Services
Whether its marketing strategy you need or someone to help with the implementation, call me and I'll honestly tell you if and how I can help.
It is very difficult to manage your marketing with all the various messages, media and collateral currently available, and it's even more difficult to ensure that they integrate well to deliver the best return on your investment.
Contracting Justin will at the very least enable you to address all the necessary issues and at the most get the best results with the minimum of risk.
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PRODUCT v SERVICES MARKETING
THE DIFFERENCES
We offer a service and we understand the implicit differences between marketing products and marketing services.
Where products have a material (tangible) aspect to them, Services are largely intangible since you can't touch it and own it. A service tends to be an experience that is consumed at the point where it is purchased, and cannot be owned since is quickly perishes. You may have a great experience with the service you receive on a flight one way but terrible service on the return flight with the same airline. So often marketers talk about the nature of a service as:
Inseparable (from the point where it is consumed, and from the provider of the service) For example, you cannot take a live theatre performance home to consume it (a movie of the same performance would be considered a tangible product, not a service).
Intangible - and cannot have a real, physical presence as does a product. For example, home insurance may have a policy on paper, but the financial service itself cannot be touched i.e. it is intangible.
Perishable - in that once it has occurred it cannot be repeated in exactly the same way. Marketing advice, for example, is perishable because service provided should be based on the current market analysis but the strategy will change next time you seek advise based on the results of the campaigns and changing environment.
Variability- since the human involvement of service provision means that no two services will be completely identical. For example, returning to the same garage time and time again for a service on your car might see different levels of customer satisfaction, or speediness of work.
Right of ownership - is not taken to the service, since you merely experience it. For example, an engineer may service your air-conditioning, but you do not own the service, the engineer or his equipment. You cannot sell it on once it has been consumed, and do not take ownership of it.
THE SOLUTION
These fundamental differences lead to a broader and varied view of planning marketing for service businesses. As a result the marketing mix (probably the most famous marketing term) has evolved from its traditional elements to include tactical components that address the services sector.
The traditional product related marketing mix elements known as the Four P's, which include price, place, product (or service) and promotion, have grown to include 3 more P's to account for the differences in service delivery. The Seven P's (Neil H. Borden - The Concept of the Marketing Mix in 1965) include people, physical evidence (such as uniforms, facilities, or livery) and process (i.e. the whole customer experience e.g. a visit the Disney World).
The strategic marketing of service organisations requires that professional marketers address each the 7 P's in an integrated fashion. The weighting is dependant on the type of service offered and involvement of the client/guest/consumer. For example; premium and high profile services may focus more on promotion and less on price, However it is imperative to maintain a customer focus when selecting the appropriate marketing mix and consider what effect it will have on the perception of your brand by all stakeholder groups.
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