Three levels:
There are three different levels of a product:
1. Core product:
That is the product which you get and for what you pay. It is in general the benefit, which you get when you buy a product or use a service.
For my product, the car:
Here the benefit is that you are very flexible, you can take your car and go where you want. Furthermore you can use it for several other things: e.g. transporting something, going on holiday and so on
2. Actual Product:
The actual Product is the product itself. It is that what you can touch. Furthermore you can have influence on the product, when you buy it.
For my product, the car:
The Actual Product in my case is the car itself. You as a customer have the influence how to design it (color, model, interior and so on).
3. The augmented product:
The augmented product are the products, which you get after buying the product itself, they are mostly luxury things.
For my product, the car:
Here you can add several things. For a car there is mostly a warranty that is one augmented product. Another would be the service of the garage, which takes care of your car and gives you a rental car when your car needs to be fixed.
Product line:
Those are the products, which are closely related to each other.
Product mix:
The product mix of a company has three different parts:
Depth: the number of different products which are offered in the product line
Width: The number of product lines
Length: The number of all products in the mix
For my company:
For my company there are two product lines:
1. The cars
2. The accessories, which you can buy for your car and yourself.
In Part 4 of the blog you can see which a short overview of the first product line that are all the cars which Skoda builds.
Product mix:
As you can see there are many different products, which are all individual (especially product line one). So the depth in my company is very high. On the other hand the width is not so high, because they only have two product lines.
But in general it can be said, that the length of Skoda is very high, because all the cars are individual made and that gives the customer endless possibilities to choose his/her product. The constellation of this mix is, because they want to give the consumer as many possibilities as possible to find the product.
In addition the consumer can identify him-/herself with the product by buying accessories form the second product line. So there is one main product line (the cars) and a second (the accessories) which should help the customer to identify with the car and the company.
Product life cycle:
Before you can show the product life cycle of my product, you must explain it in general:
The product life cycle can be compared with the human life cycle. It shows the main periods of life for the product.
There are four different periods:
1. Introduction:
That is the part where the company wants to put the product on the market. They made the whole marketing stuff for it. In this period it is important to mention that the product is not on the market for public, perhaps there are several examples of the product but you cannot buy it, so the profit is zero, or below zero.
2. Growth:
That is the period, where everybody wants to have the product. The sales grow rapidly and reach the peak.
3. Maturity:
The third period is the period in which the product is on the market and stays there. That is the longest period, which also includes the beginning of the decline.
4. Decline:
That is the last stage of the product life cycle. The sales go down rapidly and the product will be taken out of the market.
For my product:
My product the Skoda Octavia, the new one, is now in the maturity period. It was published in 2004 (that is the introduction). After that there was the growth period, which went over in the maturity period. Something special in this period was the facelift form 2009, which had a short growth in the maturity period. The decline period will perhaps begin, when the new Octavia will be introduced and published.
Branding and Packaging:
For the branding and packing I choose the key ring from Skoda Rs as you can see it above.
Here you can see that the packing is very simple. It is just a box with the brand on it. Furthermore the brand is also on the product directly.
I think it is a very good solution to put the brand on the packing and the product itself. In both cases you can find association to the company and I think that is really good.
In addition the packing is very simple which I guess is also a hint to their slogan: simply clever
Another point which should be mentioned is, that the asseccoires are for daily use, so they do not need a special packing.
The only thing which could be changed is, that they put also a picture of the car one the package, because then you can see for which model the product is, because there are several accessories for each model.
But in general it can be said, that Skoda managed the branding and packing for their accessories: Simply clever, like the global slogan says it. The branding of the cars is also managed in many possibilities, like in the internet, in newspapers and several other sources.
Reference list:
Topic 1:
Definiton: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080617020807AAkovo6
Topic 2:
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/tools/pestle-swot edited by myself
http://new.skoda-auto.com/COM/about/perspective/social/Pages/social.aspx
http://www.excelsia.ch/htmlgb/blog/index.php
http://www.skoda.nl/gfx/dealerpages/1856/1856_Skoda_logo_met_simply_clever.JPG
http://new.skoda-auto.com/COM/about/perspective/environment/Pages/environment.aspx
http://new.skoda-auto.com/COM/about/perspective/environment/techdev/Pages/Technicaldevelopment.aspx
http://www.allgemeinbildung.ch/pics/imagemap/Automarken_47x.jpg
Topic 4:
http://new.skoda-auto.com/com/model/newfabia/gallery/pictures/Pages/pictures.aspx?pageIndex=3ℑ=/PublishingImages/gallery/newfabia/gallery/_780x585/14photo.jpg
http://new.skoda-auto.com/com/model/newfabiacombi/gallery/pictures/Pages/pictures.aspx?pageIndex=2ℑ=/SiteCollectionImages/gallery/newfabiacombi/gallery/_780x585/31.jpg
http://new.skoda-auto.com/com/model/roomster/gallery/pictures/Pages/pictures.aspx?pageIndex=2ℑ=/PublishingImages/gallery/roomster/_780x585/03photo.jpg
http://new.skoda-auto.com/com/model/praktik/gallery/pictures/Pages/pictures.aspx?image=/SiteCollectionImages/gallery/praktik/gallery/_780x585/praktik_gallery_04.jpg
http://new.skoda-auto.com/com/model/tour/gallery/pictures/Pages/pictures.aspx?image=/PublishingImages/gallery/octavia-tour/gallery/_780x585/04photo.jpg
http://new.skoda-auto.com/com/model/tour/gallery/pictures/Pages/pictures.aspx?image=/PublishingImages/gallery/octavia-tour/gallery/_780x585/01photo.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ON1drcRars&feature=player_embedded
http://new.skoda-auto.com/com/model/newoctavia/gallery/pictures/Pages/gallery.aspx?pageIndex=2ℑ=/SiteCollectionImages/model/newOctavia/LIFTBACK/Gallery/_780x585/octavia_fl_28.jpg
http://new.skoda-auto.com/com/model/newoctaviacombi/gallery/pictures/Pages/gallery.aspx?pageIndex=2ℑ=/SiteCollectionImages/model/newOctavia/COMBI/Gallery/_780x585/octavia_combi_fl_20.jpg
http://new.skodaauto.com/com/model/yeti/gallery/pictures/Pages/pictures.aspx?image=/SiteCollectionImages/model/Yeti/gallery/_780x585/Yeti_36.jpg
http://new.skoda-auto.com/com/model/newsuperb/gallery/pictures/Pages/pictures.aspx?pageIndex=2ℑ=/SiteCollectionImages/gallery/newSuperb/gallery/_780x585/17_Superb.jpg
http://new.skoda-auto.com/com/model/superbcombi/gallery/pictures/Pages/pictures.aspx?pageIndex=4ℑ=/SiteCollectionImages/model/SuperbCombi/gallery/_780x585/supc045.jpg
http://new.skoda-auto.com/COM/model/newoctaviacombi/look/Pages/look.aspx?ff=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIw1bsfTH9s&feature=player_embedded
http://www.yosax.com/car_pictures/2009/04/2009-skoda-octavia-scout-facelift.jpg
http://www.whoopster.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/skoda-octavia-rs-facelift.jpg
Topic 5:
http://retailsmart.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/core-product.jpg
http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/product+mix.html
http://www.trumpuniversity.com/business-briefings/lib/resources/images/graphs/product_life_cycle.gif
http://i2.ebayimg.com/02/i/001/05/1f/71d6_35.JPG
Futhermore I took Information out of our Marketing book:
Marketing Concepts and Strategies (Dibb, Simkin, Pride and Ferrell)
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