The Marketing Power of a Strong Product Value Proposition
The modern business world is dynamic and fast changing, and today’s consumer is smart, informed, and savvy. With an abundance of information available at the click of a button, they can see straight through flimsy marketing campaigns and overpriced duplicate products. A strong product value proposition that instantly communicates the unique and authentic value of […]
Competition Strategy – Dealing with the Competition
Consumer and business markets have distinct characteristics by which they function. Earlier, importance was given mainly in understanding customer and their business. But in this age of technology and globalization companies cannot afford to ignore competition. Many companies are lowering their cost by outsourcing production to Asian countries. Companies must keep an eye on strategies […]
Building Strong Brand Equity
Strategic brand management’s goal is to develop strong consumer based brand equity. To reach these goal companies have to design and execute well thought marketing programs. However, task does not end at executing marketing programs, companies to have to construct brand equity measurement system to understand the impact of on consumer mind. One thing to […]
Role of Event Management in Corporate Communication
Event Managers or Corporate Communicators The question as to whether the corporate communications team in organizations has to take on the additional responsibility of organizing events has to be answered in the wider context of the organizations size and the budget that it allocates for this purpose. Though many multinationals spend lavishly on event management […]
eCommerce Industry in India
Indian eCommerce Party Continues Anyone who opens the newspaper or browses the internet these days cannot but escape the full page ads and the scrolling content offering mega discounts and other freebies on online shopping sites. Indeed, the worldwide rush to eCommerce is now catching up in India as well as can be seen from […]
The world economy nowadays is increasingly characterized as a service economy. This is primarily due to the increasing importance and share of the service sector in the economies of most developed and developing countries.
In fact, the growth of the service sector has long been considered as indicative of a country’s economic progress.
Economic history tells us that all developing nations have invariably experienced a shift from agriculture to industry and then to the service sector as the main stay of the economy.
This shift has also brought about a change in the definition of goods and services themselves. No longer are goods considered separate from services. Rather, services now increasingly represent an integral part of the product and this interconnectedness of goods and services is represented on a goods-services continuum.
The American Marketing Association defines services as - “Activities, benefits and satisfactions which are offered for sale or are provided in connection with the sale of goods.”
The defining characteristics of a service are:
Intangibility: Services are intangible and do not have a physical existence. Hence services cannot be touched, held, tasted or smelt. This is most defining feature of a service and that which primarily differentiates it from a product.
Also, it poses a unique challenge to those engaged in marketing a service as they need to attach tangible attributes to an otherwise intangible offering.
While products can be mass produced and be homogenous the same is not true of services. eg: All burgers of a particular flavor at McDonalds are almost identical. However, the same is not true of the service rendered by the same counter staff consecutively to two customers.
Moreover, it is very difficult to separate a service from the service provider. Eg: the barber is necessarily a part of the service of a haircut that he is delivering to his customer.
Given below are the fundamental differences between physical goods and services:
| Goods | Services |
| A physical commodity | A process or activity |
| Tangible | Intangible |
| Homogenous | Heterogeneous |
| Production and distribution are separation from their consumption | Production, distribution and consumption are simultaneous processes |
| Can be stored | Cannot be stored |
| Transfer of ownership is possible | Transfer of ownership is not possible |
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