What are the services marketing mix and how they are applied to services marketing?

The service marketing mix comprises of 7 P' s as compared to the 4 P ' s of a product marketing mix.

Service marketing mix takes service as a product on it own.

It has an addition of 3 P 's which are crucial for delivering service.

The 4 P's of product marketing mix are pricing, product, placement and promotions.

Marketing mix includes extra 3 P' s which are people, process and physical evidence.

These are all great to maximize service delivery.

Service Marketing Mix P' s

1) Pricing

Pricing of service and pricing of product is not the same it get hard to price the service because this includes material cost, labor and overhead costs.

For example of you hire a band to play for your customers who is going to pay for their service.

This can be achieved by gathering your profit mark and then you can decide on your service pricing.

2) Product

The product in service marketing mix involves the actual product that you see or buy or sell but which is difficult to real measure.

Education and tourism business are examples.

3) Placement

It is important to know where your service product is going to be situated.

You must know the area in which your business is likely to succeed for example a restaurant will do well in the middle of a mall or in a township than in a rural area.

The place you choose for the business is crucial for its success.

4) Promotion

Promotion is crucial to get the business ahead of its competitors. One need to reach out to the customers by letting them the exception their products through promotions.

5) People

People have a role they play in your service marketing mix. For example a restaurant will be defined by the chef and the waiters that they hire.

A bank by the people who provides service to the customers.

The way the employees in that business treat clients will define how the business succeeds or fails.

This is where proper training of the employees by each organisation is crucial for the success of their business.

Accreditation may be required to see if the business has proper trained employees.

6) Process

Process is the actual element of bringing service to the customers.

The company needs to have a proper plan in place to know exactly how they will reach or deliver their products to the customers.

The process must ensure that the quality of the product is maintained throughout the delivery process.

7) Physical Evidence

Tangible evidence that proves that the business do give the best service is crucial for the business to strive for success. It makes the business exceptional to have those evidence for example the service one get at a public hospital will not be the same as the service they will get at the private hospital.

This can be observed by the actual looks of the rooms, the food, the blankets used, the floor looks all of these compared between the two hospitals (private and public) will tell you which one has the best service.

These are all physical evidence.