Brands versus Products
How do we contrast a brand and a product? A product is anything we can offer to a market for
attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or want. Thus, a product
may be a physical good like a cereal, tennis racquet, or automobile; a service such as an airline,
bank, or insurance company; a retail outlet like a department store, specialty store, or supermarket;
a person such as a political figure, entertainer, or professional athlete; an organization like
a nonprofit, trade organization, or arts group; a place including a city, state, or country; or even
an idea like a political or social cause. This very broad definition of product is the one we adopt
in the book. We’ll discuss the role of brands in some of these different categories in more detail
later in this chapter and in Chapter 15.
We can define five levels of meaning for a product:4
1. The core benefit level is the fundamental need or want that consumers satisfy by consuming
the product or service.
2. The generic product level is a basic version of the product containing only those attributes
or characteristics absolutely necessary for its functioning but with no distinguishing features.
This is basically a stripped-down, no-frills version of the product that adequately performs
the product function.
3. The expected product level is a set of attributes or characteristics that buyers normally
expect and agree to when they purchase a product.
4. The augmented product level includes additional product attributes, benefits, or related services
that distinguish the product from competitors.
5. The potential product level includes all the augmentations and transformations that a product
might ultimately undergo in the future.