Page 381 - Marketing Management

358 PART 5 SHAPING THE MARKET OFFERINGS

Distinctive Characteristics of Services

Four distinctive service characteristics greatly affect the design of marketing programs:
intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perishability. 9

INTANGIBILITY Unlike physical products, services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or
smelled before they are bought. A person getting cosmetic surgery cannot see the results before the
purchase, and the patient in the psychiatrist’s office cannot know the exact outcome of treatment.
To reduce uncertainty, buyers will look for evidence of quality by drawing inferences from the
place, people, equipment, communication material, symbols, and price. Therefore, the service
provider’s task is to “manage the evidence,” to “tangibilize the intangible.” 10
Service companies can try to demonstrate their service quality through physical evidence and
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presentation. Suppose a bank wants to position itself as the “fast” bank. It could make this posi-
tioning strategy tangible through any number of marketing tools:
1. Place—The exterior and interior should have clean lines. The layout of the desks and the traf-
fic flow should be planned carefully. Waiting lines should not get overly long.
2. People—Employees should be busy, but there should be a sufficient number to manage the
workload.
3. Equipment—Computers, copy machines, desks, and ATMs should look like, and be, state of
the art.
4. Communication material—Printed materials—text and photos—should suggest efficiency
and speed.
5. Symbols—The bank’s name and symbol could suggest fast service.
6. Price—The bank could advertise that it will deposit $5 in the account of any customer who
waits in line more than five minutes.
Service marketers must be able to transform intangible services into concrete benefits and a
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well-defined experience. Disney is a master at “tangibilizing the intangible” and creating magical
fantasies in its theme parks; so are companies such as Jamba Juice and Barnes & Noble in their
respective retail stores. 13 Table 13.1 measures brand experiences in general along sensory,
affective, behavioral, and intellectual dimensions. Applications to services are clear.

TABLE 13.1 Dimensions of Brand Experience

Sensory
• This brand makes a strong impression on my visual sense or other senses.
• I find this brand interesting in a sensory way.
• This brand does not appeal to my senses.
Affective
• This brand induces feelings and sentiments.
• I do not have strong emotions for this brand.
• This brand is an emotional brand.
Behavioral
• I engage in physical actions and behaviors when I use this brand.
• This brand results in bodily experiences.
• This brand is not action-oriented.
Intellectual
• I engage in a lot of thinking when I encounter this brand.
• This brand does not make me think.
• This brand stimulates my curiosity and problem solving.

Source: Josko Brakus, Bernd H. Schmitt, and Lia Zarantonello, “Brand Experience: What Is It? How Is It Measured? Does It Affect Loyalty?” Journal
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of Marketing 73 (May 2009), pp. 52–68. Reprinted with permission from Journal of Marketing, published by the American Marketing Association.