Service marketing involves promoting the expertise or services of professionals, such as plumbers, lawyers, or consultants, offered by service-based companies. Since services are intangible and differ from tangible products, the strategies used to market them are also unique.
If you work in advertising, learning about services marketing could help you make more money, get more leads, and make more people aware of your brand.
In this article, we’ll talk about what service marketing is, the importance of service marketing, types of service marketing, service marketing mix, and more!
What is Service Marketing?
Service marketing is simply the process of promoting and selling a service or an intangible good to a specific group of people. It is a new way of marketing that has become very popular and helps companies all over the world promote their services.
It looks at how a certain kind of service is advertised in the market. Though service marketing is a unique idea, it needs a way to represent goods that can’t be seen (services).
Service marketing is different from product marketing, which involves promoting a product that can be seen. Instead, service marketing involves promoting a service that can’t be seen but is still sold to customers. Services are just things that are given to customers as a commodity. Customers can choose from a wide range of services.
Eventually, the global sphere has become a service hub that offers many services to customers all over the world.
Services Marketing Examples
1. Healthcare industry
Doctors, nurses, surgeons, and other people who work in hospitals are great examples they sell their health services by seeing and taking care of their patients.
2. Hospitality industry
The hospitality industry is made up of places like hotels and restaurants that serve food, rent rooms, give massages, and do other things for their customers.
3. Professionals services
Accountants, lawyers, teachers, writers, masons, carpenters, chefs, electricians, and plumbers are all examples of service-based jobs. Depending on the job, they may offer more than one service to their clients.
Characteristics of Service Marketing
Service marketing differs significantly from product marketing due to the unique nature of services. Here are the key characteristics:
1. Intangibility
Services cannot be touched, tasted, or seen like physical products. This intangibility makes it challenging for customers to evaluate the service before purchasing, leading to greater reliance on reputation, reviews, and word of mouth.
2. Inseparability
Unlike products that can be manufactured and consumed later, services are typically produced and consumed simultaneously. This means the service provider’s interaction with the customer is crucial to the overall experience.
3. Variability
The quality of services can vary greatly depending on who provides them, where, when, and how. Factors such as the service provider’s skill level, mood, and environment can impact the service experience.
4. Perishability
Services cannot be stored or saved for later use. For example, an empty seat on a flight cannot be stored and sold later, leading to potential revenue loss if the service isn’t utilised at the time.
5. Lack of Ownership
Customers do not own the service they purchase; they merely experience it. This contrasts with products, where ownership is transferred upon purchase.
6. Customer Participation
Services often require active participation from the customer. For example, in a haircut, the customer must be present and communicate their preferences for the service to be satisfactory.
Importance of Service Marketing
Because services can’t be seen or touched, marketing them is a difficult but very important job. let’s understand why.
1. A key differentiator:
As products become more similar, the services that go along with them are becoming a key differentiator in the minds of consumers. For example, Pizza Hut and Domino’s both serve pizza, but they are different from each other more because of the quality of their service than because of the pizza itself. So, marketers can use the services they offer to set themselves apart from the competition and draw in customers.
2. Importance of relationships:
Relationships are a key part of marketing services, so it’s important to keep them in good shape. Since the product can’t be seen or touched, a lot of the customer’s decision to buy will depend on how much he trusts the seller. So, it’s important to listen to what the customer wants, meet those needs with the right service, and build a long-term relationship that will lead to repeat sales and good word of mouth.
3. Customer retention:
In today’s highly competitive market, where many companies compete for a small number of customers, keeping customers is even more important than getting new ones. Since services are usually made and used at the same time, the customer is actually involved in the process by taking his needs and feedback into account. So, they give customers more options for customisation based on their needs, making them happier and more likely to stick with the company.
Types of Service Marketing
Service marketing can be categorised into several types based on the nature of the service and the target audience:
1. B2C Service Marketing
This involves marketing services directly to consumers. Examples include healthcare, hospitality, banking, and personal care services. The focus is on building relationships, customer satisfaction, and repeat business.
2. B2B Service Marketing
This involves marketing services to other businesses. Examples include IT services, consulting, legal services, and logistics. The emphasis is on building long-term relationships, demonstrating expertise, and offering tailored solutions.
3. Non-Profit Service Marketing
Non-profit organisations also engage in service marketing to promote their causes and services. This type of marketing often involves raising awareness, attracting volunteers, and encouraging donations.
