BUS602: Marketing Management

Products bought by businesses or institutions for use in making other products are called business products. These products can be commercial, industrial, or services products. A commercial product would be an 18-wheeler truck used by a major transportation company as part of the business. An industrial product might be a major robotics installation in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. A services product (for business) might be telecommunications consulting for a large corporation setting up offices in Singapore. Business products are classified as either capital products or expense items. Capital products are usually large, expensive items with a long life span. Examples are buildings, large machines, and airplanes. Expense items are typically smaller, less expensive items that usually have a life span of less than a year. Examples are printer cartridges and paper. Industrial products are sometimes further classified in the following categories:

1. Installations: These are large, expensive capital items that determine the nature, scope, and efficiency of a company. Capital products such as General Motors' truck assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, represent a big commitment against future earnings and profitability. Buying an installation requires longer negotiations, more planning, and the judgments of more people than buying any other type of product.
2. Accessories: Accessories do not have the same long-run impact on the firm as installations, and they are less expensive and more standardized. But they are still capital products. Minolta photocopy machines, HP laptops, and smaller machines such as Black & Decker table drills and saws are typical accessories. Marketers of accessories often rely on well-known brand names and extensive advertising as well as personal selling.
3. Component parts and materials: These are expense items that are built into the end product. Some component parts are custom-made, such as a drive shaft for an automobile, a case for a computer, or a special pigment for painting U.S. Navy harbor buoys; others are standardized for sale to many industrial users. Intel's Pentium chip for PCs and cement for the construction trade are examples of standardized component parts and materials.
4. Raw materials: Raw materials are expense items that have undergone little or no processing and are used to create a final product. Examples include lumber, copper, and zinc.
5. Supplies: Supplies do not become part of the final product. They are bought routinely and in fairly large quantities. Supply items run the gamut from pencils and paper to paint and machine oil. They have little impact on the firm's long-run profits. Bic pens, Champion copier paper, and Pennzoil machine oil are typical supply items.
6. Services. These are expense items used to plan or support company operations - for example, janitorial cleaning and management consulting services.