3 levels of products

Example: UQ
• Core customer value: education, future job
opportunities...(important to understand)
• Actual product: reputation of UQ, courses, classrooms,
professor,...(make sure to ful l customer needs)
• Augmented product: library, sport facilities, career
advisors... (have in uence on the experience at UQ)

IMPORTANT: People don't buy attributes - People buy bene ts

Product types and the four Ps

• Convenience product: mostly from convenient stores or groceries stores (consumable goods)
◦Place: intensive distribution strategy - need to have lots of stores so that it is easy for
customers to have access or nd the products
◦Price: relatively inexpensive
◦Promotion: focus on the availability of the product and trying to create awareness of the
product
◦Behaviour of consumers:
‣ Customer Loyalty: consumers have low loyalty to brand, if familiar brand is not available
or other brand has sales, they will purchase substitutes
‣ Purchase behaviour: frequent purchase and very little time and e ort in making
decisions

• Shopping product: goods that we shop around for, making decision by comparing di erent
products...
◦Place: selective distribution strategy - need to have su cient number of outlets (less than
groceries stores) in that consumers can shop around but it is a lot more selective
 ◦Price: fairly expensive
◦Promotion: focus on trying to di erentiate yourself from competitors
◦Behaviour of consumers:
‣ Customer Loyalty: consumers prefer speci c brands, but will accept substitutes
‣ Purchase behaviour: infrequent needs, need more time to make decisions by comparing
di erent products/brand

• Specialty product: expensive product

◦Place: Exclusive distribution strategy - very limited number of outlets and customers who are
willing to buy these products will travel and search for the product
◦Price: very expensive
◦Promotion: focus on uniqueness of brand/product and status of brand/product (status
symbol, which signal or represent themselves)
◦Behaviour of consumers:
‣ Customer Loyalty: customers extremely loyal to favourite brand, not accept substitutes
‣ Purchase behaviour: infrequent and usually have extensive search and decision time

• Unsought product: new products or products where we don't really think about
◦Place: Selective distribution strategy - often limited, but need to make information easily
accessible when customer actually see these needs for the particular product
◦Price: no speci c price range
◦Promotion: focus on trying to create awareness that it is needed for customers and make sure
information is easily assessable when customer need it
◦Behaviour of consumers:
‣ Customer Loyalty: not aware of products, therefore looking around at di erent products
and di erent attributes and then choose the product accordingly => no brand loyalty and
will accept substitutes
‣ Purchase behaviour: very infrequent, need some time for comparison

• Products can fall into one or more categories, based on occasions and needs and prices:
◦Example: Umbrella
‣ if suddenly rain and go buy one for $10-$12 => convenience goods
‣ if buy good and regular basis umbrella for $60-$100 => shopping good
‣ if buying a very special umbrella, imported from Italy and cost several hundred dollars =>
specialty goods
Product Decisions
• Product level decisions
◦Product attributes
◦Branding
◦Packaging and labelling
◦Product support service
• Product line decisions
◦Line stretching
◦Line lling
• Product mix decisions
◦Width, length, depth, consistency

BRANDING
De ne: name, term, sign, symbol, design that identi es the product of a seller and di erentiate it
from competitors' products.
• Advantages to buyers:
◦Product identi cation: identify a product based on the brand name
◦Product quality: the quality associated with the brand name
• Advantages to sellers:
◦Basis for product's quality: because of the brand name, it actually provide a better incentive
(khuyến khích) to provide product quality - maintaining the perspective of customer that the
brand provides high quality products
◦Provides legal protection: so that someone cannot just copy your products
◦Helps to segment markets: helps to appeals to di erent consumer segments

