The core benefit provided by every product is a service. The life cycle of a given product is limited by technology advancements and other factors. But the service need behind the product remains unchanged for much longer. Marketers of products should, therefore, be conscious of the fact that what they are marketing is actually a means for facilitating a service. Several examples show that product marketers have taken cognizance of this fact and are finding advantage in moving into providing the services behind their products, rather than just confining themselves to marketing of products alone.

While giving this famous example, Levitt drove home the point very clearly to product manufacturers that they would have to move away from the myopic view that only their products have the capability to satisfy consumers' needs. He also pointed out that the assumption that there are no alternatives available for the customers, that the firms know customers' requirements better than the customers themselves and the `better mousetrap fallacy' are some of the common myopic views among the firms.

Timken group, a manufacturer of bearings, was seriously contemplating to become a service-oriented company. Supply of bearings was only incidental, but the real need of one of its important clients was upkeep and maintenance of the rolling mill (Refer Exhibit 1). As long as this aspect was taken care of, bearing or no bearing perhaps did not matter much to this client, or to any of the other clients for that matter. Strategically, it made sense for Timken to get into long-term annual maintenance contracts for its customers' plants.

Software product firms have understood the needs of their customers and have started offering `software as a service'. Now, cloud computing, in which computing is provided as a service without the need to buy software, has created a sensation in the computing industry. The day may not be far when users may no longer need to spend money on owning main servers and personal computers and on buying their own software. All that they may need perhaps would be a communicating device with the `cloud'. Consequent to this, the personal computer manufacturing firms must realize that the customers' need is the computing service and not the product - i.e., not the computer. Marketing professionals in the computer hardware and software industry should be losing their sleep over this!

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