module specification

The service sector has been growing significantly for more than fifty years to the extent that in the developed world, most people earn their living from producing services than making manufactured goods. In fact, well over three-quarters of the active population in the developed world work in service-related industries, including aviation and creative industries. Services therefore have a major impact on national economies.

The subject of Services Marketing has grown in response to this. Latterly, however, manufacturing and technology industries have also recognised the need to provide services not only as a means of adding value to the physical products they market, but also as the basis for a different orientation to the management of their businesses.

This module will address the key issues, concepts and models, which form the core of services marketing management theory and practice, focusing on aviation and creative industries.

The module aims to provide an understanding of the marketing management process in the context of aviation and creative industries. The module also aims to assist students in the acquisition of the following skills:
• Academic writing & reading
• Application of knowledge and presenting and interpreting data 
• Communicating/Presenting, orally and in writing
• Inter-personal/Inter-cultural communication

1. Defining marketing and services marketing process (3 weeks)
• Why do services marketing matter? The role of aviation and creative industries in the global economy.
• Distinguishing features of services (the 5I’s)
• Defining marketing in a service context and the service-dominant logic.
• An extended marketing mix applied to aviation and the creative industries.
• Understanding the role and purpose of strategic marketing planning in a service setting.
• Developing a customer-centric service organisation in the 21st century. LO1

2. Understanding the marketplace and services buying behaviour (3 weeks)
• Analysing the marketing environment applied to aviation and creative industries.
• Understanding and managing marketing information to gain customer insight.
• Understanding services buying behaviour. The service encounter/‘the moment of truth’: challenges and prospects.
• Regulatory, legislative, ethical and social responsibility frameworks within which aviation and creative industries operate. Understanding public policy and consumer protection, intellectual property rights, trademarks and copyright regulations. 

3. Designing a customer-driven marketing strategy for aviation and creative industries (3 weeks)
• Selecting customers to serve- segmentation and targeting
• Deciding on a compelling and distinctive value proposition- differentiation and positioning 

4. Crafting an integrated services marketing programme that delivers superior value

4.1 The process of creating customer value (6 weeks)
• The service product concept and value creation process: how product/ service offers, service innovation and design, relationships and brand image can be utilised to create customer value? 
• Exploring the significance of co-creation/ coproduction and crowd-sourcing in maximising the lifetime value of desirable customer segments - applied to aviation and creative industries.
• What makes strong services brands? Building on services ‘characteristics to develop successful brands in the aviation and creative industries. Application of the brand equity concept to service organisations and examination of the brand identity traps. 
• Pricing objectives and pricing methods in the service sector. Why is pricing of services different?
• Conceptualising and applying the service quality process in aviation and creative industries.

4.2 Communicating and delivering superior customer value (6 weeks)
• Managing communications for the service product. Are services promoted differently? Designing a realistic and effective integrated brand communication plan for aviation and creative industries, including advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, endorsement and sponsorship, experiential marketing, direct and database marketing, digital, social media including emerging trends.  
• Delivering service through electronic channel and intermediaries, crafting an integrated omni-channel strategy that enriches customers’ buying experience.
• Engaging employees in service delivery.
• Managing the physical and virtual servicescape/cybercape.
• Revenue management: matching capacity with demand.
• Service failure and recovery strategies as applied to aviation and creative industries. LO2

5. Implementation, organisation and control of the services marketing programmes (3 weeks)
• Addressing implementation issues in services marketing planning, developing implementation strategies and the skills needed for effective implementation.
• Forms of services marketing organisation - the context in which marketing implementation takes place.
• The planning and control process- strategic control, marketing control and operational control; setting marketing budget and forecast, contingency and scenario planning.
• The use of marketing metrics for measuring marketing performance as applied to the aviation and creative industries. 

