BNET Business Dictionary

Business Definition for: Product

  • anything that is offered to a market that customers can acquire, use, interact with, experience, or consume, to satisfy a want or need. Early marketing tended to focus on tangible physical goods and these were distinguished from services. More recently, however, the distinction between products and services has blurred, and the concept of the product has been expanded so that in its widest sense it can now be said to cover any tangible or intangible thing that satisfies the consumer. Products that are marketed can include services, people, places, and ideas.

Wiktionary Definition for: Product

  • a commodity offered for sale.
  • Ex: ''That store offers a variety of '''products'''.''
  • The amount of an artifact that has been created by someone or some process.
  • Ex: ''They improve their '''product''' every year; they export most of their agricultural production.''
  • A consequence of someone's efforts or of a particular set of circumstances.
  • Ex: ''Skill is the '''product''' of hours of practice; His reaction was the '''product''' of hunger and fatigue.''
  • A chemical substance formed as a result of a chemical reaction.
  • Ex: ''This is a '''product''' of lime and nitric acid.''
  • math A quantity obtained by multiplication.
  • Ex: ''The '''product''' of 2 and 3 is 6.''
  • The set of elements common to two or more sets.
  • Ex: ''The set of red hats is the '''product''' of the set of hats and the set of red things.''
  • Any tangible output or service that is a result of a process and that is intended for delivery to a customer or end user.
  • Ex: ''A '''product''' is a work product that is delivered to the customer.'' CMMI®
  • The outcome or 'thingness' of an activity, especially in contrast to a process by which the product was created or altered.
  • Ex: ''This '''product''' of last month's quality standards committee is quite good, even though the process was flawed.''

