Products are created and aimed at the needs of the event’s target market. It is build up by three main categories (Tangible ‘expected’ product, Core product, and the Augmented Product) which are often referred to as the “Bundle Purchase Concept”.

Tangible product is usually known as the formal product. It is what consumers think they are buying, e.g. a visitor to the Biennale may think that he is paying for the venue, for the beautiful art works displayed, essential services and access such as reading guides and customer services.

However, what the visitor is actually buying is the event planning and the various sub-events held by the organising committee. This is the core product.

Purchasing a product involves experiencing it as well. The augmented product of any event is the benefits and service quality received by the consumers. It is about the additional features of the event that a visitor can use to differentiate the event from its competitors.

Singapore Biennale 2008 is a Product by itself. It is an artistic product that was created to feast up audiences/visitors’ sense of sight. As we know that products can be tangible and intangible, in the case of Biennale, pieces of visual art may be seen as the tangible part of product. On the other hand, the service quality rendered by the event is the intangible part of it.

Many a times we see stand-alone exhibits where no sub-events were held. Conversely, we saw the effort put in by the SB08 organising committee. They held an exhibit called “82 Republic-The Birth of a New Generation” just a day before the start of Biennale ’08 to create awareness to public, letting them know that a major arts event is coming along.

In addition, there were many concurrent sub-events going on during the 10 weeks exhibit duration, such as the Kids Biennale as well. It is also the experience that calls upon people to view the exhibits.

For instance, I thought that the organiser had planned it well in terms of location wise. Historical buildings have been chosen as exhibits sites and this aid to the overall feel of the visual art works (to be touched on under Place).

The overall product mix strategy was brilliantly done.