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Services Marketing

The objective of this course is to prepare students for advanced careers in marketing management by enabling them to understand and ultimately being able to influence consumers' behavior by means of advertising and other marketing communications, while maintaining high ethical standards. In doing so, students will first be introduced to important key concepts and theories of consumer psychology. Next, students will be exposed to the concept of integrated marketing communications as well as the planning, creation, and capturing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
Course code
MKT431
Course type
BSc Course
Weekly Hours
2,0
ECTS
3.0
Term
FS 2020
Language
Englisch
Lecturers
Prof. Dr. Matthias Gouthier
Please note that exchange students obtain a higher number of credits in the BSc-program at WHU than listed here. For further information please contact directly the International Relations Office.
Introduction to services marketing
  • Definition of services and their characteristics
  • Importance of services and service industries
  • Specialties of services marketing

Managing customer relationships

  • Relationship vs. transactional marketing
  • Service attributes, expectations and experiences
  • Customer satisfaction, delight and loyalty
  • Customer value

Service design

  • Service Design Thinking
  • Service Blueprinting

Service delivery

  • Service profit chain
  • Service orientation and culture

Service outcomes and implementation

  • Service quality
  • Service excellence


The course is limited to 42 participants!

Date Time
Thursday, 12.03.2020 15:30 - 18:45
Friday, 13.03.2020 08:00 - 11:15
Thursday, 26.03.2020 15:30 - 18:45
Friday, 27.03.2020 08:00 - 11:15
Thursday, 02.04.2020 15:30 - 18:45
Friday, 03.04.2020 08:00 - 11:15
Thursday, 30.04.2020 00:00 - 23:59
The objective of this class lies in enabling students to comprehend and apply key marketing management paradigms and tools aiming at establishing profitable and lasting customer relationships by means of designing and delivering efficient and effective services to customers. Successful participants of this class should be able to:
  • Acknowledge the critical roles of perceived service quality, experienced customer satisfaction, customerdelight,and customer loyalty.
  • Reflect on the value of a customer.
  • Outline the key properties and managerial implications of a contemporary relationship marketing approach.
  • Analyze the processes, structures, and mechanisms that shape perceived service outcomes.
  • Design excellent customer services and outstanding customer experiences.
  • Measure the service quality provided by a firm.
  • Implement a management system of service excellence.
Essential reading: Jochen Wirtz and Christopher H. Lovelock (2018). Essentials of Services Marketing, 3rd edition, Pearson.Additional literature:Jochen Wirtz and Christopher H. Lovelock (2016). Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy, 8th edition, World Scientific.3 Case Studies (tba)
Lecturing, in-class discussions, case studies, guest lectures
Final exam 70%
Case studies and student presentations 30%

CORONA-UPDATE REGARDING THE EXAM:

Dear students,

In consultation with the examination office and due to the doubtful chances that a written exam can be realized in the near term, I decided to rearrange the grading structure. Instead of the planned 70% evaluation performance based on the written exam, you should work on two additional questions which I have added to the existing cases. In consequence, you have to choose one out of two cases and answer three questions (including the one question that was handed out beforehand) for the selected case (and please add a short intro and conclusion part) to successfully pass the exam.

To give you the chance to have enough time to accurately prepare the report, I have also decided to extend the deadline corresponding to the original appointment of the written exam.

All details on the updated grading are described in the slide set I currently uploaded in Moodle.

I'm convinced that this changed examination procedure is the fairest approach without discriminating anyone. If there are any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Kindest regards,

Matthias Gouthier

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