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3.3 The unique characteristics of services 97
Edgett and Parkinson (1993:19) in a review of the service industry mention that it is generally accepted that the marketing of services is different from the marketing of physical goods due to their unique characteristics. Services have distinctive characteristics which differentiate them from goods and have implications for the manner in which they are marketed. One of the fundamental distinctions between goods and services is that “goods” are “things” and a “service” is an “act”.
Lovelock & Wright (2002:14) highlight some basic characteristics of services:
Customers do not obtain ownership. Customers usually derive value from a service without obtaining ownership of any tangible elements.
There is customer involvement in the production process. Customers are frequently actively involved in creating the service product by helping themselves or by co-operating with the staff rendering the service.
Time is important. Customers have to be physically present to receive services.
Some customers are sensitive to time and often speed is a key element to good service delivery.
Services are perishable and cannot be stored like physical goods.
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university belongs to the category of educational services. A learner would register at a university to obtain a particular qualification. The knowledge gained while registered at a university is dependent upon a learner’s ability to glean information from the educator.
If this process is successful, then the learner derives value from the service arguably without obtaining any tangible elements besides a certificate at the successful completion of a course. Educational literature asserts that in order for effective learning to occur, learning needs to be active (Elnicki, Halperin, Shockcor & Aronoff, 1999). At a university it is expected of students to co-operate in the learning process, ie.
with submission of assignments, presentations, self-study, etc. At a University time is an important factor as a university is largely a bureaucratic organisation controlled by time. A learner needs to be physically present to receive most services. However, it has become a common practice to exercise non-contact learning via the use of social networks, on-line learning, dvd’s, etc. Unlike physical goods, services at a university are perishable and cannot be stored, yesterday’s course vacancy cannot be sold. A learner is expected to be present when a particular topic is taught as information is dynamic and constantly changing. Production and consumption must take place simultaneously.
Palmer and Cole (1995:24) distinguish between a good and a service on a continuum as illustrated in Figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1: Goods and services continuum. Source: Palmer and Cole (1995:24)
At the one end of the continuum are the tangible products and at the other end are the intangible services. Higher education has been described as a service (Ivy, 2008:289;
Alter, 2008b:72) (intangible) with supporting products (tangible), leaning towards the intangible side of the goods and services continuum. Tertiary institutions provide
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element) as well as learning materials such as textbooks (tangible elements).
Several authors including Boshoff and du Plessis (2009:248); Zeithaml et al. (2009:20) and Kotler and Armstrong (2010) suggest that services have the following unique characteristics intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity and perishability. Because education may be classified as a service (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2006:5), the following unique characteristics can be applied to education:
3.3.1 Intangibility
Intangibility can be regarded as one of the key determinants in distinguishing between a service and a physical product. Services are essentially intangible as it is not possible to taste, feel, see, hear, smell or evaluate the services prior to the purchase thereof. The intangibility of services poses unique problems for marketers. Mittal (1999:98) suggests that intangibility creates four problems for marketers seeking to promote its attributes or benefits: abstractness, generality, nonsearchability, and mental impalpability.
Abstractness as it would be difficult for marketers to connect their services to abstract concepts such as financial security or expert advice. Generality refers to items that comprise a class of objects, persons, or events (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2007:157). Examples would include airline seats, flight attendants, and cabin service. Marketers are therefore encouraged when seeking to create a distinctive value proposition to communicate what makes a specific offering meaningfully different from competing offerings.
Nonsearchability means that intangibles cannot be searched or inspected prior to the purchase. Mental impalpability refers to the difficulties consumers may experience in discerning the quality of services that are for sale.
3.3.2 Inseparability
Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler (2009:22) indicate that services cannot be estranged from the person of the seller. Services, by nature, are labour intensive. Boshoff & du Plessis (2009:7) claim that the interaction between a customer and the service provider is described as a service encounter and the service encounter will more than likely
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provider must be physically present to produce or render a service. Equally, the customer cannot be removed from the producer as it is simultaneously produced and consumed. This is particularly the case in education whereby a service cannot be separated from its consumption.
3.3.3 Heterogeneity
Since services are rendered by naturally imperfect human beings their quality is bound to vary with individual performance. The service provided will differ in quality, time consumed in delivery and the extent of service provided. Zeithaml, et al. (2009:21) assert that heterogeneity results because no two consumers are exactly alike, each having unique requests or experiencing the service in a unique way. For a provider of the service it is difficult to replicate each service experience in view of the fact that services are not produced by a single entity and then distributed to consumers. In an education environment, the providers (academic staff) and customers (students) are all different and homogeneity can never be achieved.
3.3.4 Perishability
Kotler and Armstrong (2010) and Zeithaml et al. (2009:22) state that perishability refers to the fact that services cannot be saved, stored, resold, or returned. Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler (2006:24) suggest there may be a fluctuating demand which may aggravate the perishability feature. Care should be exercised with regard to the maximum capacity levels available to cope with surges in demand before service levels begin to deteriorate.
Thus, service organisations must investigate proper demand forecasting techniques to anticipate variances in demand. Wiese (2008:90) claims that the process of education is perishable since it is consumed partially at the point of delivery and could result in missed opportunities.
Based on the above unique characteristics of service organisations, higher education institutions particularly those in South Africa, need to overcome certain challenges since most services in education are intangible, inseparable, heterogeneous and perishable. By
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a consumer to evaluate an intangible service offering. Hoyer and MacInnis (2008:40) argue that developing service products that satisfy consumers’ wants and needs are critical marketing activities for institutions. In order to overcome these challenges, traditional universities and universities of technologies particularly, need to understand the environment in which they operate as well as their target markets. In short, tertiary institutions need marketing strategies that are honed for selling the service of education.
3.4 SERVICES MARKETING MIX AND ITS APPLICABILITY TO