Core Actual and Augmented Product Examples

What are the core product, actual product, and augmented products?

The core product is defined as the benefit that the product brings to the customer. An example of the Core product of a car is Transportation.  The actual product refers to the tangible object and relates to the physical quality and the design. An example of the Actual product of a car is Transportation. Augmented product refers to everything a product offers that is not directly related to its original purpose.  It consists of the measures taken to help the consumer put the actual product to use or acquire the product.

There are two types of value namely.

1. Hedonic value
2. Utilitarian value.

The Three Levels of Product

A core value, actual product, and augmented products constitute the main reason why a consumer would buy a particular product.  It answers the questions of what you are really buying and the main problem the product will solve.

Core Product

What is a core product?

The Core Product refers to the product which will be used to grow an organization, typically one with high customer acquisition costs and low marginal costs of production. It is often a physical good, but it can also be an intangible service

The Core Product should provide value for customers while also generating revenue for the company. Examples of Core Products include Facebook, Google Search, Dropbox

What is a Core Product Example?

A core product is the central or essential element of a company’s goods and services. It is a type of product that is the central part of a company’s business

Examples of core product include:

• Apple iPhone, which is the core product for Apple Inc.
• Nike shoes, which are the core products for Nike Inc.

Core Product of Hotel Example

A hotel’s core product is a room for guests to stay in. The amenities that are included in the price of the room depending on what type of hotel it is, and how much it costs.

Hotels offer different types of rooms depending on their location and size: suites, family rooms, singles, doubles, triples, etc.

Rooms are usually cleaned by housekeeping staff each day or every other day (depending on the number of people staying at the hotel)

What is the Main Role of the Core Product?

The main role of a core product is to provide the foundation for a company’s business model.  Core products are often the most profitable and generate more revenue than other types of products

In general, the core product provides the primary value of the product. However, even more, is applied to it to increase the value of the commodity.

This results in the conversion of the main product to the real product and then to the augmented product. As a result, the augmented product provides the consumer with a final full product.

What is the Core Product Value?

The core product value is the main reason a customer buys your product.  It is what makes you different from your competitors.  It should be easy to explain in one sentence

For example, if I were selling coffee, my core product value would be that my coffee tastes better than other coffees because I roast it myself at home.

Core Product Value Example

An example is a Car, and the core value of a car is transportation. Helps the buyer travel from Point A to point B is the core value that is being provided. The core value that a car may not provide by any other competitor that are in the marketplace like motorcycle, bicycle etc

There might be some other values that are provided by the competitors, but that might not be the core value, but secondary value.

What is an Actual Product?

The actual product is the tangible item that a customer purchases from a company

What is an Actual Product Example?

Examples of actual product include:

• The product is a shirt. It is made of cotton and polyester and is available in sizes S-XL
• The product is a car.  It has four wheels. The car can be used to transport people and goods from one place to another. There are many different types of cars, such as sedans, SUVs, convertibles, and trucks

What is the Actual Product Value?

The product’s actual value is the price that you would pay for it if you were purchasing it from a store. The product’s perceived value is what the customer thinks they are paying for the item, which may or may not be based on its actual cost.

The market value of an item is determined by how much people are willing to pay for it in a given time period

Actual Product Value Example

For example, is buying a car that will make me look cool. It could be being environmentally friendly; then you can buy Tesla. That is a secondary value. Those are all different values that are being provided by a particular car.

Why do you choose one car over another?

There is a need to differentiate your product somehow from your competitors, and one of the ways you differentiate the product could be an element of economically.

The brand that is actually created in a particular car product is all the actual product that a consumer is buying.

Everything is the actual product, including the Honda logo that is in this car brand of this car. The actual product is what it is that you are buying physically.  It could be a service not necessary to be tangible, but the core product is the core value you seek.

The actual product provides you with the core value and other features, such as an economical car but a Honda Brand. The brand that is actually created in a particular car product is all the actual product that a consumer is buying.

What is an Augmented Product?

Augmented products are physical or digital objects that have been enhanced with additional features for the purpose of improving their functionality.

Any product enhancements, additional features, or facilities that help distinguish the product from its rivals are referred to as augmented products. It is a commodity that has been expanded with the inclusion of relevant facilities and benefits, such as installation, warranty, maintenance, and repair.

The enhanced product is a powerful tool for tailoring the central or actual product to the needs of a specific customer. Individual advantages can be derived from the functionality of augmented goods.

Examples include a smartwatch, which has an app to track your fitness goals and monitor your heart rate, or a coffee maker that can connect to Wi-Fi and order beans when you run out.

What is an Augmented Product Example?

Examples of actual product include:

• Examples of the features used to create augmented products might include free delivery or in-home installation of a service
• For example, a television manufacturer can opt to include up to 5 years of warranty with each LED television purchased, thus augmenting the goods with the free warranty. The customer is paying for the LED television, but in addition (and for the same price), the buyer receives a warranty.
• Another example of an augmented product could be a toy that comes with an app to help kids learn or play games.

Augmented Product Value Example

But there are a bunch of competitors that are providing economical transportation solutions. Then there comes the actual product with specific cargo space, the number of people the car holds, etc.

At the same time, many competitors will provide the customers with a similar actual product.

What might happen is that many of the companies are providing you with the same core value, and the actual product is also very similar.

The only way for the companies to differentiate themselves is to go towards an augmented product that provides something beyond your products.

For example, you are buying a car with bank financing.  Honda dealers may be providing financing, but Toyota does not offer financing.

Therefore, that means that the augmented product that got from Honda Dealer differentiated this product from a Toyota car and at the same time. That’s an augmented product.

The financing you got from the Honda is an augmented product. When the consumer buys a product, the consumer is buying the core value (transportation), the actual product, as well as buying an augmented product (financing). The companies could find out some ways to differentiate the products from each other.

Other Examples of Augmented Products

The Augmented product is everything “extra” a product offers, for example:

• The delivery.
• Customer service.
• The “buying experience.”
• Side products or services included.