The Nature of Products, Goods and Services

Abstract

This thesis explored the constructs of product, good and service. Theory development and the conceptualisation of constructs that underpin it were recognised as being important to any discipline including marketing. The identification of problems with how the key marketing constructs of product, good and service had been conceptualised led to the development of alternative conceptualisations. In total, product was conceptualised as an unfinished need satisfying process where product represented what the producer/marketer did for the consumer. Goods and services were conceptualised as different aspects of that same process. Goods representing all those attributes produced before the exchange has been initiated and services, all those attributes produced after. These conceptualisations were developed through a review of the relevant literature, identifying areas where the present conceptualisations were limited as well as other factors that should be included in such conceptualisations but were not. Such re-conceptualisation was undertaken in a symbiotic rather than dialectical manner, looking to work off present understandings of the phenomena to build a deeper, richer understanding of not only the constructs in themselves but also their relationship to each other.