Product Mix and Product Line
Few firms rely on a single product; instead, most sell many products. A product mix is the set of all products offered for sale by a company. The structure of a product mix has both breadth and depth. Its breadth is measured by the number of product lines carried, its depth by the variety of sizes, colors, and models offered within each product line.
A broad group of products, intended for essentially similar uses and having similar physical characteristics, constitutes a product line. Firms may delineate a product line in different ways, for the A.H. Robins Company, its various forms of Robitussin cough remedies (such as Pediatric and Maximum Strength syrups and cherry-flavored drops) represent a product line. However, for a large drugstore or supermarket, all brands of cough remedies-not just Robitussin products-comprise one of the store's many product lines.
