One thing business students often get confused over is 'what is the product?'

First problem is that in marketing terms 'product' refers to whatever is being marketed - be that a tangible product or an intangible service or idea. It doesn't help that most folk then refer to 'products' or 'services' as if a service is different to a product.

So it is then, that when asked what Tesco or Walmart's product is, students invariably list groceries, clothes, cleaning materials and so on. Wrong. A retailer's product is the service of making available to end users certain products, in a certain place, at a certain price in an environment that is conducive to customer's in making their purchases.

Transferring this concept online - yes it is possible for a website to be an organization's product. What is Amazon's product if not its website?

If you accept this scenario then applying everything we know about products to a website - brand, meeting customers' needs etc - makes a lot of sense. It also makes website development a little more straight forward.

Disagree? OK, then what is Amazon's product?