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The Service IndustriesJournalPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fsij20

IntroductionHogg Gillion & Gabbott MarkPublished online: 28 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Hogg Gillion & Gabbott Mark (1998) Introduction, TheService Industries Journal, 18:3, 1-133, DOI: 10.1080/02642069800000028

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069800000028

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Introduction

Services marketing as an academic discipline has developed rapidly in the last twenty years. From humble beginnings as the 'stepchild' [Berry, 198 1 ] of goods marketing, services have become established as an area with specific needs and characteristics that deserve, if not demand, consideration. It has been suggested that any new discipline firstly needs to establish itself in terms of the old, to show that there is a reason for its existence by at least acknowledging, if not rejecting, what has gone before it. Hence the first services scholars were at pains to claim that services marketing is 'different' [Berry, 19811. From early attempts by Kotler [1977], Shostack [I9781 and Levitt [I9811 to describe products in terms of degrees of (in)tangibility we became convinced of the case for a services marketing discipline with its own characteristics, classification schemes and marketing approaches [see for example Lovelock 1983; Gronroos, 199 1 ; Gilmore and Carson, 19891. That battle having been won, services researchers have since apparently concentrated on establishing that in fact they are not 'different', that on the contrary, by considering products as 'bundles of benefits', services are central to marketing theory. Rust and Oliver [1994], for example, suggest that all products are services - we do not after all buy salt because it has any intrinsic value but because it performs a service, it alters the taste of food. Thus we reach a position where the so-called 'principles' of services marketing, encompassing customer relationships, are being fed back into goods marketing. For example, ideas about the definition and delivery of perceived quality, developed for the services arena, are now seen to have clear benefits in considering the marketing of tangible goods - ultimately all quality is perceived and it is customer perceptions that count.

So where does this apparent change of heart leave services marketing researchers? We would argue that services research is at the very forefront of marketing research, leading into the new millennium by developing new and innovative approaches. At the same time we are still attempting to establish the applicability of marketing concepts to services situations and, by doing so, illuminating and challenging some of the accepted ways of thinking. There is always room in any discipline to revisit the articles of faith, to re-examine long-held views in the light of different situations and as a result produce new insights. This type of services research has a long tradition in the United Kingdom and has produced a very strong vein of research output, particularly concentrated in specific sectors such as health or financial services, and there are a number of examples of this research included in this volume. We have tried to be eclectic in our selection, to go beyond the usual and try to present a broad range of papers reflecting the

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S E l i V I C E I N D I J S 1 K I E S M A K K E l INCi

content of the UK Services Marketing Workshop in 1996. The first paper in this volume, by Kathleen Mortinier and Brian

Mathews, explicitly adopts the premise that services are sufficiently 'different' to goods to warrant separate attention - in this case to the advertising strategy and tactics of service organisations. Their study identifies a number of elements of the communication mix in services proposed by researchers and tests a framework of the main dimensions of services advertising. In contrast the next two studies examine the applicability of marketing principles In specific service contexts. Angus Laing and his co-authors map the applicability of the buying centrc w~thin NI-IS primary care organisations, the rcsults of which clarify both the purchasing activity in this context and the dynamics of buying groups in general. Gregory Elliot and William Glynn's research is in the financial services sector, specifically retail banking, addressing the issue of segmentation and both the criteria for segmentation and the subsequent evaluation of the segments. Their 'portfolio'-bascd approach looks at the value to the institution of the various segments, which in tun1 allows thc bank to develop relationships with the different customer groups.

This theme of relationships runs throughout scvcral of the studies in this collection illustrating the close association between the new 'paradigm' [Gronroos, 19961 of relationship marketing and services marketing. The paper by Susan Hart and Gillian Hogg explores relationship marketing in a very old service industry, the legal profession. 'I'he relationship between lawyers and their clients has traditionally been reliant on personal relationships, frequently based on nepotism or contacts. l'his research looks at the new more competitive environment in which law firms now operate, viewing the relationship from a customer perspective, identifying the variables that customers perceive as valuable in the management of the relationship. In complete contrast, the essay by Kathy Tyler, David McGirr and Edmund Stanley examines the very modern, technologically based relationship in financial service organisations. The increasing reliance of financial services on technology and the potential for technology in underpinning corporate relationships are examined within one particular financial service organisation which is leading the way in the development of virtual organisations.

From a virtual organisation to a very real situation, Eric Arnould, Linda Price and Patrick Tierney investigate the ~4ildemess servicescape. l'his concept, known as com~nunicativc staging, concentrates on how the wilderness is presented to, and interpreted by, the service consumers. By drawing on shared cultural narratives over a river-rafting trip, the authors explore attitudes towards the wilderness servicescapc. However, they also relate their perceptions of a natural service environment to a built servicescape, comparing their findings to the work of Bitner [I9921 and

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INTRODUCTION 3

pointing to several aspects of servicescapes overlooked or taken for granted in a built environment. The service setting is also discussed in Ray Fisk, Steve Grove and Michael Dorsch's paper. They view service encounters in terms of their theatrical nature, which incorporates actors, setting, audience and the service performance combining in a dramatic performance. They investigate two aspects of this, the events which lead customers to report satisfactory or unsatisfactory experiences, and the relative importance of the various theatrical components. The results identify clusters of consumers based on their reaction to the various elements of the service drama.

The final two studies are particularly interesting in terms of methodology. Helen Bussell uses a Q-methodology to identify the criteria parents employ in their choice of primary school. Whilst the study concludes, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the child's happiness is the parents' overriding concern, the application of this methodology combines the advantages of quantitative and qualitative methods, allowing an in-depth consideration of parents views, whilst at the same time ranking a large number of criteria and allowing for rigorous analysis of the key elements. Alan Wilson's paper, in contrast, is about a method for monitoring service delivery, mystery shopping. Mystery shopping is a technique used increasingly in practice that has received relatively little consideration from academics. Given the acknowledged difficulties in assessing quality in service industries, this type of participant observation has possibilities as a means of measuring and managing the service delivery process.

It is apparent that the current state of the discipline is very eclectic; services marketing research is a broad church, with room to accommodate -

various approaches and research agendas. None can claim to be the core of the discipline as all have validity and add to the strength of the area. Even if, ultimately, we reject the need for a separate toolset for services marketing, it is apparent that services present challenges that are worthy of attention from researchers and that many of our long-held principles of marketing may require a degree of contextualisation. This process should not be seen as 'one way traffic'. Services dominate the world economy, cross national boundaries and cultures, and contribute toward competitive advantage; before long the step-child will become a powerful adult and we hope this volume will contribute to the growth of the discipline.

GIL1,IAN H O G G

M A R K G A B B O T T Stirling. Decernher 1997

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