Marketing
It has been argued that the single most important difference between products and services is the characteristic of intangibility. In fact, it has been said that intangibility is the key to determining whether or not an offering is a service or product (Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996). This characteristic has a profound effect on the marketing of services (Lovelock, 1991; Rushton and Carson, 1989). Levitt (1981) argued that special difficulties arise from this intangibility which lead to quality control problems for the producer and evaluation problems for the consumer. It is this intangibility, or lack of physical attributes, that most likely is the reason for service variability, inseparability and perishability.Besides the concept of the lack of physical attributes of the offering (outcome), there is also the concept of physical evidence of the process which needs to be taken into consideration in an evaluation of intangibility. "Physical evidence is the environment in which the service is delivered and where the firm and the customer interact; and any tangible commodities that facilitate performance or communication of the service (Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996, p. 518)". The physical evidence of the service production process can be
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Morris Johnston, McDougall Snetsinger, Murray Schlacter, Expectations Understanding, Rushton Carson, Bebko Prokop, Zeithaml Bitner, Pre-purchase Consumers, service quality, According SERVQUAL, Assurance Empathy, service delivery, classification schemes, consumer expectations, et al, outcome service, physical evidence, quality expectations, services research, outcome service delivery, intangible services, service quality expectations, service quality service, service delivery service, product repair involve,
Approximate Word count = 1724
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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