Services and Brand Management

Duration

36h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

Cécile Delcourt, Laurence Dessart

Substitute(s)

Cécile Delcourt

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the second semester

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

(revised on September 2024)

Approximately 78% of the Belgian GDP and 80% of employment are derived from services brands (Wilson et al. 2016). Even product-dominant firms are now turning into service brand companies; services are indeed becoming critical for competitive advantage in companies across the globe and in all industry sectors. For instance, revenues and profits of manufacturers like GE, Michelin, and IBM are now primarily derived from services.


Because service marketers need concepts and priorities that are relevant to their needs and business, we will look at marketing through a different lens. Services are different. Service brands therefore require a distinctive approach to marketing. In this class, we will discuss how and why services are different. You will learn how quality is evaluated in service firms, why expectations are important to service consumers, why people (both employees and consumers) are essential to service success, how the physical environment and service design influence service delivery, and how service brands should recover from failure.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

After taking this course, you shall be able to understand:

• what services are, the differences between services and physical products, and how these differences translate into strategic direction
• how service consumers' expectations are formed, how their perceptions are developed, and what quality means in service delivery
• how to listen to your consumers and build service brand relationships with them
• the role of physical evidence in service delivery and how to best design services
• the important roles of employees, consumers, and technology in service encounters and brand management, and how to manage them
• what brands are, their key components and role as key company assets
• the core brand management concepts, such as brand equity, image and reputation
• how to manage brand portfolios and strategies
• how to build, grow and protect your brand
• the role that consumers play in shaping brand meaning

• ILO-2: Gaining the knowledge and understanding of one of the proposed fields of concentration or to gain deep knowledge in the field of the management being already specialized through a first University Master Degree.
• ILO-4: To acquire the capacity to research autonomously and methodically the information needed to solve a complex, transversal management problem.
• ILO-5: Integrate autonomously researched information, tools, knowledge and context to build and propose, either individually or as part of a team, original, creative and viable solutions to concrete complex management problems, whether real or simulated, taking into account, when necessary, the human, social and legal context.
• ILO-7: Being capable of professional team work.
• ILO-9: Developing a critical sense.
• ILO-10: Developing a transversal, global vision. 
• ILO-11: Creative conception of solutions.
• ILO-12: Professional capacity for oral communication.
• ILO-13: Professional capacity for written communication.  

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

You should have sucessfully followed an introductory course of marketing.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Class will consist of a combination of theoretical lectures, case studies, scientific articles presentations, group projects, guest lecture, and participative discussions/activities.

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Face-to-face course

Course materials and recommended or required readings

The course material is composed of the various resources posted on Lol@, including:

• Power point slides
• Multimedia content (podcasts, videos, ...)
• Academic articles

• Berry, L. L. (2000). Cultivating service brand equity. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28(1), 128-137.
• Brakus, J. J., Schmitt, B. H., & Zarantonello, L. (2009). Brand experience: what is it? How is it measured? Does it affect loyalty? Journal of Marketing, 73(3), 52-68.
• De Keyser, A., Köcher, S., Alkire (née Nasr), L., Verbeeck, C. and Kandampully, J. (2019), "Frontline Service Technology infusion: conceptual archetypes and future research directions", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 156-183.
• Holmlund, M., Van Vaerenbergh, Y., Ciuchita, R., Ravald, A., Sarantopoulos, P., Ordenes, F. V., & Zaki, M. (2020). Customer experience management in the age of big data analytics: A strategic framework. Journal of Business Research, 116, 356-365.
• Huang, M. H., & Rust, R. T. (2018). Artificial intelligence in service. Journal of Service Research, 21(2), 155-172.
• Johnston, R. (1995). The determinants of service quality: satisfiers and dissatisfiers. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 6(5), 53-71.
• Keaveney, S. M. (1995). Customer switching behavior in service industries: An exploratory study. Journal of Marketing, 59(2), 71-82.
• Keller, K. L. (1993). Conceptualizing, Measuring and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity. Journal of Marketing, 57(1), 1-22.
• Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer Journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69-96.
• Perren, R., & Kozinets, R. V. (2018). Lateral exchange markets: How social platforms operate in a networked economy. Journal of Marketing, 82(1), 20-36.
• Schau, H. J., Muñiz Jr., A. M., & Arnould, E. J. (2009). How Brand Community Practices Create Value. Journal of Marketing, 73(5), 30-51.
• Sultan, A. J. (2018). Orchestrating service brand touchpoints and the effects on relational outcomes. Journal of Services Marketing, 32(6), 777-788.
• Swaminathan, V., Sorescu, A., Steenkamp, J. B. E., O'Guinn, T. C. G., & Schmitt, B. (2020). Branding in a hyperconnected world: Refocusing theories and rethinking boundaries. Journal of Marketing, 84(2), 24-46.
• Wirtz, J., Patterson, P. G., Kunz, W. H., Gruber, T., Lu, V. N., Paluch, S., & Martins, A. (2018). Brave new world: service robots in the frontline. Journal of Service Management.
• Xu, X., & Li, Y. (2016). The antecedents of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction toward various types of hotels: A text mining approach. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 55, 57-69.
  
  
  

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire, open-ended questions )

Written work / report


Further information:

Grades in this course will be based on the following components:

• Service Brand Challenge (in group): 45%
• Final individual examination on the whole material: 55%
• Bonus for (constructive) class participation (malus can be applied too in case of, for example, absence to sessions during which presence is compulsory such as students' presentations, feedback sessions and guest-lectures). Please note that simply attending the class is not enough to receive a bonus. Instead, I expect you to add to the class environment by sharing your experiences and thoughts so that everyone benefits from your participation.

• In order to pass the course, you MUST at least have 10/20 in the final examination. In case you fail the exam (but pass the Service Brand Challenge), the exam grade accounts for 100% of the final grade.
• Any fraud or plagiarism in any activity leads to a final grade of 0/20. For further information about what plagiarism is, see the "Short Guide for ULiège Students" available here: https://www.student.uliege.be/upload/docs/application/pdf/2019-11/plagiarism_-_not_for_me.pdf
  For more information: https://www.student.uliege.be/cms/c_11161787/en/student-preventing-plagiarism
• Use of AI: You are responsible for the academic work you present, and therefore for the use you make of AI in it. This means distinguishing between permitted and prohibited uses-see: ULiège Charter for the use of generative artificial intelligence in academic work (uliege.be) 
  Students who are tempted to entrust ChatGPT or other AIs with the task of producing all or part of their personal work are liable to sanctions (e.g., fraud).

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

Participation in learning activities: Given the importance of taking part in the activities, the Article 37(§2) from the 'Academic and Examination Regulations' of the University of Liege is applicable. According to this article, we may declare students inadmissible for exams if they did not (1) submit their work in due time, or (2) take part in the core learning activities. In particular: Students who did not actively participate in and present the "Service Brand Challenge" (group project) during the year are not allowed to take the final examination in the first session. Thus, students have to present the service brand challenge to take the final examination.

Class attendance: Because class participation is key (and taken into consideration in the final evaluation), attendance is strongly recommended. The more you participate in this course, the more you will reap the benefits of this course.

Contacts

PROFESSOR

Prof. Dr. Cécile DELCOURT, Full Professor in Marketing
Email: Cecile.Delcourt@uliege.be



ASSISTANT

Jordan FLEISSIG, PhD student and teaching assistant in Marketing
Email: jfleissig@uliege.be
Office hours: By appointment only.

Association of one or more MOOCs