International services marketing - Essay Example

International Service Marketing  International service marketing entails creating awareness of the services an individual or a company provides across national boundaries. The process involves use of marketing principles in the target countries in addition to making decisions on how to offer a service across national boundaries (Ahmadzadeh, et al. 2012). Moreover, the firm requires modifying its marketing strategies to make them adapted to the international market conditions. This essay focuses on international service marketing, its difference from product marketing, issues associated with service export, drivers, and barriers to international service marketing.

Marketing services is different from marketing goods. As opposed to good, services are produced and consumed at the same time. This is because services have different characteristics from those associated with goods. Such characteristics include intangibility, inseparability, variability, and their lack of perishability. Therefore, the services are measured in terms of quality. Another difference between goods and services is the inseparability of services. This is because the services production cannot be alienated from the consumption process (Ahmadzadeh, et al., 2012). Services also tend to vary in aspects such as quality.

These characteristics make marketing of services different from that of products. Therefore, success in marketing of services depends on relationship building. Service-based business rely on building trust, deliverability, the wants and needs, and the ability to convince customers that you are capable of driveling a service in time. However, marketing products is different and mainly depends on factors such as price of the product and the quality of the product (Rao 2011). The marketing and trading of services across nations has been growing rapidly over the recent past.

Export of services plays a critical role in trade balance, expansion of employment opportunities, and enhancing economic growth. However, the service economy is affected by factors such as export service capacity, limitation of resources required in service delivery. Such resource may include the human as well as financial capacity. Other factors affecting the service economy include behavioral and operative barriers. Moreover, language barrier affects intercultural service delivery due to poor interpretation of information (Fisk 1999).

Export of services raises several issues. These issues include the privacy of the service consumers, the national security of the countries to which the services are exported, and the effect of the exportation on the exporter and importer. This is because exportation of services may lead to migration of skilled individual to foreign countries resulting in economic breakdown in their country of origin. Moreover, exportation of services causes workforce related issues (Ahmadzadeh, et al. 2012).Internationalization of service marketing is driven by certain factors.

Innovation is one major driver of service internationalization. There have been several innovations especially in technology, which have made it possible for service providing firms to internationalize their services. Another driver of service internationalization marketing is the motive of the internationalization, the available market for a given service and the availability of expertise to offer a given service. Moreover, government regulations operating in different countries affect the process of service internationalization marketing.

Another driver of service internationalization is cross-border merger of firms, and availability of skilled labor at low costs particularly on service marketing (Maria, Tikkanen, & Alajoutsijarvi 2003; Rao 2011).The intangibility of services poses a challenge to service marketers since it makes it difficult to protect service-delivering companies using patents. Moreover, it becomes hard to set prices for the different services. Another barrier to marketing of services is inability to display or communicate the nature of services offered by a firm.

Since services are inseparable, the provider has to be fully involved in the entire process of provision. Moreover, centralized mass production of services becomes impossible increasing the cost of offering services. Additionally, there is great tendency to generalize services by some cultures making it hard for service providers to market some services (Maria, Tikkanen, & Alajoutsijarvi 2003).Works CitedAhmadzadeh, K. et al. 2012, Competitiveness and Factors Affecting in Services Export, Journal of Basic and Applied, 2(10), pp.

10793-10802.Fisk, R.P. 1999, "Wiring and growing the technology of international services marketing,” The Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 311-318.Maria, A. S., Tikkanen, H., & Alajoutsijarvi, K. (2003). The international marketing of professional service projects: To what extent does territoriality matter? The Journal of Services Marketing, 17(1), 83-95. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/212608516?accountid=45049Pieter P. & Ko de, R 2005, Research On International Service Marketing: Enrichment And Challenges, in K.

de Ruyter and P. Pauwels (ed.) Research on International Service Marketing: A state of the Art (Advances in International Marketing, Volume 15), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.1-7Rao, R 2011, Services Marketing, Pearson Education India, New Delhi.