ABSTRACT
Although a product or service is one element within a complex unit, the entire marketing mix, it is of immense importance in that it encapsulates the great majority of the benefits expected by the customer when he makes a purchase. The view that a product is not simply a physical entity but a bundle of attributes which promise certain satisfactions, physical, social, psychological, economic, to the buyer is especially apt in the context of marketing. Managers responsible for all aspects of product management - from the conceptualisation and development of products, through successful product launch and product-market administration, to the eventual demise of the product - thus require accurate information (via the MkIS, especially marketing research) with respect to customers' perceptions of the product, differences of perception among various segments of the market and among non-buyers, and the ways in which both buyers and non-buyers perceive the attributes offered by competitors' products.
