Seeing the Voice of the Customer: Metaphor-based Advertising Research

Going from the short list to winning the contract is critical to a professional service provider, yet relatively few studies have investigated selection criteria used in this last stage of the selection process. This paper presents a qualitative study that examined the dynamics of the selection process, identified decision criteria which business and organizational clients use when selecting a professional service provider from their short lists, and investigated ways in which client firms assess competing professional service providers on intangible attributes, e.g. personal chemistry. Clients who had recently awarded a contract to a firm in the “built environment” industry (e.g. an architectural and engineering firm) were sampled. Their responses to open‐ended questions provided rich data that revealed factors considered in the selection of a professional service provider in the final presentation/interview stage and yielded insights into nuances of the selection process. Managerial recommendations for getting from the short list to the contract are presented.

Selecting a professional service provider from the short list

Stresses the importance of professional service provider selection and the potentially disastrous financial penalty for error made by a client organization. Identifies problems with previous studies relating to this selection process and offers suggestions for improving future research. Provides an expanded decision‐making model to organize discussion of various stages in selection and evaluation. Identifies factors which may complicate the process. Concludes that a better understanding of the selection process should lead to the identification of ways in which professional service providers can improve their marketing effectiveness and to the reduction of risk to client firms purchasing these services.

Organizational Purchasing of Professional Services

This study involved two primary objectives. First, since no multi-item measure of perceived tangibility/intangibility of service offerings has emerged in the services literature, one is proposed. Second, the measure is used to classify service offerings according to the level of perceived tangibility/intangibility of their salient attributes and desired benefits. The resulting services taxonomy is intended to help guide services marketers with their positioning and promotional decisions relating to the need for overcoming the problem of service intangibility.

Classifying Services by Tangibility/Intangibility of Attributes and Benefits

Purpose – Service scholars have questioned the usefulness of the concept of tangibility/intangibility as a characteristic of services for two reasons: first, it is ambiguous and does not differentiate between services and goods; and second, because all offerings, despite their characteristics, render service to customers. Consequently, scholars have suggested discarding the concept altogether. The purpose of this paper is to subject the concept to critical evaluation and argue that tangibility/intangibility is useful, because it influences consumers' experiences with offerings. In this paper, the authors argue that it is necessary to re‐conceptualise tangibility/intangibility to overcome the previous critique.Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw upon empirical research from the service marketing and psychology literature in order to advance knowledge on the nature of tangibility/intangibility and its influence on the formation of consumer experiences.Findings – It is proposed that tangibility/in...

Re‐investigating the nature of tangibility/intangibility and its influence on consumer experiences

Marketing services requires identification of consumer's perceptions of salient attributes for positioning. Personal constructs (Kelly 1963) are at the core of consumers' determination of the degree to which attributes exist within phenomenon. Using Kelly's notion of personal constructs, this paper proposes a conceptual framework from which intangible attributes can be “tagged” to tangible signs.

Personal constructs: Their use in the marketing of intangible services

The findings from this research suggest that marketers rethink their conceptions of how blacks and whites perceive and interpret integrated advertising. The use of an ethonomethodological approach to questionnaire construction provides support for the hypothesis that black and white consumers employ significantly different dimensions in evaluating integrated advertisements.

David M. Klein

Papers

Personal constructs: Their use in the marketing of intangible services

Integrated Advertising: Changing Times, Changing Perspectives