If you are in marketing or business then you have heard of the four P's - product, price, placement, and promotion. The "product" of the four P's is extremely important to increasing a businesses net worth and profits. As such a business needs to be highly aware of what it is selling, what benefits those products offer, and when to add or subtract product lines from their business. They also need to be in control of the packaging because the way a product is displayed can adversely affect sales.
Product Assortment and Decision Making
A product assortment is a listing of all of the products that a company offers. Generally an assortment is divided into product lines which are then further divided into product categories. For instance a company like Proctor and Gamble offers a huge assortment of household items for consumers to buy. Their product lines would more than likely include a line on home care and a line on personal care among others. These product lines are then divided into even small categories like soap and toilet tissue. The more product lines offered by a company then the more "breadth" they are considered to have. The more categories within a line offered means that a company generally has more "depth".
When companies are beginning to plateau in the market they may add or subtract lines or categories because it may help to boost sales or it may take a product that is a dud off of the shelves, saving the company time and money on marketing and manufacturing it. A company can either increase or decrease breadth or increase or decrease depth in order to avoid or get out of those plateaus in the market.
Firms will choose to increase breadth if they feel that the growth of their market has slowed and they need to branch out into complimentary items. For instance a boutique store that primarily dealt in clothing items may branch out into various accessories that will compliment what they already sell but may also draw more people in who are shopping simply for accessories. In contrast a company will decrease breadth if they feel that one of their product lines is not in keeping with the rest of the business and it hurts the image of the business as a whole because of it.
Depth is increased when a company wants to "specialize" their products. This is done by offering multiple kinds of a product that offesr different benefits. Toothpaste is a great and simple example of this. Though a company could have a simple tartar fighting toothpaste they may do better by offering things like whitening, extra whitening, healthy gums, or kid's toothpaste as well. Depth is decreased when a product is no longer profitable and is beginning to leech the profits of other good products. decreasing depth is not a light decision but it is sometimes necessary.
Product Packaging
Packaging is a branding element that is very important to the sales of your products. And many items actually come with primary and secondary packaging. Primary packaging is whatever the actual product must come in -- for instance, a can of Coke. Secondary packaging is an excess wrapper or carton that either adds extra information convenience, or storage that a customer may not have with just the primary packaging -- for instance, the box you get when you buy a 24 pack of canned Coke.
An important part of packaging is called labeling. Labels give the brand information and they also give important or legally mandated information as well. For instance, all food items sold that are approved by the FDA must have labels that include nutritional information. The label is also a great marketing tool because marketers can use labels to give valuable information to customers, run contests, or create interest. Vitamin Water labels include a small story about those who are likely to drink the flavor of Vitamin Water. Though this isn't mandated or even necessary, those who read it may feel more of a connection to the brand.
Nicolette Calhoun - I am an English Major and Business Minor at the University of South Carolina. My passions are English Literature, Jane Austen, Marketing, ...
