Summary Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm (3rd. European ed.)

Summary Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm Third European Edition - 2017
Maastricht University - I. van Lieshout


Chapter 1 – Introduction to Services

Part 1: Foundations for Services Marketing

WHAT ARE SERVICES?

Services: Deeds, processes and performances. (Intangible)

Services include all economic activities whose output is not a physical product or construction, is
generally consumed at the time it is produced, and provides added value in forms (such as
convenience, amusement, timeliness, comfort, or health) that are essentially intangible concerns of its
first purchaser.

Lovelock’s classification of services

People as Recipients Possessions as Recipients
Tangible Actions Services Directed at People’s Bodies Services Directed at People’s
- Passenger Transportation Tangible Possessions
- Healthcare - Courier Services
- Spa Treatments - Car Repair
- Laundry and Dry Cleaning
Intangible Actions Services Directed at People’s Minds Services Directed at Intangible
- Education Assets/Possessions
- Entertainment - Accounting
- Psychotherapy - Banking
- Legal Services



Intangibility: A key determinant of whether an offering is a service. Products/Services cannot be
purely intangible or tangible.  Tangibility Spectrum