How Do Product Items, Product Lines, and Product Mixes Differ? Essay Example

What are products (text)? How do product items, product lines, and product mixes differ?

A product is defined as a good, service or idea. They usually have tangible or intangible features that satisfy specific consumers in exchange for money or some other form of compensation. A product line is a group of products that correspond with one another to satisfy a collective consumer, or a variety of separate needs. An example of a product line is Xbox and al of its corresponding games, or an automotive company’s latest vehicle and all of the additional parts and modifications that sell as aftermarket parts or upgrades. They are usually distributed through the same mediums or fall within the same price range. Product mix differs from the above two because it represents the number of product lines offered by a company. An example of a product mix would be Apple’s iPhones, iPad, or iPod. Theoretically all of these products can be purchased and they all can be connected to one another, but there are more people who purchase just one of these items than all of these items; furthermore, all of these items have their own respective product lines, such as headphones, chargers, keypads etc…

Products are also defined by different degrees of tangibility, such as nondurable goods, which are completely consumed in one or a few uses like certain foods, or durable goods that tend to last for multiple uses over extended periods of time. The type of user also plays a major part in how a particular product is defined. Consumer goods are products bought by the ultimate consumer, whereas industrial goods are those products purchased to produce products for ultimate consumers. Sales of industrial goods result in sales of consumer goods.