End of a session..

We are at a crossroads..

We will always be. And the important thing will be to decide how far down each road do we travel as a marketer. This is not really a end of session-the discussions that have been had so far have actually opened up a vista of perspective so huge that everything that has a price around us has a new dimension from which we can look at it. It is a fascinating thing which I personally did not expect. 

Initially when I received this task of writing a blog about topics we discussed in class, I thought it was a pretty mundane task. But it was truly a very remarkable thing I went through. usually, the word inspiring reads a bit top heavy and heady for a 23 year old, but inspired from this blog about marketing, I have started and am determined to continue writing a new blog about how individuals who indulge in Online Multiplayer Games actually make a very heavy use of management skills and unknowingly deploy managerial concepts (albeit without an idea that they are actually doing so!) with such skill that it could be a good example of the phrase 'bordering on the ridiculous'. I will soon share the link for it on this blog once I have it up and running.

This blog, however, will not be a dead space. Now that the point of view of the author has been delivered, it will be used next to continue and encourage discussions on the unending topic of marketing. New concepts, the next definition of marketing, debates and conspiracy theories about existing topics etc. will now be the fodder for this space. That is why the topic is called end of session. I do not really feel like ending this post on a light note. That is why, I am going to order a Mc'Donalds combo meal with a Mc'Chicken sandwich, a coke float and large fries first thing in the morning. That ought to make it pretty heavy.

Ameya Sawadkar, signing off the session. Thank you for your immeasurable patience!
:)

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Target marketing is comprised of the terms mentioned above-Market Segmentation, Market Targeting and Market Positioning. 

Segmentation:

Market segmentation involves grouping your various customers into segments that have common needs or will respond similarly to a marketing action. Each segment will respond to a different marketing mix strategy, with each offering alternate growth and profit opportunities. Broadly segmentation is the process of dividing the target market into groups based on considerations that may include one or more or all of the following factors:

• Geographic segmentation: based on world region, country, city, topography, climate etc.
• Demographic segmentation: based age, gender, family size, income, occupation, nationality etc.
• Psychographic segmentation: based on personality, class, social preferences etc.
• Behavioral segmentation: based on occasions, benefits, user preferences etc.

Targeting:

After segmenting the market based on the different groups and classes, you will need to choose your targets. No one strategy will suit all consumer groups, so being able to develop specific strategies for your target markets is very important.

There are three general strategies for selecting your target markets:

• Undifferentiated Targeting: This approach views the market as one group with no individual segments, therefore using a single marketing strategy. This strategy may be useful for a business or product with little competition where you may not need to tailor strategies for different preferences.

• Concentrated Targeting: This approach focuses on selecting a particular market niche on which marketing efforts are targeted. Your firm is focusing on a single segment so you can concentrate on understanding the needs and wants of that particular market intimately. Small firms often benefit from this strategy as focusing on one segment enables them to compete effectively against larger firms.

• Multi-Segment Targeting: This approach is used if you need to focus on two or more well defined market segments and want to develop different strategies for them. Multi segment targeting offers many benefits but can be costly as it involves greater input from management, increased market research and increased promotional strategies.

Positioning:

Positioning is developing a product and brand image in the minds of consumers. It can also include improving a customer's perception about the experience they will have if they choose to purchase your product or service.  The business can positively influence the perceptions of its chosen customer base through strategic promotional activities and by carefully defining your business' marketing mix.

Effective positioning involves a good understanding of competing products and the benefits that are sought by your target market. It also requires you to identify a differential advantage with which it will deliver the required benefits to the market effectively against the competition. Business should aim to define themselves in the eyes of their customers in regards to their competition.

Segmentation:

In India Mc'Donalds segments its market according to its customers. 

The way customers are segmented are as follows :-

1) on basis of age

2) on basis of income

3) on basis of working class

Targeting:

Mc'donald's targets nations all over the world. It expands itself by targeting specific number of franchises that it will open in a particular nation & then may even open more if required based on demand. Today, Mc'Donald's values transcend borders and cultures. Each and every day, 47 million consumers worldwide visit Mc'Donald's because they know and love the Golden Arches, Ronald McDonald and Big Mac sandwiches.

