The structure of service firms and their marketing policies

There is a growing interest in understanding the way in which firms' marketing and manufacturing policies interact. The studies carried out so far have almost entirely concerned themselves with goods‐producing organizations. However this paper suggests that these studies also provide useful insights into the problems faced by service firms in organizing themselves efficiently. Furthermore it suggests that a distinctive problem faced by such firms is that adaption of their organizations may have a significant effect upon consumers' perceptions of the service they offer. The paper first outlines some investigators' views of the link between marketing and manufacturing and follows this by discussing the concept of ‘production’, ‘delivery’ and ‘consumption’ of services. A brief consideration of the pressures for change which particularly impinge upon service firms precedes a discussion of the problems, and apparent contradictions, whch are linked with the concepts of standardization and personalization of services. The paper concludes with three examples of the issues discussed.