MKT3210 Services Marketing Fall 2013

KAZAKHSTAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, ECONOMICS AND

STRATEGIC RESEARCH UNDER THE PRESIDENT
OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN

SYLLABUS MKT 3210

Course Code : MK3210

Course Title : Services Marketing

Class Hours : Tuesday 16:00-17:15 #211/NEW bld.

Thursday 16:00-17:15 #211/NEW bld.

Semester : Fall 2013

Course Credits : 3

Instructor : Vladimir Garkavenko, PhD

Office Hours : Monday 16:00 – 17:15

Tuesday 14:30 – 15:30, 17:30 – 18:00
Wednesday 16:00 – 17:15
Thursday 14:30 – 15:30, 17:30 – 18:00

Email : gvlad@kimep.kz

Phone : 270-44-40 ext. 2171

Office : #340 Dostyk bld.

Textbook : Christopher H. Lovelock and Jochen Wirtz (2004, 2007, 2011), Services
Marketing, (5th, 6th and 7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

While lectures will cover a reasonable amount of material, it is essential that students read around
and beyond the recommended textbook. This ensures a solid basis is built up for the material
covered and will normally provide a very good examination grade at the end of the module. You
have to get into the habit of doing background reading, particularly scholarly journal papers,
practitioners and other business magazine, newspapers, etc.

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COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Services’ marketing introduces students to state-of-the-art research and practice in services

marketing. This course emphasizes discussion of the field’s most current services marketing
concepts, principles, and theories. Application of services marketing concepts to actual business
situations is through case analysis and outside projects.

Course Objectives:
The objectives of this module are:
 To provide an in-depth appreciation and understanding of the unique challenges inherent in
managing and delivering quality services. Participants will be introduced to and have the
opportunity to work with tools and strategies that address these challenges.
 To develop an understanding of the “state of the art” service management thinking.
 To promote a customer service-oriented mindset.

Expectations from Participants:

 Come to each class well prepared to be able to discuss the required readings and assigned
cases in detail. For each case discussion in class, write up your analysis and
recommendations beforehand.
 Provide the respective groups with their data/reports by the due date (e.g., service encounter
journal).
 Actively participate in lectures and tutorials as much of the learning will come from
discussions during class.
 Give a professional group presentation that is relevant to the lecture topics and interesting for
the class
 Internalize the concepts covered in the course and be able to creatively use them in an
applied context. This course is all about understanding and application to the real world.
Each chapter of the recommended textbook contains a list of important learning objectives. In
addition, each Learning Objective is tied to the specific section(s) of the textbook (to which it
pertains).

Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this module, you will be able to understand the following:
1. Understand the theory and concepts pertaining to Services marketing.
2. Define the role of Services marketing and discuss its core concepts and explain the
relationship among customer value, satisfaction, productivity and quality.
3. Understand how to develop effective service marketing strategies that emphasizes the value
exchange between suppliers and their customers
4. Discuss how marketing managers go about developing profitable customer relationships in
the Services marketing area

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Outcomes:
On completion of the subject, students will normally be able to:
 Develop familiarity with the concepts of Services Marketing
 To show that the characteristics of services affect a real-life customer experience.
 Enhance their abilities to apply target marketing strategies in various and specific
marketing situations.
 Develop an awareness and appreciation of research applicable to Services Marketing.

Teaching Methodology:
Instruction will involve a combination of lectures, class discussions, case studies, and discussion
questions.
The lectures are designed for sharing core curriculum information, which consist of a combination
of theory and various practical examples. Most information communicated during lectures will come
from the prescribed and recommended reading materials, practical experience, and relevant research
interests. Lectures will be accompanied by in class activities that will be focused on practical
experience. For this purpose, students are requested to think of any such experience when they are
preparing themselves for the forthcoming lectures. Additional materials will be distributed for
certain topics and students are expected to go through these.
However, it is advisable that students take additional notes during lectures and seek clarification
regarding anything that is not quite clear. Students are strongly encouraged to contact me during my
open office hours or an agreed and appointed consultation time.

Course Assessments (Preliminary):

1. Case Study analyses (group) 10%
2. Mid Term Exams 15%
3. Participation 10%
4. Final Group Project 25%
5. Final individual Exams 40%
____________________
Total 100%

How will I demonstrate my learning in this course?

Active participation during class discussion sessions and questions, report writing, answering essay
type questions at the individual level (mid term and final exams), ongoing preparation of questions
and queries for class discussion.
All lecture notes will be posted on the L drive. Copies of Case studies will handed to students during
class and it is the responsibility of students to ensure that they obtain a copy.

