Words: 461
Services Marketing Mix Marketing Mix is the set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that the firm blends to stimulate purchase. They represent the four key decision areas that marketers must manage so that they satisfy or exceed customer needs better than the competition. Product: The product is not just the physical aspect of what the company offers but must also be viewed in terms of the totality of what is offered. Firms need to look at the product or service through the customer’s eyes and understand the choice criteria they use.
An analysis of what is important to the consumer will reveal a set of customer requirements that must be met in order to succeed in the marketplace. Price: Price should also be manipulated in terms of credit terms, trade-in allowances, discounts etc. Price is a big bargaining instrument in business-to-business marketing. Marketers need to be very clear about pricing objectives, e. g. high price can often communicate high value and vice versa. Place:Place deals with convenience of distribution outlet for the consumer.
It may involve the firm operating its own outlets for high priced, highly complex goods, where customer service/queries can be handled directly by the firm’s own staff (E. G. Meteor shops). Promotion:Promotion means activities that communicate the merits of the product and persuade the customer to buy it. Consumers are made aware of the existence of the product and the benefits that use of the product will bring to them. It includes advertising, sales promotion, public relations, selling, Internet and on-line marketing.
The Internet has allowed small firms to expand the scope of their market, at relatively low costs. Process: How firm does a thing may be as important as what it does. Customers often actively involved in processes, especially when acting as co-producers of services. Process involves choices of method and sequence in service creation and delivery like design of activity flows, number and sequence of actions for customers, nature of customer involvement, role of contact personnel, role of technology, degree of automation.
Badly designed processes waste time, create poor experiences, and disappoint customers. Physical Environment: Design services and provide tangible evidence of service performances, Creates and maintain physical appearances like buildings/landscaping, interior design/furnishings, vehicles/equipment, staff grooming/clothing, sounds and smells and other tangibles. Manage physical cues carefully can have profound impact on customer impressions.
People: Interactions between customers and contact personnel strongly influence customer perceptions of service quality. The right customer-contact employees performing tasks well job design, recruiting, training and motivation. The right customers for firm’s mission contribute positively to experience of other customers, possess-or can be trained to have-needed skills (co-production), can shape customer roles and manage customer behavior.