Service Marketing: An Overview

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie

Published: 2nd June 2015

1.0 Nature and characteristics of service marketing

The nature of service marketing and its characteristics is reflected on the concept of service as defined to be any help given to make a product or experience more valuable. There are numerous characteristics of services as it reflects on its nature in comparison with products and this is applicable in the concept of service marketing. These characteristics are as presented by a number of researchers (Archer and Yuan, 2000; Bauer et al. 2002; Berry, 1991; Bitner and Hubbert 1994; Bitner, 2001; Bonk, 1996; Champy, 1993; Dabholkar, 1996; Dabholkar and Bagozzi, 2002):

1.      Lack of ownership – unlike products, services cannot be owned or possessed by the person to whom it is being rendered to. On that account, the concept of service marketing is applicable in the same manner in the sense that it deals with properties that cannot be owned or retained by the users.

2.      Intangibility – unlike products, services cannot be touched as it is offered in the form of s support to an event or enhancement of the value obtained from a product. Still on the concept of service marketing, it deals with the marketing of things that cannot be touched.

3.      Inseparability – services cannot be separated from the service owner and any services offered cannot be retrieved. It is something that comes and goes on its own without withholding factors or external influence.

From the above presentations, the nature of service marketing has been highlighted to be the marketing of things that cannot be owned, touched or separated from the person offering it. This is different from the marketing of products because the product can be owned, touched and also separated from the person offering the product.

With the nature already understand, the next step will be to move towards the understanding of the characteristics of service marketing.

2.0 7Ps of service marketing

The first 4Ps focuses on the marketing of products in the sense that they deal with things that can be touched, owned and separated from the person offering it as discussed below.

1.      Product – this is the goods used to fulfill customer needs.

2.      Place – this is the place where the good is sold.

3.      Price – this the price that must be paid in order to obtain the value of the goods being sold.

4.      Promotion – this covers different aspects of the product process that is geared towards creating awareness for the product and persuading customers to make purchases for that particular product.

The focus will be on the remaining 3Ps discussed above as it entails the marketing of the services.

1.      People – this deals with understanding the people that needs these services and what purpose the services are designed to fulfill (Fletcher, 1990; Hackett, 1990; Hartland-Swann, 1990; Heun, 2001).

2.      Process – once the first step has been achieved, the next step is to design the best way to deliver service and use it to satisfy the customers’ needs. In the modern setting, services unlike products can be delivered through online platforms (e.g. downloading software after purchases (Heskett et al., 1990; Jackson, 1990; Johnson, 2001; Keller, 2003; Kench and Evans, 1991).

3.      Physical evidence – this is the symbol used to identify the company that offers such services. This can come in the form of an office (offline identification) and website (online identification) (Kotler, 2002; Leek et al., 2003).

3.0 Issue in service marketing

Considering the fact that it has been highlighted earlier that the services are intangible, inseparable and cannot be owned, a number of issues have been identified in that case as highlighted by Kotler (2002) and discussed below.

1.      Highly duplicable – because of the vast information available online, the service marketing approaches can be adopted and imitated across the globe. The significance of such can also be reflected on the fact that the manipulators and imitators cannot be easily tracked online as a result of the fact that these penetrators cannot be traced easily because they can come from any part of the world.

2.      Value is not easily measurable – since the production of services doesn’t necessary require the purchase of raw materials as is needed in the case of products, it is very difficult to determine the real value of services. This can be reflected in the high level of differences with respect to the pricing of services across the world but in the same service sector.

4.0 Conclusion

From the above analysis, it can be seen that service marketing is very much different from product marketing in the sense that it deals with the marketing of things that cannot be transferred, possessed or touched; and as such it comes with a number of issues in the form of high level of duplication and the actual value cannot easily be measured.

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