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Product Assignment
Product classification
Dove milk chocolate can be classified as a convenience good, which customers never plan to buy in advance. They only buy them when the need comes or when they visit a place where they are sold. With convenience products, consumers are not willing to spend much time window-shopping for them to compare prices, since they know the brands they want. More so, they are not expensive, and consumers only pick them at their nearest shops since they are available in most retail centers, including large supermarkets such as Wal-Mart. In addition, dove milk candy is a product that consumers buy regularly, and they know specifically where to get them according to their tastes and preferences. Moreover, they are bought in little quantities and do not require much effort in buying. Many customers only buy them when it is necessary, to give to friends or eat when they feel the urge to, qualifying dove milk chocolate as a convenience product (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2011).
Branding
a) Dove milk product uses a family branding strategy, where all its products are marketed through the word Dove, and all have the same brand name. The products are closely related, differing in terms of flavor and little content but all have the same utility. The products range from dark chocolate, miniature, among others with different flavors. All of them carry the same name on their products. The name is written on a plain clearer part of the package for all of them.
b). The brand name of the product is Dove, which is written clearly in bolder letters, on a reflective paper of the packaging to make the name more visible. Each color of the dove milk chocolate depends on the flavors. For darker chocolate, the color is darker, but the same in terms of the design of the paint. In all of the chocolate brands, there is a curved line across the package in a different color, mostly defining milk content. However, there is a dark chocolate color defining all of them. In addition, the flavor of the chocolate inside such as silky smooth milk chocolate is inscribed at the right hand bottom corner.
c). The level of brand loyalty is high for this product, and its users are used to buying from the same brand. Considering this is a convenience good, consumers prefer buying from one producer, whom they trust, or depending on their preference (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2011). This builds up good customer loyalty since many will only prefer the Dove chocolate to other brands.
Packaging
a) Packaging has been used in several ways for Dove milk chocolate considering it is a consumable food product, needing protection to remain safe for human consumption, as well as convenience. Some people may not have money to buy in large quantities, and prefer smaller quantities (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2011).
1). The product is meant for human consumption, and requires protection from harmful substances that might contaminate it. Therefore, the packaging provides for this by using a plastic paper package for smaller quantities, while bigger quantities that might not be consumed at once are packaged in cartons and smaller foil or plastic paper packages for protection. The packages are well designed to let no substance inside, and can be easily opened and closable except for smaller packages that are consumed once.
2) The packaging has been well designed to promote the product. The product lists the ingredients used, flavors and uses positional words such as miniature, silk, and smooth to attract customers. More so, its color is differentiated from other competitors.
3) The packaging has also been designed to enhance storage since most of them are in rectangular shapes that are easily packed into bulk containers for shipment and wholesale. In addition, the package comes in different sizes, with different prices to serve convenience especially when one does not require purchasing larger amounts. They are also packaged in ounces for convenience. The packages are easily opened for customer’s convenience.
4) In terms of facilitating recycling and reducing environmental damage, some of the packages are made up of biodegradable material, while some, especially the smaller packages, are in plastic papers. However, packaging the bigger products degradable material reduces the amount of non-biodegradable material they release into the environment.
b) The product uses both types of labeling, persuasive and informational. On the packages, the labeling is quite persuasive with positional statements that are also informative of what the product contains, in terms of nutritional content. The product uses words such as smooth and silk to explain the taste of the product for persuasion.
Product Life Cycle
All products go through a life cycle since the time they are introduced into the market, to growth, maturity, and finally decline. However, this is dependent on the product category. For our product category, which is convenience, their maturity stage seem to last for long considering people will continue to buy them when they need them. In this case, our product is in the maturity stage, where sales are increasing slowly. At this stage, the company can use the strategy of differentiating its products, which it has done. Currently, dove milk chocolates comes in different flavors, with more and more differentiation taking place to fight off competition, which is high at this stage. However, declining for this category of product is hard since it is a good that people buy regularly for human consumption, and they will still need it another day when the urge comes back. Due to this differentiation of the product, and considering how long it has been in existence, the product is sold internationally, but mostly in America, where it has reached maturity.
References
Lamb, C.W., Hair, J.F. & McDaniel, C. (2011). MKTG 5.New YorkNY: Cengage Learning.
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