Tangibalising Intangibles and Intangibalising Tangibles
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Why 4Ps is not enough?
There is no one in the fraternity of marketing world around who wouldn’t know of 4Ps. The 4 Ps were first formally conceptualised in 1960 by E. Jerome McCarthy in the highly influential text, Basic Marketing, A Managerial Approach [1]. Ever since then, 4ps have been widely accepted and used as a mechanism of executing marketing strategies of bringing marketing strategies to life. In the late 70’s it was widely acknowledged by Marketers that the Marketing Mix should be updated. This led to the creation of the Extended Marketing Mix in 1981 by Booms & Bitner which added 3 new elements to the 4 Ps Principle.
Marketing of Tangibles Vs Intangibles
Marketing of tangibles or products would comparatively be easier as they are visible to the naked eye of the consumers. Therefore, the consumer always has the opportunity to touch and feel what s/he is going to buy prior to the actual point of purchase. There will always be opportunities to try the product out or to feel it and get an idea of what kind of a shape it would take etc. However, it’s not the same when it comes to selling of a service. It’s highly intangible, and unseen. With compared to the point of buying a car versus buying a motor car insurance, at the point of buying a car, the buyer would get enough satisfaction by seeing and touching her dream car and not only that, if required by taking a test drive etc. When it comes to the motor insurance of the same car, it’s impossible to have a trial or to touch and feel how the motor insurance would be like. On top of that, there will only be a piece of paper or a plastic card that is given to the policy holder. After paying couple of hundred thousands, all you get is just a plastic card. How does it make you feel to buy an insurance?
Whereas, the plastic card means to be an assurance or a guarantee that if anything happens while they are on the go or off the go, the insurer will take care of everything.
Intangibalising tangibles and Tangibalising intangibles
Jerome McCarthy
Bitner
As it’s evident not all products are 100% tangible or not all services are 100% intangible. A mobile hand-set may be 100% tangible and a consultancy service or legal advisory service may be 100% intangible. However, majority of the products or services that are available in the market are a combination of both aspects. For example, Pizza may be perceived as 100% tangible (Product) but it has many intangible aspects at the point of purchase (Service elements). Same way, Hospital or a hotel may be perceived as a service but they both have products involved in the services delivery. What it tells us is that, the brand marketer should be conscious of the fact that the right set of intangibles are embedded in products or/and right set of tangibles are embedded in services for them to be perceived as a quality product. The reason is that in the end it all boils down to an experience. Giving a rich experience is not an easy task as it needs a mix of both products and services.
Booms
Implication of the concept on Sri Lanka
The same applies to a country when it is marketed as a travel destination. Rich heritage, sacred cities, tropical rain forests, waterfalls, wildlife, sandy beaches etc are of no much of use if the intangible elements such as friendly people, quality service and proper service standards are not in the package.
Selling of products such as tea with the proud Lion logo will demand much more than pure tea and packaging or labeling. It will require quality people, quality communication and proper standards maintained in dealing with customers or buyers.
If we are to progress as a nation, on top of all the efforts of the private sector organisations, the general public, the government officials, and the policy makers should also go an extra mile in making things happen for our country.
(TBC to next week)
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