Product Category

A Product Category is a classification concept that organizes related products into named categories based on shared product characteristics, product market purpose, or product regulatory requirements (enabling effective product management, market organization, and product information extraction).

• AKA: Product Type, Product Class, Product Category Term, Product Category Mention.
• Context:
  • It can (typically) serve as a product category superclass to sub-categories within product taxonomy systems.
  • It can (typically) enable product information extraction through product category mention identification.
  • It can (typically) support product data analysis through structured categorization.
  • It can (typically) facilitate product mention recognition in descriptive product titles.
  • ...
  • It can (often) form consumer product clusters through data-driven categorization.
  • It can (often) organize product lines through hierarchical classification.
  • It can (often) support product property analysis through category-based attribution.
  • It can (often) enable product recommendation through category-based matching.
  • It can (often) structure product-related mentions in data records.
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Broad Product Category to being a Specific Product Category, depending on its classification level.
  • It can range from being a Consumer Product Category to being an Industrial Product Category, depending on its target market.
  • It can range from being a Physical Product Category to being a Digital Product Category, depending on its product nature.
  • It can range from being a Tangible Product Category to being an Intangible Product Category, depending on its product form.
  • It can range from being a Simple Product Category to being a Complex Product Category, depending on its attribute structure.
  • ...
  • It can integrate with product information management systems for category organization.
  • It can connect to product classification systems for automated categorization.
  • It can support product analytics platforms for category performance tracking.
  • ...
• Examples:
  • Tangible Product Categories, such as:
    • Physical Consumer Product Categories, such as:
      • Book Product Category, which shows how a product category can organize physical publications by genre category and format category.
      • Automotive Product Category, which demonstrates how a product category can include sub-categories like motorcycle product category.
      • Cosmetics Product Category, which illustrates how a product category can align with product regulations.
      • Fashion Product Category, which shows how a product category can adapt to seasonal product cycles.
      • Sporting Equipment Product Category, which demonstrates how a product category can serve specific activity product needs.
    • Industrial Product Categories, such as:
      • Manufacturing Equipment Product Category, which shows how a product category can support industrial processes.
      • Building Materials Product Category, which illustrates how a product category can serve construction product needs.
  • Intangible Product Categories, such as:
    • Digital Product Categories, such as:
      • Software Product Category, which demonstrates how a product category can evolve with technology advancement.
      • Mobile Application Product Category, which shows how a product category can create new digital market opportunities.
      • Digital Content Product Category, which illustrates how a product category can span multiple media formats.
  • Hybrid Product Categories, such as:
    • Consumer Electronics Product Category, which combines hardware and software elements.
    • Smart Device Product Category, which integrates physical product and digital service aspects.
    • Connected Product Category, which merges tangible device with intangible service features.
  • ...
• Counter-Examples:
  • Branded Product Category, such as Sony Product Line or Samsung Product Range, which represent brand-specific product collections (rather than general categories).
  • Product Brand Category, which identifies brand identity (rather than product characteristics).
  • Product Category Killer, which describes a dominant product retailer (rather than a product classification).
  • Product Feature Category, which represents specific product attributes (rather than category classifications).
  • Service Category, which classifies service offerings (rather than products).
  • Market Segment Category, which groups customers (rather than products).
• See: Product Classification System, Product Category Management, Product Taxonomy, Product Information Extraction, Product Category Recognition, Product Data Analysis.

---

---

References

• http://docs.nacsonline.com/research/nacscategorydefinitions.pdf
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nice_%28WIPO%29

2012

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_management
  • QUOTE: Category management is a retailing and supply management concept in which the range of products purchased by a business organization or sold by a retailer is broken down into discrete groups of similar or related products; these groups are known as product categories (examples of grocery categories might be: tinned fish, washing detergent, toothpastes). It is a systematic, disciplined approach to managing a product category as a strategic business unit.

2011

• http://www.nacsonline.com/NACS/Resources/Pages/Glossary.aspx/#P
  • QUOTE: Product Categories: A defined hierarchy to segment product sales. NACS publishes the Category & Numbering Guide annually. Suppliers also define product categories based on their product line.

2010

• http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Nielsen-Advertising-Fact-Sheet.pdf
  • QUOTE: The top spending product category for national TV was Automotive with $3.4B spent in 2009. The most significant growth by any one category among the top 20 was mobile phones, with national TV spend growing almost 200% to $587M in 2009. … AUTOMOTIVE; RESTAURANT - QUICK SERVICE; PHARMACEUTICAL; DEALERSHIPS; MOTION PICTURE; DEPARTMENT STORE; WIRELESS TELEPHONE SERVICES; DIRECT RESPONSE PRODUCTS; RESTAURANT; AUTO INSURANCE

2007

• http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/mkt/dictionary/ppp.html
  • product category: the specific generic to which a good or service belongs, for example, while Fanta is a brand name, the product category to which it belongs is soft drinks

2006

• (Ghani et al., 2006) ⇒ Rayid Ghani, Katharina Probst, Yan Liu, Marko Krema, and Andrew Fano. (2006). “Text Mining for Product Attribute Extraction.” In: ACM SIGKDD Explorations Newsletter Journal, 8(1). doi:10.1145/1147234.1147241
  • QUOTE: we crawled the web site of a sporting goods retailer . We believe that sporting goods is an interesting and relatively challenging domain because unlike categories such as electronics, the attributes are not easy and straightforward to detect. For example, a camera has a relatively well-defined list of attributes (resolution, zoom, memory-type, etc.). In contrast, a baseball bat would have some typical attributes such as brand, length, material as well as others that might be harder to identify as attributes and values (aerodynamic construction, curved hitting surface, etc.).

1995

• Lassar, W. Mittal, B. Sharma, A. (1995). “Measuring customer-based brand equity.” In: JOURNAL OF CONSUMER MARKETING, 12(4).
  • … Social image contributes more to a brand′s equity in product categories such as designer clothing and perfumes. …

---