Customer Experience Academy » Service Design

Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing: The One Academic Publication You Need To Read

Bernhard Schindlholzer — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:00:54 +0000

It is often said that academia is disconnected from the reality of business and very often this is indeed the case. Nevertheless there is one publication in the field of marketing that has already transformed much of academia and I am convinced that it also helps practitioners deal with a changing competitive environment.

The publication “Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing” has been published already in 2004 by Stephen L. Vargo & Robert F. Lusch and proposes a new dominant logic for marketing.

Marketing inherited a model of exchange from economics, which had a dominant logic based on the exchange of “goods,” which usually are manufactured output. The dominant logic focused on tangible resources, embedded value, and transactions.

Over the past several decades, new perspectives have emerged that have a revised logic focused on intangible resources, the cocreation of value, and relationships.

The authors believe that the new perspectives are converging to form a new dominant logic for marketing, one in which service provision rather than goods is fundamental to economic exchange.

The authors explore this evolving logic and the corresponding shift in perspective for marketing scholars, marketing practitioners, and marketing educators.

What has started as a controversial thesis has become a new direction in marketing and brings a completely new frame to look at problems. If you are applying this new service-dominant logic to marketing problems, you gain a new dimension to identify sources of competitive advantage.

The original publication is “Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing” and has been extended in 2008 with the publication “Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution“. They are academic but they will definitely also open up a new perspectice.

More information and more publications about the Service Dominant Logic can be found on the website of the authors at http://sdlogic.net/

One line of service design

Bernhard Schindlholzer — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:00:15 +0000

Marc Fonteijn of 31Volts is running an experiment and collecting quotes on service design from various bloggers on this topic. As a follow-up to the definition of service design by the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, Marcel of 31Volts invited me to participate, and here we go:

Service Design is the design of value creating offerings by aligning intangible processes and incorporating tangible products to create remarkable customer experiences.

Some other interesting definitions are:

Good service design is the process of deliberately crafting our experience and delivery of services, to make them more valuable for the people that use and provide them. – Nick Marsh

Service designers work with companies and governments to orchestrate their encounters with people. – Jeff Howard

Read these and other "one liners of service design" at the 31Volts blog.

A Definition of Service Design

Bernhard Schindlholzer — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:00:10 +0000

The Copenhagen Institute of Design has a nice definition of Service Design:

Service Design is an emerging field focused on the creation of well thought through experiences using a combination of intangible and tangible mediums. It provides numerous benefits to the end user experience when applied to sectors such as retail, banking, transportation, & healthcare. Service design as a practice generally results in the design of systems and processes aimed at providing a holistic service to the user. This cross-disciplinary practice combines numerous skills in design, management and process engineering. Services have existed and have been organised in various forms since time immemorial. However, consciously designed services that incorporate new business models are empathetic to user needs and attempt to create new socio-economic value in society. Service design is essential in an knowledge driven economy.

Service Design at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID)

Bernhard Schindlholzer — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:20:25 +0000

The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design recently organized the Service Design Symposium with quite an interesting lineup of speakers from IDEO, Live|Work and Orange Gobal. While many of these presentations will not be shared outside of the conference, Oliver King (Director of Engine Service Design), posted his presentation and you kind find his slides below.

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The Keynotes from Bill Moggridge (IDEO), Shelly Evenson (Carnegie Mellon University) and Bill Hollins (Design Council) can be found on the corresponding YouTube channel.

[via ChooseNick]

Design Serving People: Turning consumers into creators

Bernhard Schindlholzer — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:00:39 +0000

“Design Serving People“, an article written Elizabeth Sanders and published in the working paper series “Cumulus” by the University of Art and Design Helsinki, describes a major shift in the mindset of designers when designing new products or services. Consumers become creators when the designer’s mindset shifts from a perspective where people consume a service to a perspective when organizations support people in reaching their goals and creating value. The products and services offered by a company are merely resources that help the customer fulfil its needs and dreams.

Design is not serving the needs and dreams of people today. In comfortable American home, schools and workplaces, people are beginning to feel uneasy. It has become increasingly evident that they are no longer satisfied with simply being “consumers”. Everyday people want to be “creators” as well.

Stimulating peoples creativity and giving them tools will lead to a shift from consumption towards creation. This might sound vague but by observing the changing role of everyday people in design processes one realizes that many successful companies are already designing products and services that make their customers co-creator – YouTube is the most prominent example for user-generated content.

It is time to move away from the traditional design disciplines that are founded on the materiality of the artifact (graphic, product, space, software, architecture, etc.) and instead organize around human experience domains such as learning, creating, healing, living, working, playing, shopping, etc. People are people whether they are finding their way around a building, using a product, reading a package or using a software application. Design should be about making sure that our results advance people’s personal growth and support a harmonious relationship between people and their environments.

Nike is not “just” selling running shoes anymore. Nike is selling an experience that supports people in advancing their personal growth. The winners are companies that are able to identify the underlying desires of their customers and incorporate them into the design of their products and services.

Read the full article here.