Products, goods, services, and intangibles in business

Marketing of intangible products differs slightly from the marketing of tangible goods in that there is no physical product that the customer can feel. However, because it is a product, the customer can still try the product before buying, such as with software. However, it is important to realize that the marketing of intangible, even in physical goods, is a critical element of all marketing. As an example, an athletic shoe manufacturer might market fitness and feeling healthy as part of their sales pitch, an intangible that is tangentially related to the product. Levitt (1981) outlines how the marketing of intangible goods and the intangible aspects of goods and services intersect, that there is considerable overlap between the two.

With intangibles, a company is marketing an idea or concept, and seldom can the consumer test this before purchase. This is quite similar to most services. At this point of intersection, the marketer has a distinct challenge, to convince the potential buyer of attributes that the potential buyer cannot see or feel. The sale pitch is different in this respect, because the product cannot simply sell itself; it must be sold. Worth remembering, however, is that there are some universal elements to all marketing that underpin the marketing of both physical goods and intangible ones (Rushton & Carson, 1985).

Thus, even intangibles marketing is rooted in basic marketing theory. The 5 Cs can easily apply -- you must still understand the nature of the company, the context in which the marketing is conducted, the customers, the competitors and the collaborators. Intangible products have these elements just the same as tangible ones do. The four Ps of marketing are equally vital for the marketing of tangibles and intangibles -- setting the price, determining the product, devising a promotion strategy and even packaging. The latter is not as counterintuitive as it might seem -- how something is presented to the world matters.

This is not to say that marketing tangibles and intangibles is the same, just that they are rooted in the same basic marketing concepts. First, there are ways to tease people, but only just that. An example used by Levitt is photographs of a luxury hotel -- the audience can essentially fill in the blanks in terms of the experience. Either they have experienced things similar in the past and the image confirms those past experiences will be replicated, or it serves as a promise of something good that has not been experienced before. Marketing the sensory experience is one facet that is unique to marketing intangible goods. When sensory experiences are marketed for physical goods, such as a sports car might market the rush you get from driving it, that is a matter of marketing an intangible attribute of a physical good (Meyers, 2010). Structurally, in terms of how the message is composed and communicated to the potential buyer, there is not much difference between the two.