Bringing down the house • 1
Photo by Nikola Bikar on Unsplash
Theater has been used for decades as a metaphor to highlight the differences between services marketing and product marketing.
According to my research, Stephen Grove and Raymond Fisk (1983) were the first to publish an in-depth research paper about services as theater; more papers and articles were to follow in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (Grove & Fisk, 1983, 1989, 2004; Grove et al., 1992). The theater metaphor is considered particularly apt for restaurants, hotels, airlines, hospitals, and other high-contact service providers serving many people simultaneously (Grove & Fisk, 1983; Wirtz & Lovelock, 2010).
In the world of services marketing, services are co-produced and co-delivered over time in a sequence of encounters between customers and service providers. (These encounters are often called ‘moments of truth’ – a bullfighting term and a metaphor in its own right.) Because of the intangible nature of services, both mentally and physically, it is deemed important to provide tangible cues or evidence to help customers manage their expectations and determine the effectiveness of the experience. (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2010)
Standing on the shoulders of giants (Grove & Fisk, 1992; Wirtz & Lovelock, 2010; Morgan et al., 2008; Fanning, 2020), I will use my version of the 7P framework (the extended marketing mix for services) to draw parallels between theater productions and service experiences. The irony is not lost on me – the original scholars of services and relationship marketing in the 1980s and 1990s wanted to mount a serious challenge to the product-focused marketing mix paradigm (Grönroos, 1994).
Product: Customer offering and customer experience
The performance. In the world of theater, the core product is arguably the play/show/performance itself. Supplementary services wrapped around the product such as online reservations, seating areas, and talkbacks make it easier for the audience to discover, book, pay for, enjoy, and digest the experience. (Adapted from Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016.)
Acts. The performance can be divided into a number of acts, typically three. While service experiences do not necessarily follow the three-act structure of plays (e.g., The Setup, The Confrontation, The Resolution), it is common to divide the end-to-end customer experience into three stages or phases: the pre-delivery experience, the delivery experience, and the post-delivery experience (e.g., the pre-flight experience, the inflight experience, and the post-flight experience) (Bau, 2013). A five-stage alternative is Doblin’s landmark Compelling Experience Model (Attraction, Entry, Engagement, Exit, Extension) from 1997 and the subsequent 5E’s model (Entice, Enter, Engage, Exit, Extend) (Doblin Group, 2020).
Scenes. Each act can in turn be divided into a number of scenes. For service experiences, the equivalent would be customer activities (e.g., discussing with family members potential holiday destinations), customer–provider interactions (e.g., booking the flight online), and customer–employee interactions (e.g., being served dinner onboard the flight).
Place + Physical Evidence: Service channels, service environments, tangible evidence
Onstage is the part of the theater on which the acting takes place, in full view of the audience. The set design shows the audience where the action takes place, but can also communicate abstract concepts such as themes and symbols. A wide range of scenic devices such as backdrops, projections, flats, furnishings, props, lighting, sound effects, music, temperature, and aroma are used to convey a sense of place, time, mood, and atmosphere. The equivalent of the onstage area in high-contact service experiences is the service environment (serviscape) in terms of exterior design, interior design, layout, customer flows, wayfinding, merchandising, ambient conditions, thematics, etc. (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016). Some service experiences may take place in multiple, interconnected environments or settings (like an airport or shopping mall).
Backstage is the area of the theater hidden from the audience’s view. This is where the technicians operate equipment to control lighting, sound, and other aspects of the set during the performance. Other backstage areas include dressing rooms, green rooms, and storage areas. For service experiences, frontline employees are enabled and empowered by data, information, tools, etc., powered by backstage teams, intangible processes, and ‘hidden in plain sight’ systems.
Other places and physical evidence for theatrical productions are branded and non-branded touchpoints such as social media, apps, websites, marketing collateral, printed programs, tickets, uniforms, press/media campaigns, and sponsorships.
(To be continued)
References
Bau, R. (2013, October). What it takes to become a superb service designer. SX 2013 [Adaptive Path’s Service Experience conference], San Francisco, CA.
Bitner, M.J., Ostrom, A.L., & Morgan F.N. (2007). Service blueprinting: A practical technique for service innovation. Center for Services Leadership, Arizona State University.
Doblin Group. (2020). Doblin’s journey.
Fanning, S. (2020). The circle of satisfaction. The metaphor business as theatre. The Marketing Concept.
Grove S.J. & Fisk R.P. (1983). The dramaturgy of services exchange: An analytical framework for services marketing. In: Berry, L.T., Berry, L.L., Shostak, G.L., & Upah, G.D. (Eds.), Emerging perspectives in services marketing. American Marketing Association.
Grove S.J. & Fisk R.P. (1989). Impression management in services marketing: A dramaturgical perspective. In: Giacalone, R. & Rosenfeld, P. (Eds.), Impression management in the organization. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Grove S.J., Fisk R.P. & Bitner M.J. (1992). Dramatizing the service experience: A managerial approach. In: Swartz, T.A., Brown, S., & Bowen, D. (Eds.), Advances in services marketing and management. JAI Press.
Grove S.J. & Fisk R.P. (2004). Service theater: An analytical framework for services marketing. In: Lovelock, C.H. & Wirtz, J., Services marketing (5th ed.). Prentice Hall.
Grönroos, C. (1994). From marketing mix to relationship marketing. Management Decision, 32(2), 4–20.
Morgan, M., Watson, P., & Hemmington, N. (2008). Drama in the dining room: Theatrical perspectives on the foodservice encounter. Journal of Foodservice, 19, 111–118.
Wirtz, J. & Lovelock, C. (2016). Services Marketing: People, technology, strategy (8th ed.). World Scientific Publishing.
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