6. Building a profitable and sustainable relationships with customers (3 weeks)
• How customer satisfaction and delight influence customers’ attitudinal and behavioural loyalty in aviation and creative industries?
• Steps in developing an effective customer relationship management and associated loyalty programmes.
• Managing relationships, partnerships and networks.
• Future priorities of marketing in aviation and creative industries LO3

This module is delivered over a 30-week period and consists of 1.5 hours interactive learning sessions and 1.5 hours appreciation and critique of marketing in aviation and creative industries sessions each week. The lecture will focus on defining and clarifying the theoretical principles to the appropriate depth and breadth. The interactive learning sessions anchor knowledge imparted in the lectures and provides a forum for a better understanding of lectures through small group discussions, case study / campaigns / journal article / problem solving analysis, presentations by guest speakers, and questions and answers. It also assists students in relating their knowledge to the services marketing discipline and profession.

In order to ensure that students take more control of their learning and development, a ‘flipped classroom’ approach is adopted where students are provided with a topic and prepare well in advance of the date on which materials will be covered. The teaching team will lead a discussion on the role that each should play in the weekly sessions.

In addition, workshops will be made available to enable individual students to focus on an aspect of their personal development that they have identified in taking the module. This teaching and learning approach is responsive to learner needs in that it offers flexibility for the identification and development of individual student learning needs and allows every student the opportunity to complete an assessment at which they have the potential to excel.

The facilities of Web Learn will be used as part of a blended learning approach and will be central to the delivery of module handbook, case studies, marketing campaigns, journal articles, and external web links.

On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Define the role, context and purpose of services marketing in the context of aviation and creative industries, and be able to select and apply appropriate services marketing concepts and models to aviation and creative industries (LO1)
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the marketplace and services buying behaviour with the aim of developing a customer-driven marketing strategy and services marketing mix programmes for aviation and creative industries (LO2)
3. Demonstrate knowledge of the implementation, organisation and control of services marketing programmes and alternative ways of building profitable and sustainable relationships with customers within aviation and creative industries (LO3)

The assessment has been designed to test the achievement of the module’s learning outcomes and it requires students to apply the knowledge gained during the module.

Accordingly, the module is assessed by three components:
• Group presentation on application of marketing theory/model (30%)
• Individual written report of assessing marketing opportunities and description of marketing mix programmes (40%)
• Individual essay on customer retention strategies (30%)

Guidance will be given by tutors to ensure appropriate evidence of meeting all learning outcomes is considered in the final development of group presentation, individual written report and essay.

Assessment 1 (LO1): group presentation (20 minutes, 30%)
In your group, select a service organisation with which you are all reasonably familiar or you are interested in. When making your choice, make sure that you have access to relevant information about the organisation and how it markets itself.

You will be allocated an area of services marketing theory from which you must choose two models related to this area. Briefly explain them and discuss their relevance to your chosen service organisation by describing examples from their marketing activities.

You may discuss to more than two models as long as you explain their relevance to your two main models. For example, if you choose the five Services Marketing Characteristics (intangibility, inseparability, variability) as one of your models, you might also choose to discuss the Molecular Model because it is used to divide a service into tangible and intangible components.

Assessment 2 (LO2): Individual written report (2000 words, 40%)
The aim of the assessment is to enable you to apply the knowledge gained during the module. You are required to:
• Identify and describe potential marketing opportunities in your chosen industry using appropriate analytical techniques such as Porter’s 5 forces model, PESTLE and TOWS matrix, as appropriate.
• Choose a service organisation within your chosen industry and describe how the organisation segments the market, targets specific customers, differentiates itself from direct/indirect competitors and has succeeded in gaining a unique position within the industry.
• Provide a brief description of the marketing mix programmes developed by your chosen service organisation. Here you should explain how the service provider creates, communicates and delivers value to its selected customers.  
• Draw conclusions and provide realistic and effective recommendations for service provider.

