Chapter 12 IMC for Services

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1Prepared by Kerry Kuhn, Griffith University

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Chapter 12

Integrated Marketing Communications for Services

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Learning Objectives

1. Appreciate the need for an integrated approach to marketing communications for services

2. Understand the role of the marketing mix in communicating with customers of a service

3. Discuss the role of the promotional mix in marketing communications for services

4. Examine the growing use of the internet in promoting services

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5. Examine the advertising of services6. Explore sales promotions for services7. Present the role of personal selling in

services8. Discuss the role of public relations and viral

(word-of-mouth) marketing for services

Learning Objectives

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Chapter Outline

I. Introduction

II. Services and Integrated Marketing Communications

III. Marketing Communications and Services

IV. The Promotional Mix

V. Advertising the Service

VI. Sales Promotions and Services

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Chapter Outline (cont’d)

VII. Personal Selling and Services

VIII. Publicity and Services

IX. Promoting Services on the Internet

X. Summary and Conclusion

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Services and IntegratedMarketing Communications

• Integrated marketing communicationsrefers to the pursuit of a single positioning concept for an organisation or its products

• This is achieved by planning, coordinating and unifying all its communication devices (Schultz, Tannenbaum and Lauterborn 1996)

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Marketing Communications and Services

• Most services are intangible and this creates challenges for service marketers

• Tangibilising the service means making the service more concrete, thus enabling customers to understand it better (Shostack 1977)

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Marketing Communications and Services (cont’d)

• Some firms offer giveaways, use trademarks, symbols or standardise processes

(e.g. an accounting firm might give a brochure, a calculator and monthly newsletters to reinforce their service)

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The Promotional Mix for Services

• The services promotional mix consists of:– Advertising– Sales promotions– Personal selling– Publicity and public relations– Direct mail – Internal personnel branding

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Advertising the Service

• Advertising objectives• Guidelines for advertising services• Enhancing the vividness of services

advertising

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Advertising objectives

• Goals are to make customers aware and to influence their purchase decisions:– AIDA: achieving customers’ attention,

interest, desire and action

• Advertising must reflect a customer-orientation philosophy using appropriate media

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Guidelines for advertising services

• Provide tangible cues• Capitalise on word-of-mouth communication • Make the service understood • Establish advertising continuity• Advertise to employees• Promise what is possible

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Enhancing the vividness of services advertising

• A vividness strategy is an advertising approach for service offerings that uses concrete language, tangible objects, and dramatisation techniques to tangibilise the intangible

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Enhancing the vividness of services advertising (cont’d)

• Interactive imagery uses pictorial representations, verbal associations and letter accentuations that combine an organisation's name and its service to establish a strong link between service name and performance in customers’ minds

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Sales Promotions and Services

• Sales promotions– Attract customers– Accommodate cyclical demand (change

promotions to suit all climates and trends)– Enhance customers’ perception of the

service– Add tangibility — try to tangiblise the

intangibles, giving customers something to hold on to

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Source: Adapted from George, William R., J. Patrick Kelly, and Claudia E. Marshall (1983), “Personal Selling of Services,”in Emerging Perspectives on Services Marketing, L..L. Berry, G. L Shostack and G. D. Upah (eds.), Chicago: American

Marketing Association, 65–67.

Personal Selling and Services

• Some specific strategies on the selling of services:– Design and coordinate the service

purchase– Facilitate quality assessment– Tangibilise the service– Emphasise organisational image and

reputation

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Source: Adapted from George, William R., J. Patrick Kelly, and Claudia E. Marshall (1983), “Personal Selling of Services,”in Emerging Perspectives on Services Marketing, L..L. Berry, G. L Shostack and G. D. Upah (eds.), Chicago: American

Marketing Association, 65–67.

Personal Selling and Services (cont’d)

– Use references external to the organisation

– Recognise the importance of all public contact service personnel

– Recognise customer involvement and co-production during the service design and consumption process

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Public Relations, Publicity and Services

• Service organisations gain tremendously from good publicity– The best publicity an organisation

receives comes from happy customers

• Service organisations must have plans in place to overcome or control negative publicity when it occurs

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Promoting Services on the Internet

• The internet is one of the fastest growing vehicles for service promotion

• A distinct medium for transmitting information• It enables service organisations to access and

target narrow segments of customers in novel and interactive ways

• Website design is now a key feature• Key criteria for good website design includes

speed, efficiency, effectiveness and recency, and creative visual impact

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Promoting Services on the Internet(cont’d)

• A site needs to: – Be easy to use and navigate– Be able to present information in simple

language– Have a secure payment format – Have the ability to search and automatically

generate suggestions to help consumers find what they want

– Include an inventory of services/products on offer

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Promoting Services on the Internet (cont’d)

• A site needs to: – Be able to build a positive attitude to achieve

repeat visits– This is known as the quality of ‘stickiness’ —

the site is attractive, encouraging the user to stay longer and make return visits, generating free viral or word-of-mouth communication

• Advertisements can attract customers to online sources of information and retailer websites

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Promoting Services on the Internet (cont’d)

• Cyberspace advertisements are used as a promotional device for services – cyberspace coupons – contests

• Service organisations combine email communication with internet capabilities to create a powerful combination of promotion and selling

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Summary of marketing communications strategy

Marketing ObjectivesCommunication Objectives

Operations InputHuman Resources

Input

Marketing CommunicationsTraditional Promotion Mix

Front Line RolePhysical Evidence

Implicit Role ofValue, Pricing and Service Quality

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Chapter summary

• Services and Integrated Marketing Communications

• Marketing Communications and Services

• The Promotional Mix

• Advertising the Service

• Sales Promotions and Services

• Examine the advertising of services

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Chapter summary (cont’d)

• Explore sales promotions for services

• Present the role of personal selling in services

• Discuss the role of public relations and viral (word-of-mouth) marketing for services

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