MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY

HARARE WEEKEND SCHOOL

GROUP PRESENTATION

TOPIC : PRODUCT ( Life cycle, Classification, Packaging, Anatomy and

GROUP MEMBERS (MARKETING)

Sandra Masimu R1918808E

Amos Dembetembe R222517C

Lydia Kazembe R222408J

Thandiwe Makuku R1918808E

Blessed Nerenadi R2211143M

Angelina Chindome R2210530N

Albert Nyadzayo R221377Q

Margret CHIMVINGA R2216371P

Chiedza Talent Chinhara R2213525E

Smart
Product classification
In order to make the market programme effective, the markets are segmented, and marketing
strategies are developed for each segment. In the same way, it is also useful to classify products
into homogeneous groups, as different types of products require different marketing approach.
There are several ways of classifying products such as

➢ Based on the user status, products may be classified as consumer goods and industrial
goods.
➢ Based on the extent of durability, products may be classified as durable goods and non-
durable goods.
➢ Based on tangibility, products may be classified as tangible goods and non-tangible goods.
These non-tangible goods are referred to as services.

Classification by users

❖ Consumer goods

Those products which are bought by households or ultimate consumers for personal non-business
use. Consumers use the product in the form in which the product is being offered i.e., no further
processing is done. For example, a toothbrush, a comb, a wristwatch or a mope are all meant for
personal use of households and are, thus, classified as consumer goods.

Consumer goods may be classified into three types as.

1) convenience goods,

2) shopping goods, and

3) speciality goods.

4) unsought goods

1.Convenience Goods
A class of consumer goods that people buy frequently with the least possible time and effort are
called ‘convenience goods. These are the products the consumers want to purchase frequently,
immediately and with a minimum effort. Milk, bread, butter, consumer has complete knowledge
of the products which he wants to buy, and the product purchased with a minimum of effort.
Convenience goods are usually sold by brand name and are low-priced. These products does not
require too much marketing strategies as they are self - marketing through the brand name . For an
example if one needs a toothpaste, colgate is their first preference .

2. Shopping goods

These are commodities consumers typically spend more time researching and comparing before
purchasing.They range from affordable items like clothes,hair to higher end goods like cars and
houses. These are normally once-off purchases e.g one is likely to purchase a house once in a
decade or maybe never. To market a shopping good ,one needs to invest in content, eg
demonstrating how your product differ from the competitive products.

3. Special goods

These are high priced branded products with unique features and the customers are convinced that
this product is superior to all competitive brands. . Customers are ready to buy these goods at prices
at which they are offered and put in extra time to locate the seller to make the purchase. Brand
recognition is the key to market specialty goods, as already they are recognized by the customers
and customers are willing to pay any price to purchase them. These products are mainly distributed
in one or a few distribution outlets for an example we have apple products, these gadgets are priced
at a higher price but can still dominate in the market, customers are willing to purchase an apple
iphone irregardless of it's price as it is believed to be used by people of higher status . Recently a
apple iphone 14 was launched and with minimum marketing from the producer already it has
dominated in the market irregardless of its price (high) .Also apple products are distributed in
istores which are situated in high class market.
4. Unsought goods

These are products/ services that a consumer does not think of purchasing ,these are products or
services like funeral policies,life assurance, banking services . Costumers can not think of
purchasing any of these services out of nowhere. For these type of products one needs strong
marketing ethics for brand visibility and recognition for an example Nyaradzo has worked with
different celebrities and musicians so as to market their brand and also situated more branchs near
the high density suburbs so as to react for a wider market.

❖ Industrial goods

Industrial Goods: Goods meant for consumption or use as inputs in production of other products
or provision of some service is termed as ‘industrial goods. These are meant for non-personal and
commercial use and include:

a) raw materials

b) machinery

c) components

d) operating supplies (such as lubricants, stationery etc).