From one restaurant in 1955, to more than 31,000 locations in 119 countries, McDonald's has become not only the leading global foodservice company, but also one of the strongest and most recognized brand names in the world. 

Brand Positioning:

McDonald's has placed considerable emphasis on enhancing its brand positioning through the general mediums of TV and print. OOH advertisement has also been widely used by McDonald's to tap into its target base of audience residing in metropolitan areas.

Basically, they have a hang of what kind of a burger do you like, what do you like with your burger, how do you like eating it and when do you like eating your burger combo meal! Seems I was wrong-they got to me anyway.

ATL, BTL and Integrated Marketing Communication

Most outdated (if I may) definitions of IMC seem to say that it is an approach to use effectively all the promotional methods and means together for promotion of an activity via a seamless experience. However, a more contemporary (and therefore more easily agreeable) definition of the same thing includes the specific words creative campaigns and marketing strategies bringing it closer to the actual IMC practices. The one definition I could agree upon has been stated in the following manner:

True IMC is the development of marketing strategies and creative campaigns that weave together multiple marketing disciplines (paid advertising, public relations, promotion, owned assets, and social media) that are selected and then executed to suit the particular goals of the brand.

Prior to the emergence of integrated marketing communications during the 1990s, mass communications – the practice of relaying information to large segments of the population through television, radio, and other media – dominated marketing strategy. Marketing was once used as a one-way feed. Advertisers broadcasted their offerings and value proposition with little regard for the diverse needs, tastes, and values of consumers.

Often, this "one size fits all" approach was costly and ineffective due to its general inability to measure results in terms of sales. As methods for collecting and analyzing consumer data through single-source technology such as store scanners improved, marketers were able to correlate promotional activities with consumer purchasing patterns. Companies also began downsizing their operations and expanding marketing tasks within their organizations. Advertising agencies were also expected to understand and provide all marketing functions – not just advertising – for their clients. Therefore, the importance of IMC keeps rising as the world of advertisements shifts paradigms constantly.

A very interesting analogy I came across on the internet which helped me understand IMC better is something I have shared below-people with a sweet tooth and a decent enough knowledge about the names of end-of-food delicacies will certainly enjoy this particular image!

ATL (Above The Line) Promotion:

ATL is a type of advertising through media such as television, cinema, radio, print, and Out-of-home to promote brands or convey a specific offer. This type of communication is conventional in its nature and is considered impersonal to customers. It differs from BTL advertising, which uses unconventional brand-building and promotional strategies, such as direct mail, sales promotions, flyers, point-of-sale, telemarketing and printed media (for example brochures) – and usually involves no motion graphics. It is much more effective than when the target group is very large and difficult to define.

BTL (Below The Line) Promotion: 

BTL sales promotion is an immediate or delayed incentive to purchase, expressed in cash or in kind, and having short duration. It is efficient and cost-effective for targeting a limited and specific group. It uses less conventional methods than the usual ATL channels of advertising, typically focusing on direct means of communication, most commonly direct mail and e-mail, often using highly targeted lists of names to maximize response rates. BTL services may include those for which a fee is agreed upon and charged up front.
BTL is a common technique used for "touch and feel" products (consumer items where the customer will rely on immediate information rather than previously researched items). BTL techniques ensures recall of the brand while at the same time highlighting the features of the product.
Another BTL technique involves sales personnel deployed at retail stores near targeted products. This technique may be used to generate trials of newly launched products. It helps marketers establish one-to-one relationship with consumers while mass promotions, by definition, make it difficult to gauge consumer-response, except at the time of sales. Examples include tele-marketing, road shows, promotions, in- shop and shop-front activities, display units.

McDonald’s has operated with a very simplistic marketing strategy by using Above The Line marketing techniques like television, OOH and print media. This is also because McDonald’s already had global brand equity, therefore to make waves in India; the brand just had to resort to the basic marketing techniques.

