Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on british american tobacco services marketing mix. British American Tobacco (BAT), operate in a highly controversial market since the main products offered are cigarette. It is due to this that the company has incorporated other services apart from cigarettes. The controversy that surrounds cigarettes has prompted BAT to come up with services that enhance their image such as Harm Reduction, E-cigarettes. It has also come up with other functional services like marketing, IT, and supply chain. Since the company also provides services, this report aims at looking for a marketing strategy that accommodates these services. Marketing is a key factor when it comes to influencing consumer behavior and value, especially if the three marketing mix for services are considered (people, physical evidence, and process).

People are very important in the marketing of services, people means all the human players that are involved in delivering a particular service. In simple terms people can refer to the employees that the company has employed to deliver the services, a reputable service offered will highly depend on the type of employees. According to Goldsmith (1999), people are those who take a critical part in service delivery. Customers and personnel of a particular organization can also be classified as people (Booms and Bitner 1981). The attitudes, personal appearance, and behavior of these ‘people’ are influential factors on how customers will perceive the service (Du Plessis and Rousseau 2005). People’s strategy is very important to drive and boost the customer’s confidence in regard to the three marketing objectives that BAT is aimed to achieve. There are three dimensions that can be adapted by BAT with respect to planning their people strategy: balancing employees and customer concerns, managing employees, and customer management (Jordan and Prinsloo, 2004).

This dimension focuses on how an organization is positioned to manage its employees in order to make them satisfy all the customers’ needs. The success of an organization will greatly be determined by the type of employees that are in that organization. If the employees are not motivated or the employees are unskilled then goods and services won’t be delivered (Webber, 2005). It is prudent if employees could practice internal marketing for the employees who are much concerned with the provision of services to customers (Robinson and Long 1987). Personnel whose job description will be mainly to deliver services should be well trained, supported, and rewarded (Goldsmith 1999).