Dacko, Scott. (2012) Time-of-day services marketing. Journal of Services Marketing, Volume 26 (Number 5). pp. 375-388. ISSN 0887-6045

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to synthesize, organize, and discuss multidisciplinary research influential to a service firm's use of a cyclical time-based marketing approach that may be aptly termed time-of-day services marketing, to introduce a general process and framework to assist in the evaluation of its strategic use, and to present areas in need of future research. Design/methodology/approach – Objectives are achieved via conceptual analysis and a synthesis and organization of the relevant multidisciplinary literature. Findings – The paper finds that the principal benefits to service firms of adopting a time-of-day services approach in varying degrees are that it is able to assist the firm in offering multiple, unique value-propositions, providing superior contextual value to the customer, enhancing customer perceptions of value in relation to their needs, and supporting the firm's pursuit of a sustainable competitive advantage in its services. Practical implications – Time-of-day services marketing is a viable approach for some firms but is not a strategy to be pursued by all firms. Service industry executives and managers should carefully weigh its adoption in terms of an overarching framework to identify the best services strategy for their marketing and business objectives. Originality/value – Time-of-day services marketing has received little strategic attention in the services marketing literature. Furthermore, there is no good, published source of guidance to help service industry executives and managers make decisions about the extent that such an approach may present opportunities for value creation and competitive advantage. This paper addresses these voids by providing and discussing a comprehensive set of multi-disciplinary factors, process, and framework that facilitate its evaluation for strategic adoption. Theoretically, the research contributes to the body of services marketing knowledge by altering the services marketing view of the “day” to be one that can be increasingly examined as less-constant in terms of many service-relevant individual and social behaviors, more systematically varying, and increasingly explainable on biological/physiological, sociological and/or psychological bases which are ultimately highly relevant to services marketers.

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