.

McDonald’s started out its marketing campaign in the form an advertisement it had rolled out post its arrival. Since the very beginning, the brand has employed conventional mediums of print and television to promote itself.

Through the years the brand has rolled out different campaigns on Television to build its brand image. Starting out with the “McDonald’s mai hai kuch baat” campaign,  to the “aapke zamane mein baap ke zamane ke daam” and the  world wide "I am lovin it!"campaign. Till this day, in order to promote its products, McDonald’s is heavily promoting it through television and OOH promotion.

In terms of tie-ups, sponsorship or events McDonald’s does not participate in anything nation-wide. Although it was the main sponsor of London Olympics. In India, the conventional mediums like television and print give the brand the mileage it needs, and today McDonald’s enjoys a healthy brand equity in India.

Though I was never enticed by the 'I'm lovin it' campaign and tagline, it is true (yes-confessions coming up..) that I have been a regular Mc'Donalds customer in Pune and might just have a dubious record of having eaten the largest number of combo meals (Here I quote myself-"not a burger, not a beverage and not a single serving of fries-A whole COMBO!") with Mc'Chicken sandwich the most preferred-it was “aapke zamane mein baap ke zamane ke daam” that definitely caught my attention like that of so many others in my college, my neighborhood, area, city, state and country. That augmented with the advertisements has been IMC enough to make people wait in literal lines that extended upto the doors of the store. I might have said I am not a big fan of the brand, but exhaustive (!) research on the topic has to some extent convinced me to unquote myself here. I stand corrected today-not yet a loyalist, but definitely not in the bucket I was when I started this blog.

Sales Management

Here is what experts have to say about what exactly sales management is:

A sales manager can have a narrow or a broad spectrum of responsibilities including the following: estimate demand and prepare sales forecasts; establish sales force objectives and quotas; prepare sales plans and budgets; establish the size and organization of the sales force; recruit, select, and train the sales force; compensate the sales force; control and evaluate sales performances.

- Robert D. Hisrich and Ralph W. Jackson, Selling and Sales Management

Good sales management properly applied is the least expensive, most effective, way to increase dollars of revenue and margins, market share, cash flow, return on investment, and net present value, as well as to beat the competition and make yourself a hero. . . . It costs no more to properly hire, train, compensate, motivate, and evaluate salespeople. Effective time and territory management, forecasting, planning, budgeting, and good communication and control are no more expensive than performing these same functions poorly.

- Robert J. Calvin, Sales Management

Sales management: The attainment of sales force goals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, staffing, training, directing, and evaluating organizational resources.

- Charles M. Futrell, Fundamentals of Selling

Usually, organizations have to find potential consumers by employing sales personnel in order to build revenue and profits. Hence from the opinions of the experts and the function and objective of sales related personnel, we can safely say that-

'Sales management is a practice of obtaining maximum/optimum benefits for both the consumer and the organization through the actions of its sales workforce.'

Functions of sales management are described in the image displayed below:

 For Mc'Donalds, sales management would not include functions different from the conventional ones as these would be similar pretty much over the entire paradigm of sales management. These include:

1. Sales planning
2. Recruiting/ Staffing
3. Training
4. Controlling/ Directing
5. Evaluating
6. Effectiveness/ Efficiency
7. Compensation

Effective sales management requires ongoing involvement with the sales force. But effective sales management has numerous positive impacts. It can make the following happen:

Increase sales revenue and profitability

Decrease variability of revenue due to inaccurate forecasting

Increase sales productivity (revenue per salesperson)

Increase customer satisfaction and loyalty

Increase salesperson motivation

This notion of having all your sales functions planned and executed clinically makes the tasks that lie ahead sound extremely doable as you have taken care of things like recruiting the best sales staff, their loyalty, motivation and all the factors required to keep your sales staff your own. Not a very easy task at any given point of time and any given organization as sales is a function which can easily take the life and energy out of an individual. Therefore, it becomes a job of prime import that a business gets its sales management and planning right. Like always, I had wanted to add an anecdote or a light note at the end of this post too, but the gravity of sales is such that wit fails (falls..after all we are talking gravity here!) me and I give in to the importance of Sales management.

