Definition of product

Product is a tangible good, an intangible service, or an idea. This is the "output" of any production process. The product is also one variable of the marketing mix. Products are classified as consumer or business. Consumer products can be convenience, shopping, specialty, or unsought. Business products are raw materials, components, installation, equipment, accessories etc.

PRODUCT MARKET

Product marketProduct market is where goods and services produced by businesses are sold to households. The households use the income they receive from the sale of resources to purchase the products. The money they spend is returned to the businesses as revenue. Product market regulation is an economic term that describes restrictions in the market.

Product marketingProduct marketing deals with the first of the "7P"'s of marketing, which are Product, Pricing, Place, Promotion, Packaging, Positioning & People.

A product market is something that is referred to when pitching a new product to the general public. The people you are trying to make your product appeal to be your consumer market. For example: If you were pitching a new video game console game to the public, your consumer market would probably be the adult male Video Game market (depending on the type of game). Thus you would carry out market research to find out how best to release the game. Likewise, a massage chair would probably not appeal to younger children, so you would market your product to an older generation.

Product marketing is misunderstood.  When most people think of “marketing” they don’t think of product marketing – they think of branding and communications or advertising.  However as companies increase their spending on social media and digital marketing it may be time to invest more in product marketing.  Here’s why:

Product Marketers have deep market knowledge – Prospects are looking for helpful information online and do not want to be “sold to”. Product marketers have a deep understanding of the problems that people in a market face and are great at creating content that can educate and help prospects.

Product Marketing: Increasingly Important

Product Marketers have deep solutions knowledge – One of the key things that separate Product Marketing from other forms of marketing is the depth of understanding of products/solutions.  This deep level of understanding is critical when it comes to working with customers in a more interactive way like through social media.  It’s not enough to just have to skills to communicate canned messages, you’ll need someone who can answer questions, react on the fly and generally be as helpful as possible.  Product marketers are great at this.

Product Marketers focus on customer value, not technology/features – this is the part where I pick on traditional product managers, who often officially “own” product marketing but ignore it.  Product management is a big job and often product managers can be so focused on feature development they can’t put themselves into the shoes of the customer when it comes to communicating why someone should buy.  Customers don’t care about features or technology or anything else that represents how you do what you do.  What they care about is how you going to improve their lives.  Good product marketers nail this.

The sales cycle is defined by the movement of a product from the company to the customer, through interaction between a company representative and a customer. Some sales cycles take months of negotiation and planning, while other cycles are nearly instantaneous -- it depends largely on the type of product being sold. Product marketing, while a separate strategy, can have impact on the sales cycle at several stages.

The Role of Product Marketing in a Sales Cycle

Product DevelopmentThe sales cycle actually begins long before the product offering, back when the product development process is still occurring. In product development, the features and benefits that salespeople will be able to highlight are decided. This is also a vital stage for deciding what features will attract customers the most and how product packaging will appear, both of which are important marketing factors.

Product PricingProduct pricing is also set in preparation for the sales cycle. From a marketing perspective, this is an important move because it defines the product position in the current market. Salespeople dealing with a low-priced product can draw attention to its cost-effectiveness over competitor products. When a business decides to use a higher-priced product, the salesperson must draw attention to quality and durability in order to create effective marketing.

PromotionsProduct deals during the sales cycle can be either set or fluid. Some salespeople have flexibility in pricing and can offering special deals when they feel they are close to making a sale. But companies can also use their marketing strategies to arrange for a number of promotions and discounts. Salespeople can draw attention to these discounts in order to encourage additional sales or buying a higher-priced product line.

Additional ValueAdditional value can be given to a product through the sales cycle. A salesperson can offer to install a product for free, or offer free service on the product for a certain length of time after the sale. The sales process can also include tools to search for or narrow down product needs to help uncertain customers. These are key parts of relational market strategy that attempts to secure customer loyalty for the long term.