Challenges to the Retail Sector (As per Michael Porter s Five Forces Model)
Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model helps in the determination of the industry attractiveness and in analyzing the prospects of growth and opportunities by assessing the competitive trends and the intensity of the rivalry amongst the existing competitors. It is a major strategic tool used for determining the industry potential/prospects and the possible threats which may […]
Medium of Customer Responses
The responses can be provided through any of the following media: Face to Face Interaction – Face to face interaction is the most efficient medium and provides the probability to judge the emotions and body language of the respondent. When a customer visits the supplier’s premises and supplier receives him respectfully and spends some time […]
Role of Attitude and Personality in Sales Management
The art of achieving the sales targets within the desired time frame through effective planning and budgeting refers to sales management. Effective sales management ensures timely generation of revenue and profitability of the organization. Sales professionals in simpler words are the face of any organization and have the responsibility of making a particular brand popular […]
Search Engines and SE Marketing
Internet is not something that is alien technology anymore. Every home and every individual has adapted to using internet for various purposes. It has become a habit for everyone to use the internet to search for all kinds of information. Searching happens to be the main feature or the tool with which one gets across […]
Report Preparation – Characteristics of a Good Report
The market research is normally outsourced to third party agencies by organizations and in turn they create a professional report to the organization. These reports are preferably provided to senior officials who are the critical decision makers of the organization. Hence these reports need to be exclusively efficient and well formatted and the matter should […]
The world economy nowadays is increasingly characterized as a service economy. This is primarily due to the increasing importance and share of the service sector in the economies of most developed and developing countries.
In fact, the growth of the service sector has long been considered as indicative of a country’s economic progress.
Economic history tells us that all developing nations have invariably experienced a shift from agriculture to industry and then to the service sector as the main stay of the economy.
This shift has also brought about a change in the definition of goods and services themselves. No longer are goods considered separate from services. Rather, services now increasingly represent an integral part of the product and this interconnectedness of goods and services is represented on a goods-services continuum.
The American Marketing Association defines services as - “Activities, benefits and satisfactions which are offered for sale or are provided in connection with the sale of goods.”
The defining characteristics of a service are:
Intangibility: Services are intangible and do not have a physical existence. Hence services cannot be touched, held, tasted or smelt. This is most defining feature of a service and that which primarily differentiates it from a product.
Also, it poses a unique challenge to those engaged in marketing a service as they need to attach tangible attributes to an otherwise intangible offering.
While products can be mass produced and be homogenous the same is not true of services. eg: All burgers of a particular flavor at McDonalds are almost identical. However, the same is not true of the service rendered by the same counter staff consecutively to two customers.
Moreover, it is very difficult to separate a service from the service provider. Eg: the barber is necessarily a part of the service of a haircut that he is delivering to his customer.
Given below are the fundamental differences between physical goods and services:
| Goods | Services |
| A physical commodity | A process or activity |
| Tangible | Intangible |
| Homogenous | Heterogeneous |
| Production and distribution are separation from their consumption | Production, distribution and consumption are simultaneous processes |
| Can be stored | Cannot be stored |
| Transfer of ownership is possible | Transfer of ownership is not possible |
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