Organizational Buying Behavior

Very formally, Organizational Buying is the decision making process by which formal organizations establish the need for purchased products and services and identify, evaluate and choose among alternative brands and suppliers.

In non-Italics, the organizational buying is a process which the organization undertakes to come to a decision about purchase related to the needs of manufacturing, sustaining the organization and get the best deal out of the entire thing.

The organizational buying process is a systematic step wise process which can be summarized using the following model:

With a few differences in context, the organizational buying process is very similar to that of the consumer, differences being the objective of buying and the end user. In case of the organization, the buying will have objectives that will lead to manufacturing of goods and services for consumer, organization or society. If we refer the post that talked about consumer buying process, in comparative terms, the objectives of buying in that context are much more micro sized as compared to the organizational goals.

The differences between the two have been classified below:

There are a few factors that play an important role in the buying process in case of an organization. They have been summarized below:

Environmental factors:
Factors like dependency, availability, movability, changes in the technology with respect to the item etc are the factors that come into play during the buying process.

Organizational factors:
Changes on the organizational level, type of purchasing adopted (centralized/decentralized) or changes in purchasing practices etc. will come into play.

Interpersonal factors:
Relationships between buyers and seller representatives from competing or collaborating companies.

Individual factors: 
The reaction of the buyer comes into play. The behavior and the kind of service that is obtained by the buyer determines his overall behavior towards the company and the overall organizational buying process.

The Mc'Donalds organizational buying would majorly consist of large scale sellers of potatoes, different kinds of meats and other foodstuffs.
There you go-from organizational buying to different sized French Fries of the highest quality-

Holistic and Sustainable Marketing

Holistic marketing is about creating and developing integrated strategies for brands, campaigns and sales tactics that consider the entire life-cycle of a product or service, crossing departmental boundaries within organisations. It takes a 360 degree view of all the elements of a business; including the elements of the business the customer doesn't usually see as well all customer-facing media, (traditional, digital and social channels) to create strong, consistent and powerful multi-platform marketing narratives.

A marketing strategy that is developed by thinking about the business as a whole, its place in the broader economy and society, and in the lives of its customers. It attempts to develop and maintain multiple perspectives on the company’s commercial activities. (source)

A holistic marketing concept is based on the development, design, and implementation of marketing programs, processes, and activities that recognize their breadth and inter-dependencies. Holistic marketing recognizes that ‘everything matters’ with marketing and that a broad, integrated perspective is necessary to attain the best solution. Four main components of holistic marketing are: relationship marketing, integrated marketing,  internal marketing, and socially responsible marketing. (source)

It seems to be an approach wherein a marketer has the option to involve as many approaches to market the product as possible and integrate them together in order to create a overall, wholesome approach towards marketing. To understand how many approaches there can be to marketing, I came across this interesting link which is almost exhaustive to the point of tiredness about how many types of marketing there can ever be: http://chiefmartec.com/2010/12/131-different-kinds-of-marketing/

So imagine all of these types (definition wise more than one together) put together and working on the same product's marketing. Immense potential! The 'Dumb Ways to Die' campaign to increase awareness towards railway accidents can be considered a very wholesome example of holistic approach to a campaign. 

Another very interesting diagram I came across in my relatively holistic research is shown below:

Though the figure adheres to digital and traditional approaches only, imagine all the types of marketing in the link mentioned above at the roots of the tree that is the product-that is the scope of making product awareness we are looking at here!

Mc'Donalds thrives on TV, Newspaper, Word of Mouth, Digital in form of email, offers and social networking. Integration of even more options into this will definitely help the brand (not by making bolder the already strong footprint in the industry) but there is a definite scope of making the brand more interesting using the multiple options! Not because the brand is not interesting enough already-only because a different approach always acts as a distinct advantage over competition.

