Contents

• Introduction 2
• Service Dominant Logic 3
• Analysis of the article: A Service Lens on Value Creation: Marketing's Role in Achieving Strategic Advantage - Lance Bettencourt, Robert F. Lusch, Stephen L. Vargo (2014) 4
• Supporting Article 1: Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing – Stephen Vargo & Robert Lusch (2004) 6
• Supporting Article 2: ‘Value Co-creation and Service Systems (Re) formation: A Service Ecosystems View’ – Stephen Vargo and Melissa Akaka (2012) 7
• Conclusion 8
• References 10

Description

Marketing is one of the most complex of the organizational operations. Marketing is complex since it invariably has to be inline the changing market environments all the time. Market dynamics change due to the changes in the external environment of the industry such as changes in the economy, changes in the rules and taxations or just changes in the buying behaviour of a generational cohort (Bhalla, 2010). Marketing is also complex since various factors influence the consumption behaviour and preferences of the customer and the organization needs to be constantly updating itself of the changes in the customer behaviour in order to appeal to the customer so that the organizational offerings are sold (Vargo & Akaka, 2012). While marketing theories and approaches have changed quite often over a period of time, marketing philosophy or paradigm has rarely changed. For example, marketing efforts for long been directed towards the target customer segments but the core focus of the efforts has lies with the organization. From the era of Ford, terminologies such as profitability, sustainability, customer focus etc. convey to the reader or the observer that the firm is at the centre of all the marketing efforts and customer is the target. There has been a shift in this paradigm in the recent decades. A few service oriented firms have been putting the customer at the centre of their marketing efforts and are trying to mould themselves in such a way that the customer needs are met. Such approach also incorporates meaningful dialogue with the customer so that the customer needs are understood better by the organization (Lusch & Vargo, 2011). Another recent perspective of marketing that has been proposed by the authors Bettencourt et al., (2013) is that of viewing all the marketing efforts through the ‘service lens’. This paper analyses the article ‘A Service Lens on Value Creation: Marketing’s Role in Achieving Strategic Advantage’ by the authors.