Towards Marketing the Training Function, Fart II: Making Marketing Decisions
| Date | 01 March 1985 |
| Published date | 01 March 1985 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055520 |
| Pages | 29-32 |
| Author | George Long,Roger Stuart |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Towards Marketing the Training
Function, Fart II:
Making Marketing Decisions
by George Long, University of Lancaster and Roger Stuart, Principal,
British Rail Management Training Centre, Watford*
Introduction
The first part of this article[l] concluded with an intention
to pursue the implications for action of adopting a marketing
perspective on training. In this second part,
we
propose, then,
to consider, firstly, the practical consequences of marketing
training as a service rather than a good. Following this, we
will explore more widely a framework for these and other
marketing decisions that a training professional may assem-
ble,
organise and implement towards marketing his/her train-
ing function.
Marketing Training Services
In Part One we established the criteria for viewing training
activities as services rather than goods products. Our own
and our clients' experience suggest that much of what has
been researched and catalogued[2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] concerning
the marketing of a wide range of service activities is in fact
directly applicable to the marketing of training services. Ac-
cordingly, in offering services, managers of training func-
tions will:
• Be
offering largely
intangible products, one important
consequence of which being that although a pur-
chaser/client may derive benefit from a training service,
he/she cannot acquire ownership of the service product
itself.
The product cannot be taken away with him/her.
Though pride of ownership is not open to the client,
there can be pride arising from having been a party to
the performance, for example, having been the client of
an internationally known consultant, having attended a
prestigious course. Many trainers will be aware of tactics
for increasing the prestige of their services, for example,
by limiting attendance, setting up entry criteria, attrac-
ting senior members of the hierarchy, bringing in "big
names", none of which may affect the direct benefit of
the learning process, but all of which may raise the
perceived status of being an involved party.
Lacking ownership of the product also means that
clients of a training service cannot resell what they have
purchased (though they can, of course, attempt to
reproduce it for peers, subordinates, etc.) This inability
to resell considerably heightens the risk of purchase and
will make the clients of a training activity more than
usually concerned as to whether their purchase will pro-
ve to be of value to them. As a consequence, the pro-
*This article was written when Roger Stuart worked at the Centre for the
Study of Management Learning, University of Lancaster.
moter of the service will be required to make strong at-
tempts to influence potential clients beyond awareness
and understanding towards gaining acceptance and
conviction.
In further connection with the promotion of intangi-
ble training products, it is useful to note, as the recent
advertisements on ITV's Channel 4 remind us, that
media, such as television, films and video, are excellent
ways for advertising
goods.
However, the qualities of
mo-
tion, colour and sound are of limited utility in promoting
intangibles.
• Be unable to store their products. Training services
cannot be kept in inventory until required, and if not con-
sumed at the moment of production, they will perish.
These features emphasise the importance of location deci-
sions in offering training services. The service needs to
be offered at the "right time" and the "right place". In
common with trends in services in general, "rightness"
in locating training is tending to move from being supp-
ly determined (to the convenience of the producer/per-
former) to demand led, emphasising convenience and ac-
cessability to the user. Witness some of the trends (such
as the growth of distance learning approaches) identified
in the preceding part of this article.
There are also a number of supply-side considerations
to the perishability of training products. When demand
for a service is continuing or predictable, it is possible
to plan staffing and service production. But, when the
demand for their
services
fluctuates (and this
is
commonly
the
case),
training functions face difficult scheduling pro-
blems. Some ways of alleviating such problems are seen
in the practices of bringing in assistance from outside the
organisation's training function at times of peak demand,
sharing services (consortia, for example) and setting up
reservation systems for a programme of events.
As with intangibility, the perishability of training ser-
vices also has implications for how the service is best pro-
moted. When demand is intermittent, advertising media
utilising the written word (direct mailing, notice boards,
directories of services, etc,) are most appropriately us-
ed, because such media have staying power and can be
referred to as and when the need arises.
• Be
selling
and then performing their
training service
activities.
Because of this the reputation of the performer
of the service is of paramount importance in increasing
the potential client's confidence to purchase. Clients fre-
quently rely on word of mouth reputation, particularly
PR 14,3 1985 • 29
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