I usually tell people that the Mc'Chicken combo meal is totally worth the 180 rupees I pay. And I have also involved myself in some direct marketing by getting a couple of extra burgers a couple of times for people who trashed my claims. That was only a little something one can do for a brand you have really grown to appreciate by now..Wait-what?!

Pricing

Price of any entity can be called the amount of money or goods for which a thing is bought or sold. 

The price of a product may be valued equivalent to what it costs a consumer.
For a consumer, price is the amount of money invested equal to the value to be enjoyed/benefits of purchasing a product, as compared with other available items.

The concept of value has been already expressed in one of the previous posts as:

(perceived) VALUE = (perceived) BENEFITS – (perceived) COSTS

A customer’s motivation to purchase a product comes firstly from a need and a want:e.g.
• Need: 'I need to eat'
• Want: 'I would like to go out for a (combo) meal tonight'
The second motivation comes from a perception of the value of a product in satisfying that need/want (e.g. "I'd really love a Mc'Donalds").

The perception of the value of a product would almost always vary from customer to customer, because perceptions of benefits and costs vary.

Perceived benefits are often largely dependent on personal taste (e.g. spicy versus sweet, or mayonnaise versus ketchup). In order to obtain the maximum possible value from the available market, businesses try to ‘segment’ the market – that is to divide up the market into groups of consumers whose preferences are broadly similar – and to adapt their products to attract these customers.

In general, a products perceived value may be increased in one of two ways – either by:
(1) Increasing the benefits that the product will deliver, or,
(2) Reducing the cost.
For consumers, the PRICE of a product is the most obvious indicator of cost - hence the need to get product pricing right. 

This is exactly what Mc'Donalds has got right in India. They have identified that the age group doing most of the purchasing from them would be kids and teenagers with a purse limit that is not really very high. For a fact, prices offered by the brand are almost half those in the United States. This is compensated very smartly by the company by modifying the portion size in India. Served portions of burgers are relatively much smaller than those served elsewhere. That is how Mc'Donalds can still stay afloat in the competition even after pricing its food at a much lower rate than other players in the market.

Another phenomenal thing about our favorite product, the combo meal is that it is one of the very rare 'rather filling meals' which comes to the consumer in that 200 rupees range which is not really a pinch to the wallet for the value it provides. This kind of pricing also draws in other classes of customers and families (because yes-treats and parties are so much more economical-and they decorate the restaurant for you!). So when we are done with this long-short marketing session, lets switch off the internet for a while and then you know where there is a celebration!

Branding

After a lot of brainstorming and percolating down from around a million definitions available on the internet, I personally think that a Brand is a recognizable entity which has characteristics which act as clear differentiating factors from anything else in the entire global ecosystem. It seems to be one of the most important assets when it comes to a product (albeit, intangible yet again!).

Products make use of visual, audio or any other kind of branding trinkets in order to make their brand different from anyone else. These are things like Symbols, Logos, Mascots, Tunes, Jingles, Taglines, Names etc.

In case of Mc'Donalds, following would be the differentiating factors whose summation we could collectively term as the Branding of the franchise:

1.

The Golden Arches-one of the world's most recognizable logos-introduced in 1953, unchanged till date!

2.

A very interesting fact (and very relatable especially after you've read it) about Ronald Mc'Donald, the Mc'Donalds mascot is that this clown guy is one of the most photographed mascots in the world! Ronald has surely come some distance since 1963.

Another characteristic of a Brand would be its propagation according to the geographical sensibilities. As I can personally relate properly, I would use the example of the Indian launch wherein Mc'Donalds had to drop several high volume selling items from the menu as beef is really something that might have irked the common Indian sensibilities. So what do they do-they come up with something the Indian fast foodie has always loved! The Mc'Aaloo tikki and the Chicken Mc'Grill. And this came as a very welcome modification with the very smart pricing strategy (about which we will soon be talking!).

