The 7 P’s of Services Marketing - Place (Service Marketing 30.04.2021)

The 7 P’s of Services Marketing

 

3. Place: Since service delivery is concurrent with its production and cannot be stored or transported, the location of the service product assumes importance. Service providers have to give special thought to where the service would be provided. Thus, a fine dine restaurant is better located in a busy, upscale market as against on the outskirts of a city. Similarly, a holiday resort is better situated in the countryside away from the rush and noise of a city.

 

Place mix is deciding where and how the services will be available to the customers at the right time and at the right place to result in maximum advantage to the business.

Unlike goods, services cannot be separated from its provider and are provided where its provider is. But the same services can be performed by different providers (E.g. different franchise of the same saloon provide same services).

 

Place in case of services determine where is the service product going to be located. The best place to open up a petrol pump is on the highway or in the city. A place where there is minimum traffic is a wrong location to start a petrol pump. Similarly, a software company will be better placed in a business hub with a lot of companies nearby rather than being placed in a town or rural area. Read more about the role of business locations or Place element.

 

The place where you choose to conduct your service business can make or break your organizational growth. You need to understand how visible your setup would be to potential customers and how frequently it would be visited by consumers. For example, would you set up a fast-food centre near a college or office hub, where students and professionals can quickly grab a bite or next to a big restaurant in a classy neighbourhood?

 

Place:

Place refers to the places where the services can be acquired by the consumers. It also includes the distribution channels of services. Most of the services are sold directly by the service producers to the consumers. Examples - consultancy, counselling etc. In certain cases, however merchant middlemen or agents are used to sell services to the final consumers.

 

Even though services are intangible, the place factor is very crucial in case of services marketing. Consumers would like to buy and use services with minimum amount of travelling. The choice of a particular channel of distribution for services depends on several factors.

 

A service marketer can use any of the traditional channels of distribution for distributing services to the consumers.