Services dominate developed and developing economies and are becoming critical for competitive advantage in companies across the globe and in all industry sectors. To illustrate the importance of services consider the following statistics:
• Services account for almost 80% of the GDP in the U.S. and for more than 60% of GDP worldwide.
• Historically product-dominant firms are now turning into service companies; for example, services over half of IBM’s current revenues and over 60% of GE’s current profits come from services.
Offering constant quality and excellent services are important issues in competitive service sectors. These issues drive intangibility, heterogeneity, credibility, and a significant degree of resemblance across competing service providers. Because of the nature of services, service marketers must employ marketing methods that differ from those used for physical items. Customers are exposed to service marketing strategies at an increasing number of touchpoints. As a result, service marketers must be well-versed in problems such as service design and delivery, service quality measurement, complaint handling, and internal marketing.
This lesson focuses on increasing students’ understanding of the distinctive characteristics of service offers and service marketplaces. Students will analyze and evaluate service offers and service delivery methods critically. To facilitate learning the understanding case studies, in-class exercises, videos, and movie scenes will be used.
After completing this course, students
should be able to:
Jochen Wirtz (2017). Winning in Service Markets: Success through People, Technology and Strategy