activity: identifying service dominant products

This activity is designed to highlight the diversity and prevalence of products where the service component is the dominant product component.

Task: Please read this narrative of a fictional student – Jennifer. Then identify the products where service is the dominant product component. Also, identify the needs that are biogenic [for the body] or psychogenic [for the mind]. The activity also highlight how other customers may have a positive and/or negative impact on a customer evaluations of satisfaction; for example – how do other gym members [people] impact on Jennifer’s gym experience? Then complete Tasks 1-4 at the bottom of the page.

Scenario: Jennifer is a marketing student. It is Monday morning; her radio alarm clock springs to life with a gaggle of cheerful presenters, and her sister yells at her to turn it off. She wonders; how can radio presenters be so happy at 6:30am on a wet, windy, winter’s morning? It is not human. She concludes that they must be paid a lot of money. Jennifer then turns on the light, slips into her gym clothes, pushes her way into her sports shoes, and runs down the stairs. She says goodbye to her mother who is doing the Internet banking. She grabs her keys, opens the front door and dashes to her car whilst trying to avoid the rain. Jennifer starts her car and heads off to the gym.

On the way to the gym Jennifer listens to the weather report on the radio – wet and windy. “Well you got that right,” she tells the radio. With this information, Jennifer makes the decision to catch the train to Uni; that way she will avoid the usual freeway delays that happen on days like this.  As Jennifer enters the recreation centre she observes that the bright lights and primary colours of the recreation centre contrast with the dullness of the morning. However, the mood of the receptionist is just as pessimistic as the morning. She seems more preoccupied watching Fox Sports on the large screen TV.

Jennifer swipes her member’s card. Once inside the gym she nods to the other regulars. Jennifer likes most of the other patrons; they are considerate and don’t hog the different pieces of equipment. However, there is one guy, George, who really annoys her because he never wipes his sweat off the equipment. Jennifer’s mood prompts her to complain to the gym instructor. [The gym instructor, John, is in his early twenties and wants to be popular with everyone and is reluctant to say anything]. Jennifer’s in no mood to back down and tells John rather loudly. “I shouldn’t have to clean his sweat off the equipment, if you don’t tell him to comply with the rules I will.” Later, George gives Jennifer a dirty look, which motivates one of the older ladies to comment, “don’t worry about what George thinks; he is a slob; I hope he never comes back; you did the right thing.”

With her gym routine over Jennifer drives home, showers, has breakfast and accepts a lift to the train station with her father. Her father works in a city insurance company and always catches the train. On the way to the train station they stop at the mailbox to post a birthday card for her grandmother [Jennifer often finds that her Grandmother is on Facebook funny but her father still send her greeting cards]. The train is relatively full with a mix of school children, university students, and workers. The train makes good time. From the train station Jennifer catches the shuttle bus, which drops her of in the university car park. After a quick dash in the rain, Jennifer enters her seminar room – week 6 of marketing principles and practices.

After the lecture, Jennifer and her friends, Jody and Lee, get together over a coffee and a muffin and discuss their weekend activities. Jody has a new guy in her life, she met him online, and tells her friends all about their Saturday night date at a ‘fancy’ restaurant. Jennifer comments that she liked the photographs on Instagram. However, Jennifer’s other friend Lee is conflicted. Lee tells her friends that she is about to dump her new boyfriend. “He smokes; my clothes and hair stink after we have been out … You wouldn’t believe this, the other night he left me in the restaurant while he went outside to smoke…I am left in the restaurant feeling awkward and getting smiles of pity.”

Jody decides to make light of the situation and laughs “think about the money you will save on dry cleaning if you dump this guy.”

Jennifer then tells her friends all about her episode in the gym that morning.

After Uni, Jennifer catches the shuttle bus back to the train station. Jennifer remembers that she will need $12 to collect her dry cleaning and withdraws $50 from the ATM. Jennifer calls her mother from her mobile phone to organise a lift from the train station. On the way home, they call into the dry cleaners. Jennifer’s mum tells her about her day visiting a friend in hospital.

Arriving home, Jennifer opens her emails. Her car insurance is due and her credit card bill is bigger than she thought. Her mother notes the mood change and asks “spent too much on the credit card again?”

Jennifer nods in agreement.

Considerations 

• Consider the number of service dominant components in this activity.
• From your experience can other customers have a negative or a positive impact on a customer’s experience?
• Consider Jennifer’s gym experiences and the word of mouth to Jody and Lee could this influence their decision-making?

Task 1: Contrast the differences between a gym/training studio that operates using the selling concept versus one that uses the marketing concept. Which is more likely to achieve the 3 financial objectives of marketing and why?

Task 2: Jennifer’s friend Jody is about to purchase a gym/training studio membership. Using this as an example demonstrate your knowledge of the first time zone of the buyer decision process and the steps a typical consumer takes when selecting [or not selecting] a gym/training studio.

Task 3: F45 Training currently claims to be the world’s fastest growing training studio network. Visit the F45 Training website and then use F45 Training as an example when explaining any 4 of the product considerations as outlined in the e-book.

Task 4: Using any gym/training studio you select, rank the product components [goods, services, ideas, experiences, people, places] in your order from most important. In doing so you need to explain each component and justify your decision.