The use of prescribed services marketing strategies by South African advertising agencies

Abstract

Traditionally, marketing has been characterized by a lack of discrimination between tangible products and intangible services. Many marketing theorists presently subscribe to the view that the parameters of service exchanges are so different as to render conventional, product-based marketing paradigms invalid: However, definitive services marketing normatives remain limited in both range and scope. The author investigates specific services marketing strategies that have been prescribed in the services marketing literature. These strategies are assessed in terms of their actual usage amongst a sample of 44 advertising agencies. The research findings revealed that: (i) five marketing/managerial strategies were in common use - service quality, creativity, client-bonding, planning strategically, and operating efficiently; (11) advertising agencies freedom to adopt broader portfolios of services marketing strategies was constrained by their openness to client demands, and their emphasis upon having agency personnel serve as tangible service proxies. The implications of these findings and future research avenues in services marketing are discussed.