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b. Service differentiation: service companies can differentiate itself by action through speedy, convenient or careful delivery.
c. Channel differentiation: a company gain competitive advantage through the way they design their channel coverage, expertise and
performance. d. People differentiation: hiring and training better people than their
competitors do. e. Image differentiation: a company or brand image should convey the
product’s distinctive benefits and positioning.
D. Product differentiation
According to Amstrong and Keller 2009:360 product is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or need.
According to Cravens and Piercy 2009:98 product differentation is occur when a product offering is perceived by the buyer as different from the
competition on any physical or nonphysical product characteristic, including
price.
Brand can be differentiated on features, performance, or style and design.
Amstrong and Keller ,2009:220
In product differentiation, the seller faces an abundance of differentiation possibility including form, feature, customization, performance quality, durability,
reliability, repair ability and style. Kotler and Keller, 2012:351
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1. Form: size, shape, physical structure of a product 2. Feature: that supplements their basic function. According to Kotler and
Amstrong 2006:348 feature is the variety of products offered 3. Customization: as companies have grown proficient at gathering
information about individual customers and business partner and as their factories are being designed more flexibly, they have increased their
ability to individualize market offerings, messages and media. 4. Conformance quality: the degree to which all produced units are identical
and meet promised specifications. 5. Performance quality: l
evel at which the product’s primary characteristics operate, quality is increasingly important for differentiation as companies
adopt a value model and provide higher quality for less money. 6. Durability: a
measure of the product’s expected operating life under natural or stressful condition is a valued attribute for vehicles, kitchen
appliances and other durable goods. 7. Reliability: a measure of probability that a product will not malfunction or
fail within a specified time period. 8. Repair ability: measure the ease of fixing a product when it malfunction or
fails. 9.
Style: describes the product’s look and feel to the buyer.
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E. Advantages of Product differentiation
