Consumer services are services that are delivered directly to individual consumers rather than organizations, and that is what I choose to write about regarding our scenario company. This company purports to diversify, and rather than just selling tangible products; it also wants to do service delivery to individual clients at a fee. The service is an at-home service that will involve deploying a home-ambiance consultant to visit target clients, help them adjust their home products, and even recommend other products to embrace. Most probably, the products to be approved would be the products the business is currently producing, like window shades or sleep-enhancers. This essay will focus on the purpose of the diversity into service provision, possible competition, 4 Ps for the service, and how to launch the same service.
Offering consultancy services is a lucrative venture that can help a business to diversify and have more income-generating opportunities. However, it comes with a myriad of challenges, one of them being competition from other market players. In our case scenario, the primary competitor, the company, is likely to face is from freelance businesses, for example, Upwork and Comatch (Consultancy.uk, 2016). Operating as online portals, these freelance companies globally connect millions of professionals and charge way less than established companies can charge because they do not run on the same costs as large firms do. Potential clients will eventually opt to hire independent consultants rather than employ established firms to perform these gigs. This outcome may mount undue pressure on our scenario company and offer an obstacle to its establishment.
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The service industry is very flexible and is easy to upgrade. Let's say customers are demanding for a new service, establishing means to render those services is simpler as compared to when a business is only offering products for sale. Venturing into the service industry means that the market is better placed to be operational all year round since it can easily change strategy if need be (Root III, 2016). The company will also diversify its income sources if it decides to start offering home ambiance consultancy services, rather than just depending on selling products to clients. This approach will help protect the business from unprecedented bankruptcy due to overreliance on one source of income.
The 4 Ps of marketing mixes stand for product, price, placement, and promotion. In the place of product, here we have home ambiance services which are subject to customization based on customer requirement (Conrad & Bonanno, 2019). It means that you cannot separate the consumption and production. Pricing services tend to be tough because the business has to consider overhead costs and labor costs. Thus much care has to be taken when pricing these services, as well as price customization at an individual client level (Conrad & Bonanno, 2019). The placement part is quite dynamic for our case scenario because consultants have to visit clients' homes physically, assess the house outlook, and give appropriate advice. It means that there is no fixed service delivery outlet. Service providers are often easy to replicate in the market; thus, a viable and robust promotion strategy must be put in place to help consumers differentiate other service providers from the services that our scenario business will be offering. A good proposal is that in as much this is a startup venture, the business company should raise its advertisement budget to help market this product so that it can outplay copy-cat firms.
During the launching process, the scenario business should plan early, be creative when designing the logo, and set up realistic and smart goals that it intends to achieve. The company should desist from the yearning to get significant market share like product companies to do. Instead, it should focus on generating more revenue (Lake, 2018). Designing a new logo might be challenging because apart from the products the business was selling, the service provision part has to be incorporated. Thus, calls for creativity during the brand design process to display the company's mission, service features, and qualities associated with the business company.
References
Consultancy.uk, C., 2019. Five Major Challenges Facing the Global Consulting Industry .
Conrad, A., and Bonanno, S., 2019. Understanding the Marketing Mix: The 4 Ps of Marketing
Lake, L., 2018. 7 Tips for a Successful Product or Service Launch .
