Page 258 - DMGT510_SERVICES_MARKETING

Unit 13: Promotions and Servicescapes in Services

17. A symbol of a company that becomes synonymous with the company’s existence is its Notes
.

13.5 Summary

Service marketers have used promotions to great advantage in positioning their service,

adding tangibility and value to their offer. Promotion is used only as a temporary tool
and is communication oriented.
To develop an integrated communications program, the marketer has to first take care of

all these things: Identify the target audience, determine the promotion objectives, develop
the message, select the communication mix or the promotion blend, select the media
vehicle, and set up systems for feedback and feed forward.
Advertising goals are necessary not only to justify the advertising expenditure, but also to

vindicate the art and science bases of advertising. Achievement of the goals would confirm
the effectiveness of advertising as a communication tool.
Public Relations are the planned and sustained efforts to establish and maintain goodwill

between an organisation and its ‘publics’.
Sales promotions are incentives tools used to temporarily boost sales. They are targeted at

the customers, the intermediaries and the internal customers. Discounts, cash backs, coupons,
freebies, contests, bonuses, credit are some of the sales promotional tools.
The service marketer should use satisfied customers as sources of referral and a positive

word-of-mouth publicity campaign. This will increase the neutrality of the message.
There is a lot of research that bears out the effectiveness of personal recommendation

through word of mouth. Services therefore benefit from the multiplier effect of positive
recommendations - although negative experiences tend to be more damaging.
The Servicescapes encourages the customer to be deeply involved with the service

production system, lingering longer if it is a retail store. The quality of a Servicescapes
also influences the internal customers’ output.
The inherent intangibility of services makes physical evidence an important tool for

tangibilisation. Facility design, office equipments, signage, employee dress, reports,
business cards and statements make physical evidence for a service firm.

13.6 Keywords

Advertising: paid form of non-personal communication
AIDA: attention, interest, desire, action
Facility Design: buildings, furniture, layout, décor, etc.
Freebies: free items bundled with the offer sale

Logo: name, symbol, or trademark designed for easy and definite recognition
Personal Selling: involves personal confrontation of customers and salesmen
Public Relations: effort to establish and maintain goodwill of a firm
Servicescapes: tangible cues attached with a service

Signage: continuous communication media; glow signs, billboards, etc.

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