Analysis Of The Main Categories Of Services Outlined In The Article By The Globe And Mail

Summary of the article

The article “Postal worker strike may bolster ‘alternative’ pot market” was published in ‘The Globe and Mail’ on September 14th, 2018 by Terry Pedwell, Ottawa. It is about Canopy Growth Corporation which is one of the Canada’s largest licensed producers of medical marijuana. The only way of delivering marijuana legally is through mail, so this corporation is mainly dependent on Canada postal service because it covers all regions of Canada. Postal workers were in a legal strike position on 26th September 2018. According to Sinclair (13th September, 2018), in the previous potential postal worker strike which took place in 2016, the corporation delivered their orders in advance. At that time the registered users were around 20000, but now they had to serve 85000 people. The company contracted with the other postal service provider, but they cannot cover all medical orders as they cannot cover every look and corner of the country. Eventually, the Canada postal worker strike is a big threat for the company. Concepts related to service marketing There are two concepts outlined that are related to the article about the Canopy growth corporation service: 1. Broad categories of services, taken from chapter 1, and 2. A hierarchy of new service categories, which is taken from chapter 4.

Possession Processing

According to Lovelock, Wirtz, and Chew (2009) there are four broad categories of services, i. e. People processing, possession processing, mental stimulus, and Information processing. These categories are further divided into tangible and intangible aspects. It is defined as tangible actions directed at physical possessions. The service provided by this company to the customers would fall under Possession processing because it is considered to be marked as a tangible service provided to the customer assets. Therefore, customers have their physical involvement in collecting orders of marijuana at their door steps.

Process line extensions

Furthermore, in addition to possession processing, the second concept relates with the article is Process line extensions. Lovelock, Wirtz, and Chew (2009) define it in the hierarchy of new service categories in which service provider has to continuously improve their existing services through innovation and new approaches to meet competition and consumer expectations. In addition, under Process Line Extensions, the company has to implement new ways of delivering the existing products. The Canopy growth corporation had 20000 registered users in 2016; however, this numbers rose to 85000 after two years. The company contracted with the other postal service provider to meet all the requirements of the inclined number of customers and to address future uncertainties. Hence, the concept of process line extensions perfectly applies to the article because it relates to the company’s new contract with the private postal service provider.

“Threat of Canada Post strike still alive” says Terry Pedwell. As company is mainly dependable on Canada postal service for the delivery of their service, the risk is always associated in the terms of postal workers strike. So, the company has to develop other methods of delivering service to their customers. An interesting innovation among multi-site service businesses involves creating numerous small service factories to maximize geographic coverage. The company can establish their different branches on various locations to cover their potential customers as much as possible. Consequently, most of the customers can fulfill their needs by visiting the company’s branch instead relying upon courier service only.

Furthermore, “Trudeau says pot will be legal as of Oct. 17, 2018”. Cannabis is going to be legal throughout Canada in the coming week and now anyone can grow cannabis plants at home. It could leads to surge in the number of marijuana users. However, on the other hand, it could also affect the company negatively because now most of the regular users of marijuana would grow the plants of cannabis in their own fields due to legalization. It could also leads to decline in the demand for the service. According to Lovelock, Wirtz, and Chew (2009), selective price discounting targeted at specific market segments can offer important opportunities to attract new customers and fill capacity that would otherwise go unused. Thereby, the company could give discounts to allure the new customers as well as to safeguard themselves from the uncertainty that might be occur due to the plantation of marijuana plants at homes.