Discuss product support services. Explain product decisions and social

responsibility. Identify and describe product line

decisions and product mix decisions. Define service marketing. Discuss marketing strategies for service

firms. To identify and describe the new product

development strategy. Identify and explain the product life cycle

strategies.

• Product Support Services help you increase operational efficiency, lower support costs, and improve availability risk management through automated network- equipment inventory management and award-winning support. With these services, you can:

• More effectively manage risk, plan for equipment upgrades, and comply with your corporate policies

• Identify and resolve issues quickly and reduce downtime

• Streamline contract management and access support resources faster

• Positioning is the marketing activity and process of identifying a market problem or opportunity, and developing a solution based on market research, segmentation and supporting data. 

• Positioning may refer the position a business has chosen to carry out their marketing and business objectives.

• Brands is the combination of name, symbol, term, or design that identifies specific product

• Packaging and labeling  is the technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of design, evaluation, and production of packages.

• Product decision is the every conscious decision made by a company for a product.

Product decisions involve: • Product mix- total group of products

offered by company• Product lines-group of closely

related product items–Depth-number of items in line

• Social Responsibility - means an

organization shows concern for the people and environment in which it transacts business.

• It also means that these values are communicated and enforced by everyone in the organization and, in some cases, with business partners, such as those who sell products to the company (e.g., supplier of raw material for product production) and those who help the company distribute and sell to other customers (e.g., retail stores).

• A group of individual products that are closely related in some way.

• Product line managers takes product line decisions considering the sales and profit of each items in the line and comparing their product line with the competitors' product lines in the same markets.

• Product line length shows the number of different products in a product line. 

• Product Line Depth- shows how many subgroups the product line contains.

• Product Line Stretching- product stretching enables firms to fill any gaps they have identified in the market.• Downward Stretch• Upward Stretch

- The total assortment of products and services marketed by a firm.

- Product mix consists of various product lines that an organization offers,  an organization may have just one product line in its product mix and it may also have multiple product lines.

An organization's product mix has following four dimensions:

• Width• Length• Depth• Consistency

• Width - the width of an organizations product mix pertains to the number of product lines that the organization is offering.

• Length - the length of an organizations product mix pertains to the total number of products or items in the product mix.

• Depth - the depth of an organisation's product mix pertains to the total number of variants of each product offered in the line.

• Consistency - the consistency of an organizations product mix refers to how closely related the various product lines are in use, production, distribution, or in any other manner.

A Service Marketing is an economic activity, that is intangible or not be touched, not be stored, and not be owned.

Nature of service:1. Lack of ownership - One cannot own

or store a service as it can be done in case of a product. Service is consumed at the point of sale and does not result ownership. Services are used or hired for a period of time.

2. Intangible - services are intangible in nature, you cannot  touch it,  cannot see it, cannot taste it. You cannot touch or hold a service as you can do with a product.

3. Inseparable - service is inseparable in nature means to say that it cannot be separated from the service provider.

4. Perishable - service last for specific time period, it cannot be stored as like a product for future use.

5. Heterogeneous - It is very difficult to make each service experience identical, for example you travelling by plane the service quality may differ from the first time you travelled by that airline to the second, because the air hostess is less or more experienced. Systems and procedures are followed in service production process to minimize this heterogeneity and to provide consistent services all the time.

Marketing Strategies for Service Firms

Developing a strong marketing plan is vital to the success of any business. Service firms can face challenges in their marketing strategies as they often don't offer physical products that can be demonstrated for customers. These companies therefore depend on delivering high levels of professionalism and efficiency. A comprehensive marketing strategy can help service providers highlight capabilities and attract clients.

• Effective marketing strategies convince prospective clients that new ideas can solve their needs. At the same time, firms must reconcile the need for consistent innovation with a feeling of trust and stability enjoyed by existing clients.

Define your product An accurate description of the

product you are planning will help keep you and your team focused and avoid NPD risk such as developing too many products at once, or running out of resources to develop the product.

Identify market needs Successful NPD requires a thorough knowledge of your target market and its needs and wants. A targeted, strategic and purposeful approach to NPD will ensure your products fit your market.

Establish time frames

You need to allow adequate time to develop and implement your new products. Your objectives for developing new products will inform your time frames and your deadlines for implementation. Be thoughtful and realistic. Some objectives might overlap but others will be mutually exclusive.

Identify key issues and approaches

There are many tasks involved in developing a product that is appropriate for your customers. The nature of your business and your idea will determine how many of these steps you need to take. You may be able to skip or duplicate certain stages, or start some of them simultaneously.

Key tasks include:• generating and screening ideas.• developing and screening concepts.• testing concepts.• analyzing market and business

strategy.• developing and market testing

products.• implementing and commercialising

products.

1.   Idea Generation2.   Idea Screening3.   Concept Development and

Testing4.   Business Analysis5.   Product Development6.   Test Marketing7.   Commercialization8.   Launch

The product life cycle is an important concept in marketing.  It describes the stages a product goes through from when it was first thought of until it finally is removed from the market. Not all products reach this final stage.  Some continue to grow and others rise and fall. 

The main stages of the product life cycle are:• Introduction – researching, developing

and then launching the product• Growth – when sales are increasing at

their fastest rate• Maturity – sales are near their highest,

but the rate of growth is slowing down, e.g. new competitors in market or saturation

• Decline – final stage of the cycle, when sales begin to fall

• http://www.drjaybadiyani.net/content/commerce/c15content.html

• http://www.learnmarketing.net/productobjectives.htm

• http://www.fao.org/docrep/W5973E/w5973e0c.htm

• http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_80.htm

• http://www.business2community.com/product-management/eight-simple-steps-for-new-product-development-0560298

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Services_marketing