Classification by durability

1.Durable Goods

2.Non-durable Goods

Durable goods

Tangible products with a long life and lasting many years of active service to owner are termed as
durable goods. Television, fan, refrigerator, pressure cooker, etc., may be cited as examples of
durable goods. A durable product would require a lot of Personal selling, and pre-sales and post-
sales service. Such products provide a higher margin to seller but require an assured after-sales
guarantee. Therefore, in case of refrigerators, the number of years of guarantee (particularly for
the compressor) is an important consideration when a consumer makes his final selection.

Non-Durable goods

b. Non-durable Goods: Non-durable goods are products that are normally consumed in one go or
last for a few uses. Examples of such products are soap, salt, pickles, sauce etc

Classification by tangibility

a) Tangible Goods

b) Intangible Goods

Tangible Goods:

Most goods, whether these are consumer goods or industrial goods and whether these are durable
or non-durable, fall in this category as they have a physical form, that can be touched and seen.

Intangible Goods:

Intangible goods refer to services provided to the individual consumers or to the organizational
buyers (industrial, commercial, institutional, government etc.).

Product lifecycle

Introduction:

A product is believed to go through definite life stages in the same manner as a living organism.
Products are first introduced in the market and customers accept if they find it serving their needs,
sales go rapidly. Finally, everyone who needs the product acquires it and sales plateau. At some
stage, either the need for product was satisfying to see to exists, or a different solution to that need
emerges. A customer stops buying the product and eventually the product sees to exists. A
company which introduces new product naturally hopes that the product will contribute to the
product and provide consumers satisfaction for a long period of time. This, however, does not
happen in practice so progressive organization tries to remain aware of what is happing throughout
the life of the product in terms of sales and resultant profit. Theodore Levitt (1965), A well-known
marketing management thinker has produced his ideas in the basic concept of the life cycle of the
product

Concept of Product life cycle:

Levitt idealize the concept of the product life cycle as

1. Products have a limited life span

2. The sales and consumptions passed through distinct stages, each poses different challenges,
opportunities,

3. Profit rise and falls at different stages of the life cycle of products.

4. Product requires different marketing, financial, manufacturing, purchasing and human resource
strategy at each stage of their life cycle.

The product life curves are portrait and bell/saved and it is divided into four stages.

1. Introductory Stage-There is likely to be no profit is more likely to lose at the entry stage of
any product. This loss may continue for some time depending on market factors. Thus, there may
be either lost in the beginning throughout or either profit rise rapidly or gradually. . As a producer
is introducing a new product to the market,it simply means consumers are not familiar with the
brand and inorder to make the market familiarize with the product a producer will then come up
with a promotional schemes as consumers tend to react negatively to a new product (thus being
afraid to try new products or services. For an when Munenzva couches (transport company) started
to introduce it's cross order bus services in 1998 they situated bus stops to collect crossborders
travellers around nearby suburbs, this was a marketing strategy as the travellers would choose
travelling with a bus that is near them than travelling to go to roadport thus servicing on transport
cost.

2. Growth stage- In the case of a product launched successful, the sales stars picking or rise more
rapidly. The next stage is reached which is known as the growth stage. Here the sale would climb
up fast and profit picture will also be improved considerably. This is because the cost of
distribution and promotion is now spread over larger volume of sales. As the volume of production
is increased, the manufacturing cost per unit tends to decline. Thus, from a strategic point of view,
this is a very critical stage for an example the Munenzva couches during their growth stage they
could now rank in roadport where other crossborder buses ranks and still managed to keep their
customers through their low busfares compared to other couches.

3. Maturity stage. It is too optimistic to think that the sale will keep shooting up. At this stage, it
is more likely that the competitors become more active. If the product is a novel one, by now
completion would have come out with similar products in the market to compete with. Therefore,
the sales are likely pushed to downwards by competitors by professional efforts would have to
increase to try and sustained to sales. This is called the maturate stage. At this point, it is difficult
to push up sales. Regarding the profit picture, the profit is likely to be stabilized or start declining
and more promotional efforts must be taken now in order to meet the competition.

