Subject Outline

Subject for : MBA Semester III - August 2012 - 14 Batch Subject Code : BA 9253Subject Title : Services MarketingSubject Credits : 3Section : Instructor : Asst. Prof. Gopi.GOffice : Agni School of Business ExcellencePhone : Email : gopig84@gmail.com

Instructor’s Profile:

A keen learner and a willing contributor with 3 years of work experience which includes 1.5

years into recruitment industry and 1.5 years into academics. Worked with Connect Plus (P)

Ltd, Cochin as Placement Executive and Career Net Consulting, Bangalore as Associate

Consultant (Recruitment).

Worked as Assistant Professor at The Oxford College of Business Management, Bangalore

and handled subjects in areas like Marketing, HRM, Banking, Environmental Studies and

Indian Constitution. Presented papers such as Impact of Globalization, Strategies for rural

marketing and Customer Relationship Management at State level and National level seminars

and also participated in various seminars, conferences and Faculty Development

Programmes.

A University Rank Holder from Madurai Kamaraj University (for B.B.A program) and Anna

University (for M.B.A program) and continues to strive for excellence in academics.

Subject Description:

The subject of Services marketing is very important in management education because the

world economy nowadays is increasingly characterized as a service economy. This is

primarily due to the increasing importance and share of the service sector in the economies of

most developed and developing countries. In fact, the growth of the service sector has long

been considered as indicative of a country’s economic progress. As the service sector started

to grow in importance and emerged as a significant employer and contributor to the GDP,

academics and marketing practitioners began to look at the marketing of services in a new

light. Empirical research was conducted which brought to light the specific distinguishing

characteristics of services.

Services Marketing is a sub field of marketing, which can be split into the two main areas of

goods marketing (which includes the marketing of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and

durables) and the marketing of services. Services marketing typically refers to both business

to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) services, and includes marketing of

services like telecommunications services, financial services, all types of hospitality

services, car rental services, air travel, health care services and professional services.

Here the subject includes characteristics of services, opportunities and challenges in

marketing of services, service design and development, service delivery and promotion and

strategies adopted by various service industries like hospitality, tourism, financial, logistics,

educational, entertainment & public utility and information technology.

Objective of the Subject:. This course in Services Marketing has been designed to enable the student to understand

the nature of service firms, the strategies and techniques being implemented by them from

marketing stand point and acquire the skills necessary to practically implement them in the

organization. The ultimate objective is to enable the student to become a better marketing

manager.

The student should:

Understand the essential, fundamental concepts and techniques of service marketing.

Understand clearly the opportunities and challenges for marketing of services and its

environment and latest trends.

Be able to understand how a new service is being developed and its process, how to

measure the quality of services and improve customer service.

Understand how a service can be priced, promoted, and delivered to ultimate

consumers by designing appropriate service delivery system.

Understand the marketing practices and strategies as applied in the service sector and

in specific in the following industries - hospitality, tourism, financial, logistics,

educational, entertainment & public utility and information technology.

Subject Structure:

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR LEARNING

OBJECTIVES (At the

end of the chapter you

should be able to)

ASSESSMENT

CRITERIA (To

achieve the

learning outcome

you must

demonstrate the

ability to)

Units Session Topics Session

Required

Unit-I

INTRODUCTION TO SERVICESDefinition – Service Economy – Evolution and growth of service sector – Nature and 9

*Define services and contrast the differences between goods and services.

*Understand the

*In the examination students will be assessed based on the conceptual

Scope ofServices – Unique characteristics of services - Challenges and issues in Services Marketing.

unique features of services

*Understand the challenges and issues involved in marketing of services

understanding of basic concepts, characteristics and the challenges in service marketing.

Unit-II

SERVICE MARKETING OPPORTUNITIESAssessing service market potential - Classification of services – Expanded marketing mix –Service marketing – Environment and trends. Service market segmentation, targeting and positioning.

9

*Understand and able to define 7 Ps of service marketing mix.

*Understand the classification of services

*Understand the opportunities for marketing of services, its environment and trends.

*Understand how to segment, target a service market and position the services in the specific target market.

*In the examination students will be assessed based on the conceptual understanding of7Ps of service marketing mix and service marketing opportunities. *In case study analysis, students will be assessed based on their ability to highlight the problems and offer viable practical solutions to the problems involved in the case pertaining to service marketing environment and trends.

