Faculty of Business: Marketing
Credit points: 6 cp

Subject level: Undergraduate

Result Type: Grade and marks

Requisite(s): 24108 Marketing Foundations
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses.
There are also course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.

Handbook description

This subject builds on existing marketing knowledge by increasing understanding and awareness of issues that are distinct to services. It examines marketing objectives and tasks for services and/or service divisions within companies, and critically assesses current marketing approaches by service sector operators.

Topics covered include: services marketing as a field of study; developing frameworks for services marketing; customer focus; the nature of service quality; creating and delivering new services; measurement of customer perceived quality; marketing to existing customers; marketing to your internal customer; managing the evidence; marketing communication and promotion of services; implementing a service marketing culture; and services marketing strategy.

Subject objectives/outcomes

On successful completion of this subject students should be able to:

1. Identify the differences between manufacturing and service organisations and describe the unique challenges involved in marketing and managing services
2. Understand, explain and utilise the key concepts involved in services management
3. Describe and analyse the service experience from the customers' perspective, and generate recommendations for services managers based on this information
4. Develop important workplace skills (such as presentation ability, cooperation with team members, team working, meeting deadlines, report writing, etc) through the team project and co-operative learning activities.

Contribution to graduate profile

This unit focuses on the management and marketing of services. The emphasis of this unit is given to the strategic aspects of managing service organisations, specifically those factors that address the unique challenges of managing and marketing intangible products in the B2C context. (e.g. service employees, service production processes and tangible evidence of services). Internal marketing is used as a framework to discuss service delivery processes and managing the service firm's human capital. Students will acquire an understanding the issues and challenges faced by service organisations with particular emphasis on the marketing of services to consumers.

Teaching and learning strategies

There is a commitment to critical enquiry and intellectual debate with regard to the material covered. Students are encouraged to explore the relationship between the theories and research in services marketing and critically examine the application of these theories in practice. Students are expected to read the written material before class each week, and to participate in class discussion of case studies and students' own service consumption experiences. Guest lectures may be invited to present particular topics, and video and other media may be used where appropriate. This approach emphasises a critical examination of service theories found in text books and research papers and service operations observed in the Australian marketplace.

Content

• Fundamental Differences between Goods and Services
• Consumer Decision process Issues in Services Marketing
• Ethical Issues in Services Marketing
• Developing the Service Communication Mix
• Managing the Firm's Physical Evidence
• People Issues: Managing Employees and Customers
• Defining and Measuring Customer Satisfaction
• Defining and Measuring Service Quality
• Service Failures and Recovery Strategies
• Customer Retention.

Assessment

Project (Group)	25%
This addresses objectives 1–5.
Mid-semester Examination (Formal, in-class)	15%
This addresses objective 1-3.
Final Examination (Formal, in-class)	60%
This addresses objectives 1–3.

Examinations will be conducted under University examination conditions, and hence thoroughly address concerns regarding secure assessment. The project will be secured through a combination of updating of assessment tasks across semesters and/or plagiarism detection software.

Recommended text(s)

Hoffman, K. Douglas and John E. G. Bateson 2001. Essentials of Services

Marketing; Concepts, Strategies and Cases – 2nd edition. USA: South-Western, Ohio, USA.

Indicative references

Chebat, Jean-Charles (2000), The impact of empowerment on customer contact employees' role in service organizations, Journal of Service Research : Vol. 3, Iss. 1; pg. 66-81

Lings, Ian N (2000), 'Internal marketing and supply chain management.'Journal of Services Marketing; 14 (1), 27-43

Martin, Charles L. (1999), 'The history, evolution and principles of services marketing: poised for the new millennium.' Marketing Intelligence and Planning 17(7), 324-328

Meuter, Matthew, Amy Ostrom, Robert Roundtree and Bitner, Mary Jo (2000), 'Self-service technologies: understanding customer satisfaction with technology based service encounters.' Journal of Marketing, 64 (July), 50-64.