Prepared by Kerry Kuhn, Griffith University

1
 Chapter 12

Integrated Marketing Communications

for Services

2
 Learning Objectives

1. Appreciate the need for an integrated

approach to marketing communications for
services
2. Understand the role of the marketing mix in
communicating with customers of a service
3. Discuss the role of the promotional mix in
marketing communications for services
4. Examine the growing use of the internet in
promoting services

3
 Learning Objectives

5. Examine the advertising of services

6. Explore sales promotions for services
7. Present the role of personal selling in
services
8. Discuss the role of public relations and viral
(word-of-mouth) marketing for services

4
 Chapter Outline

I. Introduction
II. Services and Integrated Marketing
Communications
III. Marketing Communications and Services
IV. The Promotional Mix
V. Advertising the Service
VI. Sales Promotions and Services

5
 Chapter Outline (cont’d)

VII. Personal Selling and Services

VIII. Publicity and Services
IX. Promoting Services on the Internet
X. Summary and Conclusion

6
 Services and Integrated
Marketing Communications

• Integrated marketing communications

refers to the pursuit of a single positioning
concept for an organisation or its products

• This is achieved by planning, coordinating

and unifying all its communication devices
(Schultz, Tannenbaum and Lauterborn 1996)

7
 Marketing Communications and
Services

• Most services are intangible and this creates

challenges for service marketers

• Tangibilising the service means making the

service more concrete, thus enabling
customers to understand it better
(Shostack 1977)

8
 Marketing Communications and
Services (cont’d)

• Some firms offer giveaways, use

trademarks, symbols or standardise
processes

(e.g. an accounting firm might give a

brochure, a calculator and monthly
newsletters to reinforce their service)

9
 The Promotional Mix for Services

• The services promotional mix consists of:

– Advertising
– Sales promotions
– Personal selling
– Publicity and public relations
– Direct mail
– Internal personnel branding

10

10
 Advertising the Service

• Advertising objectives
• Guidelines for advertising services
• Enhancing the vividness of services
advertising

11

11
 Advertising objectives

• Goals are to make customers aware and to

influence their purchase decisions:
– AIDA: achieving customers’ attention,
interest, desire and action

• Advertising must reflect a customer-

orientation philosophy using appropriate
media

12

12
 Guidelines for advertising services

• Provide tangible cues

• Capitalise on word-of-mouth communication
• Make the service understood
• Establish advertising continuity
• Advertise to employees
• Promise what is possible

13

13
14
 Enhancing the vividness of
services advertising

• A vividness strategy is an advertising

approach for service offerings that uses
concrete language, tangible objects, and
dramatisation techniques to tangibilise the
intangible

15

15
 Enhancing the vividness of
services advertising (cont’d)

• Interactive imagery uses pictorial

representations, verbal associations and
letter accentuations that combine an
organisation's name and its service to
establish a strong link between service name
and performance in customers’ minds

16

16
 Sales Promotions and Services

• Sales promotions
– Attract customers
– Accommodate cyclical demand (change
promotions to suit all climates and trends)
– Enhance customers’ perception of the
service
– Add tangibility — try to tangiblise the
intangibles, giving customers something
to hold on to

17

17
 Personal Selling and Services

• Some specific strategies on the selling of

services:
– Design and coordinate the service
purchase
– Facilitate quality assessment
– Tangibilise the service
– Emphasise organisational image and
reputation

Source: Adapted from George, William R., J. Patrick Kelly, and Claudia E. Marshall (1983), “Personal Selling of Services,”
in Emerging Perspectives on Services Marketing, L..L. Berry, G. L Shostack and G. D. Upah (eds.), Chicago: American
Marketing Association, 65–67.

18
 Personal Selling and Services (cont’d)

– Use references external to the

organisation
– Recognise the importance of all public
contact service personnel
– Recognise customer involvement and
co-production during the service design
and consumption process

Source: Adapted from George, William R., J. Patrick Kelly, and Claudia E. Marshall (1983), “Personal Selling of Services,”
in Emerging Perspectives on Services Marketing, L..L. Berry, G. L Shostack and G. D. Upah (eds.), Chicago: American
Marketing Association, 65–67.

19
 Public Relations, Publicity
and Services

• Service organisations gain tremendously

from good publicity
– The best publicity an organisation
receives comes from happy customers

• Service organisations must have plans in

place to overcome or control negative
publicity when it occurs

20

20
21
 Promoting Services on the Internet

• The internet is one of the fastest growing

vehicles for service promotion
• A distinct medium for transmitting information
• It enables service organisations to access and
target narrow segments of customers in novel
and interactive ways
• Website design is now a key feature
• Key criteria for good website design includes
speed, efficiency, effectiveness and recency,
and creative visual impact
22

22
 Promoting Services on the Internet
(cont’d)

• A site needs to:

– Be easy to use and navigate
– Be able to present information in simple
language
– Have a secure payment format
– Have the ability to search and automatically
generate suggestions to help consumers find
what they want
– Include an inventory of services/products on
offer
23

23
 Promoting Services on the Internet
(cont’d)

• A site needs to:

– Be able to build a positive attitude to achieve
repeat visits
– This is known as the quality of ‘stickiness’ —
the site is attractive, encouraging the user to
stay longer and make return visits, generating
free viral or word-of-mouth communication
• Advertisements can attract customers to
online sources of information and retailer
websites
24

24
 Promoting Services on the Internet
(cont’d)

• Cyberspace advertisements are used as a

promotional device for services
– cyberspace coupons
– contests

• Service organisations combine email

communication with internet capabilities to
create a powerful combination of promotion
and selling

25

25
 Summary of marketing
communications strategy

Human Resources
Operations Input Input

Marketing Objectives
Communication Objectives

Marketing Communications
Traditional Promotion Mix
Front Line Role
Physical Evidence

Implicit Role of
Value, Pricing and Service Quality

26

26
 Chapter summary

• Services and Integrated Marketing

Communications
• Marketing Communications and Services
• The Promotional Mix
• Advertising the Service
• Sales Promotions and Services
• Examine the advertising of services
27

27
 Chapter summary (cont’d)

• Explore sales promotions for services

• Present the role of personal selling in
services
• Discuss the role of public relations and viral
(word-of-mouth) marketing for services

28

28
29

29