PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Product management is the planning and control of activities related to the things an organization
offers to its constituents. It includes branding and packaging decisions, product positioning, study of
the product life cycle, the product mix, product forms, product differentiation and new product
development. Although they are standard fare in any marketing treatment of ordinary goods and
services, these topics are usually considered irrelevant in the promotion of concepts. The goal in this
chapter is to demonstrate their application to the dissemination of ideas and social issues. This
chapter also introduces the theory of market segmentation which is closely linked to several facets of
product management.
What is a Product?
To define a product it is useful first to review the definition of a market. A market is people,
having certain needs and wants, as well as a supply of some resource, for example, money and the
willingness to expend that resource in order to satisfy their needs and wants. For something to be
considered as a product in the marketing sense, the prerequisite is that it be capable of being
exchanged for some scarce resource (the price), an exchange that satisfies. The product is offered by
a provider or supplier who obviously places more value on the resource than on the product, while
the consumer believes there is more satisfaction or utility in owning the product than in owning the
resource. So an exchange takes place.
A product, then, is anything having the ability to satisfy human needs or wants. The test for
whether the "thing" is, or is not a product lies in its exchangeability -- its capability of being traded
for some other commodity -for a price. Enis pointed out that: exchange is differentiated from other
methods of want satisfaction: origination the creation of form utility (by discovering, harvesting,
mining, manufacturing, etc.); force-taking of utility without offering a payment (for example, by
burglary, war, extortion, or conquest); or gift-conferring utility without the expectation of payment
(1973, p. 58).
Other Names for Products.This broader meaning of product permits inclusion of concepts that have been referred to by
various other appellations. Public goods are involved in those exchange transactions in which the
marketer typically is a governmental agency and all individuals in the community are direct
consumers because they are affected by "consumption" of these goods, which include flood control,
unemployment insurance and energy conservation programs. They are purchased in exchange for the
price of taxation. Society through its institutions, determines that certain public goods (education,
rapid transit, health care) are so meritorious, that such merit goods "are produced at considerable
cost, but offered at zero (or low) price" (Wish and Gamble 1971, p. 80, passim). Respect, love and
status have been called impalpable goods (Phelps 1975, p. 14) and are sometimes paid for with cash,
but more often with such social or intrinsic prices as time, effort, psyche and change in lifestyle (see
Chapter 5). Dewey referred to "ready made intellectual goods" as information provided by mass
media (1939, pp. 45-6) in quite the same spirit as the present work considers ideas. Ideas and issues
are called planks when they are placed on sale as part of a political platform. Finally, Levy and
Zaltman (1975) wrote about:
The providing or getting that goes on between people in their private lives, where the content of the
exchanges that occur are such as parental attention, filial devotion, sexual gratification, reprimanding
and teasing, may be termed intimate marketing. This category is.a matter of analytic perspective.
Analyzed by a religious person, marriage is a sacrament; by a political scientist, it may be viewed as a
power struggle or a unit with a particular sort of voting pattern; and a lawyer may note if the marriage
is legally contracted. A marketing analyst would ask what each member of the marriage offers,
provides, gives -- in traditional parlance, "sells" -- and what each member wants in return, whether
interpreted as a price or as that which he "buys" Whatever its name, then, the product is the "thing" that is to satisfy needs and wants of the
market. Just as it was necessary to define market before discussing product, the concept of market
segmentation is introduced next because it will be relevant to some of the product strategies taken up
Product management is the planning and control of activities related to the things an organization
offers to its constituents. It includes branding and packaging decisions, product positioning, study of
the product life cycle, the product mix, product forms, product differentiation and new product
development. Although they are standard fare in any marketing treatment of ordinary goods and
services, these topics are usually considered irrelevant in the promotion of concepts. The goal in this
chapter is to demonstrate their application to the dissemination of ideas and social issues. This
chapter also introduces the theory of market segmentation which is closely linked to several facets of
product management.
What is a Product?
To define a product it is useful first to review the definition of a market. A market is people,
having certain needs and wants, as well as a supply of some resource, for example, money and the
willingness to expend that resource in order to satisfy their needs and wants. For something to be
considered as a product in the marketing sense, the prerequisite is that it be capable of being
exchanged for some scarce resource (the price), an exchange that satisfies. The product is offered by
a provider or supplier who obviously places more value on the resource than on the product, while
the consumer believes there is more satisfaction or utility in owning the product than in owning the
resource. So an exchange takes place.
A product, then, is anything having the ability to satisfy human needs or wants. The test for
whether the "thing" is, or is not a product lies in its exchangeability -- its capability of being traded
for some other commodity -for a price. Enis pointed out that: exchange is differentiated from other
methods of want satisfaction: origination the creation of form utility (by discovering, harvesting,
mining, manufacturing, etc.); force-taking of utility without offering a payment (for example, by
burglary, war, extortion, or conquest); or gift-conferring utility without the expectation of payment
(1973, p. 58).
Other Names for Products.This broader meaning of product permits inclusion of concepts that have been referred to by
various other appellations. Public goods are involved in those exchange transactions in which the
marketer typically is a governmental agency and all individuals in the community are direct
consumers because they are affected by "consumption" of these goods, which include flood control,
unemployment insurance and energy conservation programs. They are purchased in exchange for the
price of taxation. Society through its institutions, determines that certain public goods (education,
rapid transit, health care) are so meritorious, that such merit goods "are produced at considerable
cost, but offered at zero (or low) price" (Wish and Gamble 1971, p. 80, passim). Respect, love and
status have been called impalpable goods (Phelps 1975, p. 14) and are sometimes paid for with cash,
but more often with such social or intrinsic prices as time, effort, psyche and change in lifestyle (see
Chapter 5). Dewey referred to "ready made intellectual goods" as information provided by mass
media (1939, pp. 45-6) in quite the same spirit as the present work considers ideas. Ideas and issues
are called planks when they are placed on sale as part of a political platform. Finally, Levy and
Zaltman (1975) wrote about:
The providing or getting that goes on between people in their private lives, where the content of the
exchanges that occur are such as parental attention, filial devotion, sexual gratification, reprimanding
and teasing, may be termed intimate marketing. This category is.a matter of analytic perspective.
Analyzed by a religious person, marriage is a sacrament; by a political scientist, it may be viewed as a
power struggle or a unit with a particular sort of voting pattern; and a lawyer may note if the marriage
is legally contracted. A marketing analyst would ask what each member of the marriage offers,
provides, gives -- in traditional parlance, "sells" -- and what each member wants in return, whether
interpreted as a price or as that which he "buys" Whatever its name, then, the product is the "thing" that is to satisfy needs and wants of the
market. Just as it was necessary to define market before discussing product, the concept of market
segmentation is introduced next because it will be relevant to some of the product strategies taken up
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