Page 168 - DMGT510_SERVICES_MARKETING

Unit 9: Service Product and Operation

Notes
Example: Private airlines like Jet Airways and Sahara Air have contributed to the declining
popularity of the state-owned services like Alliance, Indian Airlines etc.
Emergence of Substitute competition: The market could witness other offers that could

give the customers the same benefits and satisfy their same need.

Example: Video parlours with all their stocks of videocassettes were either forced to
close shop or shift to other business areas with the emergence of satellite television broadcasting,
twenty-four-hour movie channels, and VCDs/DVDs.
Changing preference of the customers for the service offer or the category: The disappearances

of the pool parlours as well as the low key demand of pager messaging service are some
of the examples.
Technology obsolescence could make the service offer redundant with better service being

offered from those equipped with the latest technology.

Example: All India Radio (AIR), the state owned broadcaster has lost its audience to the
high tech Frequency Modulated (FM) private players.
The decline of the service offer can be permanent or last for years.

Post-mortem

This stage is an after-effect of the changing environmental factors and the paradigm shift in
global managerial thinking and is newly emerging to grab the attention of decision makers. It
implies that even after the service product and the market have declined and the managers have
stopped any further investments, expenditures, or allocating any responsibility and
accountability, quality time is spent in monitoring and servicing the customers. This has been
necessitated by the societal as well as other environmental consideration.
In case of goods, an automobile firm may have stopped the production of certain models but is
bound by government and international regulation to continue making spare parts available to
the customers and servicing their cars.

Example: Daewoo exiting from India leaving behind numerous owners of their Matiz
cars.

Similarly, servicing of the customers and their service products continue even if the product has
been withdrawn or the service firm has exited from the market.

Example: In 1977, IBM and Coca-Cola exited from India. IBM chose to leave behind
some of its personnel who would be taking care of their mainframe machines installed in India.
The servicing of these machines continued. The majority of the IBM personnel came together
under Computer Maintenance Corporation or the now well-known CMC Ltd. ostensibly to take
care of the IBM computers in the country.

Task Make a note of the service product range of State bank of India.

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