Service Product Marketing: Place, Promotion
Place is one of the most essential tools of marketing. For the service industry, place becomes an indispensable tool of marketing cannot be understated. In essence, services are intangible hence the need to emphasize where the services are found. This makes place as one of the Ps of marketing to pay a central role in the marketing process. Many service based organizations use place marketing mix tool for advertising and public relations purpose in order to boost sales of their products.
Advertising for service-based organizations mostly relies on the Place as a tool for marketing. Whereas products can easily be demonstrated, it is impossible to demonstrated services as they are intangible. This leaves the organization to deal with other aspects of services that makes one organizations service to be preferred from the other. According to Dr. Ali Shahhosseini of the University of Tehran, (Shahhosseini et al), consumers of service look at the premises of the company offering the service as an indicator of the quality of services offered.
The image of an organization is mainly affected by the distribution of the outlets of the organization. In his article Place marketing, place branding and foreign direct investments, Theodore Metaxas asserts that the more the distribution centers of a service organization are circulated, the higher their chances of being positively perceived by the consumers. In this respect, Metaxas brings out the need for marketing based on the availability of services to the consumers (Lichrou et al 2008, pp27-39).
The marketing concept adopted by a service-based organization would outright affect the sales of the services the organization provide. It is a fact that measuring the quality of a service is extremely difficult. This leaves the aspect o0f quality in the hands of consumer psychology Stafford M.B.R. (Reilly et al 2011, pp135). In “Cultural Heritage across Borders?” Eskilsson and Gdahl have it that much of what happens in Service Marketing is all about application of psychological tricks in order to win the heart of the consumer. Most of the consumers would associate with a given company, not because of the quality of service, but because of other aspects such as the distribution of its outlets (place) and the establishment of the brand name.
In choosing the marketing concept or orientation, the production concepts is much favored than other concepts such as product and selling concepts. The production concept will insist on the distribution of outlets of an organization in having a competitive advantage over its customers. This concept assumes that once the points of purchases are increased and made nearer than competitors make, them wining the heart of the consumer becomes easier (Shahhosseini, 2011, pp230). Consumers in this respect would not look much into the quality of services offered but rather availability of services.
Service based advertisements mainly concentrated on the place or point of sale as a platform for wooing consumers to purchase their services. In this respect, branding of the product is based on the distribution of the outlets. According to Michael Hall (Hall 2008, p. 228) service based organizations get their brands established through bragging about the branches and outlets they have all over a certain region. Where an organization has many braches that are attractive and well designed, their chances of attracting more customers are high. Consumers would look at the well-designed outlets and branches as an indicator of high quality services.
Reference List
Cassel S.H, 2007. Trying to be attractive: Image building and identity formation in small industrial municipalities in Sweden. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy Vol. 4, 2, 102–114
Eskilsson L. & Gdahl E.H., 2009. Cultural Heritage across Borders? –Framing and Challenging the Snapphane Story in Southern Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, Vol. 9, No. 1, 65–80, 2009
Hall M., 2008. Service scapes, Design scapes, Branding, And the Creation of Place Identity. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy Vol. 6, 3, 228–243
Hildreth J., 2010, Place branding: A view at arm ’ s length. A Practitioner ’ s View, Vol. 6, 1, 27–35
Lichrou M., O’Malley L. and Patterson M., 2008. Place-product or place narrative(s)? Perspectives in the Marketing of Tourism Destinations. Journal of Strategic Marketing Vol. 16, No. 1, February 2008, 27–39
Metaxas T., 2009, Place Marketing, Strategic Planning and Competitiveness: The Case of Malta. European Planning Studies Vol. 17, No. 9, September 2009
Oakley S., 2006. Public Consultation and Place-Marketing in the Revitalisation of the Port Adelaide Waterfront. Urban Policy and Research, Vol. 25, No. 1, 113–128, March 2006
Pasquinelli C., 2010. The Limits of Place Branding for Local Development: The Case of Tuscany and the Arnovalley Brand. Local Economy, Vol. 25, No. 7, November 2010, 558–572
Stafford M.B.R. , Reilly T., Grove S.J. , Carlson L., Bhandari R. & Copeland J., 2011. The Evolution of Services Advertising in a Services-Driven National Economy. Journal of Advertising Research March 2011 Supplement, p. 135-137
Shahhosseini A., 2011, Marketing Mix Practices in the Cultural Industry. International Journal of Business and Management. vol. 6, No. 8; August 2011, p. 230-233
