1 Explain Herb’s market offering. (1 mark)
Market offerings are a combination of products, services, information, or experiences offered to a market to satisfy a need or want of customers. Herb’s wide range of specialty writing utensils is the main market offering. The Marks brand is also build upon customer relationships which offer an experience as well.
2 Describe Herb’s core, actual, and augmented product in this case. (3 marks)
The core product is the most basic level of products and services. It is what the customer is really getting. They first define the product creating a solution to a problem that meets the consumers’ needs and wants. The core product of Marks is the ability to convert thoughts to a physical form on paper.
The core product turns into an actual product which is the physical with specific features and benefits residing in the product or service itself with the use of style, quality, brand name and design. The actual product of Marks is his brand of wooden pencils with customized engravings to differentiate from other brands.
The actual product is then augmented to create customer value and the most satisfying customer service. These include the add-ons that are not essential to the service itself but which influence the decision to purchase. The augmented product of Marks would be the determined efforts by Marks representatives to build lasting relationships with customers adding value to their experience.
3 Draw and fully label the product life cycle. (4 marks)
Introduction Stage – the firm seeks to build product awareness and develop a market for the product. The product is branded and quality level is established, pricing is usually low to build up market share, or higher pricing to recover development costs, distribution is selective until customers show acceptance of the product, and promotion is aimed at innovators and early adopters, marketers seek to build product awareness and to educate...