China's Manufacturing Services Marketing Theory And Practice

At present, the service industry is flouring all over the world. Being recognized as one of the most important trends in economic development, the service industry has become a main source of economic growth in many countries. As national economies mature, the service sector represents an ever-greater portion of gross domestic product. It has created tremendous employment opportunities and provided immense wealth too. Along with the rapid development of the service industry, competition will be growing fiercer.According to Christopher H. Lovelock, service marketing focuses on managing marketing activities of service firms. Such a viewpoint is facing conceptual and practical challenge. Due to the fact that the service is becoming more and more important and powerful, manufacturers realized that it is one of the best weapons of competition in today's complicated, differentiated marketplace. Success often means offering excellent service and meeting customer's expectation. Thus the concept and contents of service marketing have to be enlarged. Now we consider service marketing as a series of managing activities of marketing whose core is providing excellent services. Hence, as long as the organization provides service and is service-driven, no matter whether it is a service firm or a manufacturing enterprise, it is necessary for the organization to adopt service marketing theories and create competitive advantage by operating service strategies.In this thesis, the author starts from analyzing the current situation of service marketing practice in China, then points out some of the problems of operating service strategies in Chinese manufacturing enterprises.Finally, she attempts to provide some of the solutions for Chinese manufacturers to improve service level, so could create and maintain sustainable competitive advantage.This thesis is organized into four parts:Chapter 1: Understanding Service and the Importance of Service Marketing. Traditional marketing theories pay more research attention to tangible-goods marketing while relatively less efforts are made to service marketing and, in addition, most of the companies have not made great enough efforts to improve service quality and enhance the level of service for a long time. Thus, this chapter first discusses the nature of service, then goes into area of service quality and, finally, analyzes the significance of service marketing.Chapter 2: Analyzing the Current Situation and Problems of Service Marketing Practice in Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises. There is a conspicuous trend in manufacturing industry, which is enlarging their business scope. Many manufacturers announced that they are not only selling goods but also services. In this chapter, by analyzing such a trend in the manufacturing sector and the current situation of service marketing activities in China, the author points out some of the problems in operating service strategies.Firstly, there exists a lot of misunderstandings when it comes to service. One of the most common misunderstandings about service is that people often equate service with after-sale service. In fact, customer service is a whole-process comprehensive service, including before-sales, mid-sales and after-sales service. Secondly, because services are intangible, perishable, variable and inseparable, these characteristics pose additional challenges not found in tangible-goods marketing. Thirdly, contact employees are critical resources for the development and implementation of service quality and strong customer relationships. Service marketing research suggests three instrumental roles of contact employees including (a) representing the organization favorably to outsiders; (b) providing service to customers; and (c) serving as information gatherers concerning customer needs and service improvement possibilities. Due to the different levels of personnel quality, contact employees' competence influences the service quality to a large extent. Chapter 3: Develop...