Download Marketing of Services Course Outline Sept 2011

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER UNIVERSITY
BSAD 431 SERVICES MARKETING
September 2011
AL/LA Schwartz 156
INSTRUCTOR:
CONTACT:
Dr. Thomas D. Mahaffey
Schwartz 369, 867-2258 and 867-2167 (Administrative Assistant)
[email protected]
http://people.stfx.ca/tmahaffe/
Office hours: Mon 1-4, Wed 9-12, Fri 9-12
COURSE OBJECTIVES/METHODS:
The course is intended to augment the coverage of traditional marketing courses, which are based
primarily on tangible goods, instead of intangible services. Intangible services include transportation
services such as air, rail and bus; accommodations; tourism; entertainment; education; consulting; financial
advice and banking; insurance; personal care such as health care, as well as a wide variety of other
services. Problems unique to marketing services---such as an inability to inventory supply, difficulty in
coordinating supply and demand and difficulty in ensuring quality---will all be addressed. The importance
of services is reflected in the fact that the service sector now accounts for the majority of jobs in Canada.
In addition, services are interdisciplinary. That is, to effectively manage a service, one must be more than
a marketer, one must also be a good operations person and organizational expert.
Although no explicit effort has been made to provide balanced coverage across the profit and non-profit
spectrum, students will find material from both.
An overarching objective of the course is to improve students' abilities in marketing management. More
specifically: achieve a working knowledge of the concepts and frameworks of services marketing; acquire
greater skill in identifying and analysing situations faced by managers in service industries and finally;
improve communications skills.
Specific objectives for the course include:
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Understand the unique challenges involved in marketing and managing services
Identify differences between marketing in service versus manufacturing organizations and
understand how “service” can be a competitive advantage in manufacturing organizations,
too.
Identify and analyze the various components of the “services marketing mix” as well as
the key issues required in managing service quality.
Develop an understanding of, and ability to use, theoretical models to help diagnose and
prevent service failures.
Appreciate the role of employees (and especially customers) in service delivery, customer
satisfaction and service recovery. In fact, the role of customers is central to most services.
Appreciate other key issues in service businesses, such as managing supply and demand,
the overlap in marketing/operations/human resource systems and relationship
management.
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Build upon important workplace skills (cooperation, teamwork, meeting deadlines, report
writing) through active learning activities and other classroom exercises.
COURSE MATERIALS
Lovelock, Christopher, Jochen Wirtz and Patricia Chew (2009). Essentials of Services
Marketing. Pearson Prentice Hall, Singapore.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Examination:
Mid Term Exam
End of Term Exam
20
30
Service Encounter Journal Assignment
Company Complaint Letter/Response Analysis
10
5
Assignments:
Participation/Attendance:
Major Assignment: (Teams of two to three)*
Case or New Product Dev or Blueprint or/Co-production
10
25
*A grade of 50% must be achieved on individual work for the team project to count.
The date and time of the final examination for this course is set by the University Registrar. All
students are required to write the exam at this time.