Service Marketing –How to distinguish service marketing from goods.
A market is full of various customers and sellers who are running for their products and services.
Sellers wants to sell their products and services to the potential customers while the customers target few sellers with whom they can build trust on for the products and services.
This process of buying and selling of goods and services as a whole is known as marketing but as the market grows with time, it turns out to be difficult for the researchers to build the strategies that should work out together for both goods and services.
They realized that goods have their different level of reach among the customer while services have their own potential to fulfill the needs of customers.
After formulating many tactics, researchers declared service marketing as a separate field of study in 1980’s.
Services have so much different characteristics, indeed these features need some different actions to be performed on for the growth of economy.
Let us take an example of Airlines services and try to understand the characteristics, which distinguish services from that of goods.
I INTANGIBILITY- The seat we get in airlines is the product but the cabin crew that is always present there to help us in any case of difficulty is the service. The time and expertise they share with the passengers in the flight is the service given. We can touch a seat as it a product but we cannot touch the expertise that is provided by the cabin crew so we consider it as intangible in nature.
2. VARIABILITY/HETEROGENEITY- Services can be different for different people according to their preferences. The experience of travelling in a flight for you can be different from that of anyone else in a flight.
We can compare the quality, price, packaging of products but we cannot compare the services served to us as it depends on the circumstances, location everything. Service involves people and we all are different from each other. Therefore, it is obvious that the services that we are getting might differ from others.
3. INSEPERABILITY- When a consumer purchase a product ,the journey of product starts from the manufacturer then goes to wholesalers then retailers and then finally to the consumer . This cycle goes for every product in the market. Hence, we can see that a product is detached from the seller and reach to the customer. However, this is not in the case of services. Services cannot be separated from the seller. If we want to learn how to wear the oxygen mask, the cabin crew will help us with their services. Service is being created and consumed simultaneously, there is no specific process involved.
Whenever a passenger is asking for service, at the same time they will receive it.
4. PERISHABILITY- Everyday we encounter some perishable products (fruits, vegetables, milk etc) and some non-perishable products (refrigerator, television, mobile phones etc). Perishable products are those that are consumed immediately as they cannot be used for storage purpose.
Just like this services also come in the category of perishability because we cannot store a service. Production and consumption of services goes hand in hand.
5. CHANGING DEMAND There are products that we require for daily basis like rice, fruits, salt and other basic requirements of human, but services have a lot of fluctuations in demand as they can be seasonal .Demand for airline services can be high during festive seasons as a lot of people to their homes to meet their loved ones.
Now it’s time for us to understand the concept of goods to make it more clear.
Goods are the tangible (which can be seen, touch, felt) things that can fulfill the demands and ensure want satisfaction of consumers.
Let us take an example of refrigerator to understand the features of goods.
1. TANGIBILITY– Goods are the things which can be seen and touched. If a customer wants to purchase a refrigerator then he/she will go to a store to check the availability of a refrigerator ,check various models of it, seek for latest designs and trendy colors. Once they will get satisfied then finally they will purchase the product.
2. OWNERSHIP- There is ownership of every person who is engaged with the product whether it could be a manufacturer, retailer, wholesaler or finally a consumer.
The refrigerator undergoes various process, firstly the raw materials or tools are mounded to give it a shape of a refrigerator, then they are handed over to manufacturers , then distributed to wholesalers and then finally to consumers as per their preferences. Each department is the owner of refrigerator at the particular time they were handling it.
3. PERISHABILITY- Products can be perishable or non- perishable as well. A refrigerator comes under the category of non- perishable product as we use it for long term purpose . When we buy fruits or vegetable we need to consume it in a short time otherwise they’ll get rotten up, but in the refrigerator it can be used for almost 5-6 years or more.
Several times consumers get confused regarding the different nature of goods and services.
We can have a glance at the below table that distinguishes services and goods to give clarity to the consumers:
CONCLUSION- The difference is made between goods and services. This table demonstrates the importance and tells that goods and services plays an important role for the satisfaction of the consumers. W e can use both the terms either together or separately as well for the fulfillment of the wants of different potential customers in the market.