Trying to assess if the strategy being used is good enough and sustainable
For evaluating a marketing strategy for a service, prepare the check list of the various parameters like
Consistency of plan
Knowledge of market
Price policy
Advertising policy
Distribution policy
tasks and goals of the company
market penetration
positioning of product/service
Performance
marketing communication, etc….
Dhani, "positioning of product, product performance". It's about service, isn't it? This then leads to the old question of how "service" can be meaningfully distinguished from "product" ...
Dear Gideon Maradza,
A well known method of evaluating the marketing strategy of services is the 'Gaps Model of Service Quality'( Parasuraman, Zeithaml, , and Berry, 1985).
According to Marketing Academic experts, Sheth and Malhotra ( Wiley International Encyclopedia of Marketing , 2010) " The gaps model provides a comprehensive and integrating framework for delivering service excellence and customer-driven service innovation. The model is particularly relevant in service strategy because it captures the cross-functionality inherent in service management."
You could refer to the following research study for more details on the Gaps model:
1) Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A., and Berry, L.L. (1985)," A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research". Journal of Marketing, 49 (4),pp. 41–50.
Another leading services marketing textbook that has further elaborated on the gaps by delineating specific strategies for closing each of them is:
2) Zeithaml, V.A., Bitner, M.O., and Gremler, D.E. (2009), "Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm", Mcgraw-Hill/Irwin: New York.
Best Wishes,
Principles of Marketing remain the same for service industry. Some key indicators for Marketing ROI are:
- Sales growth
- Brand equity
- Customer Pereption
- Marketing costs
- Reach
- Impact
Another consideration is to make use of Marketing Audit (MA) in evaluating the service marketing strategies/activities, for more details/illustrations/guidance as to MA’s definition/practice/guidelines, etc., the following papers could help.
- Berry, L., Conant, J. S. and Parasuraman, A. (1991) A Framework for Conducting a Services Marketing Audit, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 19, 3, pp. 255-268.
- Philip, K., William, G. and William, R. (1977) The Marketing Audit Comes of Age, Sloan Management Review, 18, 2, pp. 25-43.
- Rothe, J. T., Harvey, M. G. and Jackson, C. E. (1997) The marketing audit: Five decades later, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 5, 3, pp. 1-16.
- Wakeley, P. J., Poole, C. and Foster, E. C. (1988) The marketing audit: a new perspective on library services and products, Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 76, 4, pp. 323-327.
check Jochen Wirtz's textbooks - there are some useful pointers for measuring service performance. The message in services marketing literature is to look beyond just short-term profit figures, but longer term financial perfrmance, client retention, and other factors indicative of achieving the usual objectives associated with service performance. But, measuring such things can be tricky as can proving causality for longer-term soft and hard measures.
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