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| Selling the InvisibleYou can’t touch, hear, or see your company’s most important products … so how do... + Full Story |
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| The Greatest Misconception About Service Marketing |
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In a free-association test, most people – including most people in business – will equate the word “marketing” with selling and advertising: publishing the goods. In this popular view, marketing means taking what you have and shoving it down buyer’s throats. “We need better marketing” invariably means “We need to get our name out” – with ads, publicity, and maybe some direct mail. Unfortunately, this focus on getting the word outside distracts companies from the inside, and from the first rule of service marketing: The core of service marketing is the service itself. This does not suggest that if you build a better service, the world will beat a path to your door. Many “better services” are foundering because of rotten marketing. Getting the work out and attracting people to flawed service is the preferred strategy for killing a service company. The first principle of service marketing is Guy Kawasaki’s first principle of computer marketing: Get better reality. “Better reality” in your service will make marketing easier, cheaper, and more profitable. In fact, some companies have improved their “reality” so much they can almost eliminate the “getting the word out” part of their marketing plans. The first step in service marketing is your service. Extract from “Selling the Invisible” by Harry Beckwith |