Services Marketing in Asia – Managing People, Technology and Strategy

Citation

Garcia, L.R. (2002), "Services Marketing in Asia – Managing People, Technology and Strategy", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 380-382. https://doi.org/10.1108/jsm.2002.16.4.380.1

All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances and each man in his time plays many parts.

Shakespeare’s insight is to be kept in mind when reading Services Marketing in Asia by Loveluck, Wirtz and Hean. The authors remind us that a business organization is just like a theater, whose members from top management down to the rank and file shall play their parts in serving customers. The most critical role, however, is played by the front‐stage personnel, who deal directly with customers, and whose encounters with customers determine continued patronage.

However, it is a reality of business life that these front liners are often the least paid, unlike the members of the management team or the back stage who get a lot of perks for planning the strategic service directions of the company.

Services Marketing in Asia presents concepts and theories covered in Loveluck’s earlier book Services Marketing, but treats them in an Asian context, thus making it a must‐read for Asian practitioners and academicians. A supplementary paper by Wirtz and Loveluck documents the growth of the service sector in Asia and discusses the key drivers of this growth. The book encompasses a broad geographic area, with cases and research insights from China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. Perhaps the second edition can go beyond and investigate more cases and research data coming from other markets like Indonesia, Vietnam, and even Australia and New Zealand, to make it truly Asia‐Pacific in nature. The classic American cases shown in the original book of Loveluck are still acceptable for this publication but should now be updated and presented in comparison with Asian cases for a more relevant discussion.

There are also distinguishing features of the book that make it an essential reference material or textbook for MBA and MS marketing students. For one, it has a strong managerial orientation and strategic focus with a number of conceptual frameworks that can be debated during classroom discussions. Since the service sector is characterized by diversity, these models may be reviewed in the context of multi‐national corporations and locally owned small and medium‐sized business enterprises such as restaurants, laundries, taxis, placement and security agencies. The Asian cases cited towards the end portion of the book provide an interesting piece of argumentation and debate and what courses of action to take if the local scenario of a particular country is used as the frame of reference.

The use of CRM or customer relationship management was likewise implied in a number of discussions of various chapters which stress the need for information technology in the service delivery system. While it is true that there is nothing like talking face to face in dealing with regular patrons, the advent of CRM has accelerated and facilitated the nature of service delivery.

The book’s 18 chapters are subdivided into five parts:

1. 1.

   (1) understanding services;

2. 2.

   (2) focus on customers and managing relationships;

3. 3.

   (3) creating value in a competitive market;

4. 4.

   (4) planning and managing service delivery; and

5. 5.

   (5) issues for senior management.

Supplementary readings and cases in the Asian setting spice up the chapters and crystallize the concepts presented in each chapter.

Part 1 provides the readers an understanding of what service means, particularly in a modern economy. It pursues an integrated approach to service management, not simply services marketing, by discussing its two other important functions: service operations; and human‐resource management. Thus, a services manager, such as a hotel manager, should be concerned with customer satisfaction, efficient operational systems, and productive employees who can deliver good service. While he looks at the bottom line figures at the end of the office day, he needs to monitor all such activities in an integrated way. Hence, adoption of the classic 4Ps of Philip Kotler is not enough in the service marketing arena. Eight components are now material to integrated service management: product elements of the intangible product; place to include cyberspace and time; the process; productivity and quality; people; promotion and education; physical evidence; and price and other costs of service.

Part 2 underscores the basic “STP” principles of marketing, which are segmentation, targeting and positioning. It is important to focus on who your customers are and to devote “quality” time to the targeted customer. Gone are the days when companies target everyone and spend money and effort on the mass market. Market niche seems to be more appropriate and more cost‐efficient when customers have more particular needs and when companies have designed well‐delineated types of service positioned to a certain segment of the market.

Part 3 underscores the highly competitive setting of services marketing, and proposes that companies pursue a “sustainable competitive advantage” or SCA. A further probe on positioning is presented via the use of a “perceptual map,” to create service products unique from other competitors. Singapore Air Lines, for instance, has created an elegant, Asian airline experience that other Asian airlines and, for that matter, most international airlines cannot replicate. Jollibee Fast Food Chain in its operations in the Philippines has yet to be toppled by a multi‐national giant like McDonald’s since the former capitalizes on the unique Filipino taste experience. Internationally, Federal Express has lived up to its name of an express mail/cargo company.

SCA can therefore be evaluated with a more thorough analysis of the succession of service activities through “blueprinting,” which is a bit more complicated than flowcharting, but a must particularly when a service establishment expands in a more competitive environment. Once done, the authors recommend usual value‐based pricing since the service component itself is priceless; and customers will be more than willing to pay a premium price for that extra amount of service. Service promotion is likewise key in the integrated marketing communication mix; however, my personal view is that the book does not give sufficient space to word‐of‐mouth advertising when the issue is service, though it concedes that word‐of‐mouth is a powerful influence on other people’s decisions.

Part 4 discusses planning and managing service delivery. This is where the book broadens the traditional “place” component of the marketing mix by presenting a faster alternative to service delivery, which is electronic delivery. It also reiterates the SERVQUAL model popularized by Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman which highlights five broad dimensions of quality, namely tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Companies use the SERVQUAL instrument in assessing whether they have achieved quality and productivity in the workplace. Further, companies should create a balance between demand and capacity to create a differential advantage and should likewise maintain customer waiting lines and reservations to please all other customers.

The book ends with Part 5 which deals with issues for senior management, such as managing people in organizations, organizing for service leadership, global strategies in service management, technology and service strategy, and finally very relevant cases on services marketing in Asian countries.

The ultimate objective of services marketing is to create an intimate relationship with the targeted customers of the firm; hence, the new buzzword “customer intimacy.” Advertising agencies have long known that clients judge campaigns to be effective only if the desired response or responses are achieved. In service marketing, the key response that companies should aim to elicit from among their customers is a simple expression of “Wow”! If at each stage of customer contact, the customer in Asia claims the experience as a “Wow” experience, then, services marketing will be world class.