Uppsala universitet

fastfood advertising air- investment consulting
teaching
outlets agencies lines
management
INTANGIBLE
DOMINANT
TANGIBLE
DOMINANT
Figure 1.
The service continuum, modified from the goods-service continuum.
(Source: Cowell, 1984, p. 34.)
One of the major features of a marketing strategy is to go beyond the physical aspects of the
mere product (described as a set of attributes: tangible, intangible, physical and chemical) and

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to see the goods, or service, as a set of attributes that the buyer may accept as satisfying his or
her needs and wants. In the case of marketing of services, however, the intangible attributes
are relatively dominant and that calls for special understanding of the marketing effort (Cowell,
1984). As noted above, services can be more or less tangible and this has consequences on the
supplier-customer relationship. Extrapolating from Shostack’s model, a hamburger meal may
be seen at the same time as both goods (with the tangible content of nutritious food) and a
service, and swiftly consumed. If this is compared with teaching at the other extreme, the
service is dependent on the learner’s own ability to comprehend the content, and is considered
predominantly intangible. The knowledge gained is the remaining, but still impalpable, result of
the service given.
2.3 Characteristics of Services in the Financial Markets
Financial services are not only intangible. They may also be very complex in that they consist
of obviously related units, but the degree and nature of their interrelationship is not completely
known. Thus, for research purposes, we chose to describe services, and especially financial
services, in terms of tangibility, complexity and, a crucial variable in marketing,
comprehensibility. The latter refers in general to the customer’s ability to fully comprehend the
elements comprising the service. We have used Shostack’s model above and adjusted it to suit
our purposes, modifying it into a financial services continuum (see Figure 2).