MS-65: MARKETING OF SERVICES

ASSIGNMENT

Course Code : MS - 65

Course Title : Marketing of Services

Assignment Code : MS-65 TMA/SEM - I /2011

Coverage : All Blocks

Note: Assignments Solved by www.distpub.com

1) Give examples of services that are high in credence qualities. How do high credence qualities affect consumer behaviour for there services? Explain giving examples.

2) Taking the example of a business hotel differentiate between core, facilitating and supporting services. Would your answer differ for an economy tourist hotel? Explain.

3) Explain the role of non-monetary costs in pricing of services by taking the example of a service of your choice.

4) Select a service you are familiar with. Explain the service offered & develop a good service guarantee for it. Discuss why your guarantee is a good one, and the possible benefits to the company in implementing it.

5) Explain the importance of branding of financial services giving suitable examples.

6) Study the following case situation and answer the questions given at the end:

Case Situation : The amusement park with a successful history was now facing problems. It has its first money losing last year followed by another one now. The park had three ways to bring in more revenues: increase visit per customer, increase average spending per visit or attract new customers. Because of a mature industry all three were hard to do. As pulling in people from broader geographical area seemed an unlikely proposition due to the wide availability of such parks, attracting new customers required new value proposition. With this background, it was proposed to offer a “preferred guest card” to win more business from moneyed and time pressed group of people. Under this plan, visitors could pay an additional fee to get free rein of the park: Card Holders would enter the ride through separate lines which would give them first crack and they would be seated immediately at any in-park restaurant. It was hoped that this plan will help to up-sell the people who are already coming to the park. And by making it possible to spend less time in queues, the guest card will also attract a different type of customer-time starved, high-income professionals and their families, who might otherwise avoid the whole experience. However, certain objections were raised against such a scheme. “I don’t even think it’s a great experience for the preferred guests. Who want to feel all that animosity diverted at them? The key to this business is the customers feeling good while they are here. With this scheme neither side’s coming back” commented an executive. A possible solution given to this was to separate the lines and limiting the percentage of special tickets issued on any given day. If the ‘preferred guest card’ scheme was not implemented the park might be forced to raise price across the board.

Questions:

(a) Evaluate the ‘preferred guest card’ scheme and give your recommendations to

the management .

(b) Describe the demand patterns that you would expect at an amusement park and the underlying causes.

(c) Suggest some ways of managing waiting lines at amusement parks.