Abstract
Marketing was originally built on a goods-centered, manufacturing-based model of economic exchange developed during the Industrial Revolution. Since its beginning, marketing has been broadening its perspective to include the exchange of more than manufactured goods. The subdiscipline of service marketing has emerged to address much of this broadened perspective, but it is built on the same goods and manufacturing-based model. The influence of this model is evident in the prototypical characteristics that have been identified as distinguishing services from goods—intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity, and perishability. The authors argue that these characteristics (a) do not distinguish services from goods, (b) only have meaning from a manufacturing perspective, and (c) imply inappropriate normative strategies. They suggest that advances made by service scholars can provide a foundation for a more service-dominant view of all exchange from which more appropriate normative strategies can be developed for all of marketing.
Keywords
PerishabilityMarketingServices marketingGoods and servicesNormativePerspective (graphical)BusinessService (business)Relationship marketingIntangible goodMarketing managementEconomicsPolitical scienceComputer scienceMicroeconomicsEconomy
Affiliated Institutions
Related Publications
Introduction to the special issue on the service-dominant logic of marketing: insights from The Otago Forum
Radical reformulation of marketing thought is not new and arguably is part of the dynamic tension just under the surface calm of any discipline. However, not since the ‘breaking...
Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing
Marketing inherited a model of exchange from economics, which had a dominant logic based on the exchange of “goods,” which usually are manufactured output. The dominant logic fo...
Growth strategies for service firms
Abstract Two characteristics of services—intangibility of the offering and simultaneity of production and consumption—have important implications for strategic planning. Four of...
Rationalizing service logic, or understanding services as experience?
This article discusses the argument put forward by Vargo and Lusch (2004) that a new service dominant logic is emerging within marketing. Taking on this new service logic means ...
A Service‐Orientated Approach to Marketing of Services
Looks at the author's research among several companies in Sweden and Finland with regard to market‐orientation of service as against physical goods. Found the main difference be...
Publication Info
- Year
- 2004
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 324-335
- Citations
- 1240
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
1240
OpenAlex
Cite This
Stephen L. Vargo,
Robert F. Lusch
(2004).
The Four Service Marketing Myths.
Journal of Service Research
, 6
(4)
, 324-335.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670503262946
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1177/1094670503262946