second type concerns information of how do customers perceive other characteristics of
alternative brands. The third type represents the optimal level of information that concern
product ‘s characteristics the customers prefer, in fact any commercial brands that reach the
optimal level represent the brand the most preferred by customers from other similar brands
(Baker & al, 2004: p.69)
Case study
At a theoretical level, services marketing is predicated upon the view that public transportation
is a service that consumer purchase and has indispensable vital role, thus we attempt to
determine services marketing mix used by collective urban transport company in M’silla city
(Algeria) and how it effects perceived image of buses’ users.
METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK
Study model proposed
To answer research question and fulfill its objectives a construction of a holistic model has
been made, which includes:
• The independent variable: Service Marketing Mix (quality, price, place, promotion, people,
physical evidence, and process).
• The dependent variable: which represents customer perceived image.
The study was conducted in the form of public needs assessment and opinion survey.
The survey is one of the most commonly statistic tools, used to collect necessary information
to accomplish research objectives, thus a list of questions has been designed and divided to two
parts. The first part contains data about demographic characteristics of the study sample
(gender, age, educational level, occupation, monthly income), while the second part includes
questions that represent different dimensions of the variables. Likert Scale has been used to
measure the response of respondents to the expression of the survey. The data were analyzed
and categorized using SPSS version 20.0.