ABSTRACT

At any level of marketing transaction – be it at the small-and medium-sized enterprise (SME) level or large corporation context – products are at the heart of marketing activities. This is because they constitute one of the key elements of the marketing system (see Figure 8.1) and are at the centre of the exchange process around which other elements aimed at satisfying the needs of their target markets revolve. It could be described as the bone, the tendon and the ligament of the system without which no marketing process can take place (Gbadamosi, 2000a).