The marketing is essential, it is one of the most important elements for every company that aim to be competitive in the ongoing turbulent environment (Porter, 1989; Grönroos, 1990; Kotler et al., 2014; Walletzky, 2014) and it can be considered a relevant lever on which act to ensure the survival of every organized entity (Urde, 1994; Naidoo, 2010; Barile et al., 2014; Del Giudce et al., 2016). Accordingly, along the time the marketing has attracted an increasing attention from researchers and practitioners active in multiple research fields (Dibb, 2005). Multiple contributions have been provided in terms of ’new’ marketing approaches, models, tools, and instruments direct to better explain social and economic dynamics with the aim to improve companies’ performance. One of basic pillars on which modern marketing is based is the Marketing Mix. It has been formalized in the 60-ties of 20 century in terms of 4P (Product, Price, Placement, Promotion) (McCarthy, 1960) and it still represents a relevant part of many curricula of marketing courses. In the last decades several enlargements and/or modifications of traditional marketing mix have been proposed with the aim to ’adapt’ its general framework to specific contexts, domains, and situation. Building upon these reflections the paper focuses the attention on the service domain where the original marketing mix was enlarged to 7P (Zeithaml, 2006), presented as Service Marketing Mix. The enlargement is based in three more Ps: - People = All stakeholders that are in touch with the product - Physical Evidence = How customers recognize your product on the market - Process = How the product or the service is delivered Despite the relevant advancement in knowledge provided by this ’extension’ in terms of better understanding of service domain, the paper states that it cannot be considered enough to full explain service logics and dynamics. Accordingly, the paper underlines that the Service Marketing Mix is still strong affected by a product dominant logic and by a tangible view of market and relationships. Focusing the attention on the customer perspective, the paper underlines that a more holistic approach can be identified in Lauterborn (1990), where 4C are defined with the aim to shift the attention from the product to the customer. According to Lauterborn (1990), the 4C are: - Customer = Customer wants and needs - Costs = All expenses customer must pay to get the value - Convenience = How comfortable the customer feels - Communication = How do we communicate with the customer, how we get the feedback. Thanks to this contribution, some interesting elements of reflections can be identified in the light of the recent advancements in knowledge proposed by the Systems Thinking (Beer, 1979; Emery, 1969; Espejo, 1994; Forrester, 1994; Weinberg, 2011; Barile et al., 2012; Saviano and Caputo, 2012; Di Nauta et al., 2015) and the Service Dominant Logic (Lusch and Vargo, 2006; Vargo and Lusch, 2004; Barile and Polese, 2009; Merz et al., 2009; Caputo et al., 2016). With the aim to support an effective application of all these contributions in the field of IT companies, the paper proposes a brief literature review about marketing approaches in IT companies and it shows the few attention paid by consolidated views of Marketing Mix to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In such a line, the paper underlines that in consolidated marketing view, ICT is only considered as tool or channel for information, service and product distribution (Caputo and Walletzky, 2017; Caputo et al., 2017a; Caputo et al., 2017b). With the aim to bridge this gap, in 2014 there were proposed a new version of 7C Marketing mix under the name of Service Oriented Marketing Mix (Walletzky, 2014). This ’new’ version of mix aimed to underline the role of the services focusing the attention on the IT domain. The Service Oriented Marketing Mix focuses the attention on the customer emphasizing the role of ITC in ensuring the engagement and the value co-creation. This approach added the following three Cs to Lauterborn’s model: - Community = How the company is building its community. Contains not only real communities (similar to People in 7P), but also virtual communities in social networks. - Channels = How the information, knowledge and other elements are distributed. - Co-creation = How the customer is involved into the service creation. It is similar to Process, but it is directly customer oriented. From 2014 to 2017 7C marketing mix was applied in several IT companies in the city of Brno in Czech Republic offering several evidences about the applicability and the utility of Service Oriented Marketing Mix. Building upon this, the paper reports some applications of Service Oriented Marketing Mix in the IT companies located in Brno in Czech Republic with the aim to investigate its opportunities and limits. Afterworld, the main findings and consequential conclusions will be presented in the paper.
