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Service Marketing Assignment
Service Marketing Assignment
Roll No: 28
Service Marketing Assignment
Name Of Professor: Mr Deepak Asarpota
Many of these changes are clear and well documented. The dexterity of
customers, with access to e-commerce, social media and mobility enabling them
to seek out the best deals, is forcing traditional bricks and mortar retailers on line
in an attempt to compete with e-tailers with different margin and operational
structures. The power of social media to make or break a brand is forcing retailers
into communication strategies that are interactive and immediate, a far cry from
the traditional communication approach retailers have been used to.
The other reality of the retail landscape is the current economic climate, which is
creating consumers who are happy to wait for special deep discount promotions
to make their purchases. This is forcing retailers into long sale periods, which can
impact the bottom line.
4: Explain the term, Retail audits and Consumer Research through different
tools. Relevant explanations have to be provided
Retail audit is the study of selected retail outlets for collecting data about the
health / visibility of a brand’s products. This is a primary physical research
process, wherein a trained auditor visits the establishment and validates
information such as:
▪ Sales volume
▪ Stock levels (shelf and backstock)
▪ Descriptions of in-store displays and promotional materials
▪ Competitor activity
▪ Planogram compliance (shelf location, number of facings present, number of
SKUs present, missing/inaccurate shelf tags)
▪ Pricing
▪ In-store location of products
▪ Product damage
1: Services Marketing
Service marketing is marketing based on relationship and value. It may be used
to market a service or a product. With the increasing prominence of services in
the global economy, service marketing has become a subject that needs to be
studied separately. Marketing services is different from marketing goods because
of the unique characteristics of services namely, intangibility, heterogeneity,
perishability and inseparability.
The characteristics of a service are:
Intangibility: Services are intangible and do not have a physical existence.
Hence services cannot be touched, held, tasted or smelt. This is most defining
feature of a service and that which primarily differentiates it from a product. Also,
it poses a unique challenge to those engaged in marketing a service as they need
to attach tangible attributes to an otherwise intangible offering
Heterogeneity/Variability: Given the very nature of services, each service
offering is unique and cannot be exactly repeated even by the same service
provider. While products can be mass produced and be homogenous the same is
not true of services. eg: All burgers of a particular flavor at McDonalds are almost
identical. However, the same is not true of the service rendered by the same
counter staff consecutively to two customers.
Perishability: Services cannot be stored, saved, returned or resold once they have
been used. Once rendered to a customer the service is completely consumed and
cannot be delivered to another customer. eg: A customer dissatisfied with the
services of a barber cannot return the service of the haircut that was rendered to
him. At the most he may decide not to visit that particular barber in the future.
Types of Services
Core Services: A service that is the primary purpose of the transaction. Eg: a
haircut or the services of lawyer or teacher.
The diagram looks just like a fish’s skeleton with the problem at its head and the
causes for the problem feeding into the spine. Once all the causes that underlie
the problem have been identified, managers can start looking for solutions to
ensure that the problem doesn’t become a recurring one.
4: Characteristics of service
The most important characteristics of services are:
▪ Lack of ownership
▪ Intangibility
▪ Inseparability
▪ Variability
▪ Perishability
▪ User participation
Lack of Ownership
Lack of ownership may be one of the most obvious ones of the characteristics of
service. It refers to the fact that you cannot own and store a service like you can
a product. This characteristic is strongly linked to several other characteristics of
services, such as intangibility, perishability, inseparability.
Inseparability
Characteristics of services include inseparability, which means that services are
produced and consumed at the same time. This also entails that services cannot
be separated from their providers. Contrary to services, physical goods are
produced, then stored, later sold, and even later consumed. Services are first sold,
then produced and consumed at exactly the same time. A product can, after
production, be taken away from the producer. However, a service is produced at
or near the point of purchase. For instance, when visiting a restaurant, you order
your meal, the waiting and delivery of the meal, the service provided by the
waiter/ress etc. All these parts, including the providers, are part of the service and
therefore inseparable. In services marketing, a service provider is the product.
Variability
Variability does also belong to the important characteristics of services. It refers
to the fact that the quality of services can vary greatly, depending on who provides
them and when, where and how. Because of the labour-intensive nature of
services, there is a great deal of difference in the quality of service provided by
various providers, or even by the same providers at different times.
Perishability
Perishability means that services cannot be stored for later sale or use. In other
words, services cannot be inventoried. This is one of the most significant
characteristics of services, since it may have a major impact on financial results.
Doctors or dentists often charge patients for missed appointments because the
service value has foregone. The value existed only at that particular point and
disappeared when the patient did not come. When demand is steady, the
perishability of services is not a problem. However, in case of fluctuating
demand, service firms can have difficult problems. For this reason, transport
companies own much more equipment than they would if demand were even
throughout the day: the demand during rush-hours needs to be served at that
specific time, it cannot be served later or earlier. Consequently, service
companies use various techniques for creating a better match between demand
and supply: Demand shifting.
User participation
Finally, the characteristics of services include user participation. Indeed, users
participate in every service production. Even when the user is not required to be
at a location where the service is performed, users participate in every service
production. A service cannot be separated from its provider, but neither can it be
separated from its user.
7 P’s
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
People
Process
Physical Evidence
Importance Of 7 P’s