Service Marketing
Review Question (pg. 54, no. 12)
The term “marketing mix” could suggest that marketing managers are mixers of ingredients. Is that perspective a recipe for success when employing the 7 Ps to develop a services marketing strategy?
The marketing mix is a business tool used in marketing products. The marketing mix is often crucial when determining a product or brand's unique selling point, meaning that the unique quality that differentiates a product from its competitors, and is often synonymous with the 4 Ps: price, product, promotion, and place. However, in recent times, the 4Ps have been expanded to the 7 Ps with the addition of process, physical evidence and people. Marketing mix is not a scientific theory, but merely a conceptual framework that identifies the principal decision making managers make in configuring their offerings to suit consumers’ needs. The tools can be used to develop both long term strategies and short term tactical program (Palmer, 2004). According to Chai (2009), the idea of marketing mix is the same idea as when mixing a cake. A baker will alter the proportions of ingredients in a cake depending on the type of cake we wishes to bake. So, the proportions in the marketing mix can be altered in the same way and differ from the product to product. When applying marketing mix, the managers can be the mixer of the ingredients especially when it comes to the service marketing strategy. The main reason the marketing mix is it makes marketing seem easy to handle, allows the separation of marketing from other activities of the firm and the delegation of marketing tasks to specialist, and the components of the marketing mix can change a firm’s competitive position (Gronroos, 1994). Chai (2009) pointed out that the marketing mix concept also has two important benefits. First, it is an important tool used to enable one to see that the marketing manager’s job. Second is it helps to reveal another dimension of the marketing manager’s job. Thus,
The term “marketing mix” could suggest that marketing managers are mixers of ingredients. Is that perspective a recipe for success when employing the 7 Ps to develop a services marketing strategy?
The marketing mix is a business tool used in marketing products. The marketing mix is often crucial when determining a product or brand's unique selling point, meaning that the unique quality that differentiates a product from its competitors, and is often synonymous with the 4 Ps: price, product, promotion, and place. However, in recent times, the 4Ps have been expanded to the 7 Ps with the addition of process, physical evidence and people. Marketing mix is not a scientific theory, but merely a conceptual framework that identifies the principal decision making managers make in configuring their offerings to suit consumers’ needs. The tools can be used to develop both long term strategies and short term tactical program (Palmer, 2004). According to Chai (2009), the idea of marketing mix is the same idea as when mixing a cake. A baker will alter the proportions of ingredients in a cake depending on the type of cake we wishes to bake. So, the proportions in the marketing mix can be altered in the same way and differ from the product to product. When applying marketing mix, the managers can be the mixer of the ingredients especially when it comes to the service marketing strategy. The main reason the marketing mix is it makes marketing seem easy to handle, allows the separation of marketing from other activities of the firm and the delegation of marketing tasks to specialist, and the components of the marketing mix can change a firm’s competitive position (Gronroos, 1994). Chai (2009) pointed out that the marketing mix concept also has two important benefits. First, it is an important tool used to enable one to see that the marketing manager’s job. Second is it helps to reveal another dimension of the marketing manager’s job. Thus,
References: Bitner, J and Booms, B., (1981), Marketing Strategies and Organization Structures for service firms, pp. 36. Choi, L.G. (2009), A Review of Marketing Mix: 4Ps or More?. International of Marketing Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1. Lovelock, C. & Wirtz, J., (2011), Service Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy. 7th ed. New Jersey: Pearson. pp. 44-50. Palmer, A. (2004), Introduction to Marketing - Theory and Practice, UK: Oxford University Press. Popovic, D. (2006), Modelling the Marketing of High-Tech Start-Ups. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing, 14(3), 260-276. Möller, K. (2006). The Marketing Mix Revisited: Towards the 21st Century Marketing by E. Constantinides. Journal of Marketing Management, 22(3), 439-450. Grönroos, C. (1994). From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing: Towards A Paradigm Shift in Marketing. Management Decision, 32(2), 4-20.