Consumables: defined by the Sticky-Marketing.com monthly magazine

Consumables are items which differ from capital items in that consumables are consumed in the regular, routine use of a particular item.

Thus when we buy a petrol car, petrol is a consumable which the car will use and we will have to buy petrol again and again to enjoy the routine use of the car. Time period does have an impact here as over a lifetime cars themselves may be considered as a consumable in our need for transport.

Some examples of products and their associated consumables include:
Ink Jet Printers, and their ink refill cartridges
Industrial drilling machinery and individual drill bits
A Car and its tyres, petrol and lubricants
A Personal Computer and the associated floppy disks
A Camera and film

Associating a product with various consumables offers organisations great opportunities to turn a transactional purchase into an ongoing commercial relationship.

In some cases such as cameras, Kodak for example will supply a camera and associated consumable, film.

Kodak has an extra incentive to win you as a customer when compared to companies that only supply cameras as you may mean more commercially to Kodak than just the camera sale. The same is true for Ink Jet printers where the manufacturer will often make good money on sales of consumables.

To make sure that you buy their consumables manufacturers may be tempted to make their product only accept their unique consumable item and they may build some unique or protected aspect into the consumable. Manufacturers have to balance this urge against the risk that it may reduce the attractiveness of the overall offering and in many cases they will opt to keep consumables simple and allow other manufacturers to make compatible consumables for their products.