply refers to what the customer expects when they purchase a product. These are the attributes that fulfil the customer s most basic need from the consumer s point of view (Kuratko, 2016). For instance, when a customer purchases a mobile phone, they expect the phone should have the capacity to store contacts, autocorrect messages and notify the owner of any missed calls among other expectations. These expectations are sort of an enabling extension of the core product and even though they are not mentioned in the core product needs, they are expected to be incorporated as support functions. They are basic expectations that sort of go without saying depending on the nature of the product. Marketers must pay attention to expected attributes as these often determine the perception of quality even though they are not the core function. For instance, a mobile phone with very little capacity for storing many contacts may be perceived as lacking in quality compared to one with a huge capacity for contacts storage. An MP3 player with clearer sound will be considered better quality than one with unclear sound. Many product providers have in the past used these to differentiate their products through branding and marketing. For instance a camera with more mega pixels that a competitor s camera will likely have this quality printed on its packaging. The Augmented Product The augmented product entails additional attributes that may not necessarily be core attributes catering to the needs of the consumer but which offer additional benefits for the

6 6 purchaser (Dinnie, 2015). For instance, a mobile phone s basic functions are making and receiving calls, and basically allowing communication. However, a mobile phone may have a torch, a camera, a calculator, games, mp3 player and recorder as additional benefits. In fact, these are sometimes used to differentiate different products in terms of quality and price. The more benefits a product has at the least changes in price, the more attractive the product is to the consumer. This way, producers can differentiate their products from competitors too. In some cases, the augmented product may entail additional services that are not necessarily part of the product such as a warranty, after sales services, home delivery and free assembly. The augmented product is used as a differentiation technique; much like packaging and it gives the manufacturer or supplier competitive edge especially in cases where they are all selling similar products. Eventually augmentation turns into expectation as consumers begin to expect these additional benefits the more producers offer them. For instance, the warranty in most cases especially when it comes to electronics has become an expected product where once it was considered an additional benefit. The Potential Product The potential product is what the product can eventually become after improvements have been made on the original creation. At this level in most cases, possibilities are endless. This stage involves sometimes incorporating augmented products into the product as a permanent component (Boone and Kurtz, 2013). Using the mobile phone as an example, the possibilities have proved endless. Once upon a time, the mobile phone was a bulky gadget that made and received calls. Over time, it has been made smaller and many of the augmented benefits such calculators, FM radio, and ability to connect to the internet is now expected

7 7 benefits. The mobile phone bears so many possibilities for improvement and features keep improving from time to time. Today, mobile phones can be used to make conference calls, store ebooks and play music among so many other functions. The potential product represents the innovative stage of product analysis and in many cases the future of the organization in terms of product quality and relevance. The total product concept does not cover the entire marketing concept but it certainly makes up a very integral part of the marketing process. It is important to realize that at the end of the day, the only important link between an organization and its consumers is their ability to effectively meet a certain need. The total product concept makes it a priority for the organization to ensure that they are promoting quality and not just quantity (Armstrong et al., 2014). While it is easy to create demand through advertising and offering promotional discounts, loyalty is only attained through offering quality products to consumers. They may respond to advertisement and promotion but long term success in marketing is determined by the product s quality. If marketers are keen on ensuring that they effectively apply the total product concept, then they can attract return business and gradually build a loyal customer base and grow the organization s brand. To better understand how this is achieved, producers need to understand the concept of trust and loyalty and the role these play in ensuring return business. Trust basically refers to a consumer s expectation that their interaction with an organization will be favourable. Loyalty on the other hand refers to the consumer s choice to stick to the organization s brand for the long haul. Loyalty directly develops from trust, and trust develops from an organization s ability to meet the consumer s expectations all the time without fail (Skalen and Hackley, 2011). Market research is an integral part of the total product concept as it determines the level of understanding

8 8 that manufacturers and marketers have in regards to the needs of the organization. Knowledge is power, and as such, consumer intelligence is a huge part of successfully applying the total product concept. This is especially the case because needs, preferences and trends change all the time depending on any number of factors. Consumers may not want the same core functions in a product that they wanted a year ago. Using mobile phones as an example again, today s business world requires mobile phones that can perform business functions such as send and receive s, and support basic computer functions such as Microsoft excel and Microsoft word among others. This was once an augmented benefit but is fast becoming a need in some circles. The manufacturer can only know this is they research accordingly. Conclusion The total product concept as seen above entails the analysis of the market and product in regard to its ability to effectively satisfy the needs of the consumer. The total product concept is broken down into four main dimensions; the core product, the expected product, the augmented product and the potential product. The core product fulfils the needs of the consumer at the most basic level. The expected product refers to the consumers expectations when they purchase a product. The augmented product is simply a combination of the additional benefits that an organization adds to the product to differentiate it from competitor products. In many cases, especially if all producers begin to offer the same additional benefits, augmentation eventually turns into expectation. The potential product represents the product s future improvements in response to new wants and needs and in some cases in order to stay ahead of competition. This concept thrives on thorough market research because in order to pattern a product after certain need satisfactory attributes, the producer must be aware of what the consumer needs and how

9 9 they would rather this need was met. In addition to market research, the marketer must understand that the product forms an integral part of the marketing mix and determines whether or not consumers trust the organization and their level of loyalty in future. The total product concept can therefore be viewed as a determinant of an organization s ability to build a loyal customer base and grow their market share, which would consequently grow their profits.

10 10 References Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S. & Kotler, P. (2014). Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia. Boone, L. & Kurtz, D. (2013). Contemporary marketing. London: Cengage Learning. Dinnie, K. (2015). Nation branding: concepts, issues, practice. NY: Routledge. Hoffman, K., & Bateson, J. (2010). Services marketing: concepts, strategies, & cases. Lodon: Cengage Learning Kuratko, D. (2016). Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning. Pride, W. & Ferrell, O. C. (2016). Foundations of marketing. London: Cengage Learning. Srinivasan, R., Lilien, G. L., Rangaswamy, A., Pingitore, G. M. & Seldin, D. (2012). The total product design concept and an application to the auto market. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 29(S1), Noseworthy, T. J., Cotte, J. & Lee, S. H. M. (2011). The effects of ad context and gender on the identification of visually incongruent products.journal of Consumer Research, 38(2), Skålén, P. & Hackley, C. (2011). Marketing-as-practice. Introduction to the special issue. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 27(2),