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CONTINUUM LEARNING PTE LTD
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7Ps of Services Marketing
Companies are competing strategically through
service quality for greater differentiation in today's
competitive marketplace. Successful companies focus
on the services-dominant paradigm with investment in
people, technology, human resources policies, and
compensation linked to service performance of
employees. This is important because contact
employees’ attitudes and behaviours significantly
influence the quality of service. They present the “face
and voice” of their organizations to customers.
Extension of the 4Ps - 7Ps Services Marketing Framework by Booms and Bitner
The 4Ps marketing mix which represents Product, Process, Pricing and Promotion, have
been most widely employed as a model for product marketing. It shows the company
preparing an offer mix of the product and price, with an integrated promotion mix to reach
the target consumers through the selected distribution channels. The 4Ps of marketing
have been the key areas where marketing managers allocate scarce corporate resources
to achieve the business objectives. Services have unique characteristics : intangibility,
heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability.
3Ps of Services Marketing - People
In Booms and Bitner’s 7Ps services marketing framework, people are all people directly
or indirectly involved in the service encounter, namely the firm's contact employees,
personnel and other customers. Due to the inseparability of production and consumption
for services which involves the simultaneous production and consumption of services,
service firms depend heavily on the ability of contact employees to deliver the service.
Contact employees contribute to service quality by creating a favorable image for the firm,
and by providing better service than the competitions. Service providers (such as hair
stylists, personal trainers, nurses, counselors and call centre personnel) are involved in
real time production of the service. They are the “service”. Much of what makes a service
special derives from the fact that it is a lived-through event.
3Ps of Services Marketing – Physical Evidence
Physical evidence refers to the environment in which the
service is assembled and in which the seller and customer
interact, combined with tangible commodities that facilitate
performance or communication of the service. The
physical evidence of service includes all the tangible
representations of service such as brochures, letterhead,
business cards, reports, signage, internet presence and
equipment. For example, in the hotel industry, the design,
furnishing, lighting, layout and decoration of the hotel as
well as the appearance and attitudes of its employees will
influence customer perceptions of the service quality and
experiences. Because of the simultaneous production and
consumption of most services, the physical facility i.e. its
servicescape can play an important role in the service
experience.