Additional Resources

Launching a New Product
New product launches are crucial to the success of a business; they demand careful planning and flawless execution. Internal communications are vital to the early success of the program, as is the support of senior management, who must commit resources to the project.What You Need to KnowIt seems that there...
Tags: incentive, marketing, advertisement, sales
Articles 2007-02-28
Crafting a Product Public Relations Campaign
Public relations is often used to promote new products, and you can use public relations to support various sales and marketing objectives. Whatever your goals, there are many ways you can enhance product public relations using a variety of media.What You Need to KnowWhen should I hold a press conference?...
Tags: benefit, BNET Editorial, consultant, consulting, knowledge, manufacturing, marketing, New Product Development, performance, product development, public relations, sales, software, technique, tool
Articles 2007-07-09
Collaborating With Customers in Product Development
To some, "new product development" means inventing something new. In reality, though, most new products are modifications of existing products or ideas. Sometimes, adding an element of service onto an existing product is also referred to as new product development.The power of new product development lies in the potential for...
Tags: Research and Development, BNET Editorial, Marketing, Research & Development, Product, Management, Business Operations, Strategy, Product Marketing, Product Development, Customer, New Product Development, risk, supplier, collaboration, knowledge, information technology, benefit, video, security
Articles 2007-10-10
Collaborating for Improved Product Development
More and more companies are collaborating on product development programs. The objective is to reduce production costs, make better use of skilled, specialist resources, and speed up the time to market. Tools like videoconferencing and the use of secure extranets have simplified collaboration. What You Need to KnowWhy is...
Tags: Product marketing, Strategy, Business structures, Groupware, BNET Editorial, product development, product life cycle, collaboration, team, partnership, collaboration tool, globalization, Extranet, competitive advantage, marketing, project management, benefit, outsource, su
Articles 2007-10-31
Using the Internet to Publish Product Information
It is simple, quick, and cost-effective to publish product information on the Internet. The Internet provides an unmatched level of accessibility and customer convenience, but for many companies, it may be best to consider Internet marketing material as a supplement to your regular print marketing material and not a replacement...
Tags: animation, Web site development, Channel management, security, Adobe PDF, Web site, Web, video, printing, pricing strategy, multimedia, marketing, Java, Intranet, Internet marketing, Internet, graphics, Extranet, BNET Editorial, sales
Articles 2007-07-30
Before Your New Product Launch, Solicit Criticism
Too often, new products are created without adequate feedback and buy-in from prospective customers. That's the gist of the popular book "The Four Steps to the Epiphany" -- which advocates / roadmaps a much richer interaction between vendors and customers during the entire product development cycle. ...
Tags: Sales, Corporate Communications, Marketing, Sales Strategy, Marketing Research, Public Relations, Product, Customer, Strategy, Travis Van
Blog posts 2007-10-01
Product Marketing = Lost Sales.
Over the last two weeks, I've been talking about Manager-to-Manager (M2M) sales in B2B environments, and how real decision-makers want you to be responsible for results and consequently have no interest in products, even if repackaged as "solutions." If I'm right about that -- and the research...
Tags: Product, Customer, B2B, B2B Product Marketing, Sales Strategy, Product Marketing, Marketing Research, Sales Force Management, Sales, Marketing, Geoffrey James
Blog posts 2007-11-02
Determining the Right Price for a Product or Service
Setting the price of a product or service is both a financial and marketing issue. Clearly, the price has to cover all the costs you have incurred. It also has to generate a profit—the business won't survive otherwise. Then again, you should never gouge your customers or you will lose...
Tags: cost, pricing, product, customer, service, lifetime pricing
Articles 2007-05-03
The Risks in Announcing Your New Product at an Event
Many vendors use the timing of an industry event as the gaiting factor for the launch of their new product. Without question, the ability to get a product in front of a concentrated audience of the target customer is extremely valuable.But for most vendors, does it really make sense...
Tags: Strategy, public relations, tips and tricks, Travis Van, industry event
Blog posts 2007-07-26
Why the Product Review Process Scares Vendors
In a perfect world, product reviewers would buy the new products they're reviewing ... and test them completely independent of any interaction with or coercion by the respective vendors. But most publications don't have the budget to independently acquire the products they review, and therefore rely on the vendors...
Tags: reviewer, Matt Sarrel, Travis Van, Management, Software, Operating Systems, Corporate Communications, Marketing, Open Source, Strategy, Linux, Public Relations, Product Review, Product, Vendor, Information Technology
Blog posts 2007-10-02
Strategy-Focused Product Innovation With Product Scorecard And Product Innovation Scorecard
This paper shows how strategy-focused product innovation can be done with a product scorecard and a product innovation scorecard. A product scorecard is a performance measurement system that allows the product managers to view the product performances from several perspectives simultaneously. A product innovation scorecard is a performance measurement system...
Tags: Innovation, Product Innovation, Strategy, Performance Management, Management, Human Resources, Workforce Management
White papers 2004-08-11
Where does embarrassing product hype come from?
It's well-understood how leery journalists are of hyperbole in new product publicity. So it's puzzling why many vendors continue to embarrass themselves via breathless product press releases where every other word ends in "-est" ... and the word "visionary" somehow makes it into the headline, the sub-head, the executive's...
Tags: technology, spin, public relations, product release, Travis Van, engineering team
Blog posts 2007-07-09
A Contrarian View on Product Focus: Do More, Not Less
An ascendant philosophy in the area of product development and marketing goes like this: focus on a few products but do them better than anyone else; fire your least profitable customers and shower love on the money makers; choose carefully distribution partners who will add value rather than...
Tags: Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Business Operations, Research & Development, Digital Media, Digital Music, Product Development, Product Portfolio, Apple Inc., Product, Apple iPod, Sean Silverthorne
Blog posts 2008-02-05
Product Documentation: Marketing's Stepchild in the Attic
What's more important than your customers' ability to clearly understand and interact with your product? Product documentation may be the most meaningful communication line that any organization has with its customers. Yet for many vendors (particularly those with highly technical offerings, ironically), product documentation is woefully...
Tags: Documentation, Marketing Research, Travis Van, Marketing, Product Marketing, Product Documentation
Blog posts 2007-10-09
The 4 Ps Of Marketing In Your Internet Marketing Plan (Product Strategy)
Except for manufacturers, perhaps, for many businesses the product strategy part of marketing is really about marketing the company, often not the individual goods or services that the company offers. So to discuss product-marketing strategy, begin to think of the business, as the product, one is marketing will gain some...
Tags: Product, Web Site, Internet Marketing, Ralph F. Wilson, Web Site Development, Marketing Research, Strategy, Internet, Marketing, Management
White papers 2000-05-01
Product Marketing = Lost Sales.
Product Marketing = Lost Sales.Great seriesGeoffrey,Your recent posts on the myth of "solutions" and the fact that companies want a "sales rep" to manage a business function for them not sell them a product are right on target. I am a veteran of twenty years of selling hardware, software, and...
Tags: LOST SALES, product marketing
Discussion threads 2007-11-05
Sainsbury's improves product data information
Angelica Mari, Computing , Wednesday 7 October 2009 at 17:41:00 Standardisation high on the retailer's IT agenda Sainsbury's is working on correcting inconsistencies in product data information as part of a wider systems overhaul, company officials said today. ...
Tags: information, Retail Company, Supply Chain, Product Data
News items 2009-10-08
Product/Market Management
This article defines about Product Life Cycle, Declining profit margins ruining your performance review? Are you a business owner struggling to meet your goal? Maybe it's time to revisit the Product Life Cycle, modify your marketing mix, increase market share and enhance your ROI by using Marketing Management to turn...
Tags: Product Life Cycle, Product Marketing, Marketing Research, Roi/Tco, Marketing, Finance, Managerial Accounting
White papers 2003-01-01
Product Safety Management And Engineering, And The Design Of Adequate Warnings And Instructions
The document uses the core concepts and principles of safety management and safety engineering, and the cardinal rules of hazard control, to reasonably eliminate or minimize unacceptable product hazards. To summarize, an effective product safety program must formally declare to all personnel that product safety is important, assign responsibility to...
Tags: Hazard, Product Safety, Product Marketing, Marketing
White papers 2003-01-01
Category And Brand Management, Product Identification, And New-Product Planning
Product promotion is the process of informing, persuading, and reminding the target audience about the product on offer. A successful promotional strategy, with time, gives rise to a brand wherein some specific attributes of the product are institutionalized in the market. The product then becomes synonymous with the attributes. A...
Tags: Product Promotion, Brand, Villanova University, Brand Management, Target Audience, Branding, Marketing Research, Marketing
Presentations 2003-01-01