VAE 511: Livestock Entrepreneurship (1+0)

MARKETING OF SERVICES

• Services marketing is marketing based on relationship and value. It may be used to market a service such as that of veterinary service or a product like egg.
• Marketing a service-based business is different from marketing a goods-based business. There are several major differences, such as
  • Services are intangible
  • Service marketing may be based on the value of the individual
  • Services of different types can’t be compared quantitatively
  • Services could not be returned

Service

• A service is the action of doing some activity for someone or some organisation. It is largely intangible (i.e. not material).
• A product is tangible (i.e. material) since one can touch it, feel it and own it.
• A service tends to be an experience that is consumed at the point where it is purchased, and cannot be owned since it quickly perishes.

A person could go to a dairy farm one day and have excellent service, and then return the next day and have a poor experience. So often marketers talk about the nature of a service as:

• Inseparable - from the point where it is consumed, and from the provider of the service.
• Intangible - and cannot have a real, physical presence as does a product. For example, livestock insurance may have a certificate, but the financial service itself cannot be touched i.e. it is intangible.
• Perishable - in that once it has occurred it cannot be repeated in exactly the same way. For example, once a Veterinarian has offered treatment for some diseases, it is over and you can not store his services and re-utilise them at a later stage.
• Variability- since the human involvement of service provision means that no two services will be completely identical. For example, for the same disease different Veterinarians would offer different treatments and the same Veterinarian may offer different treatments for the same disease during different stages and different periods of time.
• Right of ownership - is not taken to the service, since you merely experience it. For example, a Veterinarian may treat your pets, but you do not own the service of the Veterinarian or his medicines. You cannot sell it on once it has been consumed, and do not take ownership of it.