Testing Market Segment Acceptance of New Designs of Industrial Services

This article investigates the designing of a new furnace tube cleaning service to compete successfully against two existing competitors. Arch Woodside and William Pearce report the results of a marketing experiment in which data were obtained from a total of 33 plant engineers and maintenance managers in chemical plants and oil refineries. These respondents assigned shares of requirements to competing services. In all, nine different service problem scenarios were solved by each subject. The marketers of the new service, following the study's recommendations, decided to create four specific, segment‐based marketing strategies. Following implementation, the company's position improved modestly during the next six months in three of the four market segments.