Chris Storey and Christopher Easingwood describe the components of augmented service offerings as they relate to success. Using data from consumer financial services in United Kingdom, they show the links between service success rates and augmentation and also stress the importance of marketing support for the new services studied. Sometimes products benefit from the relationships they hold with other products. Earlier articles in this journal have explored linkages between supermarket scanners and UPC codes, compact disc players and the discs themselves and automobiles and the infrastructure of roads they travel. In our closing article, Sanjit Sengupta uses data from 103 complementary product projects to examine how they help to expand demand for the primary product category.
Results show that the primary product gains from the innovativeness of the complementary product.
This is a special case of a product augmentation strategy, and you may find that the concept of the multiplier effect is quite intriguing. It affirms that powerful complementary products extend the value of the primary product. Our book review section has been assembled by Mickey Rosenau and Barry Bayus. As always, it contains reviews of a number of interesting books in our field. Anthony Di Benedetto follows with coverage of articles appearing in other publications.