PRODUCT HIERARCHY

Product hierarchy is a spectrum that stretches from basic needs to the product that satisfy those needs. 

Product Hierarchy:

Each product is related to certain other products. The product hierarchy stretches from basic needs to particular items that satisfy those needs. There are 7 levels of the product hierarchy:

1. Need family:

The core need that underlines the existence of a product family. The need family for batteries is need for electric source

2. Product family:

All the product classes that can satisfy a core need with reasonable effectiveness. For example, all of the products such as batteries, dynamo, generator are power source.

3. Product class:

A group of products within the product family recognised as having a certain functional coherence. For instance, alkaline batteries in one product class

4. Product line:

A group of products within a product class that are closely related because they perform a similar function, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same channels or fall within given price range. Here Rechargeable batteries is a product line

5. Product type:

A group of items within a product line that share one of several possible forms of the product. For instance, AA pencil  batteries is one product type.

6. Item/stock-keeping unit/product variant:

A distinct unit within a brand or product line distinguishable by size, price, appearance or some other attributes. for example AA pencil alkaline batteries is a single item

Product Mix:

An organisations product line is a group of closely related products that are considered a unit because of marketing, technical or end-use considerations. In order to analyse each product line, product- line managers need to know two factors. These are.

i. Sales and profits

ii. Market profile

A product mix or assortment is the set of all products and items that a particular seller offers for sale. A company’s product-mix has some attributes such as.

1. Width:

This refers to how many different product lines the company carries.

2. Depth:

This refers to how many variants, shades, models, pack sizes etc. are offered of each product in the line

3. Length:

This refers to the total number of items in the mix.

4. Consistency:

This refers to how closely the various product lines are related in end use, production requirements, distribution channels or some other way.