Unit-III

SERVICE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENTService Life Cycle – New service development – Service Blue Printing – GAP’s model of servicequality – Measuring service quality – SERVQUAL – Service Quality function development.

9

.*Understand clearly the various stages in service life cycle and steps involved in the development of a new service.

*Understand the value of service blueprinting and quality function deployment (QFD) in new service design and service improvement.

*Define and explain Service Quality, how to measure it, various

*In the examination students will be assessed based on the conceptual understanding of service design and development.

*In case study analysis, students will be assessed based on their ability to highlight the problems and offer viable

gaps in service quality and strategies to reduce them.

practical solutions to the problems involved in the case pertaining to service quality.

Unit-IV

SERVICE DELIVERY AND PROMOTIONPositioning of services, Designing service delivery System, Service Channel – Pricing ofservices, methods – Service marketing triangle - Integrated Service marketing communication.

9

*Understand and differentiate between various pricing strategies of services.

*Know how a service can be positioned in a target market and the positioning strategies

*Understand various channels of distribution for service firms

*Understand the concept, components and importance of service marketing triangle and integrated service marketing communication.

*In the examination students will be assessed based on the conceptual understanding of service delivery and promotion.

*In the presentation students will be assessed based on their ability to highlight and differentiate the pricing methods and strategies of any 5 service firms of the same industry and link with the concepts they study in the chapter.

Unit-V

SERVICE STRATEGIESService Marketing Strategies for health – Hospitality – Tourism – Financial – Logistics -Educational – Entertainment & public utility Information technique Services – case studies

9

*Understand the marketing practices and strategies as applied in the service sector

*Understand and define 7Ps of service marketing mix in various service industries

*Identify and explain the differences in strategies and techniques adopted by health, hospitality, tourism, financial, logistics, educational,

*In the examination students will be assessed based on the conceptual understanding of service strategies of various service industries.

*In case study analysis, students will be assessed based on their ability to highlight the problems and offer viable

entertainment and IT industries in the service sector.

practical solutions to the problems involved in the case pertaining to service strategies.

Prescribed Textbooks:1. Chiristropher H.Lovelock and Jochen Wirtz, Services Marketing, Pearson Education, New

Delhi, 2004.

2. Hoffman, Marketing of Services, Cengage Learning, 1st Edition, 2008.

Bibliographic Material (including electronic resources):

Reference Books:1. K. Douglas Hoffman et al, Essentials of Service Marketing : Concepts, Strategies and

Cases, Thomson Learning, 2nd Edition.

2. Kenneth E Clow, et al, Services Marketing Operation Management and Strategy,

Biztantra, 2nd Edition, New Delhi, 2004.

3. Halen Woodroffe, Services Marketing, McMillan, 2003.

4. Valarie Zeithaml et al, Services Marketing, 5th International Edition, 2007.

5. Christian Gronroos, Services Management and Marketing a CRM Approach, John Wiley,

2001.

Websites:www.yatra.com

www.theleela.com/chennai

www.apollohospitals.com

www.thomson.co.uk

www.thebanker.com/Banker-Data/Banker-Rankings/The-Top-500-Banking-Brands-2013

Subject Culture and Pedagogy:1. Lectures

2. Student presentation and class room exercises

3. Group discussions

4. Case Analysis

Service Quality - ” A case study on Remington Hotel”

Differentiating Services – “A case study on Yatra.com’s ‘Click and Mortar’Model”

by Swapna Pragada, P.Girija

Major Assignments:

1. a) Do the SWOT Analysis for Agni School of Business Excellence.

b) Analyze the service marketing mix of the Agni school of Business Excellence and

clearly chart out the 7Ps and

c) Devise strategies / suggest measures to attract more customers to its business (i.e.

more MBA aspirants to the institution).

2.”A smile on the customers’ face indicates a business success” – Explain this statement with

reference to at least five service firms in different industries and mention how these firms are

delivering superior customer service and attracting and retaining customers.

The objective of this assignment is to have a real time exposure and practical experience by

the students and develop the ability to correlate the theoretical concepts with business

practices.

Assessment:Learning in this subject results primarily from in-class discussion and case study analysis as

well as out-of-class analysis. Students will be encouraged to understand, think, analyze the

concepts and put into practice. Students are expected to come to class on time and be

prepared for the class (having read the assigned reading and done the assigned work given to

them).

Scheme of Evaluation : Refer to Anna University Evaluation scheme

Grading System : Refer to Anna University Grading system