Marketing and Public Services

There is a fundamental problem facing Western economies with highly developed public services. While there is a perceived need to contain public expenditure growth, public expectations are continually rising and tend to grow faster than the resources governments are either willing or able to provide. For example, as more advanced medical services become feasible, the constraints on public medical services appear greater. Typically, the result is public pressure for additional funding and, on the part of governments, efficiency and cost-cutting programmes designed to expand service provision within given resources. Such programmes are often considered by critics as disguised methods of cutting the quality and volume of services, and not therefore conducive to customer care concepts. This chapter considers the contribution that marketing activities might make towards improving services within given resources. It explains how such principles can be applied to the management of public services, and argues that the neglect of marketing has prevented such organisations from realising their full potential.