Programme: PGDM FMG-23/IMG-8

Name of the Course: Services Marketing (E)

Credit: 1

Term-5

Academic Year: 2015-2016

Faculty: Dr. Anupam Narula

Off. Contact No: 011- 41242411

Email: anupam@fsm.ac.in

Introduction:
The purpose of this course is to provide an understanding of concepts of service marketing and to equip
with tools and techniques for application of these concepts to real life problems and issues in service
environment. The aim is to sensitize the students to this sector which is proving to be one of the key sectors
in Indian economy. Applications of service marketing concepts are illustrated using cases, examples,
videos, research papers and exercises.
Objective/s:
To acquaint students with the concepts of service marketing so that they may be able to develop
implementable marketing strategies.
To promote a customer service-oriented mindset.
Provide an understanding of service quality, its measurement and management
Provide an understanding of service design skills for efficient delivery.
To study breakthrough services in order to understand the operations of successful service firms that
can be benchmarks for future management practice.
Text Book:
Services Marketing by Valarie A Zeithaml, Mary Jo Bitner, Dwayne D Gremler and Ajay Pandit
6th Special Indian Edition, Tata McGraw Hill Private Limited.
Reference (Books, Journals, Magazines, Articles etc.):
1. Services Marketing; People, Technology, Strategy; Christopher Lovelock, Jochen Wirtz, Jayanta
Chatterjee; Pearson Education
2. The Essence of Services Marketing; Adrian Palmer; McGraw Hill
Suggested Journals: Harvard Business Review, Journal of Service Marketing, Sloan Management
Review, California Management Review and Journal of Services Research.
Pedagogy:
The pedagogy for this course will be a mix of classroom lectures, experience sharing, case discussion,
videos, assignments and carrying out a comprehensive industry/ research based project work. Students are
advised to come prepared for the class by reading the prescribed materials as well as by updating the cases
and analyzing parallels of the cases by obtaining insights through library research, field study and personal
observation.
Evaluation Component and weight age:
Class Participation & Assignments
Case Analysis and presentation
Mid-term Examination
Mini Project Assignment
End Term Examination

10%
10%
20%
20%
40%

Course Contents and Session Plan:

Session
No
1.

2.

3.

Session theme

Additional Reading/Cases

Understanding the Emerging service

environment and what derives the demand
for services in India; Introduction to
services: Characteristics of services;
Expanded Marketing Mix for services.

Christopher Lovelock, Jochen and Jayanta-Ch-1

Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler and Pandit-Ch-1.

Discussion on Mini Projects for the

Course
Understanding Service customers:
Consumers judgment of goods versus
services in terms of search, experience,
and credence criteria.

Videos: Services Encounters of The First, Second

and Third Kind by Ron Kaufman.
Christopher Lovelock, Jochen and Jayanta-Ch-2

4.

The GAPS model of Service Quality:

Customer gap as the most important gap,
Four provider gaps contributing to the
customer gap.
Case study on Service Performance Gap

5.

Mini Projects :

6.

Understanding Customer expectations

and Zone of tolerance.

Additional Reading: Fryar, C.R. (1991). What's

Different about Services Marketing, The Journal of
Services Marketing, Vol. 5(4), 53-58.

Additional Reading: X. Frei, Frances. (2008) The

Four Things a Service Business Must Get Right,
HBR, 70-80.
Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler and Pandit-Ch-2.
Exercise and Case Study on KAYA and the
Beauty care Market.
Case Study on Euro Disney- Harvard Business
School.
Proposal Submission & Presentation.
Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler and Pandit-Ch-3
Exercise and Case Study on Singapore Airlines:
Continuing Service Improvement-Columbia
Business School.
Additional Reading: Published Interview of CEO,
Singapore Airlines (provided) & How Does
Singapore Airlines Fly So High (provided).

7.

8.

9.

Consumer perception of Service:

Relationship between customer
satisfaction and service quality; Service
quality and its five dimensions;
Importance of service encounters or the
moments of truth.
Case Study on Customers Expectations
and Perception of Services.
Service Development and Design: Newservice development process; Value of
service blueprinting and development of
service blueprints; Implementing highperformance service innovations.

Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler and Pandit-Ch-4.

Video: Zanes Cycles: Service Strategic
Differentiator.
Case Study on Blue Mountain Resorts: The
Service Quality Journey-Richard IVEY School of
Business.
Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler and Pandit- Ch-8
Additional Reading: Bitner, M.J, Ostrom, A..L &
Morgan, F.N (2008). Service Blue printing: A
practical technique for Service Innovation, CMR,
Vol. 50 (3), 66-94.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

Service Quality, Standards and

productivity: Distinguish between
company-defined and customer-defined
service standards, Hard and soft
customer-defined standards;
Developing customer-defined service
standards.
Mid-Term Exam

Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler and Pandit-Ch-9

Physical Evidence and Servicescape :

Impact of physical evidence, particularly
the Servicescape on customer perceptions
and experiences.

Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler and Pandit-Ch-10

Employees and Customers roles in

Service Delivery: Strategies for
Delivering Service quality through People
and Self-Service Technologies (SSTS).

Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler and Pandit-Ch-11 & 12

Managing Demand and Capacity:

Strategies for matching supply and
demand.

