END-OF-CHAPTER SUPPORT
Marketing Debate: Is Service Marketing Different from Product Marketing?
Some service marketers maintain that service marketing is fundamentally different from product
marketing and relies on different skills. Some traditional product marketers disagree, saying
“good marketing is good marketing.”
Take a position: Product and service marketing are fundamentally different versus Product and
service marketing are highly related.
Suggested Response: Students should recognize the characteristics of services that make them
different from tangible products. However, they should also recognize that services are
increasingly used to differentiate tangible products. Further, many of the attributes that are
differentiating tangible products, which are increasingly commoditized, are intangible, emotional
benefits. Even so, the fact that services are more difficult to evaluate in advance, cannot be
separated from the service provider, are consumed when purchased (inseparable) means that
marketers may need different strategies to position the services for consumers.
Pro: Marketing is marketing. Consumers buy a product or use a service to answer a particular need or
want. The customers’ value hierarchy: The customers’ decision-making process and their own
consumption system does not change when purchasing a service versus a product. How the consumer
comes to understand the core benefit, potential product, or the functionality of the service is based
upon branded marketing theory. The differences between marketing a service versus marketing a
product lies in the execution of the marketing process for the service. Product, place, price, and
promotion concepts are still valid—albeit with some changes in either their weight in the
consumer-decision process or their means of communication to the consumers.
Con: The dimensions that distinguish a product from a service vary: intangibility of the service (that it
does not contain physical properties for the consumer to feel, touch, smell, or “try-on”). The
inseparability of the service provider from the consumer; the variability of service from encounter to
encounter; and the fact that the service is perishable all create new and different marketing challenges
for the service marketer. The service marketer must make an “intangible” tangible, make variability
consistent, tell the customer that you, the customer, have a role in this process, participate in the
successful outcome, and that the service marketer must adjust for fluctuating demand and supply
timing, are different from product marketers.
Finally, the service marketer must ensure that customer expectations are matched by customer
perceptions after the service is performed. The service provider can either communicate lower
expectations for their customers or develop processes to deliver to the customers’ expectations each
time. Less than a 100 percent “match” between expectations and performance for the service provider
leads to dissatisfied consumers who use past experiences, word-of-mouth (mouse), and physical clues
with assigned higher degree of importance than for physical products.
Marketing Discussion: Educational Institutions
Colleges, universities, and other educational institutions can be classified as service
organizations. How can you apply the marketing principles developed in this chapter to your
school? Do you have any advice for how it could become a better service marketer?
Suggested Response: Student responses will vary. The best answers may include the dimensions
of SERVQUAL, mention co-creation, use of technology and customer empowerment. Some
marketing principles developed in the chapter were:
A service differs from a product in its intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perishability.
Service marketing must be done holistically and calls for external, internal, and interactive
marketing.
Service marketers must manage service quality by understanding the effects of each service
encounter.
To brand a service, the company must differentiate its brand through primary and secondary
service features and often employs multiple brand elements.
Service companies that excel in service have the following practices: A strategic concept toward
service, top-management’s commitment to quality, high standards, self-serving technologies,
systems to monitor service performance and customer complaints, and an emphasis on employee
satisfaction.
Product-based firms must provide postpurchase service by identifying the “services” customers
value the most and the relative importance of each.
Marketing Excellence: THE RITZ CARLTON
1. How does The Ritz-Carlton match up to competitive hotels? What are the key differences?
2. Discuss the importance of the “wow stories” in customer service for a luxury hotel like The
Ritz-Carlton.
Marketing Excellence: MAYO CLINIC
1. Explain why Mayo Clinic is exceptional at customer service. What are the key differentiating points
from other hospitals or medical facilities?
2. Is there a conflict between wanting to make your patient happy and providing the best medical care
possible? Why or why not?
Suggested Answers: Student answers will vary and a strong case can be made for both.