A service is an activity, experience, process, or performance. It is frequently intangible, and can be variable or repeatable, which means that the most recent exposure to that experience is the one that will remain in the mind of customers (the recency effect). Service based businesses should approach marketing differently to those selling goods. The unique challenge with marketing services is transferring the abstract to reality.
Here’s the basic outline for a thorough marketing planning and execution strategy for any service oriented business:
1. Market overview
2. Analysis of competition
3. SWOT analysis
4. Primary target market & segmentation
5. Marketing objectives
6. Marketing strategies
7. Action plans & calendar of activity
8. Financials and Evaluation
Understanding your environment is essential. A market overview needs to take into consideration:
Key activities:
Given that many corporate structures involve overlapping levels of specialisation, this exercise may need to be repeated a number of times. You may want to compare and contrast, internally as well as externally.
List out all the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for your SBU.
Quickly identify your 3 primary competitors, as well as their positioning.
You should pay attention to both the primary target market and segmentation. There is more than one way to slice a target. Consider:
Think Primary, Secondary, Intermediated, Direct. What’s the best way to define then meet the needs and expectations of your segmented customers?
Your marketing objectives will revolve around the following:
Communication Objectives
In services, positioning is “what you do to the mind of the customer.” It’s all about people, service processes and physical appearances and comfort. Services marketing mixes strategies from the 7 Ps:
Differentiation
Your business may contian a number of attributes that identify it. Determine the attributes that are differentiating and unique, and consider what is most important to customers. You can list these out in terms of what is uniquely special, advantageous to have, and just necessary about your business.
Unique
First, Best, Only
Advantageous
Good to have. Competitors may copy easily
in the short to mid term
Necessary
Price of entry to the market
This essentially comprises marketing activity eg What, when, how and who. It should contain a wide mix of elements such as events, web, sales tools, PR, advertising and so on.
List your budgeting by each marketing activity, and the money that’s been allocated to that. It will also help to get procedures and timeframes in place to assess success and maintain control. As time goes on make changes to your marketing activities as appropriate.
