THE WHOLE PRODUCT CONCEPT
This solves the “gap between the marketing promise made to the customer… and the ability of the shipped product to fulfill that promise”, by augmenting it with ancillary products & services.
Generic product
“This is what is shipped in the box and what is covered by the purchasing contract.”
Expected product
“This is the product that the consumer thought she was buying when she brought the generic product.”
Augmented product
“This is the product fleshed out to provide the maximum chance of achieving the buying objective.”
Potential product
“This represents the product’s room for growth as more and more ancillary products come on the market.”
THE WHOLE PRODUCT AND THE TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION LIFE CYCLE
As the market moves from left to right of the technology adoption life cycle, the product must move from the inner to the outer circles. “Pragmatists evaluate and buy whole products.”
WHOLE PRODUCT PLANNING
This is the simplified whole product model. In this model, there are only two categories:
“What we ship” (the generic product)
“Whatever else the customer needs in order to” arrive to a buying decision (the generic product + additions = the whole product)