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Marketing-Based Tangibilisation for Services
DAVID D. C. TARN
This study attempts to explore how to decrease the intangibility of
services by marketing-based activities, rather than the conventional perspective
based on operational activities. Based on the literature, this
study builds a four-element model to circumscribe and define the managerial
problems caused by the intangibility of services. Moreover, this study
proposes four strategies to raise consumers’ sense of tangibility toward
services, namely Quantitation/Ranking, Factualisation/Substantialisation,
Word-of-Mouth Effect, and Information Frequency. Following this,
three services, i.e., cafeteria, extension education, and ophthalmology
services, are selected as scenarios to conduct the experiments. The
results indicate that the four strategies can improve the tangibility of
services sufficiently, especially Quantitation/Ranking. This study also
builds a three-construct, nine-item Services Tangibility Scale to
measure consumers’ perceptions of tangibility toward a particular
service. Statistical evidence confirms the reliability, and discriminate
and convergent validity of the scale.
INTRODUCTION
Tangibilising Services: Operational Issue or Marketing Issue?
Intangibility is the major distinction between services and tangible goods. Most, if not
all, textbooks on services mention this characteristic. Researchers conclude that
intangibility is the most cited and discussed topic [Berry, 1980; Orsini and Karagozoglu,
1988], the most critical feature [Bateson, 1979; Zeithhaml et al., 1985], and even the
only feature [Klein and Lewis 1985] of services in the literature. Edgett and Park ...