Marketing

Posted: September 6th, 2013

Marketing

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Introduction

            Service Marketing refers to a messaging activity that is undertaken by a company before it realizes profits from the payment of the service. It attempts to reach a variety of consumers by familiarizing them with the benefits of the service. The service is intangible; therefore, the consumer does not have physical ownership. Service marketing involves attracting and persuading consumers to use the service offered by the company. It is based on various concepts, which include the level of consumer satisfaction, service branding and quality of service.

Application

Customer gap

             Customer gap is measured by the difference in the expectation and perception of the service delivered. The first gap represents the disparity between what the customers expect from the service and how the management of the company perceives their expectations. The second gap represents the difference between disparity between the management’s perception on the expectations of the customers and the process of converting the perceptions into specifications and designs of service quality. The third gap represents the difference between the specifications of service quality and the actual service the customers receive and the fourth gap shows the difference of service the customers receive and the company’s promise to the customers about service quality (Zeithaml et al, 2005). The article Cloud Wars: Google Strikes back with ‘Google Drive’, illustrates Google’s venture into the cloud-computing market (Kain, 2012, April 24). The customer gap in this case is shortened by providing the services that meet customer needs. The article shows that consumers of Google products are complacent with the services and they can run their errands comfortably on online programs. The specifications of the service quality are in line with the customer expectations.

Blueprinting

Service blueprinting is an innovative technique used by companies to market their services. It encapsulates the creation of customer expectations through customer interactions, determining the roles of the employees, execution of promised services and IT support processes.

The IT support processes in Google’s case refers to the desktop and mobile applications and they are the PC, MAC, android and IOS respectively. Therefore, it refers to customer actions, on stage, back stage actions, and support processes. The company’s processes on above and below the line of visibility to the customer are represented graphically. Through the interaction of customers and Google marketers, Google was able to identify the expectations of customers and execute the promises the company made about the application. According to the Kain (2012, April 24), users get five gigabytes of free storage from Google drive, which adds more convenience with the PC desktop application.

Strategies and Applications

To ensure efficacy in Google’s service process, the company employed certain strategies. The convenience created by the PC desktop application by replacement of the old Docs interface is evidently a complexity reduction strategy. Consumers using other Google products are at an advantage since their work is made easier with the Google Drive. This strategy increases user loyalty on Google products and the consumers establishes a comfort zone with promoted satisfaction. However, the complexity of can be increased to enhance efficiency and Google has applied this approach in the large of Google Drive’s Maximum file size for uploads (Kain, 2012, April 24). To thrive in the competitive cloud computing market, Google Drive is relatively affordable with a premium pricing of 25 GB for $30 per year. Therefore, Google intends to get a larger market share with its improved services. Google Drive is used for various web-based games in the gaming industry.

References

Kain, E. (2012, April 24). Cloud Wars: Google Strikes Back with ‘Google Drive’. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/04/24/cloud-wars-google-strikes-back-with-google-drive/

Zeithaml, A. V., Bitner. J. M., Gremler, D. D. (2005). Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus across the Firm. The University of California: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.