Explain the four categories of consumer goods and give an example of each.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Frequently purchased, relatively low-cost products for which customers have little interest in seeking new information or considering other options and rely heavily on prior brand experience and purchase behavior are called convenience goods. These products include most items people buy regularly such as toiletries, gasoline, and paper products.

Products that require consumers to do more research and compare across product dimensions such as color, size, features, and price are called shopping goods. Consumer products that fall into this category include clothes, furniture, and major appliances such as refrigerators and dishwashers.

Specialty goods are a unique purchase made based on a defining characteristic for the consumer. The characteristic might be a real or perceived product feature such as Apple iPhone's easy user interface or brand identification like Porsche's reputation for building sports cars.

The final categories of goods, unsought goods, are products that consumers do not seek out and, indeed, often would rather not purchase at all. Insurance, particularly life insurance, is not a product people want to purchase.

Examples will vary.