Characteristics of a Service

Services are intangible products that are exchanged directly from the producer to the customer. They are acts, efforts or performances exchanged from producer to user without ownership rights. Intangibles satisfy needs by producing pleasure, information or convenience.

Characteristics of a service

1. Intagibility- because consumers are buying something that isn't there to touch they look for reassuring signs. So a marketer makes sure these signs are readily available.

2. Perishability- case of use it or lose it ie restaurants, hotels, flights

3. Variability- it means that even though the same service performed by the same individual for the same customer can vary. Ie college classes

4. Inseparability- that means that it is impossible to separate the production of a service from the consumption of that service. Ie you cannot separate the service of the person who checks you in at a hotel from the actual room itself. Therefore it is service encounter the waitstaff can ruin a perfectly cooked meal by the chef.

To minimize the potential neg. effects of bad service encounters and to save on labor cost some business turn to Disintermediation. Thus removing the middleman. IE pay at the pump, bank atms.

Services are intangible marketers have to be mindful of the physical evidence that goes along w/ them. An important part of this physical evidence is the Servicescape the environment in which the service is delivered and where the firm and the customer interact. The actual physical facility where the service is performed, delivered and consumed. Ie I prepare a service tax preparation My servicescapes the Volvo bldg, landscaping, equip, colors on the wall, temp. smells,

PRICING OBJECTIVES

1. Sales or market share objectives

2. Profit objectives

3. Competitive effect

4. Customer satisifaction

5. Image enhancement

PRICE ELASICITY OF DEMAND- the % change in unit sales that results from a % change in price

Evaluating