4. Internal Service Marketing
This type focuses on marketing within an organisation to ensure that employees are engaged, motivated, and aligned with the company’s goals. It’s essential for delivering high-quality external services.
5. Social Service Marketing
This involves promoting services that benefit society at large, such as health campaigns, environmental initiatives, or public safety programs. The goal is to drive positive behavioural change in the community.
Service Marketing Mix or the 7Ps of Service Marketing
The service marketing mix is also called an extended marketing mix, and it is an important part of the design of a service blueprint. The 7 Ps make up this marketing mix. Let’s talk about them in more detail.
1. Product
The product-service marketing mix is not something that can be seen or touched. Service products can’t be measured in the same way that soap or detergent can’t be. A good example would be the tourism or education industries. Service products are also different, change over time, and can’t be owned.
So, care needs to go into making the service product. Blueprinting is usually used to define the service product. For example, before starting a restaurant business, a blueprint will be made. This service blueprint shows exactly how the product (in this case, the restaurant) will be.
2. Place
In the case of services, the place will decide where the service product will be. The best places to put gas stations are on highways or in cities. A place with little traffic is not a good place to start a gas station. In the same way, a software company will do better in an area with a lot of other businesses than in a town or the middle of nowhere.
3. Promotion
Promotions have become an important part of the service marketing mix. Services are easy to copy, so the brand is usually what makes one service different from another. A lot of banks and phone companies work hard to get their names out there.
What is that? Because there is usually a lot of competition in the service industry, you need promotions to stay in business. So, advertising and promotions help banks, IT companies, and dotcoms stand out from the rest.
4. Price
Putting a price on a service is a lot harder than putting a price on a product. If you run a restaurant, you could only charge people for the food you serve. But then, who will pay for the nice atmosphere you’ve made for your customers? Who will pay for the music group you have?
So, these things have to be taken into account when pricing. When pricing a service, labour, materials, and overhead costs are usually taken into account. When you add a profit markup, you get the final price for your service.
5. People
One part of the service marketing mix is the people. People define a service. If you run an IT business, your software engineers are what make you who you are. If you own a restaurant, your chef and service staff defines you. Additionally, if you work in banking, your employees and how they treat customers show what kind of banker you are. In service marketing, it’s the people who can make or break a business.
So, many companies today are putting extra effort into training their staff in people skills and customer service with the goal of making customers happy. In fact, many companies have to go through accreditation to prove that their employees are the best. In the case of services, this is a USP for sure.
6. Process
The service process is how a service is given to the end customer. Let’s look at two great companies as an example: McDonald’s and FedEx. Both companies do well because they offer fast service, which they can do because they trust their processes.
On top of that, these services are in such high demand that they have to deliver at their best without sacrificing quality. So, a service company’s process for delivering its product is very important. It is also a key part of the service blueprint, which is what the company uses to figure out how the service product will get to the end customer before it starts the service.
7. Physical evidence
A very important part of the service marketing mix is the last one. As we already said, services are not physical things. But to give the customer a better experience, tangible things are also sent along with the service. Take a restaurant with just chairs and tables and good food as an example. Or, take a restaurant with good lighting, nice music, and comfortable seating that also serves good food. Which one do you like better? The one with a nice feel to it. That is physical evidence. In service marketing, physical evidence is often used as a way to stand out.
Conclusion
To sum up, service marketing is a way for a company to promote its services that are intangible, can’t be split up, and have a limited shelf life. In light of the growing global service sector, it is done in a number of different ways.
It is also very different from product marketing, and there are many things to keep in mind. In recent years, service marketing has become much more important as more and more services, like education, banking, hospitality, etc., become popular goods.
FAQs
1. How do you define service marketing?
Service marketing is the process of promoting and selling intangible services, focusing on customer experience and satisfaction rather than physical products.
2. What is service marketing meaning?
The meaning of service marketing involves creating and delivering value through services, emphasising quality interactions and meeting customer needs.
3. What is the example of Service Marketing?
Ans: Examples include doctors, accountants, lawyers, teachers, writers, masons, carpenters, chefs, etc.
4. What is the meaning of process in Service Marketing?
Ans: A process describes the steps and methods that need to be taken to make and deliver a service.
5. How many P’s are there in the Service Marketing mix?
Ans: There are 7Ps in service marketing including product, price, place (distribution), promotion, people, physical evidence, and process.
6. How Service Marketing is different from product marketing?
Ans: Product marketing, involves promoting a product that can be seen. However, service marketing involves promoting a service that can’t be seen but is still sold to customers.
