In economics in addition to marketing, product differentiation or simply differentiation is the process of distinguishing a product or service from others, to take it more attractive to a particular target market. This involves differentiating it from competitors' products as well as a firm's own products. The concept was presents by Edward Chamberlin in his 1933 The view of Monopolistic Competition.
Horizontal differentiation seeks to impact an individual's subjective decision-making, that is the difference cannot be measured in an objective way. For example, different color versions of the same iPhone or MacBook. A lemon ice cream is not superior to a chocolate ice cream, is totally based on the user's preference. A restaurant may price all of its desserts at the same price together with lets the consumer freelyits preferences since all the alternatives exist the same. A realise example of Horizontal Product Differentiation can be seen when comparing Coca Cola and Pepsi: whether priced the same then individuals will differentiate between the two based purely on their own taste preference.