Page 378 - Marketing Management

Designing and

Managing Services

As product companies find it harder and harder to differentiate their physical
products, they turn to service differentiation. Many in fact find significant profitability in delivering
superior service, whether that means on-time delivery, better and faster answering of inquiries, or
quicker resolution of complaints. Top service providers know these advantages well and also how to
create memorable customer experiences. 1

In its 25-year history, Cirque du Soleil (French for “circus of the sun”) has continually bro-
ken loose from circus convention. It takes traditional ingredients such as trapeze artists,
clowns, muscle men, and contortionists and places them in a nontraditional setting with
lavish costumes, new age music, and spectacular stage designs. And it eliminates other
commonly observed circus elements—there are no animals. Each production is loosely
tied together with a theme such as “a tribute to the nomadic soul” (Varekai) or “a phantasmagoria of
urban life” (Saltimbanco). The group has grown from its Quebec street-performance roots to become
a half-billion-dollar global enterprise, with 3,000 employees on four continents entertaining audiences
of millions annually.
Part of its success comes from a company culture that encourages artistic creativity and innovation
and carefully safeguards the brand. One new production is created each year—always in-house—
and is unique:There are no duplicate touring companies. In addition to Cirque’s mix of media and local
promotion, an extensive interactive e-mail program to its million-plus-member Cirque Club creates an
online community of fans—20 percent to 30 percent of all ticket sales
come from club members. Generating $800 million in revenue annually, Because it is critical to understand the special nature of
the Cirque du Soleil brand has expanded to encompass a record label, a services and what that means to marketers, in this chapter we
retail operation, and resident productions in Las Vegas (five in all), systematically analyze services and how to market them most
Orlando, Tokyo, and other cities. 2 effectively.

The Nature of Services

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the service-producing sector will continue to be the
dominant employment generator in the economy, adding about 14.6 million jobs through 2018, or
96 percent of the expected increase in total employment. By 2018, the goods-producing sector is
expected to account for 12.9 percent of total jobs, down from 17.3 percent in 1998 and 14.2 percent
in 2008. Manufacturing lost 4.1 million jobs from 1998 through 2008 and is expected to lose an-
3
other 1.2 million jobs between 2008 and 2018. These numbers and others have led to a growing in-
terest in the special problems of marketing services. 4

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