Designing a long range marketing strategy for services

The purpose of the article is to develop a frame of reference for long range marketing strategy, labelled the Three Stage Model which could benefiti the attempts of service firms and institutions to successfully introduce marketing and eventually achieve marketing-orientated operations. The author stresses some organizational aspects especially concerning the use of traditional marketing departments for handling an organization's marketing function. The views on service marketing are supported by a substantial amount of empirical evidence from the industrial and the consumer service sector. The frame of reference and the organizational views of the marketing of services will be equally valid for industrial marketing of services and for marketing consumer services.