PRODUCT MIX AND PRODUCT HIERARCHY

Product Mix

According to the American Marketing Association, product mix refers to "the full set of products offered by the organization for sale. The product mix includes all the product lines and categories." In simple terms, it is the set of product varieties that a company has to offer to the consumers. It's four dimensions are:

1. Width- It refers to the number of product lines that a company sells. A small/ new company will have a lesser product width as it will have basic varieties to sell, build market share and then expand the width according to the market situations.
For BRU coffee the width is six as it has Bru Gold, Bru Exotica, Bru Instant, Bru Cappuccino, Bru Select and Bru Roast & Ground. These all have different characteristics differentiating themselves from each other.

2. Length- It is the total number of products in the mix. Companies that have multiple product lines generally keep tracks of their average length per product line.
Length of product mix of Bru coffee could be the 10 gm sachet and 500 gm packet.

3. Depth- It is the total number of variants of each product. It includes features like flavors and several distinguishing features. Just like length, depth also plays major role in formulating companies strategies.

4. Consistency- This tells us the relationship between different product lines in terms of their use, production and distribution. Product mix may be consistent in their usage but vary greatly in their distribution.
Like, Bru instant may be available in every retail store, but its exotic favorite range may only be available in supermarkets (such as Reliance Mart, Walmart, etc.).


PRODUCT HIERARCHY

The American Marketing Association describes product hierarchy as "an organizational chart type of array of the products offered in a given market, breaking first into product class, then product form, then variations on form, and then brand." Every product hierarchy dimensions have various options so that the array can be designed as per the needs of the analyst.

The product hierarchy for Bru coffee can be elaborated as:

Need Family	Thirst/ Desire
Product Family	Beverages
Product class	Hot/ Cold coffee
Product line	Instant, Gold, Exotica, Cappuccino etc
Product type	Sachets, Loose packets, Jar
Product brand	Bru
Product item	10 gm, 50 gm, 100 gm, 500 gm, 1 kg