Classifying Services to Gain Strategic Marketing Insights
Abstract
The diversity of the service sector makes it difficult to come up with managerially useful generalizations concerning marketing practice in service organizations. This article argues for a focus on specific categories of services and proposes five schemes for classifying services in ways that transcend narrow industry boundaries. In each instance insights are offered into how the nature of the service might affect the marketing task.
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The classic typologies elaborated by Mills and Margulies (1980) and Lovelock (1983) assigned services to categories reflecting different aspects of the relationship between customers and the service organization, facilitating prediction of organizational behavior and marketing action.
“For example, the classic typologies elaborated by Mills and Margulies (1980) and Lovelock (1983) assigned services to categories reflecting different aspects of the relationship between customers and the service organization, facilitating prediction of organizational behavior and marketing action.”
From Designing conceptual articles: four approaches (2020) · cites this paper as Lovelock (1983)
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- Authors
- Lovelock, C. H.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lovelock, Christopher H.
- Venue
- Journal of Marketing
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1983-06
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 9-20
- ISSN
- 0022-2429 (ISSN-L)
- 1547-7185
- OpenAlex
- W1997470043
- Cited by
- 1,996
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 39 · 2020: 68 · 2019: 52 · 2018: 57 · 2017: 59 · 2016: 60 · 2015: 99 · 2014: 100 · 2013: 92 · 2012: 98
- FWCI
- 13.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Marketing (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Customer Service Quality and Loyalty
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Service and Product Innovation
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Marketing and Advertising Strategies
- Keywords
- service classification, service marketing, service sector, service types, strategic marketing
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