Products, Goods and Services

The exchanging of products makes the business world.

A product is something that is produced or manufactured and sold, often in large numbers.

Products are sometimes referred to as goods for example in the expression fast-moving consumer goods, or FMCG.

Products may be grouped into two general categories: consumer and industrial. Consumer products are classified as convenience, shopping, impulse or specialty goods.

Convenience goods are mostly cheap products which people use regularly and buy frequently with little effort (food, tobacco products).

Shopping goods are those products that the consumer buys only after comparing value, quality, and price from a variety of sellers.

Impulse goods are bought on impulse, often at the checkout, and include products such as chewing gum, cholate bars, magazines, etc.

Specialty goods have an outstanding position in the market; they are mostly represented by certain brands.

Industrial goods are products used in the production of other products for resale purposes. These goods include materials, equipment, parts, and services.

We usually call white goods such things as washing machines and refrigerators and brown goods such things as televisions and hi-fi equipment.

Goods are also referred to as merchandise.

Services are activities such as banking or tourism that contribute to the economy but which may not directly involve manufacturing. Services may be referred to informally as products.

For firms to succeed in business, they must continue to develop and market products.

New products are introduced or launched onto the market. Products have a life cycle. A product that a company no longer wants to make available is withdrawn from the market.

A product generating a lot of profit is a money spinner or a cash cow. A loss leader is a product sold very cheaply in order to attract customers who will then, it is hoped, be persuaded to buy profitable ones.

A dog is a product that is in a market that is stagnant, shrinking or weak. Its market share is small or going down.

Exercises in Word Study

Ex.1. Form nouns from the following adjectives:

profitable, attractive, consumer, industrial, expressive, active, productive.

Ex.2. Give the English for:

ходові споживчі товари, споживчі товари широкого вжитку; товари виробничого призначення; товари повсякденного попиту; товари попереднього вибору; товари особливого попиту; знаходити ринок збуту для товару; життєвий цикл товару; вилучати товар з ринку; впровадити продукт на ринку; високоприбутковий товар; досягти успіхів в бізнесі, товари импульсного попиту; неприбутковий товар, якого треба позбутися; застойний ринок.

Ex.3. Match words from list A with words from list B that have a similar meaning.

A	B
goods produce profitable money spinner introduce attract persuade withdraw	beneficial merchandise manufacture appeal to retract cash cow launch convince

Ex.4. Find suitable opposites to the following words and phrases:

profit, loss leader, to introduce (a product), harmful, slow-moving goods, to fail.

Ex.5. Match the nouns in the left-hand column with the adjectives in the right-hand column:

goods services

commercial consumer financial free intermediary training welfare acceptable advertised capital competitive durable fancy impulse slow-moving

Ex.6. Give synonyms to "Products".

1. M _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

2. A _ _ _ _ _ _ _

3. G _ _ _ _

4. I _ _ _ _

5. C _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Ex.7. The words in the box frequently occur before “goods”.

Find combinations that mean:

1. items created to be used in everyday life, e.g. food, clothes, magazines, bicycles, toys;

2. items such as television sets and radios;

3. items such as refrigerators and washing machines, so called because they are made of white painted metal;

4. goods such as cars, furniture, refrigerators, televisions, etc. that last for a fairly long time;

5. expensive items that are bought from choice and not necessity;

6. goods that can be imported, usually in limited quantities, without customs duties;

7. goods, esp. food, that can go bad or decay quickly;

8. goods that are bought on impulse.