We cannot plan the sale of a product thinking of it as a one-dimensional object that only has physical and functional characteristics. The reality is that products (and we also include services) extend in at least five dimensions .
This is because from a marketing perspective, the purchasing decision is influenced by the expectations and strategic planning that the company carries out in the development and launch of the product.
Let's not confuse the objective
When we create a product we try to cover a need and therefore we try to provide a benefit in exchange for a cost , which must be below the cost in the war of expectations that the consumer will suffer at the time of purchase. This forces us to see things with different eyes, since we are not selling an armchair but the comfort it provides.
This brings us to the first dimension, known canadian biotechnology email list as the “basic benefit” dimension . In other words, the product begins to be defined before it exists.
We could say that there are many ways to meet the need in its most fundamental aspect , providing some degree of comfort through specific physical characteristics defined by the need.
The fact of concretizing the basic benefit in a real product takes us to the second dimension of the same, known as the "generic product" . There we would have the creation of the design of a basic sofa.
The impact of expectations
With the generic product we may be providing basic satisfaction at a good price , but we cannot ignore that consumers expect said product to provide a series of features.
In this way, we cannot expect the sofa we have designed to differentiate itself from the competition by having armrests, a padded surface, one, two and three-seater sizes, etc. We are simply covering the needs and matching what is surely already offered on the market.
If we want to meet these requirements we would be entering the third dimension, known as the "expected product" , which involves an increase in costs and price in order to reach the standards.