product attributes, branding, packaging, labeling. product support services:

1) product and service attributes: defining the benefits that it will offer. These benefits are communicated by attributes such as quality, features, and style and design

• product quality: the characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied customers needs. total quality management (TQM) approach in which all the company's people are involved in constantly improving the quality of products, services and business processes. quality consists of quality level and quality consistancy.
• product features: a company can create higher-level models by adding more features.
• product style and design: design is  much bigger concept than style. style: simply describes the appearce of a product. design: more than skin deep. good design contributes to usefullness and appearance. 

2) Branding: a name, term, sign, symbol, design, o a combintion of these that identifies the products or services of one seller or group of sellers and the differentiats them from those of competitiors

3) Packaging:desiginging and producing the container or wrapper for a prodcut

4)labeling: labels identify the product, describe several things about the product and promote the brand, spport its positions and connect with customrs.

5)Product support services: warranties and stuff

a group of products that are closely related because they function in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer groups, and marketed throughout the same types of outlet, or fall within given price ranges

• product line length: the number of products in the line. influenced by companies objectives and resources. a company can expand its line in 2 ways. (1) product line filling: involves adding more itms within the present range of the line and (2) product line stretching: occurs when company lengthens its product line beyond its current range. a company can lengthen downward to plug a market hold that would otherwise attract new competitor. a company can stretch upward in order to add prestige to their current products. Some can stretch both ways for example marriott did this with its hotel product line so that along with regular marriot hotels it added eight new branded hotel lines to serve upper and lower ends of marriot market

a product mix or product portfolio consists of all the product lines and items that a particular seller offers for sale.

• a product mix width refers to the number of different product lines the company carries.
• product mix length refers to the total number of items the company carries within its product lines 
• product mix depth refers to the number of versions offered of each product in the line.
• consistency of the product mix refers to how closely related the various product lines are in end use, production requirements, distribution channels, or some other way.

brand strategy decisions involve brand positioning, brand name selection, brand sponsorship and brand developement

1) brand positioning: position brands clearly in target customers' minds. when positiong a brand, the marketer should establish a mission for the brand and a vision of what the brand must be and do. a brand is the company's promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits, services, and experiences consistently to the buyers. they position brands at 1 or 3 levels:

• product attributes: lowest level. people are more interested in what brands can do for them
• associating its name with a desirable benefit: examples are volvo for safety, nike for performance and lexus for quality
• position on beliefs and values: pampers mean more than containment and dryness it means parent-child relationship and total baby care

2) Brand name selection:careful review of product and benefits, target market and proposed marketing strategies

• desierable qualities for a brand name (1) it should suggest something about the products benefits and qualities (2) it should be easy to pronounce, recognize and remember
• the brand name should be distinctive
• It should be extendable
• the name should translate easily into foreign languages
• should be capable of registration and legal protection

3) brand sponsorship: a manufacturer has 4 sponsorship options. National brand (manufacturer's brand), private brand (store brand), licensed brands, and co-brand

• national brands v store brands: have long dominate the retail scene however an increasing number of retailers and wholesalers have created their own store brand. store brands are now growing faster than retail brands
• licensing: companie license names or symbols previously created by other manufacturers, names of well-kow celebrities, or character for popular movies and books.
• co branding: the practice of using the established brand names of two different companies on the same product. an exampe is Nike and apple co-branded the Nike+iPod Sport Kit. co branding has.

A company has 4 choices when it comes to developing brands:

1) line extension: extending an existing brand name to new forms, colors, sizes, ingredients, or flavors of an existing product line. the vast majority of all new products actually consist of line extensions. example is doritos and make new flavors

2) Brand extension: extending an existing brand name to new product categories. huggies diaper brand make a full line of toiletries for tots from shampoos to disposable wash cloths. this gives a new product instant recognition and faster acceptance. also saves money on advertising costs.

3) multibrands: companies often introduce additional brands into the same category. example procter and gamble markets many different brands in each of its product categories. multibranding offers a way to establish different features 

4) new brands: a company might believe that the powr of its exisint brand name is waning and a new brand name is needed or it may create a new brand name when it enter a new product category for which none of the company's current brand names are appropriate. an example is that toyota created scion for the millennial customers 

1) intangibility:services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before purchase. example is that people cannot see plastic surgery before they get it. 

• service provider's task is to make the service tangible in one or more ways and to send the right signals about quality

2) inseparability: services cannot be separated from their providers. provider-customer interactio

3) variability: quality of services depends on who provides them and when, where, and how. example is marriot hotel where one registration-counter employee is cheerful and efficient, whereas another standing just a few feet away may be unpleasant and slow. even this one small employee might change the experience of the hotel guest

4) perishability: services cannot be stored for later sale or use. example is that some doctors charge patients for missed appointments 

1) the service-profit chain: the chain that links service firm profits with employe and customer satisaction. this chain contains 5 links:

• internal service quality: superior employee selection and training, a quality work environment, and strong support for those dealing with cstomers, which results in...
• satisfied and productive service employees: more satisfied, loyal, and ahrdworing employees, which restults in...
• greater service value: more effective and efficient customer value creation and service delivery results in...
• satisfied and loyal customers: satisfied customer who remain loyal, repeat purchse and refer other customers, which results in...
• healthy service profits and growth: superior service firm performance
• internal marketing: orienting and motivating customer contact employees and supporting service people to work as a team to provide customer satisfaction
• interactive marketing: training service employees in the fine art of interacting with customers to satisfy their needs.

2) manage service differentiation: companies have to work to differentiate their services from the services provided by their competitors

• services can differentiate their OFFER by including innovative features that set one company's offer appart from competitors' offers. examples are wifi in rooms of hotels, continental breakfast.
• services can differentiate their DELIVERY by having more able and reliable customer-contact people, by developing a superior physical environment in which the service prodcut is delivered, or by designing a superior delivery process. example is a grocery store that delivers to your house
• service companies also can work on differentiating their IMAGES through symbols and branding. example is aflac and the duck

3) managing service quality: harder to determine than product quality. example is that it is easier to judge a hair dryer that it is to judge a hair cut.

• service recovery can turn angry customers into loyal ones

4) Managing service productivity: with their costs rising rapidy, service firms are under great pressure to increase service productivity. they can do this by train current employees better of hire new ones who will work harder or more skillfully or they can increase the out put of products by lowering the quality