Topic: What is the importance of services marketing in developing countries

like Bangladesh?

Bangladesh is a developing country with a high potentiality in economic growth. Services

marketing typically refers to both business to consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B)
services, and includes marketing of services such as telecommunications services, financial
services, all types of hospitality, tourism leisure and entertainment services, car rental
services, health care services and professional services and trade services. Selling a service is
about selling a set of experiences, activities, and processes, all of which are intangible.
Services marketing itself is about marketing these same intangible things, whether they
represent the bulk of a product, or are merely delivered in connection with a purchased good.

The world economy is increasingly characterized as a service economy. This is primarily due
to the increasing importance and share of the service sector in the economies of most
developed and developing countries. In fact, the growth of the service sector has long been
considered as an indicator of a country’s economic progress. Economic history tells us that all
developing nations have invariably experienced a shift from agriculture to industry and then
to the service sector as the mainstay of the economy. This shift has also brought about a
change in the definition of goods and services themselves.

Service organizations vary widely in size. At one end of the scale are huge international
corporations operating in such industries as airlines, banking, insurance, telecommunications,
and hotels. At the other end of the scale are a vast array of locally owned and operated small
businesses, such as restaurants, laundries, optometrists, beauty parlors, and numerous
business-to-business services.

Bangladesh's export earnings from services sector rose by 46.06% to $6.33 billion in the last
fiscal year riding on higher performance of the transport sector. The earnings are 26.77%
higher than the target of $5 billion set for the year, according to the Export Promotion Bureau
(EPB) data released on 2020. Of the total earnings, transport sector including sea, air, rail and
roads emerged as the largest foreign currency earner in services sector, contributing $662.76

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million, up 12.48% from last year. Telecommunication and information services sector earned
$549 million followed by the construction service with $435 million and travel sector with
$367.86 million.

Business owners who offer services to customers might not have a clear idea of how to market
those services. Product marketing tends to be straightforward with the ability to provide a
picture and point to specific features. Services marketing is equally important. Without a
marketing plan that targets the right types of clients, services providers might be left waiting
a long time for the phone to ring.

Identifying Benefits
When selling services, the benefits to consumers aren't always clear at face value. Selling a
car doesn't require a lot of basic features and benefits descriptions. Consumers understand
what a car does and usually have self-identified a need to have one. Selling a financial plan
doesn't tell a consumer a lot off the top. Many people might assume they don't even need
the service. This is one reason why services marketing is so important.

Good marketing for services identifies key benefits that consumers know they want or need,
but they may not have identified the services and benefits with a particular company's name.
For example, customers might want to pay off their home mortgage if they die so their
families can continue to live in the home. The customer might not realize that what he needs
is life insurance. By identifying benefits that solve specific consumer problems, service
providers are better able to get leads for new business.

Establishing Value
Another important reason to conduct services marketing is to establish the value of the
services. Consumers have a hard time justifying the costs of services because they don't walk
away with anything tangible in their hands. Service providers can adjust their consumer
opinion about their services by defining them as a value offer or a premium offer. This is seen
in investment brokerage firms where one firm offers discount trades, while another sells the
value of the information that will make someone more money over time.

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When establishing value, the service provider weeds out any potential customers who don't
match the customer profile. A premium service provider who reduces the number of calls
taken from someone looking for discount services gives the company more time to focus on
delivering their premium product and finding more clients that fit the customer profile.

Create Brand Awareness

Many service providers often compete with similar providers in a congested industry. Think
about the number of insurance agencies that are in your locale or how many personal injury
attorney commercials you see on television. Service providers who conduct marketing
understand that they must do more than hang a shingle and open for business. If they want
customers, they need to develop a brand that customers go to today and remember
tomorrow.

The tagline for many service providers helps achieve this important aspect of services
marketing. Allstate uses "You're in good hands." Merry Maids housecleaning service uses the
tagline "Relax. It's done." These are examples of service providers creating a brand awareness
so consumers identify them with that service. The more the brand is recognized, the more
likely people are to search for it directly when the need arises.

