Service Marketing - Services Marketing - Notes - Business Management, Study notes of Business Administration

Download Service Marketing - Services Marketing - Notes - Business Management and more Study notes Business Administration in PDF only on Docsity! SERVICES MARKETING INTRODUCTION The basic process of designing marketing strategies for services is same as for goods. While developing marketing strategies for services, services marketers develop a special focus for the marketing mix to account for special problems from the four special characteristics of services The following table summarizes special characteristics of services, the potential problem likely to be created by them thereby effecting service quality and appropriate strategies for dealing with such problems. SPECIAL SERVICE CHARACTERISTICS AND STRATEGIES TABLE Characteristics Potential problems Appropriate strategies for marketin g services Intangibility Difficult to evaluate in advance. F 0 B 7 Build brand-benefit linkages F 0 B 7 Associate with tangible cues Inventory Inadequate availability at desired times F 0 B 7 Use of peak pricing F 0 B 7 Offer flexible delivery Inconsistency Hard to assume consistent quality F 0 B 7 Substitute equipment for people F 0 B 7 Establish set rules and routines Inseparability Perception of services is based on perception of provider F 0 B 7 Build membership relationship. F 0 B 7 Personalize the service F 0 B 7 Provide sensitivity training The marketer‘s must take into consideration the following criteria while developing the marketing strategies so that potential problems caused due to services characteristics are minimized. 1. Develop the right service for right people at the right price, in right place, with right positioning and image. Core product/service offering F 0 B 7 Safe Transport forms one city to another via aeroplane. F 0 B 7 Doctor‘s proper diagnosis and treatment. F 0 B 7 Lawyer‘s sound legal advice. F 0 B 7 Hotel room with comfortable bed and clean bath. Supplemental services F 0 B 7 Movie or meal on boards the aeroplane. F 0 B 7 Doctor‘s friendly bedside manner F 0 B 7 Trustworthiness of lawyer. F 0 B 7 Bath room amenities and mini bar in the hotel room. While studying customer‘s satisfaction across the range of service offerings, the marketer‘s often find customers evaluating the service delivery on the basis supplemental/peripherals. These ‗little things‘ how much they from the pay for complete offerings are to be understood in terms their significance and criticality with respect to competitors offering. Why customers evaluate services on supplemental? F 0 B 7 Customer always assume that service provider‘s core offering shall be of high quality. Undoubtly a poor core offering will cause customer dissatisfaction, but a good core extension alone is not sufficient for customer satisfaction. F 0 B 7 Within and across competitors, the core product offerings hardly have variations, e.g., the core offerings of the competing airlines are same, and the planes do arrive safely. Hotel rooms of the same classifications do have decent beddings and baths etc. F 0 B 7 For many customers/consumers it is very difficult to judge the core offering e.g., What variations you can find in legal advice given by lawyers, medical advice given by medical practitioners, seat provided by the airlines or rooms provided by the hotels of same classifications. (S2 = S1) < (S3 = S1) eq. (4) Equation 2 and equation 1 show that both our and the competitor‘s organisation is offering the similar service and it is entirely up to the customer to choose the supplier. Equation 3 shows that our organisation is offering better service than the competitor where as the situation in equation 4 is reversed. This process is not unknown to organizations but those who have conducted analytical studies deeply in each of the three areas have reaped the rewards of staying at the top. How? As already discussed that core product is surrounded by supplementals and these supplementals expand outwards as shown in the following Proactive service model (refer Fig ) Core Product Fig. : Proactive Service model The above model can be illustrated by an example of airline industry. The core product offered by Indian Airlines is a seat from one destination to another. The most primary level of service might be considered as a seat, a seat belt, an oxygen mask, a flotation device or a parachute. Reactive services are those items that develop due to competition from other airlines say for Jet Airways or Sahara Airlines the reactive services may include discount fare, choice of refreshments, frequent flier programmes etc.