Service Marketing Mix and its usage: lessons provided by IT companies
Caputo Francesco
2017-01-01
Abstract
The marketing is essential, it is one of the most important elements for every company that aim to be competitive in the ongoing turbulent environment (Porter, 1989; Grönroos, 1990; Kotler et al., 2014; Walletzky, 2014) and it can be considered a relevant lever on which act to ensure the survival of every organized entity (Urde, 1994; Naidoo, 2010; Barile et al., 2014; Del Giudce et al., 2016). Accordingly, along the time the marketing has attracted an increasing attention from researchers and practitioners active in multiple research fields (Dibb, 2005). Multiple contributions have been provided in terms of ’new’ marketing approaches, models, tools, and instruments direct to better explain social and economic dynamics with the aim to improve companies’ performance. One of basic pillars on which modern marketing is based is the Marketing Mix. It has been formalized in the 60-ties of 20 century in terms of 4P (Product, Price, Placement, Promotion) (McCarthy, 1960) and it still represents a relevant part of many curricula of marketing courses. In the last decades several enlargements and/or modifications of traditional marketing mix have been proposed with the aim to ’adapt’ its general framework to specific contexts, domains, and situation. Building upon these reflections the paper focuses the attention on the service domain where the original marketing mix was enlarged to 7P (Zeithaml, 2006), presented as Service Marketing Mix. The enlargement is based in three more Ps: - People = All stakeholders that are in touch with the product - Physical Evidence = How customers recognize your product on the market - Process = How the product or the service is delivered Despite the relevant advancement in knowledge provided by this ’extension’ in terms of better understanding of service domain, the paper states that it cannot be considered enough to full explain service logics and dynamics. Accordingly, the paper underlines that the Service Marketing Mix is still strong affected by a product dominant logic and by a tangible view of market and relationships. Focusing the attention on the customer perspective, the paper underlines that a more holistic approach can be identified in Lauterborn (1990), where 4C are defined with the aim to shift the attention from the product to the customer. According to Lauterborn (1990), the 4C are: - Customer = Customer wants and needs - Costs = All expenses customer must pay to get the value - Convenience = How comfortable the customer feels - Communication = How do we communicate with the customer, how we get the feedback. Thanks to this contribution, some interesting elements of reflections can be identified in the light of the recent advancements in knowledge proposed by the Systems Thinking (Beer, 1979; Emery, 1969; Espejo, 1994; Forrester, 1994; Weinberg, 2011; Barile et al., 2012; Saviano and Caputo, 2012; Di Nauta et al., 2015) and the Service Dominant Logic (Lusch and Vargo, 2006; Vargo and Lusch, 2004; Barile and Polese, 2009; Merz et al., 2009; Caputo et al., 2016). With the aim to support an effective application of all these contributions in the field of IT companies, the paper proposes a brief literature review about marketing approaches in IT companies and it shows the few attention paid by consolidated views of Marketing Mix to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In such a line, the paper underlines that in consolidated marketing view, ICT is only considered as tool or channel for information, service and product distribution (Caputo and Walletzky, 2017; Caputo et al., 2017a; Caputo et al., 2017b). With the aim to bridge this gap, in 2014 there were proposed a new version of 7C Marketing mix under the name of Service Oriented Marketing Mix (Walletzky, 2014). This ’new’ version of mix aimed to underline the role of the services focusing the attention on the IT domain. The Service Oriented Marketing Mix focuses the attention on the customer emphasizing the role of ITC in ensuring the engagement and the value co-creation. This approach added the following three Cs to Lauterborn’s model: - Community = How the company is building its community. Contains not only real communities (similar to People in 7P), but also virtual communities in social networks. - Channels = How the information, knowledge and other elements are distributed. - Co-creation = How the customer is involved into the service creation. It is similar to Process, but it is directly customer oriented. From 2014 to 2017 7C marketing mix was applied in several IT companies in the city of Brno in Czech Republic offering several evidences about the applicability and the utility of Service Oriented Marketing Mix. Building upon this, the paper reports some applications of Service Oriented Marketing Mix in the IT companies located in Brno in Czech Republic with the aim to investigate its opportunities and limits. Afterworld, the main findings and consequential conclusions will be presented in the paper.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
