Services Marketing Concepts

Management Control in Services Organizations

The type of control which would be suitable for a particular firm depends upon the nature and complexities of its operations. A suitable control system has to be designed to suit the specific requirements of a particular firm.

Service organizations are those organizations that provide intangible services. Service organizations include hotels, restaurants, and other lodging and eating establishments; barbershops, beauty parlors and other personal service; repair services; motion picture, television and other amusement and recreation services; legal services; and accounting, engineering, research/development, architecture and other professional service organizations.

Characteristics of Service Organizations

1. Absence of Inventory: Services cannot be stored. If the services available today are not sold today, the revenue from these services is lost forever.… Read the rest

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Service Failure and Recovery

Service Failures

Even with the best   service organizations, failures can just happen — they may be due to the service not available when promised, it may be delivered late or too slowly (some times too fast??), the outcome may be incorrect or poorly executed, or employees may be rude or uncaring. All these types of service failures bring about negative experiences. If left unfixed they can result in customers leaving, telling others about the negative experiences or even challenging through consumer courts. Research has shown that resolving the problems effectively has a strong impact on the customer satisfaction, loyalty, and bottom-line performance.… Read the rest

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Services Marketing Triangle

A service is any act or performance that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its production may or may not be tied to a physical product. Furthermore, service marketing can be defined as the marketing of activities and processes rather than objects. As services are mainly intangible products, they face a host of services marketing problems that are not always adequately solved by traditional goods-related marketing solutions.

Services Marketing Triangle

The services marketing triangle was created to handle the complexity that service marketers face when dealing with intangible products.… Read the rest

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Services Marketing Mix – The 7 P’s of Services Marketing

Marketing mix is the key concept in the marketing task. It is the strategy used to perform marketing functions. Marketing mix is the planned package of elements which will support the organization in reaching its target markets and specific objectives.  The common factor behind all the elements of marketing mix is that they are specific parameters which the marketing manager can exercise some control over, within the constraints of their firm’s resources. For example, the marketing manager can control the type of product to be developed, subject to the firm’s technology, as well as the places it is sold, subject to the firm’s distribution network.… Read the rest

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Branding of Services

Branding for Service Industries

Although the principles for branding of goods and services are generally the same there occur some differences. These arise from the different natures of both categories. The main differences that influence branding policies are that services;

  1. Have a changing level of quality,
  2. The consumer has to become involved in the consumption of a service actively,
  3. They are intangible and not storable.

When a brand in general gives the consumer more confidence in his choice this is even more important for services. Their quality and other features are more difficult to asses. Because of their intangibility and complexity it is harder for the customer to distinguish between the offers from the wide range of service companies are working in the market place.… Read the rest

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Positioning and Differentiation of Services

Services firms are not identifying their key market segments and then determining how they wish consumers to perceive both their company and its products and services. Positioning is of particular significant in the services sector as it places an intangible service within a more tangible frame of reference. Thus the concept of positioning stems from a consideration of how an organization wishes its target customer to view its products and services in relationship to those of its competitors and their actual, or perceived, needs.

“Positioning is concerned with the identification, development and communication of a differentiated advantage which makes the organization’s products and services perceived as superior and distinctive to those of its competitors in the mind of its target customers.”… Read the rest

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