Product Code Database
In marketing and economics, a product is any object, service, or system offered to a market to satisfy a customer’s need or want. Products may be tangible, such as physical goods that can be touched and owned, or intangible, such as services, digital offerings, or rights that provide value without physical form. Products are created through processes of design, production, and distribution, and they play a central role in commercial exchange, consumer behavior, and organizational strategy.
Beyond marketing, the term product is also used in fields such as manufacturing, where it refers to finished goods derived from raw materials, and project management, where it denotes deliverables produced to achieve defined objectives. Because products directly affect consumer safety, economic activity, and environmental sustainability, they are often subject to regulation, classification systems, and information-disclosure requirements across different jurisdictions.
In 2002 the US Census compiled revenue figures for the finance and insurance industry by various product lines such as "accident, health and medical insurance premiums" and "income from secured consumer loans".US Census Bureau (2002), "2002 Economic Census, Finance and Insurance", p.14
The Aspinwall Classification System Leo Aspinwall, 1958 , Social Marketing AED Resource p. 45 A history of schools of marketing thought, Eric H. Shaw, D.G. Brian Jones , Marketing theory Volume 5(3): 239–281, 2005 SAGE, p. 249 classifies and rates products based on five variables:
The National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP) National Institute of Governmental Purchasing , nigp.org developed a commodity and services classification system for use by state and local governments, the NIGP Code. NIGP Code The NIGP Code is used by 33 states within the United States as well as thousands of cities, counties and political subdivisions. The NIGP Code is a hierarchical schema consisting of a 3 digit class, 5 digit class-item, 7 digit class-item-group, and an 11 digit class-item-group-detail. NIGP Code sample Applications of the NIGP Code include vendor registration, inventory item identification, contract item management, spend analysis, and strategic sourcing.
Because of the huge amount of similar products in the automotive industry, there is a special kind of defining a car with options (marks, attributes) that represent the characteristics features of the vehicle. A model of a car is defined by some basic options like body, engine, gearbox, and axles. The variants of a model (often called the trim levels) are built by some additional options like color, seats, wheels, mirrors, other trims, entertainment and assistant systems, etc. Options, that exclude each other (pairwise) build an option family. That means that you can choose only one option for each family and you have to choose exactly one option.
In addition, a specific unit of a product is often (and in some contexts must be) identified by a serial number, which is necessary to distinguish products with the same product definition. In the case of automotive products, it is called the vehicle identification number (VIN), an internationally standardised format.
Many of these types of product information are regulated to some degree, such as to some degree prohibiting false or misleading product information or requiring sellers or manufacturers to specify various information such as ingredients of food-, pharmaceutical- and hygiene-products. There also is standardization. Marketing to entice the shopper is often prioritized over accurate, high-quality or extensive and relevant information.
Product information is often a key element in the buyer decision process. Relevant factors include trust in the accuracy of the information and social normative pressure. Easily accessible and up-to-date medicinal product information can contribute to the health literacy. Online shopping is usually more informationally rich than shopping at physical stores traveled to and usually has higher comparability and customizability.
Production information-related developments can be useful for enabling, facilitating, or shifting towards sustainable consumption and support more sustainable products. Environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely used for to assess environmental impacts across the life cycle of products. There are LCA datasets that assess all products in some supermarkets in a standardized way. Consumers may seek reliable information to evaluate relevant characteristics of products such as durability and reliability. Development of 'transparency by design' scenarios have been suggested to "complement the physical product with layers of digital information", improving transparency and traceability (T&T). The app CodeCheck gives some smartphone users some capability to scan products for assessed ingredients. Many labels are considered to be flawed and few have the time to "study the true environmental impact of every purchase". Full product transparency is a concept of making the full life-cycle impacts public. An important element that is required for various product information is supply chain transparency, which relates to human rights and supply chain sustainability.
|
|
