Services Marketing
Services Marketing
Christopher Lovelock, Sandra Vandermerwe and Barbara Lewis
Service industries dominate most advanced economies and a growing number of service organisations compete in the global market. Managers working in the service industry – for example, those working in the financial, retailing, hospitality and public sectors – will find the services approach to marketing particularly relevant in planning and implementing marketing strategy.
Service organisations differ in key respects from manufacturing organisations. This course develops an appreciation of how service marketing systems operate, addresses service-related issues such as service design, capacity management and customer relationship management. It is intended to increase managers’ capability for innovative development and implementation of marketing strategy in the service environment.
Marketing practice in the service sector continues to evolve rapidly and a growing number of service industries now find themselves competing internationally. Service industry managers report that manufacturing-based models are not always useful and relevant. The theme of this course is that service organisations differ in many important respects from manufacturing businesses, requiring a distinctive approach to planning and implementing marketing strategy. We stress the importance of understanding service organisations on their own terms then devising marketing goals and strategies accordingly.
Topics covered
- Distinctive aspects of services management.
- Customer involvement in service processes.
- Managing service encounters.
- Customer behaviour in service settings.
- Positioning a service in the marketplace.
- Targeting customers, managing relationships and building loyalty.
- Complaint handling and service recovery.
- Creating services and adding value.
- Designing service delivery systems.
- Pricing services.
- Communicating to customers.
- Enhancing value by improving quality and productivity.
- Balancing demand and capacity.
- Managing customer-contact personnel.
- Organising for service leadership.
- Developing strategies for transnational operations.
