Services marketing has incurred an explosive amount of academic research in the last 20 years, yet since 1986 there has been no debate on the notion that services are distinct from products and therefore deserve special focus. , a set of concepts and a body of knowledge. (Brown, Fisk and Bitner, 1994). This essay will explain the distinctive features of services marketing, giving examples where possible. You’ll start by defining services marketing and providing some background on how it differs from product marketing. It will then examine the four characteristics of services, ending with an explanation of the additional P’s found in the services marketing mix.
In the last century there has been a great change in marketing thinking; evolving from a vision dominated by goods, in which tangible production and discrete transactions were the focus, to a vision dominated by services, in which intangibility, exchange processes and relationships are central (Vargo & Lusch , 2004). Vargo and Lusch define services as the application of specialized skills (knowledge and skills) through events, processes and actions for the benefit of another entity or the entity itself. Four idiosyncratic features of services will now be given, highlighting why services marketing is different from commodity marketing.
Arguably the most distinctive feature of services is their intangibility. Services are defined in (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2006) as “events, processes and actions”. None of these are physical objects that a customer can appropriate, although during a service physical evidence will be apparent in the form of things like medicine prescribed by doctors, a picture taken of you on the roller coaster, or food. on your plate in a restaurant. This invisibility creates a number of problems for marketers. First of all, there is no stock, which makes it difficult to manage supply and demand. Second, the services cannot be displayed or shown to customers, making it difficult for marketers to advertise the quality of the service. And finally, because the services don’t physically exist, it’s hard to patent them, making it easy for other companies to copy your service.
Another notable aspect of the products is that, on average, they stay the same. If you buy a Ford Focus here in Australia and then buy the same model in the US, chances are they are both exactly the same. The services are different because they are heterogeneous, which means that they differ with each use. For example, a wildlife tour will never be the same twice, not only because of the random and unpredictable nature of the animals, but the guide may be in a different mood, the weather will have changed, and there will be different customers each time. These factors make it difficult to consistently deliver quality service, which is important for marketers because customers will have a particular set of expectations in mind, based primarily on what was advertised in the service and previous experiences in the industry. in particular.
Another distinctive feature of services is the fact that they are produced and consumed at the same time, unlike products where customers do not see how the product is made. A good metaphor for this is being in the theater. Consumers can be compared to an audience, where they see the actors (employees) perform on stage (physical location such as a commercial store) among props (physical objects such as chairs, tables, flower pots, etc.). The actors are ‘live’ and performing (producing) at the same time the audience is watching (consuming). This brings us to the concept of interactive marketing. In a service, operational staff carry out much of the marketing function (Klassen, Russel, & Chrisman, 1998), and marketing specialists do advertising and promotion.
The final distinction that differentiates services from products is their perishability. While some products deteriorate very quickly (such as water balloons), services simply cannot be stored, saved, resold, or returned. The main concern for marketers would be the procedure for when things don’t go as planned. Customers can’t just return the service and ask for another one; It is up to the service provider to offer the customer some form of compensation. If passengers are forced to wait a long time for their flight, employees might provide free coffee and snacks while they wait, in an attempt to make up for their poor service.
With product marketing, the marketing mix includes the four P’s; product, price, place and promotion. Services use the same elements plus three more to help explain their unique nature.
First, there are the people, who comprise everyone who influences buyer perceptions, including the buyer himself. Customers have an active role in production and can therefore influence the outcome of their own service or the service of others. For example, a large family with screaming children interrupting a romantic dinner of young couples in a restaurant.
Every person is important to the salesperson, no matter how small their role. Consider an IT professional who installs computers in people’s homes. During that installation, the buyer can form an opinion of the service provider as a whole based solely on the performance of the IT professionals. Sometimes one person is the sole provider of services, for example a dentist or a lawyer, making their performance and appearance critical to a perceived high quality of service.
The sixth ‘P’ is physical evidence, which is the environment in which the service is provided and where the company and the customer interact (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2006). It also includes any physical object that helps in the provision of the service. (Lehtinen & Lehtinen, 1991) define it as the environment and its instruments. With some services, clients can find it difficult to judge the quality of the service, especially with trusted services such as financial advisers or legal advice. It is crucial for marketing managers to address consumers’ fears of risk before, during, and after consuming credit services (Keh & Sun, 2008). Since the customer does not have the knowledge or experience to judge the actual service, they instead turn their attention to other things, including physical evidence of the quality of the service. This would usually come in the form of a professional looking workspace, however this would change with each service provider. For example, in a doctor’s office cleanliness would be expected.
Finally, there is the service process, including the procedures, mechanisms, and flow of activities through which the service is delivered (Zeithaml, Bitner, and Gremler, 2006). When purchasing a service, customers often have a set of expectations about the service process, and when these are not met, the perceived quality of the service decreases. For example, in whitewater rafting, a customer might be dissatisfied if, when he arrived, he was told that he had to get the raft to the top of the river first. The process is important because people are involved in it, unlike the products, where the process is behind the doors.
Services account for at least 70% of the nation’s total GDP for at least 5 countries including the UK and Australia, making them a hot topic not only for marketers but for anyone competing in the business world. Services are distinguished from products by four characteristics; intangibility, they are heterogeneous, there is simultaneous production and consumption, and their perishability. Services marketing differs from product marketing in that three additional P’s are added to the original marketing mix; people, physical evidence and process.