Analysis Of Service Marketing

Introduction

The purpose of this report is to provide analysis of particular areas of marketing including services, consumer behavior and segmentation. Marketing refers to the process of promoting, selling and distributing a product or a service. The core purpose of it is to create, communicate and deliver value to the customers (Gundlach&Wilkie, 2009). This report particularly focuses on the marketing of the two companies that belong to the service sector.

1.1 Services marketing

The core function of the business is to provide a good or a service. In many cases the goods are attached to the services. However, they are very different and the marketers should have a very unique approach while addressing each of these concepts (Moeller 2010).

It is still based on the four Ps, which are product, place, price, promotion and the additional three that involve people, processes and physical evidence. Blueprinting is considered to be the product for service businesses. The key to this process is a customized plan on the ways in which a service will be produced and how to best delegate the work between employees. The product of the service marketing combines all the four characteristics of services (Enache, 2011).

The pricing of the services is much harder than for the goods. The managers need to take into consideration the price of creating a nice environment for their customer as well as the cost of having well trained employees (Schultz, 2012).

The place determines where the service will be produced and consumed. It is decided taking into consideration the nature of the service and the segment of the market that the business wants to target (Magrath, 1996).

For the promotional purposes some services use traditional advertising methods like TV commercials, radio, posters and newspaper. However, the most efficient way to promote a service is personalized web site or online mediums to spread the word of mouth advertising. They cost way less than TV commercials and help the customers to get a rough idea of the product (Vilnai-Yavetz & Tifferet,

Considering the buyers black box model all of these factors enter the black box where the customers analyze the given stimuli and the buyer’s response, which is product, brand and dealer choice and the purchase timing and amount. The buyer’s analysis is based on the set of situational factors that influence the behavior including personal and social (Kotler, 2000)

Personal factors are the buyer’s individual characteristics such as age, occupation, lifestyle and the personality itself. Customers of different age groups have very different tastes and preferences. For example, the elderly tend to spend a lot more on comfort than younger customers. The occupation also determines the product choices such as dress code, software preferences, dining places etc. Finally, the lifestyle and personality are very individual for each customer. The final purchase decision will be highly affected by the fact that the particular customer simply favors the product (Brown & Fiorella,