The goal of any business or company is to develop a product or service and then launch it in the market. Today, we’ll be discussing various types of products with examples.
Table of Contents
Types of Products
Marketers perceive products as something that they’re going to offer in the market. However, they categorize the products into two broad categories; consumer products and industrial products. We’ll discuss them in detail one by one. Here it’s as follows;
- Consumer products can be defined as products/services that the customer usually buys frequently, immediately, and with a minimum of comparison of buying efforts. For example, fast food, detergents, newspaper, soap, and more.
- Industrial products can be defined as products bought by individuals and organizations for further processing or for use of conducting a business. For example, if a consumer purchases a lawn mover for his personal use it a consumer product. If the same person buys this lawn mover for his landscaping business it’s an industrial product.
Consumer Products
Consumer products are the products that the customers buy for the sole purpose of consumption, instead of reselling it.
The goal of consumer products is to satisfy and fulfill the needs and wishes of the consumers. But it doesn’t fully define the consumer products, especially for the marketing objective. It’s because the category of consumer products is so vast and diverse to make any sense when you’re making any strategy.
Consumer products comprise almost everything ranging from a pen, books, jeans, sweater, camera, video recorder, and video games to edible items. It’s because of such a diverse variety; the marketers have no choice, but to further categorize them depending upon the buying process.
The types of products under the category of consumer products are convenience products, shopping products, specialty products, and unsought products.
They’re as follows;
- Convenience Products
- Shopping Products
- Specialty Products
- Unsought Products
| Marketing Consideration | Convenience | Shopping | Specialty | Unsought |
| Customer buying behavior | Frequent purchase, little planning, little comparison or shopping effort, low customer involvement | Less frequent purchase, much planning, and shopping effort, comparison of brands on price, quality, style | Strong brand preference and loyalty, special purchase effort, little comparison of brands, low price sensitivity | Little product awareness, knowledge (or if a little or even negative interest) |
| Price | Low price | Higher price | High price | Varies |
| Distribution | Widespread distribution, convenient locations | Selective distribution in fewer outlets | Exclusive distribution in only one or a few outlets per market area | Varies |
| Promotion | Mass promotion by the producer | Advertising and personal selling by both producer and resellers | More carefully targeted promotion by both producers and resellers. | Aggressive advertising and personal selling by producers resellers |
| Examples | Toothpaste, magazines, laundry detergent | Major appliances, televisions, furniture, clothing | Luxury goods, such as Rolex watches or fine crystal | Life insurance Red Cross blood donations |
Convenience Products
Convenience products are those products that the consumers want to purchase easily without any difficulty. They know what they want before buying them. They don’t want to spend their time making any purchase decision.
The products that fall under the category of convenience products are the goods that the customers buy it frequently, casually, and immediately without making any comparison.
Some of the main examples of convenience products are; candies, soap, milk, and all types of low-cost products that the customers don’t have any brand loyalty. The goal of marketers is to make such products readily available in the market. It’s because they require a mass distribution.
Marketers should keep one thing in mind that the consumers don’t perceive all the consumer products equally. For instance, Bread is one of the convenience product items, and some people use a particular brand. If a store doesn’t have a certain brand, then some other brand would take its place.
There are some brand loyal people of the convenience products, and they would visit some other store to find the brand. Therefore, marketers further categorize convenience products into three sub-categories;
- Staple Goods
- Impulse Goods
- Emergency Goods
Staple Goods
Staple goods are the products that the consumer buys it regularly and they’re brand loyal. Staple products are tobacco, pickles, soft drinks, ballpoint pens, etc. The reason for brand-loyal here is to make the purchase easier, you just buy the product one particular and lower the decision-making time.
Impulse Goods
Impulse goods are the products that the consumers buy it impulsively without paying any thought, it’s due to the sudden urge or needs to it. Like street food, magazines, ice cream, etc. Some people misunderstand the impulse goods that the consumers buy them irrationally. It’s no doubt that they don’t plan on buying it. When they do, it fulfills their needs and wishes. Therefore, they shouldn’t see them as a wasteful activity.
Emergency Goods
Emergency goods are closely similar to impulsive goods because you don’t plan for them. But they’re to some extent are different, because you get to plan it on short notice. Most importantly, consumers buy it to satisfy the immediate need. For example, antiseptics, matches, candles, etc.
Shopping Products
Shopping products are the goods that the consumer chooses and makes the buying decision based on style, price, quality, and stability. People don’t buy shopping products often. In fact, they plan for it and make a comparison among the style, quality, design, and price of the various brands.