Case Study on The Dabbawala System: On TimeDelivery, Every Time- Harvard Business School.

A Virtual Tour Of An IKEA Store

http://info.ikea- usa.com/IKEAVirtualTour/?store=atlanta

Exercise and Case study on Aravind Eye Care

System: providing total Eye care to the Rural
Population Richard Ivey School of Business.
Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler and Pandit-Ch-13
Case Study on Family Pizza Night at the BALA
BAY INN-Richard IVEY Business School.

Pricing of Service sand Revenue

Management: Perception of value to
customers and the role that price plays in
value Strategies to price services.

Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler and Pandit-Ch-15

ISMC and promotion for Services:

Specific strategies for managing promises
and managing customer expectations.

Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler and Pandit-Ch-14

Promotions at IKEA

Service Failure and Recovery strategies,

Impact of service failure and recovery,
Strategies for effective service recovery.

Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler and Pandit-Ch-7

Case Study on Revenue Management of

Gondolas.

http://www.brw.com.au/p/leadership/how_ikea_shows_the
_power_of_word_7tx4Lj9S1Uq1CJwZoqRDbM

17.

Integrated Service Strategy: Lessons from

the Best Firms.

Case Study on DOMINOS PIZZA-Richard

IVEY Business School
Additional Reading: C.F, Robert, P.H, Cherrill &
W.B Stephen (2001). Delivering Excellent Service:
Lessons from the Best Firms. CMR, Vol. 44(1), 3956.

18, 19
& 20

MINI PROJECT :

Final Report Presentation

FACILITATING CASE DISCUSSION & EXERCISES

By the end of the first session the students will have to form groups and select one case to lead the class
in analysis. Facilitating a case discussion is presenting a complete analysis of the case and leading the
class in the case analysis. This requires the team to draw out insights and ideas from the class and defend
the case analysis with class members who are expected to have read the case and thought about the
assigned questions. Often the case discussion consists of a brief overview of the firm, complete analysis
of the situation, identification of the problems/issues arising in the case and analysis of the same by
applying conceptual frameworks. A solution in the form of suggested option or an action plan needs to be
recommended and defended.
Criteria for measuring the effectiveness of leading a case discussion include:
a) Ability to identify the important issues in the case.
b) Ability to analyze the issues and use of concepts in the specific situation.
c) Ability to generate insight.
d) Ability to answer the queries of class members satisfactorily
The case may be presented in the form of a Power point presentation (PPT). The maximum time
allowed to the group for case presentation is 35 minutes followed by 10 minutes for questions. The time
allocated has to be adhered to.
In some instances, the students are also required to submit the exercises on case/ assignment on Claroline
as per above session plan.

READINGS & CONCEPTUAL DISCUSSIONS:

All class members are expected to have read the additional readings and cases as assigned. Furthermore,
class members are encouraged to apply concepts from the additional readings and text chapters to their
analysis of the case. Active participation is expected throughout the entire class with thoughtful
contributions to advance the quality of the discussion. Please note that the frequency (i.e., the quantity)
and decibel of your interventions in class is not a key criterion for effective class participation. The
classroom should be considered a laboratory in which you can test your ability to convince your peers of
the correctness of your approach to complex problems and of your ability to achieve the desired results
through the use of that approach.
An important element of this class is teamwork. Students are encouraged to form their own group (of 5-6
members) and discuss the case before reflecting on the case assignment. Students will be encouraged

to participate freely in conceptual discussions and to apply the same in service marketing
context. Of particular importance will be given to practice oriented techniques and will be
utilized for gaining knowledge in the class.
SERVICE INDUSTRY MINI PROJECT REPORT
By the end of the second session you are required to select a company/ Unit from the service sector with a
domestic focus and submit group members names and Project title to the course instructor. Data for the
project may be collected from primary or secondary sources. A strong conceptual and analytical focus is
required. Group Project presentations will be held in sessions 18, 19 and 20 (given in Course outline).
Each member of the group has to be present during presentation to qualify for evaluation. Each
presentation will be of 15 minutes (PowerPoint) and will be open for questions and discussion for
4

5 minutes by the class following the presentation. The following questions need to be answered in the
report:
1. A general overview of the industry, service concept, major trends and structure.
2. Identify and describe the major competitors in terms of their service positioning and marketing mix.
3. How is the market segmented and who are the target customers for the selected firm/unit?
4. Describe the service product using the service design framework.
5. What are the brand elements?
6. Describe major services offered by the firm, the firms service line, pricing strategy, communication
mix and distribution channels used?
7. What are the opportunities for revenue management? Make recommendations
8. Map the service process. Examine the process flow; what is the throughput time, cycle time, theoretical
and actual capacity and capacity utilization? What are the marketing implications of the same?
9. Identify the bottleneck in the process. Suggest how to overcome the same.
10. Are demand and supply matched? Describe the demand management strategy used by the firm?
Evaluate and make recommendations
11. Describe employee roles in the service delivery process and how these roles impact the service
customers experience. Identify and discuss employee and customer scripts.
12. What is the marketing strategy of the firm? Suggest what the future marketing strategy should be to
meet the firms objectives.

Group project presentations will be held towards the end of the course (sessions 18, 19 and 20). The
report is to be submitted in soft word format by 17 session of course plan.