Historically, the origin of the marketing idea is closely linked to the distribution of consumer goods. In the course of the development process of this approach, there was initially no differentiation between consumer goods and services marketing. Thus, the findings from the consumer goods sector were initially transferred directly to services. With the increasing relevance of services in the course of the social development towards a service society, the marketing of services gained enough importance around the year 1980 to be considered as an independent scientific field.
According to the statement of various scientists, it should be noted that the immense heterogeneity of the service industry does not permit any generally valid statements about the theory of service marketing. Furthermore, this heterogeneity also makes it difficult to attempt to formulate a uniform, comprehensive definition of the term service. For this reason, the approach of defining services in terms of their potential, process and outcome has gained acceptance in science.
„Services are independent, marketable services associated with the provision (e.g., insurance services) and/or use of performance capabilities (e.g., hairdressing services) (potential orientation). Internal factors (e.g., business premises, personnel, equipment) and external factors (i.e., those outside the control of the service provider) are combined as part of the creation process (process orientation). The service provider’s combination of factors is used with the aim of achieving beneficial effects (e.g., car inspection) on the external factors, on people (e.g., customers) and their objects (e.g., customer’s car) (result orientation).“
Based on the above definition of services, the following specifics can be derived:
Necessity of performance – The service provider must be able to provide the service requested by the customer in a professional manner.
Integration of the external factor – While the economic factors of production (labor, land, capital, knowledge) are sufficient for the production of classic goods, external factors (e.g., cooperation or ownership of the customer) must be included in a service, over and above the internal factors, which the provider does not have at his free disposal.
Immateriality of the service outcome – Service outcomes cannot be stored or transported and thus require precise coordination of capacity and demand.
The characteristics of services described above are to be regarded as generally valid and therefore apply to all services to the same extent. Furthermore, these characteristics also represent the core of the differentiation of services marketing from consumer goods marketing.