Service Marketing - Assignment Example

Core product and supplementary services A service is defined according to certain industry basing on the core benefits and the provided to the customers. Basically, core products are accompanied by various related services regarded as supplementary services. These services facilitate the utilization of the core products and provide some additional value and differentiation to the entire experience of the customers. As any industry matures, and the competition is increasing, there is a need to put much emphasis on supplementary services (Kotler, Ps, 2004). A core product is a key component that provides the key problem solving need that customers require. For instance, transport, repair services etc. Supplementary services on the other hand augment the core product, that facilitates its use and enhance its appeal and value. This helps in differentiating and positioning the core product against other competing services. Addition of some other services increases the perceived value of the core product for prospects and makes the service providers to increase the prices. The flower of service concept Like any other flower, any service providing business should endeavor to develop during its inception a core that provides basic functionality that its users are willing to pay for and, later on, a collection of other complementary service that will assist in retaining the customers by adding value to the core products, not the other way round. According to the flower concept, the pistil is the one that pulls the users to the service providing the functionality that offers solution to pain points of the users and the corolla is a bunch of additional features or services that forms the core part ( Douglas & Hoffman, 2001). In the service industry, every service either on-line or off-line has a core that comprises of other supplementary services. These supplementary services can be classified as either facilitating services or enhancing services. Facilitating services- these are needed for the delivery of core services and aids in the use of the core product or a service. Some of the examples of the facilitating services include: payment, billing, order taking and information. It is the responsibility of the management team to decide on the facilitating services of their business. On the other hand, enhancing services offers extra value to the customers. These services comprises of customer support, hospitality, consulting- as in the case of facilitating services the enhancing ones are not fixed, therefore it is up to one to choose what is enhancing and what is not. In order for companies to go for cost leadership strategy, various supplementary services that they offer, either enhancing or facilitating, is rather small as compared to various services provided by the companies aiming for differentiation. A good example of the flower concept from the internet business is the Google. During its inception, it only had a search engine, which still forms part of its core business of the company; it later introduced Analytic, Docs or Translate (Armstrong & Kotler, 2003). The only mistake made by most of the start-ups is that they try selling petals and wonder why they are not making profits or why they have large costs of acquiring the customers. It should be noted that an excellent core is nothing without a perfect petals but better petals will not compensate for a bad core In summary, the following figure shows the flower of service concept and its brief explanation. Information Consumers in most of the cases require information concerning how to obtain and use the product or service. For instance, directions to product or service site, service hours, conditions for sale, prices and usage instructions Consultation Value addition can be offered to goods and services by providing advices and consultation tailor-made to suit the needs and the situation of each customer e.g. personal counseling, customized advice and management consulting. Hospitality Consumers who take time and effort to visit the business and make use of its services have to be accorded with a warm welcome since they were invited by the marketers. Examples of the elements include greetings, food and beverages, waiting facilities and amenities, toilets and washrooms, food and beverages and security. Safekeeping Customers need not to worry concerning their personal belongings that they come with them to the service site. Elements of housekeeping include: taking care of customer’s belongings, looking after the goods purchased or rented by the visiting customers. Exemptions Customers appreciate some flexibility when making some requests and expect in return prompt responses if incase things do not go as planned. Examples of the elements include; complaints or complements, special requests in advance, restitution and problem solving. Billing Bills such as “I owe you” should be accurate, clear and intelligible. Elements of billing include; machine display of due amount and periodic statements of account activity. Payment Customers pay faster and cheerfully if transactions are made simple and convenient to them. Elements include: self service payment, automatic deduction and direct to payee or intermediary This flower of service concept assist the managers in determining which supplementary services should be offered as standard package to accompany the core product. It also assists them in determining supplementary elements that can be treated for an extra charge. Service product A service product consists of all the elements of service performance either in physical or intangible that adds value to the customers. As discussed above, the service product integrates the component of core product and supplementary service. Service product of an overnight hotel stay The following chart shows the core product and the supplementary services offered by an expensive overnight hotel As it can be seen in the chart above, the core product is the overnight stay at the rental bedroom at a luxury hotel with a bed for the night. The delivery process that surrounds the core product service comprises of the following: The nature of the processes- people processing for this case The role of the customer- what are the expectations from the customer and what the hotel offers to the customer for instance, making the customer’s bed, providing the hotel towels, and ensuring that the room is clean Scheduling- how long the room will be utilized before another customer is allowed to enter into the room Service level-the level and style of service Surrounding the core product are various supplementary services ranging from reservation to meals and elements of room service. Service delivery must be specified for every element. The more the expensive the hotel is, the higher the rate of service delivery for every element. For instance, VIPs may be received at the airport and provided with transport to the hotel in a Limousine car. Any necessary check in arrangements is done on the way to the hotel. By the time of arrival into the hotel, the guests are ready to be escorted to their private rooms where they are ready to be served by the butler (Hoffman. K, 2010) On the other hand, we shall look at another competing service and analyze the differences in both core and supplementary services. This is a case study of one of the Motels with a global dominant of the coffee brand. The success of this industry is based on three components i.e. highest quality of coffee in the world, ambiance and customer service. Unlike the case shown above whose core product was a bed for a night, the core product here is a coffee. The supplementary services include books, wireless Broadband, Access to Apple iTunes music store, Movie DVDs etc unlike the case mentioned above whose supplementary services ranged from reservation to meals and elements of room service. As it can be seen, there is a great difference between the core products and supplementary services offered by either of the product service providers References Armstrong, G., & Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing (6th ed.). NJ: Upper Saddle Rive. Armstrong, G; Kotler, P. (2004). Principles of Marketing. (10th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Bouee, C. E. (2012). A brand awareness upgrade “Welcoming a new era in the Chinese luxury market”. Shanghai: Charles Edouard Bouee. K. Douglas Hoffman, J. E. (2001). ssentials of Services Marketing: Concepts, Strategies and Cases. South-Western,. K. Hoffman, J. B. (2010). Services Marketing: Concepts, Strategies, & Cases. Cengage Learning. Palmer, A. (2014). Principles of Services Marketing. McGraw-Hill Education. Read More