Using the incomplete information framework to develop service provider communication guidelines

The debate over how services should be advertised and communicated has raged on for decades. Much of the early work on services emphasized the use of tangible cues and was primarily issue and/or profession specific. There are no real communication guidelines that encompass all service marketers. This paper looks at how consumers use information in a purchase situation to establish communication guidelines for service providers. Marketers know consumers rarely have full information in a buying situation and have devised communication strategies accordingly. Services in particular offer less information than traditional consumer goods because of services inherent distinguishing characteristics, e.g. intangibility, non‐standardization and concurrent production and consumption. Integrating both conceptual and empirical work this paper uses a framework of incomplete information to examine commonly practiced communication methods of advertising, signaling, personal sources and relationship marketing. Using the two‐dimensional framework advanced in this paper, 16 communication guidelines for service providers are presented.