1. Promoting the Interactive Service Experience

2. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 2 Services and Integrated Marketing Communications Integrated marketing communications refers to the pursuit of a single positioning concept for an organization or its products, which is achieved by planning, coordinating and unifying all its communication devices (Schultz, Tannenbaum, and Lauterborn 1996).

3. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 3 Features vs. Benefits Process features and benefits Access - location and hours Tangibles and intangibles Facilities and equipment People as part of product

4. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 4 Tangibilizing the Service Tangibilizing the service making the service more concrete, thus enabling customers to understand it better (Shostack 1977).

5. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 5 The Promotional Mix Advertising Sales Promotions Personal Selling Publicity and Public Relations

6. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 6 Advertising the Service Advertising Objectives Guidelines for Advertising Services Enhancing the Vividness of Services Advertising

7. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 7 Guidelines for Advertising Services Provide tangible cues. Capitalize on word-of-mouth communication. Make the service understood. Establish advertising continuity. Advertise to employees. Promise what is possible.

8. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 8 A Vividness Strategy An advertising approach for service offerings that uses concrete language, tangible objects, and dramatization techniques to tangibilize the intangible.

9. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 9 Interactive Imagery Uses pictorial representations, verbal associations, and letter accentuations that combine an organization's name and its service to establish a strong link between service name and performance in customer minds.

10. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 10 Sales Promotions and Services Attract customers. Accommodate cyclical demand. Enhance customers’ perception of the service. Add tangibility.

11. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 11 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 Orchestrate the service purchase. Facilitate quality assessment. Tangibilize the service. Emphasize organizational image. Use references external to the organization. Recognize the importance of all public contact personnel. Recognize customer involvement during the service design process.

12. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 12 Publicity and Services Service organizations gain tremendously from good publicity. The best publicity an organization receives comes from delighted customers. Service organizations must have plans in place to overcome or control negative publicity when it occurs.

13. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 13 Promoting Services on the Internet The Internet is one of the fastest growing vehicles for services promotion. Service organizations can qualify and target narrow segments of customers in novel and interactive ways.

14. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 14 Promoting Services on the Internet (cont’d) Advertisements can attract customers to online sources of information regarding service organizations and, in the case of retailing, even carry them to shopping locations. Service organization can combine email communication with Internet capabilities to create a powerful combination of promotion and selling.

15. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 15 Personal Selling Frontline and other encounter points Service delivery and prospecting Cross-selling other products/usage levels/patronage Establishing realistic expectations and feedback

16. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9 - 16 Word of Mouth The overlooked marketing tool Ambassadors (customers, employees, and intermediaries) Opinion leaders (media and industry figures) Stimulate and reward referrals (trial vs. purchase) Look for cross-selling opportunities