When it comes to online marketing, a lot of it is just adapted from traditional methods of marketing to include the new technology. The three levels of product is about as Marketing 101 as the four P’s and can easily be adapted to many marketing situations were you need to figure out what exactly your product is. What if you wanted to adapt this methodology to social media marketing with perhaps a blog as the product in mind.

Level 1 – Core Product. This is going to be your main benefit or core offering of your product. In the case of a blog or website this could be your company brand, the content itself, or whatever the main benefit is of what you are trying to sell. In other words a consumer who purchases a photo printer does not buy just a printer, they are buying memories.

Level 2 – Actual Product. There are a lot of blogs out there so the idea here is you want people to come to yours. To do this you have to offer an advantage of some sort over your competition by introducing something like new features, better content, wider selection, better price, etc..

Level 3 – Augmented Product. This is where you go the extra mile to show to value in choosing you. This includes additional non-tangible benefits you can provide like after sales services, delivery, warranties, phone support, etc. This could include RSS feeds, exclusive newsletters, or ebooks for subscribers.

By going through the three levels of product you can easily pin point what it is your main focus is or should be, and lets you brainstorm for areas were you could create added value. Take ten minuets or so and take your blog or website through the three levels of product and see what you come up with. Are you offering enough benefits… Are you pushing the right idea to the consumer… Do you offer an advantage over your competition… Just a few ideas of things to look for.