Subject areaRevenue and sales
A commodity is a product or service that the customer perceives as identical to competitors' offers, and therefore chooses almost only on price and availability.
Originally the term refers to raw materials traded on markets, such as metals or grain, where one batch is as good as another.
In marketing the word describes a risk: an offer that becomes a commodity loses margin, because the only lever left is the discount. The site's articles use it in this sense, for technology that becomes available to everyone and for hit-and-run consulting, which the site calls the mark of a commodity. The remedy is differentiation.
An example
The site observes that collecting information on customers has become relatively easy, almost a commodity: the advantage therefore lies in how that information is interpreted, and the technology itself is becoming a commodity.
Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
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