MOLECULAR MODELLING
Application: Product Service Design
The Concept
This is a method used to plan the detailed components of product or service offers. The technique allows marketers to create a picture of the total proposition, whether service or product dominant. It reflects the fact that propositions might have different degrees of physical or service components without diminishing the importance of either. Marketers can adjust their plans according to the degree of service content in the total offer.
The method breaks down the offer into “tangible” and “intangible” elements. Tangible elements are represented by a firm circle whereas intangible elements are represented by dotted lines. The outer rings represent various aspects of marketing such as price, distribution, and market positioning. Lines interconnecting the various elements show the inter-relationship of process in delivering the offer. The classic representation of the technique (for airlines) is reproduced in Figure M.13. above.
Figure M.13 A representation of molecular modelling
Constructing a molecular model involves:
(i) identifying the “nucleus” of the proposition (in the case of cars it is personal transportation);
(ii) identifying physical and intangible elements;
(iii) linking the elements;
(iv) ringing the total entity and defining it by a set value;
(v) clarifying its distribution method, so that its relationship to the market is clarified;
(vi) describing its brand positioning or “face”.
History, Context, Criticism, and Development
Molecular modelling was suggested as a technique, based on actual experience, by Lyn Shostack (Shostack. G.L., 1982). It has suffered from a lack of communication rather than being an impractical or irrelevant method. Managers responsible for the creation of new offers might start to use the technique with something which is well known in their company. By breaking it down into its components they may identify new elements of the offer which need to be designed and also ways of adjusting the offer to make it more relevant to new markets or to new segments. Having experimented with the technique, and tested it in anger, they are likely to find it a practical method for the detailed design and planning.
Voices and Further Reading
- Shostack, G.L., “How to design a service”. European Journal of Marketing, 1982.
Things You Might Like to Consider
(i) The strength of this little tool is its ability to prompt marketers to think through the linkages between intangible and tangible components of an offer.
(ii) This was created by a practising marketer who had clearly used it in practice. There is little evidence, though, of good academic substantiation of it.
RATING: Merely conceptual