P/M/174. Service marketing in theory and practice

This paper, presented in the form of literature review, aims to compare and contrast service marketing theory and practice. This paper firstly introduces the concept of services and analyses the nature of services (intangibility, inseparability, variability and perishability). It secondly develops extended marketing mix for services highlighting the importance of people, physical cues, and processes in service management. Three types of marketing used in service industries are being introduced: Internal Marketing, Interactive Marketing and Evaluation Processes. Apart from that tasks that service forms face are being discussed: Managing Differentiation, Managing Service Quality and Managing Productivity. The paper is illustrated with several examples from the companies operating in service industries.