Marketing
Product Line
A product line refers to a group of related products offered by a company. These products may share similar characteristics, target the same customer base, or serve a similar purpose. Product lines allow companies to diversify their offerings while leveraging their brand and marketing efforts across multiple products.
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3 Key excerpts on "Product Line"
eBook - PDF- Louis E. Boone, David L. Kurtz(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
A company’s Product Line is a group of related products marked by physi- cal similarities or intended for a sim- ilar market. A product mix is the assortment of Product Lines and indi- vidual goods and services that a firm offers to consumers and business users. The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo both have Product Lines that include old standards—Coke Clas- sic and Diet Coke, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi. But recently, PepsiCo announced it would start distribut- ing Tampico Plus in selected states. Unlike other products from Tampico Beverages, Tampico Plus drinks contain vitamins A, C, and E. They also have half as much sugar as regular Tampico drinks. Thus, they meet the guidelines for beverages that can be sold in U.S. high schools, which want to limit the amount of sugar in drinks available to students. 2 Marketers must assess their product mix continually to en- sure company growth, to satisfy changing consumer needs and wants, and to adjust to competitors’ offerings. To remain com- petitive, marketers look for gaps in their Product Lines and fill A Product Line includes several related products designed to have the same appearance, like these PepsiCo products. Teri Stratford Product Line group of related products marked by physical similarities or intended for a similar market. product mix the assortment of Product Lines and individual goods and services that a firm offers to consumers and business users. > > > Quick Review 1 Describe the differences among convenience, shopping, and specialty products. 2 How do consumer products differ from business products? 3 How do marketers classify services? Product Life Cycle Once a product is on the market, it typically goes through four stages known as the product life cycle: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. As FIGURE 12.2 shows, in- dustry sales and profits vary depend- ing on the life cycle stage of an item.
eBook - PDF- Charles Lamb, Joe Hair, Carl McDaniel, , Charles Lamb, Charles Lamb, Joe Hair, Carl McDaniel(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. An organization’s product mix includes all the products it sells. All Coca-Cola’s products—soft drinks, juices, waters, sports drinks, teas, and more—constitute its product mix. Each product item in the product mix may require a separate marketing strategy. In some cases, however, Product Lines and even en- tire product mixes share some marketing strategy com- ponents. For example, UPS promotes its various services by demonstrating its commitment to helping customers with the tagline “United Problem Solvers.” Organiza- tions derive several benefits from organizing related items into Product Lines: ● Advertising economies: Product Lines provide economies of scale in advertising. Several products can be advertised under the umbrella of the line. Coca-Cola can use the slogan “Open Happiness” to promote the entire line. ● Package uniformity: A Product Line can benefit from package uniformity. All packages in the line may have a common look and still keep their individual identities. Coca-Cola’s soda packaging is again a good example. Coca-Cola Classic, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero all share certain colors and design elements, but each is recognizably unique. ● Standardized components: Product Lines allow firms to standardize components, thus reducing man- ufacturing and inventory costs. For example, Gen- eral Motors uses the same parts on many automobile makes and models. ● Efficient sales and distribution: A Product Line en- ables sales personnel for companies like Procter & Gamble to provide a full range of choices to customers.
eBook - ePubMarketing and the Customer Value Chain
Integrating Marketing and Supply Chain Management
- Thomas Fotiadis, Dimitris Folinas, Konstantinos Vasileiou, Aggeliki Konstantoglou(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
The saving of resources and capital by cooperating with specialized companies that provide special services allows a business to invest in other basic goals and sectors, and to develop other activities. Additionally, it succeeds in the improvement of the quality and performance of its services, because these companies provide the appropriate resources as well as a wide accumulated experience and the appropriate technological infrastructure. Consequently, outsourcing provides immediate access to the latest technology without requiring the usual development period within the business. Upgrading the level of quality of the services provided consequently gains further satisfaction from the customers/final consumers. However, the long-term cooperation between businesses and service providers possibly may give rise to dependence of the former on the latter, due to the gradual loss of know-how on the part of their human resources. If a business chooses to outsource a large number of its vital processes, then its ability to innovate becomes limited. Also, there is the possibility that an external partner is unable to adapt to the particularities of the company, with the result that the level of services provided does not reflect the expectations of the business. A potential “bad” provision of services will surely negatively influence the entire image of the business in the market.1.3 Decisions concerning the product mix, brand, packaging, and labeling of a product
1.3.1 Product mix
The product mix of a company refers to the set of single products that it offers to its customers and the way that these are classified based on their degree of involvement with each other, with reference to brand, price or special characteristics. A line or series consists of a group of products that are very closely associated with each other. For example, a food company has Product Lines such as fresh milk, dairy products, fruit juices, etc. The width of the mix refers to the number of different lines (series) that the business's portfolio contains. The length refers to the number of items in the product mix. The depth refers to the entire number of alternatives that each product is offered in, for example, the number of versions of fresh natural juice based on their ingredients (orange, apple, orange-pomegranate-grape mix, etc.) and the size of the packaging (e.g. single serve packaging of 300 ml and family-size packaging of 1 and 1.5 litres). The consistency
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