In this article, we shall expose four key differences that will let you know if what you sell is a product or a service, and thus adjust how to make a marketing plan for a product. These differences are quite obvious no matter the SEO services price (More info, which is the term in Thai) of your marketing strategy.
Tangibility
Tangibility is an adjective referring to something that can be touched and seems to be the most apparent difference between a product and a service.
When talking about services, stocks do not fit, not even patents, because it is something that cannot be touched or seen.
A restaurant offers you an experience like no other; You can tell it, but you can’t show it to others.
The products have the advantage of being shown, admired, used and touched.
Standardization
While the products are all the same, that is, they are presented in a standard way, the services are heterogeneous, since they depend on the experiences of each of the consumers.
Let us return to the example of the service of a restaurant: not everyone will be served by the same waiter or eat the same plate of food; The experience will inevitably vary.
Production and consumption
In the case of products, production and consumption occur at two different times, and there is even a risk that the product consumed is not the same as it was produced; accidents can also happen, as in the case of breaking the product.
In the case of services, production and consumption occur at the same time, and the quality will vary depending on the appreciation of the consumer; For example, a grumpy waiter may fall ill to the consumer and he may think that the entire service is appalling.
Handling
The products are manipulable. However, most services are not:
- The products allow returns.
- The production of the products can be massive, and not all services can be offered in a generalized way.
- There are adjustments from supply to demand so that more or fewer products are produced depending on this. Again, not all services are likely to be massively offered.
- They differ in the design of distribution strategies.