Final Group Project “Service Blueprinting” (25%)

Groups to be assigned in class and finalized by Week 3/4. Students should write a formal research
report showing comprehensive application of theory and concepts. APA (v.5) referencing style is to
be used.
80% assigned marks for the written paper and 20% marks for the class presentation. The
presentation should be of 25 minutes in duration including Q and A.

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Objectives of Group Project

You as students are often both service consumers and service employees, because there are many job
opportunities in the service sector. As a result, experiential learning activities are particularly
applicable for service-marketing classes. Such active learning helps you to understand how your
experiences relate to the course content, placing considerable responsibility for learning on class
participants themselves. This assignment provides you with alternative ways to understand and
synthesize the learning objectives of this course. Such activities also break up the normal routine of
reading the text, attending lectures, and note-taking.

This exercise requires a field trip by your group to observe a local service business. You have to
identify a service industry that has many local competitors so that each group studies a different
provider (coffeehouses, automobile oil change services, and fast food restaurants are potential
examples for this assignment). You have to seek permission in advance to visit a specific firm within
the designated industry. You need to obtain permission from management to view and discuss the
backstage of the business.

Please follow these instructions:

1. With your group, visit the service business you have chosen. You will need to gather enough
information to prepare a detailed blueprint showing how a specific service is created and
delivered to the customer. In most instances, this will probably require interviewing one or
more managers and employees.
2. Prepare a detailed blueprint of the service including all relevant elements both front stage
and backstage based on items in Table 1 and the following.
a. Add a written narrative and evaluation of the process in its present form, paying
particular attention to service quality and productivity.
b. Be sure to identify areas of strength and weakness (including potential fail points).
c. Compare this firm’s approach with the processes used by one of the major
competitors.
d. Add suggestions for any changes or improvements

Service blueprinting key components and Marking Schedule for Group Project

MK 3210
Term group project 20%
Poor Almost Good Very Good Excellent Marks
Title page
Table of contents
Definition of standards for
each front-stage activity 5
Physical and other evidence
for front-stage activities 5

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Principal customer actions.

Line of interaction 5
Front-stage actions by
customer-contact personnel.
Line of visibility 10
Backstage actions by
customer-contact personnel 5
Support processes involving
other service personnel and
information technology 10
Your firm’s approach
compared with the
processes used by one of the
major competitors. 10
Recommendations for
Redesign 20
Presentation’s attendance
and Presentation (20%) 20
Grammar, spelling, format,
readability, and
referencing 10

Total Marks
100

You will have to present the blueprint you have developed to the class. Do not hesitate to be creative
in your presentation—PowerPoint, role playing, short videos, or even storytelling can make your
blueprint “come to life!”. You will have about 25 minutes for your presentation.

Your grade on group projects will depend on your group’s grade and your contribution factor, which
is determined by your group’s peer evaluation of your performance. If your group members evaluate
you as contributing 80% to the group grade, you will only be able to get 80% of your group’s grade.
I hope this will help to mitigate the “free rider” problem in the group work.

Mid Semester Exam – 2 Questions Essay (15%). Closed book

Questions are designed to assess students' understanding of the subject matter and their ability to
express their opinions and write good English will be conducted within the lecture time. Students
will have fifty minutes to complete this test.

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Final Exam – 3 Questions based on a mini case study (40%) Closed book
Questions are designed to assess students' understanding of the subject matter and their ability to
express their opinions and write good English will be conducted within the lecture time. Students
will have ninety minutes to complete this test.

Group Case Study analyses 10%

Students are to prepare case analysis of a prescribed text. The case analysis should be based upon
the questions that would be handed in class during formal test session. The analysis should explore
the theory supporting the questions and should show how the theory from the course is applicable in
the case study. Student groups are encouraged to collect relevant information from various sources
including the internet. The use of creative thinking, current data and information and the evaluation
of a variety of outcomes are actively encouraged and will be rewarded.

Your grade on group projects will depend on your group’s grade and your contribution factor, which
is determined by your group’s peer evaluation of your performance. If your group members evaluate
you as contributing 80% to the group grade, you will only be able to get 80% of your group’s grade.
I hope this will help to mitigate the “free rider” problem in the group work.

Group size: You are free to form your own groups of 5-6 persons per group, but each student is
required to joint one group, as team work is really important in you future career. Those do not have
a particular preference will be randomly assigned to a group. We will finalize the groups on the
second week.

Participation:
Attendance and involvement in class discussions will be marked.