The service sector is going through revolutionary change, which dramatically affects the way
in which we live and work. New services are continually being launched to satisfy our existing
needs and to meet needs that we did not even know we had. Nearly fifty years ago, when the
first electronic file sharing system was created, few people likely anticipated the future
demand for online banking, website hosting, or email providers. Today, many of us feel we
can’t do without them. Similar transformations are occurring in business-to-business markets.

As of 2008, services constituted over 50% of GDP in low income countries. As their economies
continue to develop, the importance of the service sector continues to grow. For instance,
services accounted for 47% of economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2000–
2005, while industry only contributed 37% and agriculture only 16% in that same period. This
means that recent economic growth in Africa relied as much on services as on natural

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resources or textiles, despite many of those countries benefiting from trade preferences in
primary and secondary goods.

As a result of these changes, people are leaving the agricultural sector to find work in the
service economy. This job creation is particularly useful as often it provides employment for
unskilled workers in the tourism and retail sectors, which benefits the poor and represents
an overall net increase in employment. The service economy in developing countries is most
often made up of the following industries: financial services, tourism, distribution, health, and
education.

Innovative technology provides important opportunities for new service development. For a
company to stay competitive, it is important to keep services and processes up to date.
Continuous investment in innovation for both services and processes make it more difficult
for others to gain a large technological functionality advantage. Technological development
can occur through making decisions about acquiring, exploiting, and managing technologies.
These decisions should be made by involving the research and development staff, purchasing
staff, and marketers.

Top 2 Types of Service Marketing: Consumer Services and Industrial Services.

Type # 1. Consumer Services:

The services that offered to consumers for consumption are known as consumer services.
Every individual, in various capacities enjoy the different services.

They are further classified in to:

1. Food Services:
Food industry is one of the most blooming industry in the outrageous market which has been
always blooming since the evolvement of the economy, especially in the developing countries
like Bangladesh. Huge development has been going on as the purchasing power of the people
is increasing very drastically. People are more comfortable in going to the restaurants, clubs,

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houses more often than ever before and people are highly motivated with these types of
activities.

Not just the restaurants, but there are lot of improvements are coming in this niche with
technologies. There are multiple options like online food delivery apps, like Foodpanda,
Shohoz, HungryNaki, eFood and so on for delivering foods online. There’s also a new concept
called Cloud Kitchen. Cloud kitchen, focused on food delivery rather than dine-in services, is
nothing new as a concept, but its popularity has been unprecedented since the coronavirus
unsettled the conventional food industry. Compared to brick-and-mortar restaurants, virtual
kitchens are much cheaper to set up. Evidently, food aggregators are aggressively investing
in cloud kitchens to cash in on the frenzy.

2. Hotels and Motels:

These are places in which lodging and boarding facility is provided to customers, modern days
floating population is increasing due to expansion in trade and commerce. Commercial
centers are concentrated in some centers only. Hence, people feel it necessary to stay outside
but with all comforts, they expect homely, luxurious services even when they are out.

This niche has been on the hype since people are travelling more often than ever before. They
like to spend more time taking breaks from the everyday life causing them to travel more and
more. So, what is happening here? This industry is blooming a lot than ever before.

3. Personal Care:
A common feeling in the human mind is to look young! At any cost nobody wants to identify
as senior citizens. Health and mind are to be maintained properly. Personally, those who
intend to be fit, disciplined, would go for Beauticians, Gymnastics, Yoga, Dry cleaners,
Massage Centers, spoken language courses, Cat walking coach Centers etc.

4. Entertainment:
The growth in the level of income has made the people to seek avenues to spend the same.
They search for entertainment Centers such as – Cinema house, Video Centers, Dance Bars,
Live Shows clubs, Race, Horse Riding, Photographic, Birds Watching, Water Parks, Circus, to

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get free, relaxed from the routine schedule. All these services are provided in an organized
manner in the modern days. A professional touch has been provided to these Centers.

