The Core Level and the Generic Level

Today, we shall look in detail at the first two levels of the Product Concept being – The Core level and The Generic stage or level. Though it may seem quite basic for many marketing students and professionals, there are certain instances wherein the same set of people fumble in explaining as to what the Product Levels are and what they exactly represent. Thereby, it would be appropriate to bring out the meaning of this basic concept with examples that could help its understanding.

Simply put the core level represents the product category, in that it would give a clear description of what the purpose of the product is and what product category would fulfil this purpose. This is the key aspect that every Product or Service offering must entail to be even called as a product or service. Consider the example of communication to be the core need, and this need would be satisfied by a devise that helps people connect and communicate to each other which defines the product category – Mobile phones. Hence, the core product here is the mobile phone which accomplishes the core need of communication.

Now, the Generic Stage of the Product level concept comprises of the sub-categories that represent main product category. These sub-categories denote the variants that are available in that particular product category. In our quoted example, where the mobile phone epitomizes the main product category, the various sub-categories would include different kinds of phones like GSM cell phones, CDMA phones or it could even represent the various mobile phone manufacturing firms like Nokia, Samsung, Sony, etc.

These two simple concepts if understood well in relation to the current market and consumer needs would help start-up companies to go a long way in mastering the art of innovation that would lead to the elaboration of the Product Conept onto the next three levels.