Probably the fastest growing business sector in the economy is the services sector. Almost 50% of the country's GDP is contributed by the services. Majority of the organizations, either in manufacturing, IT or pure services are experiencing excellent market demand.

Today increasing number of organizations are earning profits from the services build around the products, rather than the products they actually sell. As the tangible differences between the products are diminishing, wrapping it with "intangibles" (services) has become a major source of competitive advantage.

Although, services are the fastest growing segment in the country's economy, yet it has been generally much slower than manufacturing segment in applying the principles of marketing.Although product-marketing processes are well established, marketing services don't get adequate attention it deserves. In most of the cases the marketing is conducted as if services is another 'product'.

With rapid growth in customer expectations & competition, many firms find marketing of services a major challenge.

Let us look at the typical services an organization can provide,

Service Labor.	Materials.	Information.
Installation & Commissioning.	Replacement Parts	Parts Management.
Technical Support.	Service Kits.	Maintenance scheduling.
Dealer Service.	Accessories.	Service administration.
Product Maintenance	Product up-gradation	Calibration Services.
System/Performance audit	Buyback.	System integration
Annual maintenance.		Product configuration.

To understand the marketing challenges & how to address them, let's first look at the fundamental differences in Products (goods) & Services(intangibles).

Sr.	Products	Services	Implications
1.	Tangible.	Intangible.	Service cannot be experienced before they are purchased. Buyers look for evidence of quality.
2.	Production separate from consumption.	Simultaneous production & consumption.	Quality of service personnel is crucial, to ensure satisfactory interaction with customers. Mass production is difficult.
3.	Standardized.	Non-Standardized.	Service quality & customer satisfaction entirely depends on employee efficiency. Difficulty in ensuring service quality is as per commitment.
4.	Nonperishable.	Perishable.	Difficulty in meeting fluctuations in demand. Services cannot be resold or taken back.
5.	Ownership.	Non-ownership.	Service buyer uses the service but cannot own it.

In the next article we shall look at 6P's of Services' marketing.