What's Different About Marketing Services?
(Compared to Marketing Products)

Marketing services can be quite different than marketing products; service marketing is often referred to as ‘extended marketing’ because services require an extension to regular marketing strategies.

When marketing products, the 4 Ps of Marketing Mix need to be specifically focused on product, promotion, price, and place.

When marketing services, the 7 Ps of Marketing Mix are specifically focused on service, promotion, price, place, packaging or physical evidence, positioning (I’d argue that product positioning should be the 5th P of marketing (products) and I have included product positioning, product life-cycle, and product differentiation information on this site to specifically address a product focus), and people.

I won’t discuss the 4 P’s of Marketing Mix on this page (those elements are referenced on other pages in this site – click on the links above for specific and related information). I will simply extend that discussion to focus on services here.

Some examples of services that need service marketing strategies are: medical services, legal services, online services, dental services, human resources services, consulting services, business services, automotive services, web site services, and so on.

Selling services is quite different than selling products: the first is an intangible and often emotional experience, the second has specific, tangible and identifiable features and benefits.

Marketing services is challenging because of the intangible nature of the service. But, because of that intangible nature, you have a lot more latitude in developing the right service marketing mix package – you can create your own ‘best-fit’ marketing model without the constraint of a physical product by using service marketing tools!

The Additional 3 Ps of Marketing Mix (4 + 3 = 7):

1. Packaging or Physical Evidence: When you are developing your service marketing mix, you need to consider how you can ‘package the service’ (think of phone services – not the tangible phone but the service bundles you can buy: text messaging, long distance; caller ID, daytime minutes, non-peak calling times, shared services, student services, business services, etc.).

   For a small service business that can translate into bundling services: for example, a law firm can bundle services to incorporate a business, to draft a shareholder’s or partner’s agreement, and more into a 3-year start up package. And market and sell that package.

   From the physical evidence perspective, recognize that while your customers won’t walk away with a product in hand, the services they buy will, and should provide evidence of the value.

• So, if you’re marketing a car repair service, your customer will see the work done and drive the car away. They need to be satisfied.
• If you’re providing dental services, your customer will want to have a relatively pain-free experience and one where the result will last.
• If you’re a business consultant, you will want to have your client have a take-away: revised business plan, new marketing plan, new human resources structure – something that they can look back at and feel the cost/benefit relationship was good and worthwhile.

You will need to use the physical evidence and the packaging of your service as references and benefits for your marketing plan: therefore you need to provide good experiences for your customer (from the time they first contact you, to the time they pay the bill).

2. Process: How are the services best ‘consumed’ or used? Again, in the phone services example: can you add/delete services online, or in person, or on the phone itself? Is the process easy or do you need to wait 10 minutes to talk to a customer service representative? In the legal services example above, can the client talk directly with the lawyer easily or does the client have to talk to an assistant? Is the lawyer handling the work in a timely manner? Are deadlines made with lots of time to spare?

   The marketing strategies for marketing services need to focus on building effective and efficient service delivery processes and procedures so that the customers are not only satisfied with the service, but delighted with it and return. Focus on building good customer service, customer loyalty, and referrals, with the excellence of your process.

3. People: People are a critical element of the service marketing mix. Your front office staff, your shipper/receiver, your accounts payable/receivable, your sales staff … all of the people you employ will have an impact on the overall service you can provide. And that is true whether you have a business with one employee (yourself) or with hundreds. Recruiting employees (the right people), with a strong service attitude, is a critical part of running a service business.

   When you run a service business, especially if you have few employees, regularly assess how your customers view the service you provide. (This can be done through interviews, surveys, questionnaires with your invoice, emails, and so on.) The reason that this becomes even more important when you have few employees is that often you are too busy to pay attention to how your customer assesses your service performance.

   By surveying your customers, you may find that you could grow your business by hiring more staff or by outsourcing some work or by hiring part-time contractors. Make sure you understand clearly the effect your people (or lack of them) can have on your business success.

Marketing services is the same, yet different, from marketing products.

Use the 7 Ps of marketing mix (service, price, promotion, place, packaging/physical evidence, process and people) to be successful at your service marketing strategies.

Return from Marketing Services to Definition of Marketing.

Or Return From Marketing Services to More-For-Small Business.