Assessment 3 (LO3): Individual essay (1500 words, 30%)
The aim of the assessment is to enable you gain an understanding of how customer satisfaction and delight influence customers’ attitudinal and behavioural loyalty in the aviation or creative industries? You are required to select a specific service organisation within the aviation/creative industries and describe to what extent the service organisation has been successful in building profitable and sustainable relationships with its customers. For this purpose, you need to examine the various customer retention strategies adopted by the company. You should also draw conclusions and provide realistic and effective recommendations for service provider, as appropriate.

Arrangements for formative and summative feedback
The arrangement for formative and summative feedback is based on the university assessment framework and the QAA guidelines. You will be provided with both oral and written feedback of your assignment within 10 working days of submission. You are strongly encouraged to show your draft work to your tutor for comments. You will be provided with a detailed feedback both in-class and via Turnitin.

Constructive alignment of assessment strategy to learning outcomes and skills development

Core texts:

Middleton, V., Fyall, A., Morgan and Ranchhod, A. (2009) Marketing in Travel and Tourism, 4th Ed., Butterworth-Heineman.

King, M. (2009) Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail, Berklee Press Publications.

Kolb, B. (2016) Marketing Strategy for Creative and Cultural Industries (Mastering Management in the Creative and Cultural Industries), 1st Edition, Routledge.

Shaw, S. (2011) Airline Marketing and Management, 7th Edition, Ashgate.

Troilo, G. (2015) Marketing in Creative Industries: From creativity to customer value, Palgrave Macmillan.

Wilson, A., Zeithaml, V.A., Bitner, M.J. Gremler, D.D. (2016) Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm, 3rd European Edition, McGraw Hill Education.

Other background texts:

Baker, B. (2013) Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook: 201 Self-Promotion Ideas for Songwriters, Musicians & Bands on a Budget, Spotlight Publications.

Bilton, C. (2017) The Disappearing Product: Marketing and Markets in the Creative Industries, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.

Chaffey, D. and Smith, PR (2017) Digital Marketing Excellence: Planning, Optimising and
Integrating Online Marketing, 5th Edition, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Fill C. and Turnbull, S. (2016) Marketing Communications: discovery, creation and conversations, 7th Edition Pearson Education.

Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2016) Principles and Practice of Marketing, McGraw-Hill Education.

Goldenberg, B.J. (2015)The Definitive Guide to Social CRM: Maximizing Customer Relationships with Social Media to Gain Market Insights, Customers, and Profits, Pearson FT Press.

Gronroos, C. (2006), Service Management and Marketing: A Customer Relationship Approach, 2nd Edition, Wiley, Chichester.

Owsinski, B. (2013) Social Media Promotion For Musicians: The Manual For Marketing Yourself, Your Band, And Your Music Online, 1st Edition, Bobby Owsinski Media Group.

Kotler, P.T., Bowen, J.T., Makens, J. and Baloglu, S. (2017) Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism, Global Edition, 7th Edition, Pearson.

Payne, A. (2013) Strategic Customer Management: Integrating Relationship Marketing and CRM, Cambridge University Press.

Palmer, A. (2014) Principles of Services Marketing, 7th Edition, McGraw-Hill.

Wirtz, J. and Lovelock,C. (2016) Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy: 8th Edition, World Scientific Publishing Company.

Journals
Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing
Journal of Aviation Management, Journal of ICAO
Events management : an international approach 
Journal of Consumer Marketing

Websites
Institute of Practitioners in Advertising   www.ipa.co.uk
Internet Advertising Bureau UK   www.iabuk.net
Interactive Advertising Bureau   www.iab.net
Smartinsights - http://www.smartinsights.com
PR Week www.prweek.com
Media Week www.campaignlive.co.uk/media
www.eventmagazine.co.uk
www.bpi.co.uk
www.ukmmf.co.uk
www.ifpi.org
www.musicindie.com
www.musicweek.com
www.recordoftheday.com
www.musicjournal.org
www.dotmusic.com
www.musicmetric.com
www.simplymeasured.com