Page 7 - DMGT508_PRODUCT_AND_BRAND_MANAGEMENT

Product and Brand Management

Notes Introduction

Product Management is becoming an important function of marketing. With the passage of
time, product management has undergone many changes. It is no more a department of churning
out promotional materials but is has now become the nerve center of the organization.
Effective product management is a practical, purposeful and positive approach of improving the
company results, through the efforts of a competent and committed team, coordinating
manufacturing, marketing and sales. In short, it can be said that product management involves.

1.1 Product

The word “product” can be defined in many ways. The definitions differ according to the
difference in the connotation in which it is being used.
Technically, a product can be defined as anything that is produced, whether as the result of
generation, growth, labor, or thought, or by the operation of involuntary causes; as, the products
of the season, or of the farm; the products of manufactures; the products of the brain.
In manufacturing, products are purchased as raw materials and sold as finished goods.

In project management, products are the formal definition of the project deliverables that make
up or contribute to delivering the objectives of the project.
In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or
need.

Notes Commodities are usually raw materials such as metals and agricultural products,
but a commodity can also be anything widely available in the open market.
From all the above connotations, we can say that in general usage, product may refer to a single
item or unit, a group of equivalent products, a grouping of goods or services, or an industrial
classification for the goods or services.

1.2 Concepts related to Product

The world of products has many important concepts related to it that are very popularly prevalent
in the industries world over. Let us understand each of them one by one.

1.2.1 Product Development

Product development is the process of designing, building, operating, and maintaining a good
or service. Product development adds things like pricing, marketing, and customer support to
the technology to create a complete product.
The companies world over, use a product development process to ensure that they are not just
manufacturing a product that people will want to buy but also one that people would like to
continue to use. To be sure, a base technology is at the heart of the product, but product
development ensures that the customer’s voice is not lost in the rush to an exciting technology.

Product development is performed by a multi-disciplinary team whose goal is building,
operating, and maintaining the product. Team members may include product managers, product
developers, project managers, product operations engineers, customer support managers, quality

2 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY