What Is Service/Good Analysis?

Abstract

Researchers have begun to demonstrate substantial differences between services marketing and goods marketing. However, substantial changes or improvements in services-marketing strategy tend to follow slowly. The authors offer an example of how a service product can be analyzed, using knowledge of the product and applicable marketing literature, to determine which of a service product’s marketing characteristics are more like a good than a service. It is suggested that such determination allows researchers and strategists to more effectively use secondary research on both goods and services in developing projects and tasks, even for service products that are considered pure services. By analyzing the research- and strategy-related characteristics of private passenger automobile insurance, because it is a pervasive product that is traditionally considered a pure service, the authors suggest that Service/Good analysis is the superior method to develop good service strategy. Managerial applications of th is type of analysis are also presented.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Barry E. Langford

Barry E. Langford (DBA, Mississippi State University) is an associate professor of marketing in the Department of Marketing at Florida Gulf Coast University. He was formerly the Vice-President of Marketing of a property and liability insurance group, President of another insurer, and Vice-President of two international investment bankers. Dr. Langford has recently authored articles in the Journal of Applied Business Research, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Insurance Issues, Business Quest, and Marketing Research. Highlights from his work in Marketing Research now constitute the entire “Nominal Grouping Session” section in McDaniel and Gates’ textbook, “Marketing Research Essentials,” second edition.

Robert M. Cosenza

Robert M. Cosenza (DBA, University of Kentucky) is currently a consultant with Creative Marketing Solutions, Douglasville, Georgia. He has authored several textbooks in Business Research and Computer Marketing Solutions and has written articles in the area of Bankruptcy Marketing, and Health Care Marketing.