Mc'Donalds has ever since been targeting children and those who are children in spite of physically having passing that particular age bracket. Due to the nature of the chirpy ads, children centric campaigns and the more recent attempts at wooing the child inside a large intended audience, Mc'Donalds comes across as a very fresh and lively brand.

A very interesting list which reflects on this particular statement:

·         1961 - Look for the Golden Arches

·         1967 - McDonald's is your kind of place

·         1971 - You deserve a break today

·         1975 - We do it all for you

·         1975 - Two all beef patties special sauce lettuce, cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun - This was never an official company slogan

·         1976 - You, you're the one

·         1977 - You'll enjoy the difference - In UK

·         1979 - Nobody can do it like McDonald's can

·         1980 - You deserve a break today

·         Early 1980s - At McDonald's we've got time for you - United Kingdom

·         1981 - Nobody makes your day like McDonald's can

·         1983 - McDonald's and you

·         1984 - It's a good time for the great taste of McDonald's

·         1985 - It's Mac Tonight

·         1988 - Good time, great taste (that's why this is our place)

·         Late 1980s - There's nothing quite like a McDonald's

·         1990 - Food, folks and fun

·         1991 - McDonald's today - The entire jingle was "What you want is what you get at McDonald's today."

·         1992 - It's Mac time - Australia only

·         1992 - What you want is what you get

·         1993 - There's nothing quite like a McDonald's - United Kingdom

·         1993 - Do you believe in magic?

·         1994 - Make every day a McDonald's day - South Africa only

·         1994 - Rock On - Australia only? Featured David Essex' song "Rock On"

·         1995 - Have you had your break today?

·         1997 - My McDonald's

·         1997 - Did somebody say McDonald's?

·         1997 - Enjoy more - United Kingdom

·         1998 - Only McDonald's - Australia only

·         1990s - A visit to McDonald's makes your day - United Kingdom

·         1990s - McDonald's - It can happen - United States

·         1990s - Eddie the Echo - How ya doin'? How ya doin'? - United States

·         2000 - We love to see/make you smile

·         2000 - Put a smile on

·         2001 - There's a little McDonald's in everyone - Canada only

·         2001 - Things that make you go 'mmm' - Australia, UK and New Zealand

·         2002 - Every time a good time

·         2002 - Smile

·         2003 - me encanta - The Justin Timberlake slogan song

·         2003 - i'm lovin' it - The Justin Timberlake slogan song

·         2005 - Feed your inner child - An advertisement shown in Australia showed various adults in suspended animation, and having child versions coming out of them

·         2007 - Things that make you go 'mmm' - Breakfast us

Interesting. I can be loving it. Because it constantly evolves, it pays attention to its customers' requirements and locations and priorities and you have to admit-they have a marvelous job with the arches and the clown.

Services and Service marketing

Before jumping into the marketing side of services, I believe we must have a clear understanding of what distinguishes a service and a product. 

A service can be classified as the action of doing something for someone or something. It is largely intangible. You cannot touch it. You cannot see it. You cannot taste it. You cannot hear it. You cannot feel it. So a service context creates its own series of challenges for the marketing manager since he or she must communicate the benefits of a service by drawing parallels with imagery and ideas that are more tangible.

A product on the other hand is tangible (i.e. material) since you can touch it or own it. A service tends to be an experience that is consumed at the point where it is purchased and cannot be owned since it quickly perishes. A person could go to a café one day and enjoy excellent service, and then return the next day and have a poor experience. Marketers talk about the nature of a service as being inseparable, intangible, perishable, homogeneous and variable.

A service and hence, its marketing has to have the following characteristics from the point of view of a marketer:

Inseparable, Intangible, Perishable, Homogeneous and Variable. Arguably, there could be more parameters involved depending upon the nature of the service provided. But by and large, any other parameters (which I would like to call customized fancy names for characteristics of a service by individual businesses) would end up falling into one of the five mentioned above as a perfect subset.

