TABLE OF CONTENTS Marketers of services are faced with an even greater challenge than marketers of tangible products. A product can be demonstrated to a potential customer who can also try it out, to see if the product meets the claims of the manufacturer or retailer. Services on the other hand cannot always easily be demonstrated and sometimes the only time a service can be experienced, is after the sale. Customers are therefore often likely to be more cautious when considering whether or not to sign up for a new service.
The term service is rather general and can be interpreted in many different ways. For example, a service can be pure in the sense that it stands completely alone, or it can be provided in support of a physical product.
Although some pure services and some pure products do exist, in reality it is not always easy to distinguish a product from a service. In most cases, the offering provided by a supplier is actually made up of a combination of both a product and a service, as indicated in the diagram below.
In reality there is no firm dividing line between physical products and services, partly because everything has a service element, but mainly because, from the consumer s viewpoint, a product or a service may fulfil the same particular needs. For example, purchasing a new jacket may be as much of a spirit-raiser as going out...
