Discuss Marketing Mix of services – 7P’s.

The traditional Marketing Mix or Marketing Program consists of 4P’s – Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. The marketing strategy of a Product consists of these Marketing Mix elements to meet the business needs and objectives. These objectives can be profit related, market share related, and even to bring social change in the society (NGO’s).

As services differ from a product, three additional marketing mix elements are taken into account for marketing strategy. Hence, the marketing mix or marketing program for services is often referred to as “7P’s of services.”

The 4P’s of traditional marketing remain the same but their implications on services is different as services differ from a product in many ways. The Service is perishable, heterogeneous, intangible and inseparable. Therefore, Product customization, Price, Place and Promotion of a service needs a different approach as compared to a physical product which can be produced at a different place, stored, and transported as required.

To understand the first 4P’s (traditional 4P’s of marketing)relative to services, we will discuss the example of service provided by a bank-

Product – This can be any banking service like savings account, checking/ current account, credit services, demand drafts, etc. How different the offering of one bank is from the other makes a difference. Also known as differentiation – doing things differently. For example, a bank like HDFC offers its certain category of customers a dedicated personal relationship manager. The customer doesn’t needs to go to the bank for most of the things or call customer service number. The customer can directly call the personal relationship manager and get the issues resolved. Similarly, a bank can offer additional services like loan at lower interest rate, etc. for a customer who opens an account. The bank constantly needs to work with the regular customers to innovate itself so that it can stay ahead of competition.

Place – Place factor plays an important role as services cannot be manufactured at one place and delivered at another. A bank cannot be located on the outskirts of a town. It should be easily accessible to target customers. Customer should have a positive experience when visiting the bank. The location should be carefully selected apart from the infrastructure of the building.

Price – The prices for various services like annual fees on credit cards, check clearing charges, maintaining minimum balance, etc. should be relative to the quality of service provided. These should be close to the market prices in the target market. However for an exceptional service, the banks may charge some extra. The banks should be transparent is disclosing the information with its customers clearly so that the customers don’t get surprised when the fees gets levied.

Promotion – Effective communication message highlighting the services in easy to understand format should be created. The Bank logo, slogan, and colouring should be clear. The achievements and uniqueness should be clearly highlighted in various promotion messages.

The additional 3P’s are People, Process and Physical evidence.
People – a buyer of a service has to come in contact with the seller or the seller’s representative for buying a service. We can say that services are provided by “people” who form an important factor in delivery of services. For example, a hotel is well known or popular not only because of the infrastructure but also because of the service provided by its staff. Customers often buy offerings where the service staff is courteous, knowledgeable and value the customer.

This element is given emphasis by an intelligent marketer in service industry. The customer’s experience is enhanced by training, motivating the staff to ensure buyers get top notch customer service.
Trainingthe personnel who directly interact with customers is paramount for service industry for its success. This staff should be trained as soon as they are hired. “Training Need Analysis” should be done basis the competencies of the individuals as well as the team. After the training, the selected individuals should shadow an experienced staff member for proper learning of etiquette and job skills. The training should not end once the staff member is confirmed. The training process should be an ongoing process as there are constant changes in the environment as well as the service offering. The training ensures that the staff is updated with the latest trends and etiquette for giving satisfactory customer experience. The staff can be from personal selling or customer service department.

In a nutshell, anyone who deals with a customer is responsible for customer satisfaction and growth of business. These individuals should exhibit values such as courteousness, problem solving skills, valuing the customer, and proactive attitude.

Process – This refers to the process or steps that a service provider has to set in place for delivery of the service. Process is referred to as striving to deliver the same standard of delivery of service to the customers. To ensure this is in place, most of the organisations have a service blue print which gives details of the process to be followed for delivering the service.
For example, if a customer wants to have access to internet banking, he/ she may have to submit a physical form at a branch for a particular bank. In a different bank the process may be different like submitting account and personal details on the banks website for immediate access. The organisations should strive to make the processes as hassle-free as possible not compromising on the security of the account.

For example, for booking a flight a customer visits an airline website, makes the relevant entries and receives an SMS or an email as confirmation. Similarly, the customer can buy the flight ticket by visiting the airline office or counter. It will involve a different process as compared to booking a ticket on the internet. This confirmation is checked before the entry to the plane, and finally the customer reaches the intended destination. A feedback is sought to ensure complete customer satisfaction or improvements at the various process stages. The process may include even the phrases that the service staff should use when dealing with customers. Similarly, delivery of a courier by a courier company has a standard process in place. At each of these stages, an organisation strives to deliver value to the customer by making necessary changes as needed.

Physical Evidence – As services are intangible, this element of the mix forms an integral part of the marketing strategy in marketing services. A customer arrives at a final decision for buying a service by means of material elements associated with a service. These may include brochures, pamphlets, website, invoice, ambience of the infrastructure (restaurant, office, etc.), packaging, direct mail through well-known courier services, etc.

For example, a hotel provides a place to stay like a bed and a room. This is the basic need for a traveller. This service offering is different in each hotel. A customer will assess the room, the ambience, the well-dressed staff, reception desk, towels, bedsheets, etc. to rate the service offering.
Similarly, a school’s ambience, school bus, offices, classrooms, desks, laboratories, library, etc. form the physical evidence though the service for sale is education. All these material things form part of the physical evidence of a service offering. This element of the marketing mix gives lot of opportunities for an organisation to differentiate its offering from its competitors.