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Market Offerings—Products, Services, and Experiences

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Consumers’ needs and wants are fulfilled through market offerings—some combination of products, services, information, or experiences offered to a market to satisfy a need or a want. Market offerings are not limited to physical products. They also include services—activities or benefits offered for sale that are essentially intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything. Examples include banking, airline, hotel, retailing, and home repair services.

More broadly, market offerings also include other entities, such as persons, places, organizations, information, and ideas. For example, San Diego runs a “Happiness Is Calling” advertising campaign that invites visitors to come and enjoy the city’s great weather and good times—everything from its bays and beaches to its downtown nightlife and urban scenes. And the Ad Council and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration created a “Stop the Texts. Stop the Wrecks.” campaign that markets the idea of eliminating texting while driving. The campaign points out that a texting driver is 23 times more likely to get into a crash than a non-texting driver.

Many sellers make the mistake of paying more attention to the specific products they offer than to the benefits and experiences produced by these products. These sellers suffer from marketing myopia. They are so taken with their products that they focus only on existing wants and lose sight of underlying customer needs. They forget that a product is only a tool to solve a consumer problem. 

A manufacturer of quarter-inch drill bits may think that the customer needs a drill bit. But what the customer really needs is a quarterinch hole. These sellers will have trouble if a new product comes along that serves the customer’s need better or less expensively. The customer will have the same need but will want the new product.

Smart marketers look beyond the attributes of the products and services they sell. By orchestrating several services and products, they create brand experiences for consumers. For example, you don’t just visit Walt Disney World Resort; you immerse yourself and your family in a world of wonder, a world where dreams come true and things still work the way they should. And your local Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant doesn’t just serve up wings and beer; it gives customers the ultimate “Wings. 

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