5. Transportation:
This service has moved from an ordinary auto services to air-conditioned sleeping coach.
Varieties of services of services are being offered by Rail, Row, and air transportation.
Transportation has become of nerve-system that connects various appointments, objectives;
Special packages are being announced now-a days to take the people to different
destinations. Transportation has become an industry of prime importance.

6. Communication:
The world has become small due to communication system. The whole world is connected
with internet, phone, mobile, fax, television, telex, etc. The concept ‘E-World’ speaks about
communication system. Accuracy and speed are the characteristics of modern
communication.

7. Car-Station:
Car, car everywhere but no place them. Cities are overcrowded with vehicles. Modern car
population has made it obligatory to search a place for them. Therefore, car maintenance,
parking, has become services now-a-days. In cities some buildings are exclusively constructed
for car care parking, the garages, repairs, workshop, also provide for maintenance of vehicles.

8. Insurances:
The man’s intention to live long with low risks has given birth to insurance. Someone should
take care of him after he has gone is the best reason to insure himself, various agencies both
Indian and foreign are competitively providing wide- range of insurance products. Human life
is fully insured from all types of risks. Not only life, the properties are also insured. ‘Lead a
free-life’ is the motto of Insurance services. They call it as Yogakshem.

9. Financial:
Man’s life with money i.e., economic man experts’ certain services. Modern economy is
known by its monetary money related services. Everyone needs Banking, Salary, Cash

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transfers, Installment purchases, Investments advices, maintaining cash, wise channelization
all these comes within the limits of financial services. A vast group of banks such as
commercial, cooperative, nationalized, scheduled are continuously rendering number of
services. They are known for their services style i.e., 24 /7. Twenty-four hours a day and Seven
days a week.

Here are the top six benefits of self-service marketing:

1. Lower Costs
Self-service marketing can help an enterprise to control costs in two main areas. First, a local
audience is segmented by geography and second, targeted campaigns can run at a lower price
with better ROI than mass-market campaigns.

Low-cost, high-impact channels for local marketing efforts include social media, local website,
and community event sponsorship. These tend to be lower-cost channels than traditional
print or media promotions, but have a high ROI in a local market.

A business can also save money on advertising promotions by pooling resources for several
affiliates located within a specific geographic region, increasing the purchasing power of a
single location while still maximizing the impact of local messaging.

2. Increased Productivity
With the correct self-service tool, marketing processes become streamlined for faster
outputs. Local marketers can create on-brand marketing communications quickly, without
the need for further involvement at the corporate level.

This also allows corporate marketing and design teams to maximize their productivity and
focus on more strategic initiatives. Since local teams already have access to a range of editable
and approved marketing assets, they no longer need to make one-off edit requests which are
extremely time-consuming for corporate teams to manage, especially when there are
hundreds and thousands of franchises.

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3. Increased Brand Equity
A global organization can improve speed and responsiveness to local markets with marketing
assets that can be customized by the local team. Brand equity and integrity can be balanced
with local flavor by sending a consistent, but not identical, message to each market.

4. Improved Analytics
With the right analytics tools, self-service marketing provides many opportunities for an
organization to gather data analytics for valuable insights about the customer journey.
Corporate marketers can also track local campaign metrics for better insights into geographic
performance.

5. Increased Sales
As consumers use digital channels to research products and services before purchase, having
relevant local websites, social media and search engine optimization (SEO) becomes more
important for businesses.

Google found that nearly 1/3 of all mobile searches are related to location and that 2/3 of
smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies whose digital channels are
customized with location-relevant information.

6. Improved Time to Market

Self-service marketing allows multi-located businesses to experience improved time to
market. For example, a pharmaceutical company relies on quick campaign activation in time
for flu season. When the brand fails to deploy flu campaigns in a timely manner, there's a ton
of lost revenue.

In this scenario, instead of focusing on updating campaigns for each location, corporate
designers can focus on more important brand-building activities. Each location can self-serve
and that frees up designers to create more campaigns.

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Proper marketing of services contributes substantially to the process of development. If
innovative marketing principles are followed in services marketing, the socio-economic
transformation will take place at a much faster pace.