Services Marketing

Services Marketing helps students understand the role that services marketing plays in creating customer value, and the increasing contributions that services make to national economies. Service marketers need to understand the practical implications associated with the definitive characteristics of services because that knowledge will enable them to recognise, and effectively manage, the marketing opportunities arising from global service-based economies.This text engages students and encourages them to develop an understanding of the service processes that create value for identified target markets. An analytical learning approach, based on applying established and evolving services marketing concepts for Australasian organisations, is the rationale of the pedagogy adopted by this text. That approach is warranted for two reasons: Australian and New Zealand service organisations are developing closer economic ties with the growing markets of their South-East Asian counterparts. By understanding Australasian service organisations, students will be able to adopt an international perspective on services marketing.Key Features: A `problem-based' learning approach, written in a relaxed style to encourage students to read, and develop, a practical `applied' understanding of services marketing rather than merely learning definitions. `Services In Action' boxes - These boxes put the theory into context and provide practical and contemporary examples of Services Marketing in Action. Industry Insights- Examples of services marketing in industry provide additional case examples. Case Studies - are grouped at the end of each Part. These are a `time out' for students to apply the theory discussed in each part to real-life business situations. Case studies provide focussed learning with questions provided to frame the case and offer students the opportunity to probe deeper into the implications for services marketing.