Advertising

Advertising
A key element of service quality evaluation is the assessment of the service rela­tive to expectations. Advertising plays an important role in setting customer expectations. Therefore, marketing managers for services must be careful not to promise what cannot be delivered. All communications targeted to customers should be examined in terms of how well they reflect reality. If you do not do this, the customer certainly will. The unique aspects of service have the following implications for advertising.
First, service advertising should contain vivid information. Vivid information is more likely to hold the viewer's attention and excite the imagination. It also results in improved customer understanding of the service. Because service attributes are intangi­ble, this improved understanding is critical to a customer's ability to evaluate the quality of the service and to compare it to other options. Vividness can be achieved through three different strategies: attempts to make the service tangible; concrete, specific language; and dramatization. A good example of the latter is the former series of American Express commercials featuring actor Karl Malden that demonstrated the value and security of American Express traveler's checks by showing the disasters that can befall travelers if they use a competitor's brand.
A problem faced by customers purchasing a service is developing alternatives from which to make the final choice. The reason that this can be difficult is inherent in the way services are distributed. When a service is delivered through a franchise operation, there is only one choice at a particular location, unlike the normal assortment available from retailers of physical goods. Although some (e.g., travel agents) do offer competing services, many do not. Thus, a major problem facing service companies is how to get your brand into the customer's choice set.
The relevant communications goal is to have the customer connect your brand with the product category. This can be done with repetition or through an approach called interac­tive imagery. Imagery involves having customers visualize a concept or relationship by integrating two items in some mutual or reciprocal action. This approach can be used to enhance vividness.
Therefore, prepurchase evaluation of services is difficult. One way to approach this problem is to highlight the behind-the-scenes rules, policies, and procedures that make the service provider the best option to choose. This helps to make the service tangible to customers and gives assurance that it will be of high quality. Alternatively, a marketing manager can use the ad to show the service actually in use. The advertising for Singapore Airlines' first-class service is an example of this approach. The picture of the very com­fortable-looking passengers in the ads gives potential customers a sense of how great a trip on Singapore Airlines would be.

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