Marketing practitioners in service organizations; as rhetoricians “in service”

The popular view to understand interaction and communication in service marketing seems to be related to the theatre metaphor. It has been suggested that dramatism and role theory should have an important influence on service theory as well as service performance. Nonetheless, in this text the author draws attention to some unseen limitations of the theatre metaphor in service marketing. The author argues that "dramatistic performance" only has value for a marketer in practice if the specific performance fulfils certain objectives. In this respect, it would be more fruitful to consider the practitioner as a pragmatic "rhetorician in service". This text illustrates also why and how service marketing with its focus on human interaction has potential to be more receptive for rhetoric then mainstream marketing management.