Services are activities or benefits that are essentially intangible and do not result in ownership. They can be offered along with products. Services have key characteristics of intangibility, perishability, inseparability, variability, and involvement of customers. The marketing mix for services includes product design, pricing strategies, promotion methods, management of service delivery processes, people involved, and physical evidence of the service environment. Firms must understand both external environmental factors and internal operations that influence their services marketing.

2.  a service as an act or performance that one
party can offer to another that is basically
intangible and does not result in the
ownership of anything. Its production may or
may not be tied to a physical product.
 Services are activities, benefits or
satisfactions which are offered for sale or
are provided in connection with the sale of
goods.

3.  The American Marketing Associations
defines services as “(1) activities, benefits
or satisfaction which are offered for sale,
(2) are provided in connection with the
sale of goods”. The services described in
the second half of the definition are those
included in the sale of goods to the
customer, viz., pre-sale and after sale
services, e.g., services on installation of
machinery, its maintenance and repairs,
credit and delivery services etc.

4.  There are two main segments in the consumers
market. One is the ‘products segment’ and the
other one is the ‘services segment’. The
products segment is the basic and old and hence
well-known and understood by its consumers.
 for the services sector, the marketing concept
was not recognized earlier due to following
reasons not warranting the needs of marketing
efforts:
 i. Services sectors were initially in the limited
areas like, Banks, insurance, hospitals,
 ii. These were mostly in government sectors,
 iii. Number of players was very small; hence
there was no competition environment.

5.  The most comprehensive definition of a
service has been given by Philip Kotler, who
defines a service as an act or performance
that one party can offer to another that is
essentially intangible and does not result in
the ownership of anything. Its production
may or may not be tied to a physical
product.

6.  Intangibility(there is no tangible product
that the customer can be seen or touched )
 Perishability:(services can not be saved,
stored, resold, or returned)
 Inseparability:((simultaneous activity of
production and consumption being
performed)
 Variability:(can not be uniform )
 Involvement(a service can not be
separated from its provider, but neither
can it be separated from its user.)

7.  On the Basis of End User:
 i. Consumer services – These are directly
provided to end users like hair; dressing,
laundry, package holiday, counseling etc.
 ii. Business to business services – These are
provided to businesses like consultancy,
marketing research, advertising etc.

8.  2. On the Basis of Tangibility:
 i. Tangible services – These are services
which are connected to the period to which
the products are purchased from the seller
like televisions, laptops, cars, watches etc.
 ii. Intangible services – These are the
services which do not provide customers with
any tangible products. Examples-
consultancy, services at a spa and massage
centres.

9.  On the Basis of Specialization:
 i. Professional services – These are services which
can be provided only by sufficiently qualified and
experienced persons. Some of such service providers
also have recognition by the required authorities.
Examples – counseling, audit, legal services, health
care etc.
 ii. Nonprofessional services – These are services
which can be provided even by persons not possessing
any educational or professional qualifications.
Examples – domestic servants, gardening, painting
etc.

10.  4. On the Basis of Profit Orientation:
 i. Commercial services – These are the services offered
on business lines with an intention of earning profit.
Examples- private banking, beauty parlors etc.
 ii. Social services – These are the services offered on
philanthropic lines without any intention of earning
profit. These are provided with the intention of serving
the society and are therefore also called social services.
Examples – services rendered by charitable trusts etc.

11.  Food Services:
 Hotels and Motels:
 Personal Care Services:
 Car Service Firms (Garages):
 Entertainment Services:
 Transport Services:
 Communication Services:
 Insurance Services:

12.  Product
 Price
 Place
 Promotion
 Process
 Physical evidence
 People

13.  Products are the means by which firms seek to satisfy
consumer needs. A product in this sense is anything which
the firm offers to potential customers, whether it is
tangible or intangible. most marketers talk about an
intangible service as a product.
brand quality, look, size ,color ,packaging, competitors,
point of diff .
 Price –(skimming and penetration)
 promotion mix includes various methods of
communicating the benefits of a service to potential
consumers. The mix has been traditionally consisting of
advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public
relations.

14.  Place decisions can involve physical location,
decisions about which intermediaries to use in
making a service available to a consumer and
non-location-decisions which are used to make
services available.
 (Process)
 The actual procedures, mechanisms, and flow of
activities by which the service is delivered
include the service delivery and operating
systems.

15.  People:
 For most services, people are a very important
element of the service marketing mix. All of the
participants who play a part in service delivery
influence the buyer’s perceptions, namely, the firm’s
personnel, the customer and other customers in the
service environment.
 Physical evidence is the environment in which the
service is delivered and where the firm and the
customer interact and any tangible commodities that
facilitate performance or communication of the
service.

16.  There are two types of
 environment in which a service firm works:
 The general or external or macro-
environment.
 The task or internal or micro-
environment.

18.  The general or external or macro-
environment---The general environment
factors are those that affect all service
firms. Task environmental factors are
internal to the organization and affect the
individual service firm directly. The firm can
control and influence its task environment
factors for decisive competitive advantage.

19.  The external or the macro environment of a
service firm consists of the following SLEPT
factors:
 Socio-Cultural factors
 Legal factors
 Economic factors
 Political factors
 Technological factors

20.  Socio-Cultural Factors---
 Legal Factors , Political Factors----
 Economic Factors-
 Technological Factors

21.  Internal or Micro Environment—
 The internal or the micro-environment
factors of a service firm consist of the
following:
 External customers/consumers
 Internal customers/channel
partners/providers
 Competitors
 Suppliers

22.  TANGIBLES
 RELIABILITY-
 RESPONSIVENESS-
 ASSURANCE-
 EMPATHY