Services marketing - Definition and Overview

Services marketing is marketing based on relationship and value. It may be used to market a service or a product.

Marketing a service-bases business is different from marketing a product-base business.

There are several major differences, including:

1. The buyer purchases an intangible
2. The service may be based on the reputation of a single person
3. It's more dificult to compare the quality of similar services
4. The buyer cannot return the service

When one markets a service business, one must keep in mind that reputation, value, delivery of service and follow-through are keys to a successful venture.

"Managing the evidence" refers to the act of informing customers that the service encounter has been preformed successfully. It is best done in subtle ways like providing examples or descriptions of good and poor service that can be used as a basis of comparison. The underlying rationale is that a customer might not appreciate the full worth of the service if they do not have a good benchmark for comparisons.

References

• Levitt, T. (1981) "Managing intangible products and product intangibles", Harvard Business Review, May-June, 1981, pp.94-102.
• Vandermerwe, S. and Rada, J. (1988) "Servicitization of business: Adding value by adding services", European Management Journal, vol. 6, no. 4, 1988.

See also

• industrialization of services business model
• servitization of products business model