Marketing your service business
Ian Ruskin-Brown
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MARKETING YOUR SERVICE BUSINESS
IAN RUSKIN-BROWN
Published by Thorogood Publishing Ltd 10-12 Rivington Street London EC2A 3DU Telephone: 020 7749 4748 Fax: 020 7729 6110 Email:
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© Ian Ruskin-Brown 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser. No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this publication can be accepted by the author or publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. HB: ISBN 1 85418 311 7 PB: ISBN 1 85418 316 8 Cover and book designed and typeset in the UK by Driftdesign Printed in India by Replika Press
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The author
For the last 26 years Ian Ruskin-Brown, the author, has been the owner/ entrepreneur of several service businesses. These have included: •
Property management and the provision of student accommodation
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An international market research company, and
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A consultancy and international training business.
Ian ran a market research company – Marketing Decisions International Ltd – from 1980 to 1994. The company was a full member of the Market Research Society. It was through these businesses that Ian conducted many market research and consultancy projects for firms in the service sector: from government organizations (BBC, HM Customs & Excise) to the Law Society, several national and international airlines, banks and building societies. Ian was course director at the Chartered Institute of Marketing for courses on marketing in the service sector (1984-1998). These courses ran around 12 times per year, peaking to 16 per annum from 1992 to 1995. Additionally, Ian designed, wrote and piloted in-company training courses on marketing and selling consultancy services for a number of blue chip companies including: •
The IBM Marketing University
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ICL Training, and
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Kodak Health Imaging.