In marketing, a product is eligible, viable and repeatable supply option available to demand, to satisfy a need or take care of a desire through its use or consumption. The product is one of the structural components of the marketing mix. The most common case of it is also known as ‘The Four Ps of marketing’ known as Product, Place, Price and Promotion. However, in a broader sense, the mixture is composed of Offer, Terms of Trade, Accessibility and Symbolizing (OTAS), making the latter concept generally useful for any kind of sustained between supply and demand analysis, applicable to the mass consumer market. In an appropriate design, supply can be integrated forming a value proposition that caters requirements harmonically, differentiators and generators preferably in demand.
The products may have very different valuable combinations to generate demand, which can focus on the following;
- Physical goods or products are tangible elements.
- Services are intangible and inseparable (produced and consumed at the same time) and are variables.
- People applies to the professionals from different areas.
- Places such as cities, countries, parks or certain geographical areas.
- Institutions for example universities, foundations, and corporations.
- Experiences, for example, crossing a virgin forest.
- Producing situations satisfaction by having a certain thing.
Classification of Consumer Products and Service
According to their purpose, they are as follows;
Non-Durable Consumer Goods
The goods are consumed quickly and have a limited duration or usability such as food, fuel and fruits.
Services
They are the activities, uses and benefits that are consumed in the time provided, for example, appliance repairs and haircuts.
Common Goods
They are those products that are part of the usual basket, and these are consumed frequently and do not require purchase effort.
Emergency Goods
They are products that are at the moment in need for the consumer to use them. The consumer usually does not plan to purchase, but it is very necessary at the time when a need arises.
Comparison Goods
They are products in the purchase process and go through a comparison of intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics.
Specialty Goods
They are products with very special characteristics and are intended for a very specific market that demands certain quality standards.
Durable Goods
They are those products that have a fairly long life cycle, normally suffer damage and wear until after several years of use.
Unsought Goods
The consumers do not know of the existence of the product, or if they know are not interested in acquiring them, so they require advertising and sales support staff.
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RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a system of storage and retrieval using remote data labels, cards, transponders commonly known as RFID tags on devices. The simple aim of the RFID technology is to convey the identification of any object such as a unique serial number by using the radio waves.
The RFID tags are similar to a sticker that can be attached to or incorporated into a product, animal or person. They have antennas which make them able to receive and react to the requests by radio generated by RFID transceiver. The passive RFID tags do not need to have internal power, while active ones require the internal power. One of the advantages of using radio frequency is that no sight between transmitter and receiver is required.
At present, the most widespread technology for object identification is the barcode. However, they have some disadvantages such as the small amount of data that can be stored and the inability to be reprogrammed. The idea was the origin of enhanced RFID technology consisted of using silicon chips that may transfer data stored to the reader without physical contact, equivalently used infrared readers to read barcodes.
It has been suggested that the first known device similar to RFID may have been a spy tool invented by Léon Theremin for Soviet rule in 1945. The device was passive for listening secretly, not the ID tag, so this application is doubtful. According to some sources, the technology used in RFID have existed since 1920s, developed by MIT and used extensively by the British in the Second World War and some resources say that the RFID system has been existed since late 1960s and only recently had become popular, thanks to cost reductions.
The British developed in1939 a similar technology, called transponder IFF and it was regularly utilized by the associates in the World War II to recognize aircraft as friend or enemy. It is probably the technology cited by the previous source.
An early work with reference to the RFID is traced back in 1948 by Harry Stockman as ‘Communication by the Reflected Energy’. Stockman predicted that considerable research and development was to be conducted earlier than outstanding elementary issues in reflected power communiqué would be solved, and earlier the field of valuable applications could be explored. It took 30 long years of development in several fields before RFID turned out to be a reality.