It is a great honour for me to have been invited to take part in this ESOMAR seminar which, during its three days, gathers together marketing professionals, consultants and company managers to discuss what is, for me, a very important subject. Indeed, I am sure that the theme selected for this session - "Marketing in Today's Competitive Service Environment" - implies a permanent research and action basis for constantly improving the results and performances of service companies, and at the same time, for obtaining an optimal development in a more and more competitive economic context.
Let us just think about the specificity of services : how to manage, and how to implement a much more efficient marketing and strategy for a service company.
In order to set the scene for the topic on which I am going to speak I will have to give you a few details about SAS Service Partner. The Catering Company which today operates under the name SAS Service Partner was established in 1961 as SAS Catering It was and still is wholly owned by SAS. The new company took over all SAS's catering operations which mainly consisted of inflight catering to SAS and a number of other airlines out of Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen. Since then we have developed considerably in Scandinavia and at airports around the world. Our core business is production and distribution of meals.
The result of the study is derived from interviews with some thirty service companies which are members of the Swedish Coaliation of Service Industries. The study has focused on service development with the underlying assumption that this is the basis for the companies' business to come. The assumption has also been that this is the most important type of investment for a service company.
The basis of my paper concerns the development of Service Management Strategies. With this in mind, my presentation is split into three distinct parts.
For several years Scan Test has carried out research assignments for a major Danish oil company, and in the spring of 1986 this oil company requested a mean of measuring what they had achieved by years of striving to develop the service concept in the automotive field and which adjustments they should make in order to live up to the company's objectives of being the customers' best choice - also in the years to come. This paper illustrates how this assignment was accomplished. It illustrates how we based our survey on the theoretical and conceptual framework of service management, stating among other things that one of the most difficult aspects of service is the fact, that often the customers do not know what to expect before they discover, that they did not get it - and that one of the decisive differences between a production company and a service organisation is to be found in the customers' very extensive area or contact to a great number of staff in the service organisation, and consequently, the performance of the staff in service organisations becomes essential.
In the current situation of intensified competition with other financial institutions it is in my view necessary to gear the bank's marketing approach to the needs of the customers - and focus on their many different needs. Success is reserved to those who are able to market themselves as service undertakings with a wide range of financial services and internal marketing and training that Impart to all the employees a customer oriented focus. In this process, information on the needs and wishes of the customers, and hence market analyses, is a necessary tool.