Specialty goods are those consumer’s goods on which a significant group of buyers are habitually willing to make a special purchasing effort. Specialty goods are those consumer goods with unique characteristics and brand identification for which certain significant buyers are habitually willing to make a special purchasing effort. These goods have a particular attraction for the consumer and out of this attraction he goes out of his way to purchase them. The special purchasing effort that the consumer is willing to make is merely to locate the product or brand , not to compare it with others.
Features Or Characteristics Of Specialty Goods:
(a) Specialty goods are usually product brands, rather than product categories. Any successfully branded item which has developed a consumer franchise can be considered a specialty goods .
b) The unit price of a specialty good is usually high. Such goods tend to be high priced in relation to other goods of the same type.
(c) Price is not the main appeal, rather it is the qualities thought to lie in the merchandise itself.
(d) Specialty goods are not habitually compared on price basis. The consumer wants a specific article and, in order to procure it, he is ready to pay whatever price is necessary reasonable limits.
(e) They are normally purchased infrequently and within irregularly.
(f) Since the goods are expensive to sell, the turnover is low and the volume of sales is frequently small, the gross margin both at retail and manufacturing levels must be high.
(g) The demand for specialty goods is relatively inelastic, within reasonable price changes, since the consumer is willing to insist upon the product.
Examples of Specialty goods: Fancy groceries, men’s high grade clothing. and shoes, fine watches, expensive pipes and perfumes and special types of cameras or photographic films are the common examples of specialty goods.
