Intangibility: Services are increasingly augmented with tangible evidence (e.g. brochures, staff uniforms).
Goods are increasingly augmented with intangible services (e.g. after-sales warranties).
Inseparability: Service consumption is increasingly separated from production (e.g. telephone
banking). Goods are increasingly produced in the presence of customers (e.g. while-
you-wait bespoke tailoring).
Perishability: Services are becoming better at storing tangible components of a service offer and in
managing the pattern of demand (e.g. restaurants).
Goods are now more likely to be supplied using ‘just-in-time’ principles (e.g. automo-
tive car components).
Variability: Industrialization of services allows levels of reliability to be achieved that matches
those of goods.
Lack of ownership: Addition of tangibles allows customers to ‘own’ evidence of service (e.g. a telephone
‘calling card’). Goods manufacturers increasingly sell the services which a good pro-
vides, rather than passing on ownership (e.g. car leasing agreements).594 The Marketing Book
It was noted above that the five character-
istics of intangibility, inseparability, perish-
ability, variability and lack of ownership have
frequently been described as defining charac-
teristics of services. However, many have
argued that these characteristics are shared by
many manufactured goods. For example, on
the subject of variability, there are some non-
service industries – such as tropical fruits – that
have difficulty in achieving high levels of
consistent output, whereas some service indus-
tries such as car parks can achieve a consistent
standard of service in terms of availability and
cleanliness etc. Similarly, many tangible goods
share the problem of intangible services in
being incapable of full examination before
consumption. It is not normally possible, for
instance, to judge the taste of a bottle of wine in
a supermarket before it has been purchased and
(at least partially) consumed.
Services marketers have learnt a lot from
the marketing activities in the goods sectors
and vice versa. Some of the points of con-
vergence are illustrated in Figure 23.3.
It should be clear from the above discus-
sion that it is not possible to define a homoge-
neous group of products called services. Their
diversity raises the question whether it is
possible to talk about a body of knowledge
known as services marketing which is univer-
sally applicable throughout the sector. A small
jobbing plumber and a multinational bank both
belong to the services sector, but can they share
a common body of knowledge about market-
ing? Because of the diversity of the services
sector, marketing prescriptions will prove to be
very weak unless smaller categories of services
can be identified and subjected to an analytical
framework which is particularly appropriate to
that category of service.
The goods sector has traditionally devel-
oped classifications to describe the marketing
needs of different groups of goods. Terms such
as fast moving consumer goods, shopping
goods, speciality goods, white goods, brown
goods etc. are widely used and convey a lot of
information about the marketing requirements
of products within a category, for example with
respect to buying processes, methods of promo-
tion and distribution. The great diversity of
services has made attempts to reduce services
to a small number of categories difficult to
achieve. Instead, many analysts have sought to
classify services along a number of continua,Figure 23.3 Points of convergence between the goods and services sectors