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Needed: Examples Of "whole Products"
Posted By: blythe* on 3/19/2004 2:13 PM (CST) 250 Points
I teach marketing workshops for small businesses as a volunteer for the Small Business Development Center. I'm intrigued by the "whole product" concept but my students are struggling to apply this concept given my pitiful example of airline ticket as core product and fabulous romantic vacation as the whole product. I want them to see past their product or service idea to customer needs, and to see how they can augment their product/service to meet those needs. I'd appreciate some great examples to share with them. So, I'm willing to break the bank and spend all of my points to get good answers!

Posted by: Michele Member Response
3/19/2004 2:22 PM (CST)
Maybe the trick is to look at it from the customer's perspective, and not the company.
Take BMW. When I buy a BMW, I do not simply buy a car, I by a lifetyle. From selecting a car, test-driving, finacing, servicing and even reselling the car, BMW offer me a turn key solution.

The truth of the matter is that each of these functions are done by different companies, or different profit centers within a company, but as the customer, I get a seamless experience.

Another example: the value proposition of a traditional grocery shop radically shifted when grocery stores when online. Now, a seamless service, from point and click ordering, to delivery. Again, the busines model may include a chain of different companies working co-opiticously together, rather than one monolithic comany.
 
Posted by: cal* Member Response
3/19/2004 3:39 PM (CST)
 
Posted by: cal* Member Response
3/19/2004 3:48 PM (CST)
One example that comes to mind was the suggestion that a car manufacturer &/or dealer group - say Ford - buy up parking lots in busy areas, and give preferential parking rights to those driving Ford vehicles.
 
Posted by: Jett* Member Response
3/19/2004 4:18 PM (CST)
I like the car ideas...especially the BMW one (just so happens to be my initials..talk about a brand! ..lol).

Hereis an AWESOME article that has some exercises you can do do in class. I highly recommend it.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/2/fischler1.asp

I hope that helps!
 
Posted by: gerardodada* Member Response
3/19/2004 4:26 PM (CST)
Using your same example, getting Air+hotel does and calling it a vacation package does not make it a whole product.

Air, hotel, dinner reservations, attractions, coneirge, city map, airport transportation, financing...now you are talking.

I used to work at a company in high tech that decided we would start selling 'solutions' . The VP of Marketing (and product marketing) got everyone in a room and told us we were now a 'solutions' company.

It did not take long for someone to ask what is a solution. His answer was that a solution is a bundle of a few of the company's products. He did not last long.

Michele is right, a solution is defined from the customer perspective. A whole product and a solution means a single source for everything a customer needs. Products, services, information, help on making decisions, etc. So that the customer has no ambiguities and what is going to happen, no worries, no need to work with another company.

Some products create an ecosystem around them of partners, services and products. These make the whole product.

"In marketing, a whole product is a generic product augmented by everything that is needed for the customer to have a compelling reason to buy. The generic product is what is usually shipped to the customer. The whole product typically augments the generic product with training and support, manuals, cables, additional software or hardware, installation instructions, etc. "


Hope this helps!

-GD
 
Posted by: Leaky Funnel Accepted Answer
3/19/2004 4:54 PM (CST)
Great question Blythe

I'll deal first with why / when whole product is most suitable (and when it is not), and then how.

When an innovation allows us to radically improve an old way of doing things, buyers embrace the change in waves. This is the product adoption lifecycle which you would already know well. But here's the catch: the early buyers and the next group of buyers are very different people.

The early adoptors forgive you for having a not-quite-complete solution. The pragmatists (next group) won't be so forgiving. They need the whole answer and they need to see it already delivering benefits to someone just like them. Once this innovation has reached wide-spread adoption, buyers have confidence, so a whole solution is no longer required.

So, I would contend that whole product is especially useful after the very early adoptors have tried, but before your innovation enjoys widespread adoption. When you are focusing on a single niche, whole solution is key.

Example? These days we buy our PCs from the high street retailer, our OS from Microsoft, our memory upgrade from an after-market parts specialist and our apps from another high street retailer or over the web. There was a time when we needed everything pre-installed. And when PCs first came out, we boaught the bits and assembled them ourselves. An example of the wave.

Another: Early domestic travellers purchased their travel, and made separate arrangements for their accommodation and entertainment. The next wave saw us all trundle down to the travel agent for a package holiday. Now we buy the airfare, accommodation and entertainment of separate web sites. Pieces then whole, then pieces. International travel is commonplace for some, and not for others. So we have some buying in pieces and some buying through travel agents.

Hope this helps, Hugh
 
Posted by: cal* Member Response
3/19/2004 6:20 PM (CST)
To add further to the car examples, I've heard that in some places it's hard to impossible to get car theft insurance for some makes and models, because they are particularly attractive to thieves. If so, perhaps some of the manufacturers/dealers of those cars need to consider coming up with ways of taking care of this problem for buyers in those areas, like offer their own insurance programs. Perhaps it's already being done somewhere.

French Club Mediterranee offers the French a place to go to while abroad where they can order up French food of a quality that is acceptable to them, and they can order it up in French.

A thought I came across for cigarettes: Put a mark at a determined place on the cigarette stem, which warns the smoker that to continue smoking a particular brand beyond that point will significantly increase the carcinogens they are taking in. A 'healthy idea' for cigarette smokers. Maybe it also is now being done.
 
