Core product

Core products are a company's products or services which are most directly related to their core competencies. They refer to the use, benefit or problem-solving service that the consumer is really buying when purchasing the product. They are at the first level in the model - Three Levels of a Product. These products are then integrated into a variety of end products, either by the company holding the core product or by a second company to which the core product is sold to, and the actual products are sold to users. In simple words, core products are derived by customers when they use the product.

Origin

The concept of Core Product is originated from Philip Kotler, in his book - "Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning and Control" in the 1967. This is the first level of the concept of Three Levels of a Product.

Three Levels of a Product

Kotler suggested that the nature of a product can be divided into three levels, the core product, actual product and augmented product. The core part of the product is mainly focused on the benefit that the product brings to the customer, while the actual product is a tangible product which focuses on the quality and the design of the product. Augmented product consists of the measures taken to help the consumer put the actual product to sustained use. The core product is viewed as one of the most important feature within the product. If it does not have good functions, no matter how good looking the actual product is, customers would not like it. By understanding your customer which is through doing research and development, business firms can therefore create a better product that they want and mould the product to position yourself in the market using a mixture of the three levels of product.