What involves assessing a product's performance against the best in the industry?

The concept being described is benchmarking, which involves systematically comparing a product's performance, attributes, or processes against the leading products or practices within the industry. This process helps organizations identify gaps in their performance and areas for improvement by evaluating how they stack up against the best competitors or industry standards.

Benchmarking typically entails analyzing various metrics such as quality, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency. By doing this, businesses can set realistic performance goals, adopt best practices, and enhance their competitive edge. It’s a crucial step for companies seeking to innovate and remain relevant in a fast-paced market, as it drives continuous improvement.

The other options do not encapsulate this process. Quality control focuses on maintaining standards in manufacturing and services but does not involve comparison to industry leaders. Personal selling pertains to direct interaction with customers to sell products or services, while price discrimination refers to the strategy of charging different prices to different consumers for the same product, which is unrelated to performance assessment.