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INTRODUCTION
Contrary to general perception, tangibilizing the intangible holds the key to success in services marketing. Recently, researchers, including Levitt (1981) and Berry (1986), have expressed similar viewpoints. However, questions remain regarding what to tangibilize: should the focus of tangibilization be on the actual service mix or should it be to develop a positioning strategy concretizing the corporate image? We believe that the answer is very situation specific meaning it depends on each firm's unique circumstance. However, it must be noted that, usually, it is much easier to tangibilize the image of a firm than its service components.
Unlike product marketers, service marketers have a limited choice in choosing marketing strategies, owing to the abstract/intangible nature of the service. The purpose of this article is to make a critical evaluation of the tangibilization process, and to offer suggestions for improvement of this process. It is hoped that a better understanding of this difficult subject will help to improve the strategic planning process of the service marketing firms.
THE INTANGIBLES OF SERVICE MARKETING
"A service is any act or performance that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything" (Kotler, 1990, p. 455). Services differ from products in many ways: they are intangible, perishable, lack consistency, and need participation of a service recipient to obtain the service. These unique characteristics pose special challenges to service marketers. Marketers, therefore, need to be creative not only in developing new services but also in promoting, pricing, and distributing these services. More important is the need to clearly distinguish a firm's service offerings from that of its competitors.
MARKET IMAGE POSITIONING
To sustain competitive advantage, service firms need to distinguish themselves clearly from other firms in the industry, and, try to carve a special niche in the consumer's mind. Unless this is accomplished, any quantitative or qualitative improvements to the existing service quality level will have only a limited impact on customers' perceptions of quality and value. This is especially true today because of strong competition and a variety of claims of various service providers. Under these demanding circumstances, to remain competitive, a service firm must tangibilize or concretize its image in the minds of the consumers. For example,...