Market Offerings

Purpose of Market Offerings

Market offerings develop an interest among customers toward a business's products and services.

Businesses in the market adapt their products or services such that it fills the customer's needs gap. More people are drawn toward a brand when it sells products that resolve customers' problems or make their lives easier. The brand that can do this the best and exceed a customer's expectation will stand out in the customers' minds.

Providing better target offerings and standing out in the market will eventually lead to more loyal customers and a broader customer base. People expect businesses to add value to their lives in various ways, precisely the purpose of market offerings - satisfying customer needs.

Types of Market Offerings

The products, services, or experiences offered in the market differ and serve different purposes. They also vary in terms of the money spent, the frequency of purchase, and the time taken to make a purchase decision. Based on these factors, market offerings are divided into four main categories:

• Convenience market offerings,
• Shopping market offerings,
• Specialty market offerings,
• Unsought market offerings.

Types of Market Offerings: Convenience Market Offerings

Items such as tissues, paper plates, bread, notebooks, and other similar items on which customers do not spend too much money are known as convenience market offerings.

Customers do not distinguish or see much difference between brands that offer convenience items; therefore do not spend a lot of time differentiating between the brands. Customers are more focused on the item rather than the brand.

Marketing such products is usually confined to getting them into as many places as possible where a purchase can occur (e.g., different supermarkets). Impulse-buy items are a part of the convenience market offering.

Fig. 1 - Baked goods are an example of convenience market offerings

Types of Market Offerings: Shopping Market Offerings

On the other hand, purchasing a personal computer or a television involves high involvement from the buyer.

Shopping market offerings include purchases where the customer spends more time making a decision. Customers want the best deal and the ideal solution to their problems.

The budget plays a significant role in these types of market offerings. The customers will consider and compare all available options to make the right decision. The brand of the items is crucial for the buyer in this situation.

Fig. 2 - Furniture is an example of shopping market offerings

What items are considered a shopping market offering can be subject to the individual.

Types of Market Offerings: Specialty Market Offerings

Specialty market offerings are items that differ significantly between brands. Specialty market offerings are not purchased as frequently as convenience items but are often bought more regularly than shopping items (depending on the individual customer).

Brand recognition plays a crucial role in specialty market offerings. Customers cannot buy such items at convenience stores or every outlet. There are exclusive outlets that supply these products. Examples of specialty market offerings include designer clothes, custom-made furniture, and so on.

Fig. 3 - Designer boutiques are an example of specialty market offerings

Types of Market Offerings: Unsought Market Offerings

Unsought market offerings are the products or services rarely demanded by the buyer until they require or are made aware of them.

Companies offering such products and services make efforts to create a mark in the minds of their potential customers through marketing campaigns. This ensures that they are the first ones customers think of when they require the service.

Marketing such products or services can be complex as marketers cannot tempt customers into buying them. Such a service might be pointless to the customer unless demand arises. Examples of such market offerings include roofing, towing, life insurance, funeral service, and so on.

Fig. 4 - Towing services as an example of unsought market offerings

Market Offerings and Marketing Myopia

Here is the surprise topic we promised you!

Market offerings include the products, services, and experiences offered by all the companies in a market. The companies that provide the product offerings exist to add value to the customers and meet the customer's needs.

When marketing strategies focus only on short-term achievements rather than long-term ones, it may decrease overall performance. This might mean that companies focus more on sales than fulfilling customer needs. If a company only focuses on product sales, it will fail to focus on the market advancements, such as technological advancements that will better serve the customers.

Marketing myopia is when brands forget why they exist and only focus on the product they are trying to sell. They fail to evaluate the value it adds to the customer. A few reasons that can lead to marketing myopia may be limited research, incorrect evaluation of the demand, following a single marketing strategy, and not keeping up with the market trends and changes.

Marketers can avoid marketing myopia by focusing on long-term strategies, considering the customer and their needs, performing extensive research, using multiple marketing strategies, introducing varieties, and staying relevant in the market by continuously reviewing their offering.

Market Offerings Examples

Market offerings include three main categories: products, services, and experiences. We list a few examples of each below.

Convenience Market Offerings

• Market offerings include both convenience product and service offerings.
• Convenience products include bread, detergents, paper, snacks, and so on.
• Convenience services include tailoring, dry cleaning, barber shops, nail parlors, and so on.

Shopping Market Offerings

• Shopping market offerings also include different product and service categories.
• Shopping products include purchasing furniture, a television or other electronic devices, and so on.
• Shopping service offerings include hotel stays, airline tickets, tourism services, etc.
• Market Offering Examples: Speciality Market Offerings

• Specialty product offerings include designer clothes, luxury perfumes, custom watches, and other luxury products.
• Specialty service offerings include in-store services in designer boutiques, limousine services, private jet services, and other exclusive services.

Unsought Market Offerings

• Unsought product offerings include fire extinguishers, sanitizers, face masks, and similar items.
• Unsought service offerings include life insurance, funeral services, vehicle towing services, etc.