Service Sector Marketing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Service Sector Marketing - Assignment Example This definition can be linked to the activities of Leith Agency. A similar definition was offered by Collins and Payne (1991) when the researchers stated that "services are any primary or complementary activity that does not directly. Produce a physical product - that is, the non-goods part of the transaction between customer and provider". This paper therefore, addresses four important questions within the service marketing literature focusing on the case Leith Agency. The traditional marketing mix originated from the marketing of goods for consumer markets and consists of the well known 4P's: Price, Promotion, Place, and Product. The marketing mix approach has been criticized for being incomplete, because it does not bear in mind customer-needs and it industrial marketing (Bitner, 1995, Gronroos, 1990; Gummesson, 1997). Judd (1997) proposes the fifth element as People and takes thereby the human resource factor into account. Booms and Bitner (1981) on their part created 7P's by adding Participants, Physical Evidence, and Process to the original 4P's. The first P-The product refers to as the service and satisfaction offered by Leith Agency to their customers. Here these are the various forms of advertisement refered to as creative output they offer. The second P-The price of the service is the compensation they received in the form of a fee or 15% commission while the place is the office location were exchange takes place. At Leith Agency, the Edinburgh and London offices are the place. The fourth element refers to as Promotion. At Leith Agency, they use both above the line and below the line strategies. Corporate brand building through sponsors. Here the marketing budget are kept at a minimum In the marketing mix literature, the last three elements were added to take care of the service dimension of the product service mix continuum. No wonder, many commentators have refered to the additional three Ps as the Service Ps. This position was supported by Payne & Clark (1995) who proposed one minor modification which leads to their expanded marketing mix for services. Figure 1The 7P's Model Source: Payne and Clark, 1995 Delivering services is characterized by processes. This is actually due to the in-separation of production and consumption of services. Processes are the functional attributes of services which refers to how services are delivered. On the other hand, the service product is the technical quality, and refers to what is delivered. At Leith Agency, this will be the different advertisement options they offer their client, while the processes will be the different media through which the adverts get to the customers. That is the tasks, customers interaction, etc. The consideration of processes in the service marketing mix is justified and crucial to Leith Agency because it includes procedures, tasks, activities and operations which are of importance for the interaction between the service provider (Leith Agency)