Product Selection Procedure

Product Selection vs. Product Development. The process of product selection that people do in their personal lives (e.g. shopping on Amazon) is strikingly similar to the process of product development that people encounter in their professional lives.

Concept Development and Selection. ... These requirements, specifications or technical characteristics are then used as the basis for developing various product concepts. Product bench marking, brainstorming, and research and development are sources for new product concepts.

Product design is the process of deciding on the unique characteristics and features of a company's product Process selection is the development of the process necessary to produce the product being designed. Break-even analysis is a tool used to compute the amount of goods that have to be sold just to cover costs.

4 Types of Consumer Products

Firstly, what specifically is a consumer product? A consumer product is a product bought by final consumers for personal consumption. But not every consumer product is the same. There are four different types of consumer products. Marketers usually classify consumer products into these 

4 types of consumer products:

• Convenience products
• Shopping products
• Specialty products
• Unsought products.

These 4 types of consumer products all have different characteristics and involve a different consumer purchasing behavior. Thus, the types of consumer products differ in the way consumers buy them and, for that reason, in the way they should be marketed.

Convenience products

Among the four types of consumer products, the convenience product is bought most frequently. A convenience product is a consumer product or service that customers normally buy frequently, immediately and without great comparison or buying effort. Examples include articles such as laundry detergents, fast food, sugar and magazines. As you can see, convenience products are those types of consumer products that are usually low-priced and placed in many locations to make them readily available when consumers need or want them.

Shopping products

The second one of the 4 types of consumer products is the shopping product. Shopping products are a consumer product that the customer usually compares on attributes such as quality, price and style in the process of selecting and purchasing. Thus, a difference between the two types of consumer products presented so far is that the shopping product is usually less frequently purchased and more carefully compared. Therefore, consumers spend much more time and effort in gathering information and comparing alternatives. Types of consumer products that fall within the category of shopping products are: furniture, clothing, used cars, airline services etc. As a matter of fact marketers usually distribute these types of consumer products through fewer outlets, but provide deeper sales support in order to help customers in the comparison effort.

Specialty products

Number three of the types of consumer products is the speciality product. Speciality products are consumer products and services with unique characteristics or brand identification for which a significant group of consumers is willing to make a special purchase effort. As you can see, the types of consumer products involve different levels of effort in the purchasing process: the specialty product requires a special purchase effort, but applies only to certain consumers.

Unsought Product

Unsought Goods are goods that the consumer does not know about or does not normally think of buying, and the purchase of which arises due to danger or the fear of danger and lack of desire. The classic examples of known but unsought goods are funeral services, encyclopedias, fire extinguishers and reference books.