Marketing of Services

Marketing of Services

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Marketing of Services

Marketing mix can be defined as a set of key marketing elements, which are interrelated together. The traditional marketing mix usually contains four key elements. The key marketing elements are product, price, place and promotion. This kind of marketing mix is usually applicable for the tangible goods only. The extended marketing mix or the seven p’s marketing mix can also be defined as a set of key marketing elements, which are interrelated together. The extended marketing mix is usually an addition of the traditional marketing mix where three more key elements are added to the four key elements of the traditional marketing mix. These three key elements are people, process and physical evidence. The extended marketing mix is only applicable to the service industries only. However, the two contain several differences in interpreting them and differences in strategies on how the two are applied.

One of the differences, which are clearly visible, is the additional key elements that are contained in the extended marketing mix. The traditional marketing mix contains only four key elements, which are product, price, place and promotion. On the other hand, the traditional marketing mix contains four marketing elements plus the other additional three elements, which are people, process, and physical evidences. This difference in elements, defines each of the two marketing mixes and how they work to help the marketers in marketing their products to the different clients, they have for their businesses.

Another difference, which can be clearly seen, is that one of them is for the tangible goods and the other one is for the intangible goods. The traditional marketing mix concentrates more on the tangible goods. It is usually used by manufacturers of tangible goods like manufacturing companies of clothes, to market their goods to the different customers in the market. On the other hand, the extended marketing mix is used by the different marketers to market those goods, which are intangible. Service industries are those industries that offer services to their clients like accounting or legal services; generally, they use this kind of marketing mix to advertise their products to the different customers in the market.

When using the two marketing mixes, it can be noticed that they have a difference in the kind of result they offer. In the traditional marketing mix, the results can be easily measured and the marketers can use different variables to indicate this while using them. However, when the extended marketing mix is being used, it cannot be scientifically measured. The different marketers who are using this kind of marketing mix usually give estimates when they are trying to give the results when using it. Therefore, when the traditional marketing mix is being used, the results are easily quantified while in the extended marketing mix, the results are not easily quantified but they are only given as estimates or findings.

Another difference in which the two marketing mixes have is that one of them is used for the evaluation of quantity in the market while the other is used for the measurement of quality in the market. The traditional marketing mix usually evaluates and measures the quantity of the markets. This marketing mix evaluates the amount in quantity of the product, which the consumers will like and will be able to buy. In the extended marketing mix, it usually evaluates and measures the markets of its product in terms of quality. This means that when the marketers are using this kind of mix, usually they are trying to evaluate the kind of quality in their services that the consumer is willing and able to pay.

In the two marketing mixes, it can be noted that one of them mainly focuses on the intangible goods and how the goods should be distributed to the different customers while the other one only focuses on the feelings of the different customers, which they portray while they are being served. In the traditional marketing mix, it mainly focuses on the goods and how the goods should be distributed to the different customers in the market. On the other hand, the extended marketing mix focuses on the feelings of the different customers in relation to the different services they are being offered.

The two marketing mixes also have a difference in their strategies on how they are being used by the different marketers. The traditional marketing mix contains four key marketing elements, which are controllable. These elements were traditionally used where marketing was far more oriented on the selling of the product and how the product will penetrate on the different kinds of markets. For example, the mobile phone companies usually used to manufacture a phone in accordance to what kind of market it will penetrate. They manufactured different phones targeting the youth, the middle age, the elderly, and those in the business sector. They used this strategy by concentrating more on where their products will target.

On the other hand, the extended marketing mix concentrates more on the customer’s needs and feelings. This mix mainly cares for the customers, that is, what they think, how they feel and what they expect to see. For instance, in a company where they provide supply and delivery services, the company will tend to care for what the customer feels about their services. If goods are being delivered to the customer, the customer will expect them to be neatly packed and very well taken care of. This makes the customer to feel safe with the goods he is sending or goods that are being sent to him. Therefore, we can say that the extended marketing mix strategies care more for the customer’s feelings while the traditional marketing mix cares more for the products.

Another good difference in the two marketing mix strategies, which can be clearly seen, is when the two strategies are being used in the same company. For example, in an insurance company there are several departments, which perform different tasks. One of the departments, which the insurance companies might be having, is the department for product creation. In this department of product creation, they will tend to use the traditional marketing mix in creating the different kind of products to suite the different customers. They will use this kind of mix to know the different kind of products to make to suite the different needs. This means they cannot create the products without first knowing which kind of market they are trying to target.

Still in the same company, there is a department, which is called customer care. In this department of customer care, they will tend to use the extended marketing mix strategies. This is because they are more focused on impressing the customer so that he might be able to feel safe and comfortable when buying one of their products. They will concentrate on the language they use towards the customer, what the customer needs when he is at their offices, and they can even go to the extent of providing a cup of tea to the customer. This shows that the customer care department cares for what the customer thinks and feels. If the customer care department never used this strategy, most likely they would lose many of their clients. Additionally, this department helps the sales agent to sell products without even having to explain to them the kind of products they have. Therefore, the two strategies, despite being used in the same company, have different tasks in which they intend to accomplish.

In conclusion, we can see that the two different market mixes have almost the same similarities but when they are interpreted, they have different meanings in them. The two marketing mixes are both used in marketing of different kinds of products as marketing strategies. However, while they are interpreted one of them is used in the service industries (the extended marketing mix) while the other one is used the marketing of tangible products (the traditional marketing mix). It has also been noticed that one cares for the needs and feelings of the customer, the extended marketing mix, while the other one only cares about the products, that is, the traditional marketing mix.