4. The decline or obsolesce stage there after sales are likely to decline and the product could reach
to obsolete stage. Steps are to be taken to prevent obsolete and avoid their decline. This decline
that generally follows could be due to reseeds such that consumers changes in taste and
preferences, improvement in technology or introduction of better substitute. This is the stage where
the profit drops rapidly and ultimately the last stage emerges. Retaining such a profit after these
stages may be risky and certainly not profitable to the organization ,still with Munenzva couches
it faced decline stage when it started getting involved in various accidents and many travellers
started resisting their services as it was nolonger safe to travel with the buses.

Product packaging
Packing refers to all the activities related to designing, evaluating and producing a container of
your product to delight customers and improve profitability. It is an act of enclosing or protecting
the product to aid its distribution, identification, storage, promotion or usage. It is the cover of the
product that is used for storing, handling and protecting the product from external factors like
sunlight, moisture and breakage
Packaging is often referred to as the fifth P, in addition to the 4Ps of the marketing mix. This is
because of the vital role that packaging plays as a part of the product strategy

Types of packaging

1.primary packaging

2.secondary packaging

3.transport packaging

1.primary packaging

Is that required to hold the product eg the toothpaste tube that carries the tooth paste

2.secondary packaging

The outer wrapper that performs the function of the sales promotion by displaying the brand name
etc..eg the box of the toothpaste tube

3.transport packaging

It is the cartoon, crates that facilitates transportation and avoids damages in transit. It depends upon
the nature of the product

Products like soft drinks or beverages available in bottles does not have any secondary packaging

Objectives of packaging

• Physical protection ... the package maybe protecting the enclosed from other things like
temperature
• containment...small objects are typically group together in one package for efficiency
reasons eg box of pencils
• . marketing purposes- packaging and labels maybe used by marketers to encourage
potential buyers to buy the products
• information transmission - packages communicate how to use or transport, recycle, or
dispose the package

Factors to be considered for product packaging designing

It has to be common or local language so that its contents can be easily read and understood by
consumers especially English

2.container

Markets prefer disposable containers esp. developed countries because of preoccupation regarding
environmental pollution. However in developing countries reusable containers are preferred
because of their storing utilities .

Importance of product packaging

- provide information about the product

-helps in protecting the product from sunlight or spoilage

-helps in product handling

-helps in promoting the products by attracting customers eg attractive perfume bottles

- helps to assemble and arrange the contents in the desired form

-provides opportunity and space for advertising

- storage of the product eg bottles of cooking oil packet of milk or sachet etc

-product differentiation product easily differentiated from. Other products through design or colour
of the product.

PRODUCT ANATOMY

According to sage books product anatomy is the analysis of product according to different benefits
it offers. A product can be seen in terms of the benefits it offers. There are 5 levels of product
anatomy which include core need, actual product, expected product, augmented product and
potential product

1.CORE PRODUCT

This is the reason of need or want that satisfy customer by consuming the product. Customers buy
a product when then know and need a benefit from the product for example a car, car can be used
as a mode of transport which is the core benefit. The South African company Kingsly Beverage
company offers products like dragon energy drink it gives energy,that is it major core benefit

3. EXPECTED PRODUCT

These are the expectations of a product when people buy the product, for example when a customer
buy a cellphone line the customer expect communication services like calling and messaging.
There is a new company called the STC 30 company producing herbal medicines. When people
buy the herbs they expect to heal after using the product

4 ARGUMENTED PRODUCT

The inclusion of additional features, benefits attributes or related services that serves to
differentiate the product from it's competitors for instance showing customers that you have the
best product like the ZOl have put a cheetah as a sign to show that they are fast and is an effective
way of communication internet services

5 PORTENIAL PRODUCT

It is a process that a company might undergo in future to ensure customer loyalty in the future. A
business must aim to surprise and delight customers in future by continuing augmented product
for example Chicken inn do munchy Mondays for promotion. Buy two pieces of chicken and get
one piece for free

JND
It is the differential between two things that can be noticed by the human brain, JND stands for
Just Noticeable Difference. The quick difference noticed by a consumer regarding a product which
includes, packaging and logos, are mainly the noticeable difference and improvement of these
helps in attracting more clients and logos designs helps in brand recognition for an example fair
and lovely has made a major change in its name and logo ,thus keeping up with modern beauty
products.