Today, many decisions regarding product are to be taken. The manufacturer instead of producing only one product manufactures a variety of products to satisfy all consumers and to maximize his profits.
1. Product Item:
The detailed description of one product in manufacturers list is known as product item.
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Product item is a specific version of a product that has a separate designation in the seller’s list, e.g., Johnson and Johnson’s Clean and Clean Moisturiser is a product item.
2. Product Line:
It is a group of products that are closely related because they function in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same types of outlets or fall within given price ranges.
Thus Amul’s product line includes ghee, butter, cheese, milk, ice-cream, chocolate, etc. Videocon’s electronic product line includes TV., music system, refrigerator, A C , washing machine, etc.
3. Product Mix:
It is the full list of all products offered for sale by a company. It need not consist of related products. A product mix has certain length, width, depth and consistency.
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Length of product mix refers to the total number of items in its product mix.
Width or breadth of product mix refers to the number of different product lines offered by the company. The greater the number of different classes of product the greater the width of product line.
Depth of product mix refers to the average number of items offered by the company under each product line, i.e., quality, sizes, colours, models offered within each product line. Greater the number of brands in any product class, greater is the depth of product line.
Consistency of product mix refers to how closely relate the various product lines are in terms of production requirement, consumer behaviour, distribution channel or in some other way, e.g., the various toiletries offered by Hindustan Lever Ltd have consistency as most of the products enhance beauty in one way or the other.