This is a two-page exercise in services marketing. Students are required to complete both independent and team work in identifying service gaps for a selected service. The module addresses issues of understanding target marketsÂ’ needs, competition, and factors in the marketplace such as political and legislative issues, as well as economics and demographic factors relative to service offerings.
Type of Material:
This is a two-page assignment.
Recommended Uses:
The material can be used both in and out of the classroom. Material can be used as the basis for class discussion, independent homework assignments and study, reference material, and team work.
Technical Requirements:
There are no technical requirements associated with the use of this material.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
The primary learning goal of this module is to work on issues in offering services. The students have to identify a service gap and evaluate its attractiveness for new or existing firms. Users explore services marketing, the identification of market factors affecting the service delivery, evaluation of services, and the revision of strategy contingent upon this information.
Target Student Population:
This material would be appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students in courses such as the following: principles of marketing, consumer behavior, marketing research, services marketing, marketing management, and marketing strategy.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Students should have completed an introductory course in business to understand the terms and concepts that would be used in this exercise. Additionally, a basic knowledge of services marketing and price policy would be helpful.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The most outstanding feature of this assignment is that it can be applied in a variety of courses to address a critical component of marketing theory: services marketing. Students often have a difficult time understanding intangibility and the challenges involved with measuring satisfaction with services in an effort to better serve the client/customer.
Also critical to this assignment is the real world application of understanding environmental factors and how they may affect delivery of services. Students also have the opportunity to see WHY it is so important to understand who the target market is and to develop a profile of the target market in order to address service needs.
Finally, the module is ready to use as an addition to a service marketing course. The information is presented in a simple and straightforward structure. The author use different examples to clarify the problems of service gaps in order to help students understand the concepts.
Concerns:
The handout associated with this module is very brief and not self-contained. To complete the exercise, students will need to be exposed to service marketing topics in the form of a reading assignment or lecture prior to beginning the exercise. However, there is no supplementary material or list of resources associated with the assignment. Students are not necessarily required to access external resources to complete the assignment. This would be a great opportunity to also teach students the importance of secondary and primary research and to incorporate facets of each into the assignment.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
This assignment is brief yet it provides students with the opportunity to explore a variety of issues critical to the development of services. The material is well organized and there is a logical progression of topics. It gives the right instructions for students to work on their assignment and offers an opportunity to evaluate students' understanding of services and service gaps. The assignment includes a variety of service situations that students can easily identify and possibly have experienced first hand.
Concerns:
The exercise is very brief. In order to ensure that students have thoroughly grasped the concept of services, instructors may need to provide a significant amount of supplementary material. Additionally, instructors would need to develop learning objectives as they relate to the particular subject they are teaching (e.g., marketing management, marketing research, etc).
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
Faculty and students should encounter no difficulty using this material. Instructors are provided with details to complete the assignment incorporating both independent and team exercises. Thought provoking questions provide students with a variety of issues to consider and the examples encourage discussion and analysis.
Concerns:
There are no recommendations in terms of external resources to complete the assignment, nor is there any supplemental material included. Instructors would need to research resources and outside reading assignments in order to provide a more comprehensive approach to the assignment
Creative Commons:
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