Services and Service marketing

Service:

Services are the intangible material that are offered by the seller. It cannot be touched or sensed, unlike the tangible products that are sold in the market. So a service context creates its own series of challenges for the marketing manager since they must communicate the benefits of a service by drawing parallels with imagery and ideas that are more tangible.

Categories of service mix

Pure tangible good: A tangible good like soap, salt etc. with no accompanying services

Tangible good with accompanying services: a tangible good like car, or cell phone that is accompanied by one or more services.

Hybrid: an offering (e.g., hotel) that has equal part of service and product.

Major services with accompanying minor goods and services: a major service that comes with additional goods like snacks, meals etc. (e.g., airplanes)

Pure service: primarily an intangible service, like massage, psychotherapy etc.

Gap Model of Service Marketing

The service- quality model (or also called as the gap model of service marketing) highlights the main requirements for delivering high service quality. The model is given below:

·         GAP 1: Gap between consumer expectation and management perception: arises when the management or service provider does not correctly perceive what the customers wants or needs.

·         GAP 2: Gap between management perception and service quality specification: this is when the management or service provider might correctly perceive what the customer wants, but may not set a performance standard.

·         GAP 3: Gap between service quality specification and service delivery: may arise pertaining to the service personnel. This could arise due to there being poor training, incapability or unwillingness to meet the set service standard.

·         GAP 4: Gap between service delivery and external communication: consumer expectations are highly influenced by statements made by company representatives and advertisements. The gap arises when these assumed expectations are not fulfilled at the time of service delivery.

·         GAP 5: Gap between expected service and experienced service: this gap arises when the consumer misinterprets the service quality.

Bingo and services

Since bingo is a tangible FMCG product, no services are provided by ITC. Although there is a toll free number that a customer can use to contact customer service in case of any complaints or queries.