A company's offering -- a most important concept!
- The offering of a company can be thought of as everthing that a customer
perceives that they receive in exchange for their money. In terms of traditional
ways of talking about marketing, the two closest concepts are the marketing
mix and the augmented product.
- Marketing Mix
- The Marketing Mix consists of all the controllable things that are
developed by a company. The most common way to think about the mix is as
the four P's of Product, Pricing, Placement, and Promotion.
- The augmented product
- The augmented product consists of all the physical characteristics of a
product or service plus all the intangible benefits that come from things like
ease of ordering, warranties, reputation, and the image that has been created by
promotion.
-
- The Offering
- The offering of a company is more than either of the above. It includes
any associations that people have with a product over which the company
has no control. For example, if a particular celebrity starts wearing a recognizable
brand of clothing, without the company having had a hand in their decision, then
the association of the brand with the celebrity becomes part of the offering.
Or, if a persistant rumor circulates about a company and its products, that rumor
must be acknowledged as part of the offering. The offering includes the long
and short term reputation of the firm, of the brands, and of the products or
services of the company. In addition, the consumer's perception of the brand,
it's Psychological Position is always part of the
offering, even if it is not the position that the company has attempted to
create. The biggest difference between this and the traditional concepts stems
from the all-encompassing nature of an offering. Companies must always be aware
of what customers include in their concious and unconcious decisions about what
to buy.
-
Return to Notes list.