Service Marketing

A service according to (Stauss 2005) is ‘the application of specialized competences (knowledge and skills) through deeds, processes, and performances for the benefit of another entity or the entity itself’. Although the process may be, attached to a physical product, the performance is essentially intangible and does not normally result in ownership of service. According to (Lovelock et al.1996), services are economic activities that create value and provide benefits for customers at specific times and places, as a result of bringing about a desired change in or on behalf of the recipient service. According to (Lovelock & Writz, Fifth edition), all products i.e. core output in any type of industry, deliver benefits to the customers who purchase and use them. In the case of good, the benefits come from ownership of physical objects & devices, whereas in services, the benefits are created by actions & performances.

Marketing of services is completely different from the marketing of physical products. The four unique characteristics that distinguish services from products are; intangibility, inseparability, perishability and heterogeneity. By their nature, services cannot be touched, tasted, or possessed; which gives birth to customer perplexity in product evaluation, due to the intangible factor involved. A service is inseparable from the source of the service; production and consumption take place simultaneously (Sierra & Mcquitty, 2005). Services are perishable since they cannot be stored; yesterday’s vacancy cannot be sold today. Heterogeneity simply implies that services are hard to standardize, unlike products, creating quality control issue.

 

Services greatly differ in the extent, to which they are people-based or equipment-based. For instance, educational courses except for distance learning are usually people-based; while products like a mobile phone are totally, equipment based. According to (Lovelock, et al. 1996), there are various other factors, which separate good from services. According to research of Gronoss, mentioned in (Lovelock et al.1996), he argue that these descriptions do not apply in all situations and circumstances.