From Products to Services Insight and Experience from Companies Which Have Embraced the Service Economy

by Young, Laurie

• ISBN13: 9780470026687
• ISBN10: 0470026685
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-05
• Publisher: WILEY

Summary

This book takes the reader through the logical steps of changing a business from a product creator to a service provider. It is written from a marketing perspective and by a services marketing expert, largely because the change in business focus is usually market and consumer driven. It covers all the strategic issues concerned with this sort of shift, and includes practical and useful tools to assist the implementation of such a radical change. The scope of the book ranges from why the move to services should be made, through the strategic business and change plan, the definition of the new market, creation of a new brand, channel strategy and market access, selling the service, and on to marketing the service.

Author Biography

LAURIE YOUNG is a business man who likes to write. During his career he has held senior positions at BT, Unisys and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He also founded, built and sold a company. As his education includes a postgraduate business diploma and an MBA, he combines practical achievement with sound business thinking.

This, his third solo book, concentrates on the transition many companies have to make from the manufacture and sale of products to the provision of services. He first came across this phenomenon when he was director of service marketing at Unisys in the early 1990’s but has advised several companies on its implications in later years. They include: Ericsson, Motorola, Hitachi Data systems, Datex Engstrom, and Nokia.

Other books by Laurie Young:

Marketing the Professional Services Firm (Wiley, 2005)

Making Profit from New Service Development (FT/Pearson 1999)

With others:

Marketing and Scenario Planning (Wiley, 2006)

New Strategies for Marketing Information Technology (Chapman Hall, 1996)

Competitive Customer Care (Croner, 1994)

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Why products companies consider service business	p. 1
Clarifying the strategic intent of the service business	p. 33
The degree of change needed to set up a service business	p. 71
First base: gaining a clear perspective of service markets	p. 105
Creating the services to be sold in the new market	p. 143
Altering the operations of a product company to provide services	p. 175
Selling services	p. 209
Marketing services instead of products	p. 253
Positioning a product brand in a service market	p. 307
In conclusion	p. 335
References	p. 345
Index	p. 347
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