What is Service Marketing? Marketing is the flow of goods and services from the producer to consumer. It is based on relationship and value. In common parlance it is the distribution and sale of goods and services. Marketing can be differentiated as:
- Marketing of products.
- Marketing of services.
Marketing includes the services of all those indulged, may it be then the wholesaler retailer, Warehouse keeper, transport, etc. In this modern age of competition, marketing of a product or service plays a key role. It is estimated that almost 50% of the price paid for a commodity goes to the marketing of the product in US.
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Four Factors That Distinguish Service Marketing
It has been called “selling the invisible”-delivering intangible services as a core “product” offering. But invisibility, or intangibility, is just one factor that distinguishes service marketing from product marketing. Along with inseparability, variability, and perishability, these four characteristics affect the way clients behave during the buying process and the way organizations must interact with them.
Differences between service marketing and product marketing:
- When you are marketing a service, you are really marketing relationship and value. This relationship and value need to be marketed differently than if you are marketing actual products.
- Another major difference between marketing services and marketing products is that when a buyer purchases a service, the buyer is purchasing something that is intangible, instead of a tangible product, like a computer or a sprinkler system or a web page.
- Consumers’ concept of a service is often based, on just the reputation of only one single person. Instead of building a reputation based on the quality of a number of different products, a service is built on how well a particular person delivers on a service, such as how well a stock advisor does with your stock portfolio.
- It is pretty easy to compare the quality of different products. It is easy for you to see if one computer works more quickly than another computer, or if one TV has a better picture than another picture, or if your child can break a toy more easily than another toy. However, it is much more difficult to compare the quality of similar services that are provided.
- Products are returnable. However, services are not returnable. How to market services?
Generally speaking, marketing a product, requires what are known as the “4 P’s”: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Marketing a service adds three more “P’s” to the traditional “4 P’s”: People, Physical evidence, and Process. Service marketing also includes marketing of what is known as the servicescape, which is the aesthetics of your business place: the outside of your business building, the inside of your business building, and the way that the employees look.
Service marketing
Is marketing based on relationship and value. It may be used to market a service or a product.
Marketing a service-base business, is different from marketing a goods-base business.
There are several major differences, including:
- The buyer purchases are intangible
- The service may be based on the reputation of a single person
- It is more difficult to compare the quality of similar services
- The buyer cannot return the service
The major difference, in the education of services marketing versus regular marketing is that instead of the traditional “4 P’s,” Product, Price, Place, and Promotion, there are three additional “P’s” consisting of People, Physical evidence, and Process. Marketing a service also includes the servicescape referring to but not limited to the aesthetic appearance of the business from the outside, the inside, and the general appearance of the employees themselves. Service Marketing has been relatively gaining ground in the overall spectrum of educational marketing, as developed economies move farther away from industrial importance to service-oriented economies.
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