Ultimately, these differences are superficial because the customer will always look for the same things -- quality and value.
The notion that services are not comparable is absurd. For this to be true, a service would need to be in a monopoly. It is easy to compare your current haircut with your last, your current lawyer with your friend's lawyer. Customers constantly compare services, just as much as they compare television sets at the store. That products are returnable is true, but marketers should not operate on the assumption that defects are acceptable. Indeed, the likelihood of a problem occurring and the ease of replacement of that product or service should be only a minor factor in a marketing program. Customers, after all, expect things to work the first time, whether a paper plate or a tax preparation.
Those who argue that marketing services is fundamentally different than marketing products tend to focus on superficial points around which they build their argument. This belies the fact that there are always superficial differences, even between types of products or types of services. The fundamentals of marketing remain the same in all situations....
You must know what you are selling, to whom you are selling and you must convince them that your product or service is going to meet their needs and then you must get the product into their hands. Consumers are buying the satisfaction of a need; whether that need is fulfilled with a product, a service or both is irrelevant (Garcia, 2009). These are the fundamentals of marketing, not the specific details of selling.
Works Cited:
No author. (2009). Product Marketing vs. Service Marketing: What You Need to Know. BusinessKnowledgeSource.com. Retrieved July 4, 2009 from http://www.businessknowledgesource.com/marketing/product_marketing_versus_service_marketing_what_you_need_to_know_025445.html
Nimetz, Joe. (2006).
The Five P's of Marketing: Do they apply to SEM? Part One. Enquiro.com. Retrieved July 4, 2009 from http://www.enquiro.com/marketing-monitor/FivePsofMarketingDoTheyApplytoSEMPartOne.asp
Garcia, Joe. (2009). Are there are any differences in marketing strategies between selling products vs. services? Give To Get Marketing. Retrieved July 4, 2009 from http://www.givetogetmarketing.com/tips-prod-vs.-service.html