Inseparability

Inseparable - from the point where it is consumed, and from the provider of the service. For example, you cannot take a live performance from an opera house home to consume it. The consumer is actually involved in the production process that they are buying at the same time as it is being produced, for example a nose job or a makeover. One benefit would be that if you are unhappy with you makeover you can tell the beautician and that instant feedback means that the service quality is improved. You can't do that with a product. Another attribute is that services have to be close to the person consuming them i.e. goods can be made in a central manufacturing location which has the benefits of mass production. This localization means that consumption is inseparable from production.

Intangibility

Intangible - cannot have a real, physical presence as does a product. For example, insurance will provide you with a paper based proof of having bought it, but the financial service itself cannot be touched i.e. it is intangible. This makes it tricky to evaluate the quality of service prior to consuming it since there are fewer attributes of quality in comparison to a product. One way is to consider quality in terms of search, experience and credence.

Search quality is the perception in the mind of the consumer of the quality of the product prior to purchase through making a series of searches. So this is simple in relation to a tangible product because you might look at size or color for example. Therefore search quality relates more to products and services.

Experience quality is easier to assess. In terms of service you need to taste a burger or experience the service level. Therefore your experiences allow you to evaluate the level and nature of the service. You remember a great food time out because of the food or service, but by the same token you remember an awful time out because of the hopeless food or poor service.

Credence is based upon the credibility of the service that you undertake. This is down to the reputation of a practitioner of any sort. Credence is used where you have little knowledge of the topic and where you rely upon the professionalism of the expert.

Perish-ability

Perishable - in that once it has occurred it cannot be repeated in exactly the same way. For example, once a classical singer delivers a fantastic performance, it can be qualified as a perishable phenomenon. It might be that the performance is delivered somewhere else at some other point of time-but it will never be the same performance. You cannot put service in the warehouse, or store in your inventory. 

I came across this interesting argument about perish-ability goes like this, once a flight has taken off you cannot sell that seat again, hence the airline makes no profit on that seat. Therefore the airline has no choice but to price at peak when it sells a seat at busy times in order to make a profit.

So maybe that is why Mc'Donalds has happy hours for breakfast times (translates to quieter times), and it is the same for railway tickets and matinees in cinema halls during the middle of the week.

Variability

Variability- since the human involvement in service provision means that no two services will be completely identical, they are variable. For example, returning to the same service center time and time again for an update on your phone might see different levels of customer satisfaction, or speediness of work. If you watch your favorite band on DVD the experience will be the same every time you play it, although if you go to see them on tour when they are live no two performances will be identical for a whole variety of reasons. Even with the greatly standardized Mc'Donalds experience, there are slight changes in service, often through no fault of the business itself. Sometimes Saturday lunchtime will be extremely busy, on other days you may have to wait to go via the drive through. So services tend to vary from one user experience to another.

Homogeneity

Homogeneity is where services are largely the same (the opposite of variability above). We considered McDonald's above which is a largely homogeneous service, so now let's look at KFC and Pizza Hut. Both of these businesses provide a homogeneous service experience irrespective of the location. Consumers expect the same level of service and would not anticipate any huge deviation in their experience. Outside of the main brands you might expect a less homogeneous experience. If you visit your doctor he or she might give one interpretation, whereas another doctor might offer a different view. Your regular mechanic will suggest one thing whereas another would have something else to say altogether different. Therefore standardization is largely embodied by the large global brands which produce services.

Right of ownership is not taken to the service, since you merely experience it. For example, an engineer may service your air-conditioning, but you do not own the service, the engineer or his equipment. You cannot sell it on once it has been consumed, and do not take ownership of it.

So be very observant every next time you go visit Mc'Donalds, look closely at the way they greet you, the way they  talk with you and the way they position their offerings! Yes-before this blog you thought they were being nice (well some of them are being nice-genuinely) but now you know what they are trying to do-for the sake of both you and the brains behind the marketing strategist for the service. And yes-I have to admit, not once has an order taken more than 10 minutes in Mc'Donalds. Amazing again-not the service, but the way I just indirectly participated in marketing of Mc'Donalds services..