CHAPTER 1
SERVICE MARKETING IN
PERSPECTIVE
, 1. Service Marketing as an Exchange Process
The marketing exchange process can be described as the complex process whereby the
organisation identifies the expectations of their target market and find innovative ways
to satisfy the important needs of their customers.
These need-satisfying efforts and processes occur within the constraints of the
organisation’s own limited resources and the changing developments, occurrence and
trends in the larger market environment.
Potential influences that can severely constrain service organisations’ abilities to offer
value-for-money that customers expect:
Rising petrol prices
Higher interest rates
Lower disposable income
Demanding customers
For a service entity to succeed in a competitive market, environmental scanning needs to
take place.
Environmental Scanning:
Micro-environment
o includes the organisation's mission and vision statements, its competencies
and capabilities and its objectives.
Market environment
o with special emphasis on the organisation's customers, competitors,
suppliers and intermediaries
Macro environment
o wherein changes may result from shifts in the economic, potential, legal,
social, natural, technological and/or international environments.
Service Marketing Mix (7P’s of marketing)
Product
o The product component of the service could be the technical outcome of
the service and comprises the ‘what’ of the service.
o A service product is anything offered by the organisation to potential
customers, whether it is in/tangible
o Since service differ in the degree of tangibility and are strongly influenced
by the processes and people involved when delivering the service, it is
difficult to standardise services.
Physical evidence
o The intangible nature of services makes it difficult for customers to judge a
service before consumption, thereby increasing the perceived risk of the
purchase.
o This associated risk can be reduced by using tangible evidence of the service
provided.
SERVICE MARKETING IN
PERSPECTIVE
, 1. Service Marketing as an Exchange Process
The marketing exchange process can be described as the complex process whereby the
organisation identifies the expectations of their target market and find innovative ways
to satisfy the important needs of their customers.
These need-satisfying efforts and processes occur within the constraints of the
organisation’s own limited resources and the changing developments, occurrence and
trends in the larger market environment.
Potential influences that can severely constrain service organisations’ abilities to offer
value-for-money that customers expect:
Rising petrol prices
Higher interest rates
Lower disposable income
Demanding customers
For a service entity to succeed in a competitive market, environmental scanning needs to
take place.
Environmental Scanning:
Micro-environment
o includes the organisation's mission and vision statements, its competencies
and capabilities and its objectives.
Market environment
o with special emphasis on the organisation's customers, competitors,
suppliers and intermediaries
Macro environment
o wherein changes may result from shifts in the economic, potential, legal,
social, natural, technological and/or international environments.
Service Marketing Mix (7P’s of marketing)
Product
o The product component of the service could be the technical outcome of
the service and comprises the ‘what’ of the service.
o A service product is anything offered by the organisation to potential
customers, whether it is in/tangible
o Since service differ in the degree of tangibility and are strongly influenced
by the processes and people involved when delivering the service, it is
difficult to standardise services.
Physical evidence
o The intangible nature of services makes it difficult for customers to judge a
service before consumption, thereby increasing the perceived risk of the
purchase.
o This associated risk can be reduced by using tangible evidence of the service
provided.
