Welcome to the segment, Product Marketing, where we will look at the individual components of the marketing mix, starting with product. So this will be the agenda. We'll look at what a product is at a very fundamental level. We'll look at the cross country product growth possibilities. We'll look at the cross industry product growth possibilities. Especially from an innovation standpoint, and we'll look at how product is inter-related with other marketing mix elements. So let's get started. Okay, so what is a product? I think we tend to emphasize too much the physical aspect of a product such as this remote control, but I think for any product, we really have to think about what consumer needs, consumer need end they satisfy. So in that sense a product is just a means. And what that implies is that it can be replaced by other better means especially with newer technology. So products or combination of a lot of different things, both physical, which we refer to as being tangible, but things that we can't see like services, so we refer to them as being intangible products. And so it behooves us to have that right mixing between the tangible parts of the product and the intangible parts of the product. And Noon Nopi of course will help us in deciding what that proper mix will be. And so if we go from country A1 to country A2 with the same product. I think there is an assumption that that sort of mixing of the intangible and tangible will be the same across countries. That may not be true. In some other countries that mixing may be very different. In fact, that same need often common such as with B2B products like semiconductor may not be true with things like food. So whereas in some countries fast food means maybe a hot dog, it could be a hamburger, in other countries, for example here in Asia, it could be instant noodles. So again, we have to be very careful when assuming that same need can be satisfied by that same product. It could be, maybe even a different kind of service that is required, such as fast food needing to be even faster, such as needing home delivery. So if that was sort of the bad news, the good news here is that that same product that we satisfied, such as recreational needs with a motorcycle. That will be true across countries, whether it's country 1 or country 2. But we can satisfy other needs, such as transportation, such as delivery. So if you come to Asia, not only Korea but especially Southeast Asia like Malaysia and Vietnam. A lot of the delivery is done through motorcycle. So there is this expanded demand for that product, which in your home country, like the US or in Europe, was much more limited to just recreational use. Okay so let's look at that from a cross industry standpoint. And I think here, the key is to lay out all the different needs that are satisfied through our existing product. And there may be many. Not only the tangible part, but also the intangible part. So we need to almost deconstruct that need chain. So, we have to think forward about what need is not presently being satisfied well enough with our existing set of tangible and intangible needs. And so we have to source ideas from other industries. So if we're thinking about fast food again, the trend may be that fast food may need to be even faster. So we may source other industry that specialize in speed. There are so called merchants of speed, and again if, even in your own country, food needs to be delivered, that's where instead of benchmarking other fast food operations we may benchmark logistic firms that specialize in terms of how they deliver their items. Not necessarily food but items much faster. Okay, product is just one component of four marketing mix elements, as we well know. And so I'm a key proponent of arguing that all these marketing elements are interrelated. So how does product help price? Well products can help price both in a positive way, but it can also hurt price in a negative way because a product entails many different kind of cost elements. So depending on how you stack that chain of tangible and intangible components, that can influence price both positively by maybe decreasing some components. But it could impact it negatively by increasing price. That said, increasing price of course can be good, such as if you can control cost and yet increase the perception that the benefits of the product are higher, such as by adding quality. Especially, viz a viz, the competition. So price increase in that sense can be very positive. Also depending on how you brand and package your product, that could increase your wiggle room, such as if you have many brands and many packages that enables you to have, of course, a wider range of prices. Okay, how does product help place? Well, packaging is a big influence of physical distribution. So there is something called unitization. So depending on how standardized the form of the packaging may be, that can help you save a lot of money in terms of logistics. Whether it's inventory, whether it's transportation. Also a product may even sell themselves. These are so-called shelf talkers inside a store. Such as in a supermarket. Also a product, especially the brand of a product, can create if they're heavily in demand, pull for store. And what that means is they can bring people into the store, especially consumers who are highly involved. Lastly, products can help promotion such as having a good brand. And so if a brand is well named that, in and of itself, can be good advertising. A brand like Duracell. So, Duracell, which means long lasting battery, in a way is a form of advertising. Packaging, again it could be inside a store, it could be something that you advertise and print ads, that too, if it's eye catching can be a very effective form of advertising. And if your product has something that is very unique. And Coursera may be a good example. Coursera having the most subscribers. That can be your main focus of your advertising. So summing up, we learned in this segment that products at the core, are what enables consumer needs satisfaction. So let's think more deeply about, at the core, what the fundamental means of a product is because it can always be replaced by other better means. Products are both tangible and intangible so it behooves us to know what the proper mix is. We also learned that from a cross country standpoint that consumers may have a different combination or a different dynamic in terms of what means satisfy the same end, the same need end. And finally, from a cross industry standpoint, we've learned that in order to innovate, we have to improve our need-satisfying capability and source those ideas from not only within our industry but across industries.
