What are the main features of international product?
The product has a series of tangible and intangible attributes which aim at satisfying consumers’ and users’ wishes and needs, and contributing to the compliance of the entrepreneurial objectives.
As regards product attributes, a division is made among:
- Basic product, which is the tangible product essential concept, also called product heart;
- Extended product, which comprises the different attributes, like brand, packaging, style, quality and aesthetic aspects;
- Sublimation products or supporting components, which are the different supporting services that add value to the tangible product like technical service, training and instructions, delivery and installation, and legal warranty, and other post-marketing services.
In a wide sense, services, places, and ideas are also recognized as product. The product is a complex mixture of components, some of which can be directly perceived by the senses (colour, shape, materials, etc.) and others which cannot be directly apprehended by the consumer, but for their mental preconceptions (security, status, etc.) in response to the positioning developed by the enterprise.
This controllable variable interaction with the rest of the international marketing mix variables (communication, price and distribution) makes any modification in one of them affect directly or indirectly the others.
