You can do business as a movie retailer in either of two ways. Allow customers to stream online or vend discs to them. There are differences in the measures employed in marketing via either of the two methods. For example, online streaming is inseparable from the consumer. So, you know, once your customers are engaged, there shouldn’t be any form of site malfunctioning. This is because it will trigger a poor customer experience. Hence, this leads to a lack of trust in your services. But with the disc vending machine, you aren’t faced with this problem. Clearly, this example shows there is a difference between service marketing and physical product marketing. So, what is the concept of service marketing really about?
The concept of service marketing is based on the fact that service products are different from physical products. So, this makes the approach of service marketing different from that of physical product marketing. The differences between the two products are based on features like separability, tangibility, and perishability. Let’s discuss the features under “Characteristics of service marketing.”
What Is Importance of Service Marketing?
This means getting to know your customers well and getting them to trust you. Customers need to be sure that the person selling the service can give them what they want. Also, the service industry requires a lot of human interaction, whereas buying a product only requires one interaction.
Characteristics of Services
Characteristics of services are features that make them different from physical products. Therefore, their marketing strategy is different. Below are the ones that apply universally to all services.
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Intangibility:
Unlike tangible physical products. Services cannot be held. So, this makes it difficult to roughly assess its value prior to consumption. This also makes it to be non-transferable. For example, medical expertise is an intangible product that can’t be transferred to non-doctors.
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Inseparability:
Services are consumed as they are coming from the source. So, there is no wait in between. Hence, they are labor-intensive. Unlike a physical product like a burger. Where you can buy the product, take it home and eat it later.
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Perishability:
Services can’t be stored like physical products. Which means it dies off immediately. So, a sudden rise in demand for the service will have a significant impact on the renderers. Since there is no reserve somewhere.
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Variability:
This characteristic of services explains that. A service rendered by different people or by the same person at different times is prone to variability. For example, the same hairstyle cut by different barbers won’t be similar.
Types of Services
What are the types of services that one can market? Good knowledge of this enables marketers to know the right strategy to use for any service they come across. Hence, let’s look at how they are broadly classified.
Based on the Degree of Customer Involvement
People involved:
In this case, the service is received by the consumers themselves. For example, health care or a workshop.
Property involved:
This type of service is rendered to the customer’s possession. For example, a car repair service.
Information processing:
In this, service can start and end anywhere in the data processing chain. For example, research studies.
Based on the degree of tangibility
Services tied to tangible goods:
An example of this service is Apple. When you buy any of their devices, you get to access their iCloud service.
Tangible goods tied to services:
Some hotel owned restaurants run within the hotels. So, customers get food from the restaurant during their accommodation in the hotel. Clearly, this exemplifies tangible goods linked to services.
Highly intangible:
This type of service doesn’t have a tangible attachment. They are purely a service as it is. For example, a barbershop offers haircut service.
Based on skill level
High skill services:
Services of this type require high-level training and expertise. Doctors and lawyers are good examples of this type of service.
Low skill services:
Low skill services require no qualification to perform. For example, babysitters.
Based on business orientation
The two examples of services under this category are Commercial firms and non-profit organizations. Clearly, the commercial firm is oriented to make profits via their service. While non-profit organizations are more focused on value delivery.
What Is Service Marketing Types?
Telecommunications services, financial services, all forms of hospitality, tourism, leisure, and entertainment services fall under the umbrella term “services marketing,” which can relate to either business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) interactions.
What Are the Stages of Service Marketing?
It has four stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Each stage shows what the product or service is going through at that time. The life cycle is helpful because it helps organizations plan their marketing efforts to reach customers in the right way.
7P’S OF SERVICE MARKETING
The 7Ps model of marketing is a basic marketing framework that can be used in service marketing with the concept of service marketing in mind. Basically, it helps marketers develop service marketing strategies. The list below explains it all.
Product:
Product-service marketing is different from marketing other kinds of products. Due to the characteristics of services. So, these features make it unique and are hence major determinants of the marketing strategy that can be adopted for it.
Pricing:
The intangibility of services makes pricing flexible. For example, a surgeon that has a 98% success rate will charge more than one that has 70%. Clearly, this is because of the trust he has built in people.
Place:
Different examples of services operate optimally at different locations. For example, because there are lots of economic activities in the city. Hotels should be built there rather than in the countryside.
Promotion:
Because of the characteristics of services; certain promotion mixes may be difficult for marketers to adopt. For instance, sales promotion will almost not be applicable to it.
People:
Since trust and a good relationship are major determinants of the value of service. Hence, service companies will always prefer reputable individuals with a good track record.
Process:
The way services are delivered is important. And companies go to the extent of creating a modus operandi for their employees. Hence, this ensures uniformity in their process of service delivery.
Physical evidence:
This part of the 7 Ps of service marketing hits the intangibility of the services the most. Because people have to depend on other cues to judge the worth of a service, like its success rate.
What Is the Main Important Element of a Service Marketing?
Place, people, expertise, value, connections, problem-solving, specialization, and product are the eight components of service marketing.
Service Marketing Strategy
If one is really serious about doing something efficiently and effectively. A good strategy is needed for that. Hence, service marketing strategies help to achieve good service marketing. Hopefully, these strategies below will help with your service marketing.
Set a goal:
Setting a goal is the first thing to do in your service marketing strategy. This gives you a benchmark to measure the success of the campaign.
Do a market research:
This get to understand your market segment by this. So, you want to establish a business, but you don’t know the average income of your target customers. Well, that’s riding blindly. Hence, go out conduct research, and get reports. It helps with the objective judgment of the market.
Create a highly optimized website:
Almost every business is online nowadays because of the rising number of internet users. And a website is one way to achieve that. It is estimated that Google processes over 3.5 billion searches daily. So, imagine the number of visits to your site if you optimize it to rank high in Google’s SERPs.
Harness the power of social media:
Social media is very powerful. It enables businesses to consistently engage their target market segment. Hence, build a nice relationship with consumers. So, if you wanna know how to maximize this power for your service check this out. It’s a nice guide to Facebook marketing.
Employ appropriate promotion mix:
Check out this post on the promotional mix. Because it will help you choose the right promotion mix for your service marketing.
Analysis of progress:
This helps you know how good the marketing campaign has been. So, you can make adjustments and optimize the campaign as necessary.
IMPORTANCE OF SERVICE MARKETING
A well-done service marketing has lots of importance for the company. Basically, companies that are good at their service have positive reviews that do the referral. So, consumers trust the experience of their fellow and are willing to experience the same. Also, because it adds value to customers it helps build a good customer-business relationship. Hence, fosters customer retention.
Conclusively, hope this article helped you with understanding the concept of service marketing and how to successfully conduct One? Drop by the comment section to share your thoughts.
