An Appraisal of Strategies and Challenges of Services Marketing in a Globalized Business Environment
Awara 1, Nsobiari Festus 1, Anyadighibe 1, Joseph A 1
Citation : Awara, Nsobiari Festus, Anyadighibe, Joseph A, An Appraisal of Strategies and Challenges of Services Marketing in a Globalized Business Environment International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research 2014 , 2(9) : 32-40
Services marketing is the provision of intangible offerings (services), whether business to consumer (B2C) or business to business (B2B) markets. This can be commonly found in telecommunications, air travel, health care, financial, car rental, and professional services. A globalized business environment is that which encompasses different sovereign countries with interplay of several factors exogenous to the home environment of a business organization and influencing decisions on resource use and capabilities. Such factors fundamentally include social, political, economic, cultural, legal and technological elements. This paper attempts to appraise the strategies and challenges of service marketing in a globalized business environment. The study adopted desk research using of relevant secondary data to draw generalization. Relying on secondary data, it was found that service marketing is influenced by the challenges of intangibility, perishability, heterogeneity, inseparability and nature of the service. Other factors such as socio-cultural, macroeconomic and inter-boundary barriers are found to relate with service marketing operations internationally. Based on the findings, the paper recommends that since service marketing is very competitive, strategies that revolve around the effective mobilization, adaptation and deployment of the seven (7) Ps of services marketing mix variables of product, place, pricing, promotion, people, physical evidence and processes will help a service marketer and/or provider gain competitive advantage in a globalized market place