Grading Scale:
A+ 90-100 C+ 67-69
A 85-89 C 63-66
A- 80-84 C- 60-62
B+ 77-79 D+ 57-59
B 73-76 D 53-56
B- 70-72 D- 50-52
F below 50

Attendance Policy:
Your final mark will be affected by your attendance and involvement in class discussions.

Course policies:
1. You should attend all exams. There will be no extra work for extra grades, so do not even
ask for extra homework to increase your grade.
2. No bargaining for grades.
3. Cheating will be charged with an “F” grade.

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4. Late assignments will receive partial credits (75% of the original grade maximum) before
the solutions are released. No credits will be given to assignments handed in after the
solutions are released.

Academic Integrity:
Any time you put your name on a piece of work for this course you are asserting that it is your own
work. If it is not the case, it is plagiarism. You must report, in proper citation format (APA
referencing style), the source of information used in a paper. Direct quotes must be denoted by
quotation marks and page references. Cheating on exams and assignments will not be tolerated.
Please also read and comply with Management & Marketing’s Plagiarism policy and Referencing
and Citation notes displayed in the faculty member’s L drive which in all actuality forms part and
parcel of this syllabus.
ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE: No student will be allowed to leave the examination room once
examination has started and no student will be allowed in the examination room 10 minutes after the
start of exams. ALL MOBILES MUST BE SWITCHED OFF AND KEPT AT DESIGNATED
PLACES AT YOUR RISK (better leave them in a safe place before entering the examination room).
NO COMMENTS AND CROSS TALKING WILL BE ALOWED.
RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU HAVE ANY QUERY

ATTENDANCE: The primary purpose for attending class is to learn the subject material in order to
further your professional and personal development and to fully participate in class discussions that
help you to understand theories etc from examples cited in class. For this reason, it is important to
have an environment that is conducive to learning and free from unnecessary distractions. Therefore
the use of cell phones, pagers, watches that are set to chime at certain times, boom boxes, walkmans,
or any other devices that produce noise that will create a distraction in the classroom is specifically
prohibited from use in the classroom. If you carry any of these devices into the classroom, please
make sure that they are turned off or set so that they alert you silently. Each successive occurrence
will result in the student being invited to leave the class and reduction of his/her final evaluation in
the class by one letter grade.

TENTATIVE COURSE OUTLINE MKT 3210 Services Marketing

(May be subject to changes in consultation with students)

Text- Cases
WEEK TOPIC Remarks
book
02.09. –
1 06.09.2013 Introduction to Services Marketing Ch. 1

2 09.09. – Consumer Behavior in Service Ch. 2 Group Formation

13.09.2013 Encounters
Developing Service Concept: Core
3 16.09. – and Supplementary Elements Ch. 3
20.09.2013 (Creating the Service Product)
Developing Service Concept: Core Ch. 3

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4 23.09. – Give cases to groups

and Supplementary Elements
27.09.2013
(Creating the Service Product)
Ch. 7
Positioning Services in Competitive
Markets
Positioning Services in Competitive
5 30.09. – Markets Ch. 7
04.10.2013
07.10. – 10.10. Distributing Services Ch. 4 Distribution
6 11.10.2013
14.10. – Kurban Ait Make up class for
7 15.10.2013 will be
18.10.2013 17.10.2013 …?
Mid-term Exam
24.10.2013 Service
8 21.10. – Designing the Service Environment Ch. 10 Presentation #1 Environment
25.10.2013 Gr.

31.10.2013 Price, Revenue

9 28.10. – Exploring Business Models: Pricing Ch. 5 Presentation #2 Management
01.11.2013 Services and Revenue Management Gr.

Ch. 6 07.11.2013 Promotion, Education

10 04.11. – Educating Customers and Promoting Presentation #3
08.11.2013 the Value Proposition (Designing the Gr.
Communication Mix for Services)

Designing and Managing Service Ch. 8 14.11.2013 Processes

11 11.11. – Processes Presentation #4
15.11.2013 Gr.
Managing People for Service Ch. 11, 21.11.2013 People
12 18.11. – Advantage 12 Presentation #5
22.11.2013 Managing Relationships and Gr.
Building Loyalty
Service Recovery and Customer Ch. 13 28.11.2013 Service Recovery
13 25.11. – Feedback Presentation #6
29.11. 2013 Gr.
02.12. – Improving Service Quality and Ch. 14 Service Quality
14 06.12.2013 Productivity

Organizing for Change Management Ch. 15

and Service Leadership

Group project Submission and

Presentations

09.12. – Group project Submission and

15 13.12.2013 Presentations Group project

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Submission
16.12. –
Examination week
16 20.12.2013