Brand Advocacy:
• De ne: is a person, or customer who talks favourably about a brand or product, and then passes
on positive word-of-mouth about the brand to others.
• Example: Google selects top brand advocates for "most active online" and invites them to a
conference. They pay for the airfare and hotels...having a number of di erent sessions at the
conference where they show new products and di erent ideas related to Google. Then when these
brand advocate come back and feel more strongly about Google. Google also sends new products
to brand advocates for testing products. ==> Make them more loyal and stronger brand advocates.
Brand communities:
• Online or o ine communities formed around the brands or other market o erings, by mainly
customers and supported by the brand
• Why?
◦Customers have this need to belong and make meanings
◦Brand provide structure, meaning and social interaction
• Example: Ford Fiesta Movement
◦Create brand advocacy by keeping 100 customers and give them a new Ford Fiesta to drive
for 6 months
◦In returns, these brand advocacy need to post messages on Twitter's di erent blogs, post
videos about the car on Youtube, post messages on social media
◦By this brand community is created: hundred of videos which were viewed millions of times =>
creating stronger relationship with customers
◦SOCIAL MEDIA is NOT a SELLING tool, it is a RELATIONSHIP tool.

Brand personality:
• De ne: a set of human characteristics associated with a brand name - romantic, traditional,
rugged, sophisticated... (example: someone may give their car a name or call it "he" or "she")
• Personality traits and demographic characteristics transferred from people associated with the
brand, from advertising, and from attributes of the product itself.
◦Marketers can in uence brand personality through advertising
• Personality and relationship:
◦People have relationship with brands and treat them like they're people (as we perceive the, to
have personalities)
◦Importance of brand personalities:
‣ Distinguish the brand - Oreo Cookies (marketing of "twisted the Oreo, lick the cream, dips
into milk and eat), Corona Beers (put lime into the bottle), Mac...
‣ Establish bonds with consumers
◦Why matter?
‣ Brand personalities in uence our relationships with brands
‣ Built on the same things as real relationship:
• Emotion
• Connection
• Interdependence
 • Commitment
• Intimacy

Brand equity:
• Value of the brand name - the positive di erential e ect that knowing the brand name has on
customer response to the product or service
◦Example: How much can I charge a product with the Apple branding on it?
• Building brand equity is one of the important aspects of brand management. Brand managers
spend a lot of e ort in building brand equity
• How to build brand equity: based on overall integrated strategy, based upon product strategy,
distribution, pricing, promotional strategy, and a really good product that providing value to
customers.
• Provides:
◦More brand awareness and loyalty
◦Basis for strong, pro table customer relationships

BRAND DEVELOPMENT - BRAND MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Line extension:
• Use current brand name in the
current product categories
(example: Coke company has
Diet Coke)
• Lowest risk strategy
• Utilise brand equity
• Use of the current brand name
to promote new products inside
the existing categories
(example: salt company
launching more types of salts -
regular salt, popcorn salt...)
• Can leverage the brand name

Multi-brand strategy:
• New brand name for existing products
• More risky strategy:
 ◦Use more money for promoting di erent brand names

Brand extension:
• Application of an existing, popular brand name to a new product in an unrelated product category -
name only
• Have greatest potential, but more risky: if a product fail, it might have negative impact on the main
products
• Use to leveraging brand equity
• Example: Colgate is known for its toothpaste, but also launch toothbrush
• To have GOOD brand extension:
◦Enhance extension brand awareness and core brand image:
‣ Same product in di erent form: fresh fruit -> fruit bar
‣ Companion product: toothpaste + toothbrush
‣ Customer associations: Baby food brand -> Baby clothes
‣ Utilise company expertise: Car -> Lawnmowers (a car company would make high quality
lawnmowers, but not the other way around)
‣ Focus on similar bene ts/attributes: Soap -> Shampoo (same bene ts of cleaning
yourself)
‣ Focus on association: Bank with trusted credit card service => trusted nancial advice
• BAD brand extension:
◦Name does not add value
◦Negative attribute association
◦Poor t with original brand in terms of:
‣ Company skills and assets
‣ Complementarity

New brand:
• Introduce new product as a new brand
• Have highest risk
• Used to avoid risking the brand equity of the current brand name for risky projects