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Marketing 305
• Superior service – winning competitive strategy
Definition:
THE PRODUCTION OF AN ESSENTIALY INTANGIBLE BENEFIT,
EITHER IN ITS OWN RIGHT OR
AS A SIGNIFICANT ELEMENT OF A TANGIBLE PRODUCT,
WHICH THROUGH SOME FORM OF EXCHANGE,
SATISFIES AN IDENTIFIED NEED.
• Service does not result in the ownership of any thing.
• Marketing is the management process which identifies, anticipates and supplies the customer’s requirements efficiently and profitably.
• Four characteristics of services: INTANGIBILITY, INSEPREPABILITY, HETROGENIETY, PERISHABILITY
• Intangibility – No sense of touch, feel or smell, service can be assessed after consumption. Service purchases are perceived as more risky than goods.
• Work on benefits derived – physical representation, documentation, association and visualization.
• Inseparability - Production and consumption are simultaneous. Consumers are co producers of a service. Evaluations can be done through customer contact personnel and physical evidence. Makes quality control difficult. Have implications for accessibility to services.
• Heterogeneity/ Variability – Makes every producer-consumer experience unique. Increases customers perceived risk, makes quality control and maintaining consistency difficult.
• Perishability – services can not be stored. Can not be resold. Demand and supply must be carefully matched. Mismatch between supply and demand can easily impact on consumers.
• Key differences between products and services:
o Nature of the product
o Involvement of the customer
o People as part of the product
o Difficulty in evaluation, ...