What you market (not just how) makes for a better, smarter agency
"Would you like fries with that?"
That's one of the things we've been conditioned to think, when we hear the phrase "service economy." The idea is that service businesses are somehow second rate, compared to ones that actually market a product.
Here at Robinson & Maites, we believe just the opposite. The rise of the service economy has made us much better marketers. A few decades ago our client roster was mostly from categories such as tobacco, beverage alcohol, consumer packaged goods, automobiles, and even farm machinery parts. But more recently, most of our work has been in categories such as shipping/logistics, business services, education, professional consulting services, financial services, telecommunications and travel.
This change has driven a change for the better in our skills, which improves our ability to help both services and product marketers.
The marketing of products can be pretty much cut & dried and two-dimensional. By contrast, the marketing of services can have many dimensions.
- Services are intangible, a promise of performance rather than just a "thing." That means there's a certain level of uncertainty in the marketing of services; at the same time, there can be fewer conceptual limits.
- A service has the potential to deliver far more benefits than a product. Beer delivers two benefits: It can refresh you. It can also make you drunk. Your cell phone service lets you communicate, wherever you are. It delivers music and movies. It lets you control your home appliances from the road. It reminds you of appointments, and so on and so forth.
- Service businesses can have a genuine relationship with each individual customer. They can know the customer by name, preferences, usage patterns, purchase habits, etc. How many of its customers does Budweiser know by name?
- With many services, some opportunities for marketing communications are "built in" to the monthly statement, the customer service representative's contacts, the customer website and so forth.
Most important, it's far easier for services marketers and their agencies to innovate and add value, quickly. (Product innovations can involve retooling an entire factory.)
- In response to airline luggage fees, FedEx and others launched and promoted luggage shipping services.
- To gain an edge on competition, Liberty Mutual insurance now offers you an even better car; if you total the new car you're driving now.
- Cell phone service provider T Mobile offers the movie Inception preloaded on its new phones.
- To reassure customers in a time of rapidly changing technology, Best Buy stores introduced their new "Buy Back" service.
- Now you can go to the bank without leaving home. With Chase Quick Deposit, account holders can use their cell phones to snap a pictures of checks and then deposit them.
Working with innovations like these improves the thinking process. The marketing of services encourages, in fact depends upon, speed and flexibility in response to marketplace conditions. Clients and their agencies can hire the smartest people. Create "new paradigms" for marketing. Think through and publish white papers. Sponsor workshops. Insist on the highest standards of strategic planning and creative. And so on and so forth. But ultimately, a big part of their ability to be excellent will depend not on how they marketed, but what.