Consumers usually spend a lot of time getting the information and making comparisons among various shopping products. Like clothes, washing machine, television, air coolers, and refrigerators, etc. some of the main types of shopping products are as follows;
- Homogeneous Goods
- Heterogeneous Goods
Homogeneous Shopping Goods
Homogeneous shopping products are the goods that the customers would consider the same in terms of suitability, style, price, quality, and design to satisfy their needs. For example, the quality of the refrigerator would be the same, but prices would be different when you make a comparison among various brands.
Heterogeneous Shopping Goods
Heterogeneous shopping products are the good that the customers would consider different in terms of style, price, quality, and suitability. Whether such differences are real or not, but they’re important to the customers and cause them to make a decision.
Consumers perceive the differences in features very closely and prefer them over price. Businesses and companies classify those differences and hire professional staff to better inform the customers.
Specialty Products
Specialty products are goods that have strong brand loyalty and preference, and a little price sensitivity and brand comparison. Such brand products have got unique features that differentiate their brand from the rest. It becomes a habit of customers to buy brand products.
Specialty products have a high level of differentiation and people could easily recognize the brand products. The customers would search for them actively. For example, photographic equipment, tech component, healthy food, fancy groceries, and men’s clothes.
The unique features of the specialty products would attract the attention of customers. It makes them search for it. Here they don’t want the substitute brand; instead, they would spend a considerable time and effort to find their brand.
Specialty products are usually costly consisting of a high-profit margin and you could only find them in the limited stores. The reason they’re available in a limited number of stores because the customers won’t accept the brand from any store.
Unsought Products
Unsought products are goods that the consumers don’t know about their presence in the market. If they know about it, then they won’t buy it. Either they don’t want to or don’t know how to buy it. Therefore, they aren’t going to search for it.
Consumers usually don’t choose to buy an unsought product if they come across it unless there’s a promotion for it. They don’t make any conscious effort and intentionally look for unsought products.
For example, an eye donation bank would require a huge advertising and promotional campaign. You have to come up with an advanced level of technique to sell unsought products. Often you have to utilize personal selling techniques.
Industrial Products
Industrial products are the goods that the companies and businesses use for the production of other products or their business operations. The government institutes, non-profit organizations, commercial businesses, and manufacturing firms usually employ industrial products.
For instance, if a person purchases an air conditioner, then it’s a consumer product. When an industry buys the same air conditioner, then it would become an industrial product.
Some of the main types of industrial products are as follows;
- Capital goods
- Raw materials
- Component parts
- Major equipment
- Accessory equipment
- Operating supplies
- Services
Here we will briefly explain these types of industrial products.
Capital Goods
Capital goods are the goods that the businesses directly use for production. It comprises of installation of accessory equipment like; installation of machinery, plants, building, etc.
The producer would directly install the equipment, and the accessory equipment would comprise the fax machine, calculator, tools, etc. The marketing of accessory equipment happens through intermediaries because of the vast geographical distances and limited buying volume.
Raw Material
The raw material is an industrial product that businesses use for the production of other products. Natural resources like livestock, agricultural products, oceanic products, mineral water, and forest products fall under the category of raw material. The raw material usually loses its original state during the process and the final product.
Raw material and parts become a part of the final product after going through various stages of processing. Natural gas, iron ore, coal, petroleum, crude, fruits, wheat, cotton, and jute are the raw material.
The supplies of farm products come from small producers, and they use various intermediaries to sell their products. Natural product producers are usually limited in number and bulk quantity. They sell their products directly to the industries.
The manufacturing raw material comprises casting, tires, small motors, wires, cement, yarn, iron, and others. Components of the material parts also go through the process further. Price matters a lot in the parts and manufacturing materials. The more focus is on the service rather than advertising and branding.
Component Parts
Components parts are the goods that have gone through the processing phase and the finished product of the previous industry. They may seem ordinary, but they’re the assembling parts of the final product.
Major Equipment
Major equipment is the industrial goods that the manufacturer uses for production, processing, and selling purposes. Engines, tractors, automobiles, computers, typewriters, machinery, and other items are the major equipment.
They’re usually costly and have a longer life of more than one year. It’s not only limited to the production process. Retail operations like cash registers and wholesale items like forklifts are also the major equipment.
Accessory Equipment
Accessory equipment is the industrial product that companies use to facilitate the sale of the middleman and the production process. It doesn’t become part of the final products, it just aids the process. Tools and shelving equipment are the accessory equipment.
Operating Supplies
Repair and maintenance items and office stationery fall under the category of operating supplies. They’re usually the convenience products of the industrial products. They have a lower cost and limited life-like pencil, razor, paper, tape, cash register, and other repair and maintenance items.
Services
Business consultancy, office equipment repair, cleaning, maintenance, and repair are the services. Small producers and manufacturers usually sell their services with the original equipment. Service activities ad the element of satisfaction and benefit the process.
There could be industrial services, business services, consumer services, management consultancy, legal advice, marketing research, advertising, marketing, teaching, accountancy, etc.
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