Services Marketing David L. Kurtz Kenneth E. Clow 560 Pages, Cloth, 1997 ISBN: 0-471-18034-3

PREFACE

The features that make Services Marketing an attractive selection include:

• A full complement of pedagogical aids. Each chapter includes chapter objectives, boxed illustration files, a summary of chapter objectives, review questions, discussion and critical thinking exercises, an opportunity for students to access the Internet, a glossary of key terms, and a short case with questions designed to elicit critical thinking on the part of students.

• Figures, flowcharts, tables, and photographs in each chapter.

• A behavioral, managerial approach to the study of services marketing that is relevant to today's business environment.

• A writing style that makes for easy and interesting reading. Concepts are followed by real-world examples. Key terms are highlighted and defined at the end of the chapter.

• Coverage of both domestic and international services marketing.

• Thirteen end-of-chapter cases with discussion questions.

• Eight comprehensive cases requiring students to integrate multiple concepts and theories.

• The text incorporates the latest theories and thought in the field of services marketing. More specifically, the text includes discussion of
  
  
  • Chapter 1: Introduction to Services Marketing-- importance of services to the economy, characteristics of services, and classification of services.
    
  • Chapter 2: The Purchase Process for Services-- consumption values, factors impacting the purchase decision, risk, role and script theory, the service encounter, and attribution theory.
    
  • Chapter 3: Consumer Expectations of Services-- model of consumer expectations, antecedents of consumer expectations, role of consumer expectations, and how to manage consumer expectations.
    
  • Chapter 4: Service Quality-- underlying principles of service quality, SERVQUAL, gap theory, service performance measures, total quality, and return on quality analysis.
    
  • Chapter 5: Operations-- Position mapping, blueprinting, establishing an operational position, operational design, and managing customer waiting and queues.
    
  • Chapter 6: People-- Job characteristics, issue of control, types of conflicts and how to deal with them, internal marketing, and customer-focused personnel.
    
  • Chapter 7: Service Environment-- Response moderators, environmental stimuli, servicescape positioning, designing a service environment, and entertainment service environments.
    
  • Chapter 8: Pricing-- role of pricing, price determinants, pricing in the business-to-business sector, differential pricing, yield management, price bundling, multiple-use price discounts, and customer-focused pricing.
    
  • Chapter 9: Distribution-- channel service options, distribution growth strategies, internationalization, franchising, branding, distribution management, and customer-focused distribution.
    
  • Chapter 10: Competitive Marketing Strategies-- Competitive advantage, service life cycle, market defender strategies, and consumer positioning .
    
  • Chapter 11: Managing Supply, Demand, and Productivity-- determining the demand pattern, managing supply, managing demand, and enhancing productivity.
    
  • Chapter 12: Customer Retention-- states of satisfaction, customer value package, compatibility management, customer defections, lifetime value of customers, service failure and recovery, and relationship marketing.
    
  • Chapter 13: An Integrated Communications Program-- role of communications, building firm image, integrating a communications program, advertising, sales promotions, personal selling, sponsorship marketing, cause-related marketing, and adventure marketing.

• An instructor's manual that includes lecture outlines, student application project suggestions, PowerPoint slides, testbank, and answers to review questions, discussion and critical thinking exercises, and case questions.

Cases
Each chapter contains a short case that allows students an opportunity to apply the concepts of the chapter. Each case is followed by a series of questions to guide student thinking or that can be used as the basis for a class discussion. All cases are real-world companies based on the most recent information available. Some of the companies included in the short cases are Scandinavian Airlines, Seabourn Cruise Line, Kinko's, Orkin, and Hyatt Legal Services. In addition, there are eight comprehensive cases at the end of the text. The comprehensive cases include a wide variety of both consumer, professional, and business-to-business services. These cases cover both the domestic and international marketplace.

Services in Action Feature
Each chapter has two boxed Services in Action features. The Services in Action sections illustrate the application of service concepts and theories. The boxed material will not only be interesting for students to read, but they will also highlight how real-world companies are using the concepts. Both successful and unsuccessful illustrations are provided. Services in Action include a wide variety of consumer services, non-profit organizations, professional services, and business-to-business services. Services in Action can be used to stimulate class discussion or as the basis for a short research project.

Discussion and Critical Thinking Exercises
The end of chapter materials include six questions that challenge the student and require critical thinking. The questions are applications of the chapter material and are excellent for class discussion or student presentations. The exercises will lead students to a deeper understanding of the theories in services marketing. They are excellent for instructors who like to use small groups. They are ideal for students to discuss in small groups then share with the class their thoughts and decisions. Groups can take different sides of an issue and debate the merit of their positions.

Internet Exploration Tasks
The sixth critical thinking question in each chapter involves Internet exploration. Students are asked to investigate the actual web pages of service firms. Complete Internet addresses are given and are provided at the Services Marketing homepage at www.wiley.com/college. Questions are asked that allow the students an opportunity to explore real companies and how they address certain service issues. Critical thinking is involved as students are required to find and understand application of principles and theories related to services marketing.

Student Application Project
For instructors who like to assign a student paper, the Services Marketing instructor's manual outlines an on-going student paper project that requires students to apply certain service concepts and theories throughout the course. Each student is asked to pick a service firm or organization of which they have knowledge. For each chapter, students are asked to apply the concepts and theories discussed to the service they have picked. The rigor and level of difficulty of the paper can be adjusted to fit either undergraduate or graduate students.

Testbank
The testbank contains sixty questions for each chapter. Each chapter contains forty multiple choice questions, fifteen true and false questions, and five essay questions. For each question the level of difficulty is indicated as well as the chapter and page number where the concept is covered. To make it easier for the instructor to prepare tests, the test questions are contained in three computer word processing files, one for each of the three sections of the text. Instructors can add, delete, modify, and re-arrange the questions to fit the manner in which they presented the material.

PowerPoint Slides or Transparencies
For each chapter a PowerPoint slide presentation has been prepared that covers the major concepts of the chapter. By having the material available to download from the Services Marketing homepage at www.wiley.com/college, instructors can modify the presentation to fit their own teaching style. Individual slides can be modified. Additional slides can be added. For instructors who do not want to use it as a slide show, each slide can be made into either a color or black and white transparency. This format allows instructors considerable flexibility in their presentation.

Internet Homepage
Information is available to both students and instructors at the Services Marketing homepage currently available at the John Wiley & Sons website: www.wiley.com/college. For students, a 20-question sample test for each chapter and answers to all of the discussion questions are available for downloading. Also, links to all of the websites listed in the internet question of the Discussion and Critical Thinking Exercises are provided. For both students and instructors, the Powerpoint slides that were created for the text can be downloaded. The site will provide listings and links to news articles related to service topics and service companies. For students and instructors who would like to communicate with the authors, a link to each author's e-mail or homepage is available.

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