Question 1: AZ Academy is a newly established online distance private higher education institute that offers Postgraduate programmes, Degrees, Diplomas and Higher Certificates.

Considering the above statement, in your capacity as an Assistant Service Marketing Consultant for AZ Academy, compile an essay where you discuss how five of the characteristics of services affect the marketing of the organisation’s educational programmes (services). For each service characteristic, discuss the challenge/s associated with the characteristics, and suggest a remedial action to overcome the identified challenge/s. Support your answer with appropriate examples.  

Question 2: Consumers’ expectations regarding the level of service they should receive differ, making it difficult for managers to accurately identify the customer-service level delivery standard.

Considering the above statement, and in your capacity as a manager in the banking and finance industry:

  1. Explain your understanding of customer-defined standards and why they are essential.   
  2. Identify and discuss the factors you must consider when managing service quality expectations. Support your answer with examples.                         

Question 3: Service organisations mainly use marketing research to collect information about the services customers require, their needs, satisfaction and loyalty levels.

Sunrise is a well-established global courier company that has shortlisted you for the consultant post. An interview is to be held virtually in the next three days. At the interview, you will be required to make a presentation in an essay format. Your tasks are as follows.

  1. Justify, with examples, the significance of marketing research in understanding customers and recommend two actions Sunrise could take to reduce post-purchase dissonances.
  2. Briefly discuss with examples the contents of a five (5) step marketing research process that Sunrise can potentially adopt. Comment on the managerial implication of conducting marketing research.                                                                                                

Question 4: Service pricing is the strategy to price your services to be fair for your customers and profitable for your business. It results from a complex set of calculations, research and risk-taking ability.

The practice includes market segments, conditions, competitive environment, margin costs, customers’ willingness to pay, and other factors. There is not a one size fits all solution for service businesses (Symson, 2022). As a marketer in the tourism industry, you are exposed to South Africa’s most stunning locations. Our country offers beautiful experiences, but locals do not look at it that way. When they choose destinations, affordability is critical. They want great experiences at affordable prices, which they often get at international destinations.

Considering the above scenario and the disciplinary knowledge in conjunction with the relevant text from the prescribed courseware, answer the following questions.

Explain, with examples, how price elasticity can potentially influence the demand for travel and tourism services.          

Critically evaluate three (3) pricing approaches/strategies that travel and tourism organisations can adopt to achieve an acceptable return on investment and point out the weakness and strengths of each approach.        

Answers to HMKT230-1 Marketing Management 2      
Answer to Question 1:

Services differ significantly from product because of five important characteristics associated with it, such as lack of ownership, intangibility, inseparability, perishability, and heterogeneity or variability. Because of these important features of services, their marketing also requires important consideration to be made in order to achieve effectiveness. In the given scenario of AZ Academy, the Academy is new and is considering offering postgraduate programs and higher degree certificates to students. Since it is a service, the marketing of such programmes requires the consideration of all five characteristics of services in order to achieve better outcomes. These 5 characteristics not only affect the marketing strategies of the academy, but also pose significant challenges in the process. The ways in which each of the characteristics of service affect the marketing program, and the ways in which the challenges can be addressed are discussed as follows:
1) Intangibility: Intangibility affects the marketing activities in a negative way because that is nothing to touch, and the users have to experience the service. The postgraduate program of AZ academic can also be experienced and there is nothing to touch, the marketing strategy therefore requires……

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