What Benefits Are Communicated or Delivered by a Products Attributes free essay sample

What benefits are communicated or delivered by a products attributes Introduction What are product attributes and what affects do they have to everyone involved in the making and the usage of the product? In this write up I aim to further simplify and clarify your understanding to the benefits communicated by product attributes in detail. In this assignment I will look at the functional benefit and self-expressive benefits delivered by a products attributes. Definition of terms According to the Businessdictionary. om a products attributes are defined as â€Å"A characteristics or feature of a product that is thought to appeal to customers† Product attributes are the descriptors we use to define the kinds of products. For example, we could describe a t-shirt by the color and size. These attributes mean that in the real physical world your store may only carry one red shirt, but you have three sizes or three â€Å"variations. We will write a custom essay sample on What Benefits Are Communicated or Delivered by a Products Attributes or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page † Product attributes are the aspects and aesthetics of a product that attract the eye of buyer. A product attributes are really important for the produce or manufacturer to perfect as they have an effect on the marketing of the finished good. Consumer behaviour  is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society. Consumer behaviour  involves the psychological processes that consumers go through in recognizing needs, finding ways to solve these needs, making purchase decisions (e. . , whether or not to purchase a product and, if so, which brand and where), interpret information, make plans, and implement these plans (e. g. , by engaging in comparison shopping or actually purchasing a product). Product attributes Product attributes are the features and characteristics of a product that draw in the attention of a customer. These characteristics and features allow the user to further ques tion the marginal utility threshold obtained from the product. Customers and consumers also begin to wonder if their motional satisfaction is fulfilled by the products attributes and consumers consciously or unconsciously look to be self-expressive fully displaying who there are and what their status is to the public. Consumer Behaviour Bennett (1989) indicated that consumer behaviour is a dynamic interaction process, which individuals and groups select, purchase, use or dispose products or services for satisfy their needs and desires. Consumer behaviour has a direct effect to the benefits delivered by a products attributes to both consumer and manufacturer. In an ever changing environment of technology consumers will always respond to what best suits their need and wants. Consumers will always look at three aspects of a products attributes that, being the functional benefit, emotional benefit and the self-expressive benefits. www. marsdd. com informs us of â€Å"functional benefit providing the customer with a functional utility. † The emotional benefits refer to the sentimental feeling consumers gain from product of which in numerous cases is good or positive feeling. Self-expressive benefit of a products attributes involve a consumer being able to expressive themselves openly through the use of a product. We take  cultural  influences for granted, but they are significant. An American will usually not bargain with a store owner. This, however, is a common practice in much of the World. Physical  factors also influence our behaviour. We are more likely to buy a soft drink when we are thirsty, for example, and food manufacturers have found that it is more effective to advertise their products on the radio in the late afternoon when people are getting hungry. A person’s  self-image  will also tend to influence what he or she will buy, an upwardly mobile manager may buy a flashy car to project an image of success. Social  factors also influence what the consumers buy, often, consumers seek to imitate others whom they admire, and may buy the same brands. The social environment can include both the mainstream culture e. g. Americans are more likely to have corn flakes or ham and eggs for breakfast than to have rice, which is preferred in many Asian countries and a subculture e. . rap music often appeals to a segment within the population that seeks to distinguish itself from the mainstream population. Sneaker manufacturers are eager to have their products worn by admired athletes. Finally, consumer behaviour is influenced by  learning, you try a hamburger and learn that it satisfies your hunger and tastes good, and the next time you are hungry, you may consider another hamburger. Branding Brand loyalty is increased or is lost, determining on the attributes to the product. If customers are not fully satisfied with what meets the eye then products are automatically marked down in the process of selection. Allison and Uhls (1964) findings also demonstrated that customers perception of product draw from marketing activities, such as brand or product differentiation. Brands do have a large role they in customer recognition which is usually by customers as a bench mark to safety and reliability. In many markets, brands of different strength compete against each other. At the top level are  national  or  international  brands. A large investment has usually been put into extensive brand building, including advertising, distribution and, if needed, infrastructure support. Although some national brands are better regarded than others, e. g. Dell has a better reputation than e-Machines. The national brands usually sell at higher prices than to  regional  and store  brands. Product positioning Once the owners of the business have decided which market segments they want to target, they need to make sure that product offering are perceived to meet the needs and expectations of those segments. Marketers need to understand the nature of the perceptions their customers have, customers social world, and the products available to them (Foxall, Goldsmith, and Brown, 1998 p. 51). In other word products need to be positioned in line with needs and expectation. Motivation refers to the processes that cause people to behave as they do, motivation occurs when a need is aroused (Solomon, et al 2006 p. 89). This way the customers satisfaction is maximized as well meeting the three main attributes of a product a customer looks for, being functional benefit, emotional benefit and self-expressive benefits. Main focus of product positioning are: 1 determine which kinds of customers exist, then 2 select which ones are their best way off trying to serve and, finally, 3 implement our segmentation by optimizing our products/services for that segment  and communicating that they have made the choice to distinguish themselves that way. Fee back from customers and following statistical purchasing trends would determine whether the company would have to take action in altering any features or characteristics of the product to best suit the target audience. Generically, there are three approaches to marketing. In the  undifferentiated strategy, all consumers are treated as the same, with firms not making any specific efforts to satisfy particular groups. This may work when the product is a standard one where one competitor really can’t offer much that another one can’t. Usually, this is the case only for commodities. In the  concentrated strategy, one firm chooses to focus on one of several segments that exist while leaving other segments to competitors. For example, Southwest Airlines focuses on price sensitive consumers who will forego meals and assigned seating for low prices. In contrast, most airlines follow the  differentiated  strategy:   They offer high priced tickets to those who are inflexible in that they cannot tell in advance when they need to fly and find it impractical to stay over a Saturday. These travellers usually business travellers, pay high fares but can only fill the planes up partially. The same airlines then sell some of the remaining seats to more price sensitive customers who can buy two weeks in advance and stay over. The characteristics of a product communicate its correlation to the market through its positioning on the product life cycle and in reference to the Boston matrix, illustrating how well it attributes have resulted the success of the launch of a new product on an existing product on the market. Conclusion Consumers often buy products not because of their attributes  per se  but rather because of the ultimate benefits that these attributes provide, in turn leading to the satisfaction of ultimate values. For example, a consumer may not be particularly interested in the chemistry of plastic roses, but might reason as follows in respective order: 1) self-esteem, 2) significant other will continue to love one, 3) Significant other will appreciate the roses longer 4) roses will stay in the same condition for longer 5) highly reliable content of synthetic content. References Allison, R. I. and Uhl, K. P. 1964. Influence of beer brand identification on taste perception. Journal of Marketing Research. 1(36), pp. 9 Foxall, G. R. , Goldsmith, R. E. and Brown, S. 1998. Consumer Psychology for Marketing. London: International Thomson Business Press