Plan: Introduction: Product Planning and Development Product Line Product Mix

(ii) Product Approach:
This is a recent origin. It takes up a product and studies its buyers to determine what differences exist between them and its non-buyers. Thus a study may be made on how buyers of brand X differ from those of brand Y.
(iii) Product-Consumer Grid Approach:
This approach is more refined and analytical. It consists in developing a grid on the basis of two important factors, namely, possible products and possible consumer groups and then finding out which particular combination in the grid fits the compa­ny’s position.

Advantages:

The advantages of market segmentation may be summed up as follows:
(a) To determine what promotional approach will be most effective for the company.
(b) To design products that really matches market demands.
(c) To direct money and effort to the potentially most profitable markets.
(d) To choose advertising media more intelligently and determining how to allocate better the budget among the various media.
(e) I о set the timing of the promotional efforts so that they are heaviest during those times when response is likely to be at its peak.
(f) To provide various types of information which are useful in marketing research, product development and evaluation.

Disadvantages:

The disadvantages of market segmentation are as follows:
(i) Production costs rise because runs are shorter and variations are introduced into the assem­bly process.
(ii) Media discounts may be lost, as varied advertising campaigns are employed.
(iii) Research expenditures rise because more and more market segments are investigated.
(iv) Sales in one market segment may be sacrificed as another segment is served.

4. Product Branding:

Branding is a major issue in product strategy. On the one hand, developing a branded product requires a great deal of long term investment spending, especially for advertising, promotion and packaging. On the other hand, those manufacturers eventually learn that the power lies with the brand name com­panies. Branding is the process of identifying the name of the producer with the product. The essence of branding is identification of particular product from among rival products.
Branding is a general name describing the establishment of a brand name, a brand mark or trade mark for a product.