Posted by: Pepper Blue Member Response
3/19/2004 6:51 PM (CST)
An example would be Dell advertising and marketing a computer as a complete digital imaging solution.

Then that computer is shipped to a customer, this is the generic product, just the computer.

But along with that comes a quick start guide, full manual, all the cables, software loaded and pre-configure, DVD tutorials, 800 help number 24/7 support, nice color printer, photo paper, monitor etc., virtually everything the customer needs to get into the digital photo world immediately.

Not just the computer, but everything the customer needs to become a digital photo expert in a weekend (as long as has the digital camera)

This is whole product marketing.
 
Posted by: Amir Member Response
3/20/2004 12:24 AM (CST)
The idea is imple and after so many examples, you mustve understood it. Look at it from a customers' point of view and you'll see buyers buying peace of mind, not a travel package or a PC or a dream vacation.

When a company knows or shapes the motive that is is buyers minds when they are buying its product, it can think of other related product and offer it to buyers in a package. When Coca-Cola wants to be a thirst quencher, its not selling merely selling a soft drink but also its availability everywhere in form of vending machines Thirsty? Go for a coke. So the buyer is buying a remedy for thirst. It has to be there when they are thirsty.

Amir
 
Posted by: mbarber Member Response
3/20/2004 6:21 AM (CST)
Blythe, take in a box of 'instant chocolate cax mix' to your next class.

Hold it up or pass it around the room and then ask them 'what is this?' They'll tell you - its for making a chocolate cake.

You tell them - well this is the difference between a 'core product' and a 'whole product'. The core product is the fundamental components you need to 'start the process'.

The whole product is what you get AFTER you use the core product. So in this instance, you only get the 'whole product' AFTER you bake the cake!

Now ask them to see that what they provide is often a core component for their customers. Even if no one uses it, its STILL a core product. It is only AFTER someone buys it that it becomes a 'whole product' for their customer.

They'll get the message.
 
Posted by: cal* Member Response
3/20/2004 9:10 AM (CST)
The way I'm seeing it is that whether or not you have a 'whole product' depends on how you define the situation. Regarding cars, is buying a 'whole product' just applied to the hardware purchase? Or, as Michelle first pointed out, does it also include things like helping people sell the car, and other things like my example of offering preferential parking where there's parking problems.

mbarber's cake mix example reminds me of something I came across at one time, where a company took too many steps out of the cake making process, and the housewives of the time rejected it. It's only when the cake mix allowed more input from the housewives, so that they felt that they still were instrumental in making it (and be able to make claims to being instrumental in making it), that the mixes began to sell. (I think the change was something as simple as letting them add the egg.) Now 'the fewer steps the better' cooking products seem to do well in a large proportion of many markets.

I also read of a software program once offered to lawyers(?)/doctors(?) that would take over a lot of the research in a particular area. One comment for rejecting it was supposed to have been somewhere along the lines of "With this program I wouldn't be needed."

I don't know if any product/service can really be called 'whole' in a total sense. As one of my old mentors said "Anything can be improved upon." I'm inclined to think that products/services are always in a state of 'becoming whole'. And one group or generation might not have the same view of what 'whole' means with regards to products/services. It depends a lot on how products and services integrate into their existing values. When values change enough then the brands which are successful often change.

A possible connection I'm finding a bit humorous, but maybe it offers some food for thought. In the New Testament of the Bible, where it says "Be ye therefore perfect", I think the Greek translation of the word 'perfect' is thought by some to mean 'whole'. (Others say 'complete'. Seems to be pretty much the same thing to me.) If one was to use this as a way of defining 'whole/complete' then I don't think I'd say there likely ever was a 'perfect' product/service. They're all/They've all been in a state of 'becoming whole/complete'.
Now to get off my pulpit. :-)

cal
 
Posted by: agreda* Member Response
3/22/2004 12:34 PM (CST)
As a seasoned designer and graphics producer the best example I can provide is within my own industry, specifically, the solutions I offer my clients.

I say solutions because that is our "whole product." Whereas the core product may be a logo design or as simple as a banner.

When new clients come to our firm and say "I need a banner". Our first response is, "no you don't." We will always ask why they think they need a banner -- which is really only good for tying to a chain-link fence. Oftentimes the client does require some sort of display graphic, usually for a trade show. Our solution -- the whole product -- includes consultation on how that graphic will be displayed, usually with recemmendation of professional hanging hardware and/or a freestanding banner display.

Many providers may have very well just sold them their banner which they in turn would have draped in their booth with binder clips and fishing line. Ack! I've seen it happen ...

The "whole product" solution may also include direction regarding content. We'll help them determine what their "banner" should include. They may have come in search of a core product -- a banner with their logo on it. But they will leave with a professionally designed display graphic solution suitable for use at the show and back in their store or office.

By offering such a comprehensive whole product, however, these new clients very rarely actually leave. Realizing the added value of our solutions, they return again and again.

Another example is the small startup business who decides they need a logo (core product). In reality what they often need is an identity, business system, branding campaign, and core marketing materials. Again, the whole product is a total solution rather than a quick fix.

In either case, the benefit of the whole product lies in the value added to the core product. No matter what the core product is -- or what industry -- the smarter manufacturers and service providers will offer whole products by attempting to solve the client's problems rather than simply fulfill their request. This may often entail helping them determine what that problem may be.
 


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