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4. Considering all five elements of the promotional mix (advertising, personal selling,
public relations, sales promotion, and direct marketing), what specific promotional
activities should the Phillies use? Which should be used off-season? During the
season?
Answers:
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TABLE A
Importance of Specific Promotions for the Philadelphia Phillies
WHEN USED AND IMPORTANCE*
Element of the
Promotional Mix
Specific Promotion and How It Is Used
Off-
Season
During
Season
Advertising
• Billboards and ads on trucks
• Newspaper ads
• Radio ads
• TV ads
• Phillies yearbook/score card
• In-stadium electronic ads/signage
1
1
2
3
0
0
2
0
2
3
1
3
Personal Selling
• Visits to potential “luxury suite” buyers
• Phillies “dream week” baseball camp
• Visits to sponsors of event days
3
1
3
1
0
0
Sales Promotion
• Special promotion (premium) days at
ball park
• Special “event days” at ball park
• Phillies “superfan” sweepstakes
0
0
2
3
3
1
Public Relations
• Coverage by sports pages of newspaper
• Coverage by sports news on radio
• Coverage by sports news on TV
• Personal appearances by Phillies
Ballgirls
• Personal appearances by Phillies
players
• Sponsorship of youth teams
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3
3
2
Direct Marketing
• Direct mail to season ticket holders
• Phillies information update on Web site,
Facebook, and Twitter
• Phillies magazine sent to fans
3
2
2
1
3
2
Scale used to describe importance of specific promotion: 3 = very important, 2 = important,
1 = some importance, 0 = not used/of no importance.
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5. What kind of special promotion gift days (with premiums) and event days
(no premiums) can the Phillies use to increase attendance by targeting these fan
segments: (a) 14 and under, (b) 15 and over, (c) other special fan segments, and
(d) all fans?
Answers:
Epilogue
Has the marketing of the Phillies been successful? Using a “measure of success” (see
Chapter 8) of annual home-game attendance, Phillies management has marketed a very
successful product. Annual attendance exceeding two million—whether the team is winning or
not—is a remarkable achievement and one sought by most other major league baseball teams.
Certainly a portion of this success in 2008 and 2009 is attributable to the successful creative
marketing actions taken by Phillies’ management—along with a spectacularly successful on-field
product: The Phillies won the 2008 World Series and lost to the New York Yankees in the 2009
World Series in six games. In 2010 and 2011, the Phillies lost to the eventual World Series
winners San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals, respectively.
Chapter 12 – Services Marketing
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TABLE B
Philadelphia Phillies Special Promotions and Events and
Possible Target Markets for Them
Special Promotions/Events
Target Market
Specific Examples
14 &
younger
15 &
over
Other
Special
Fan
Segment
All
Fans
G-Force Card Pack
X
X
McDonald’s Jimmy Rollins Day
(wristbands)
X
Phanatic Birthday (bobble head)
X
Mother’s Appreciation Day (pink
cup; blanket)
X
Phillie Phanatic Parade of
Champions (Book)
X
Father’s Appreciation Day (Bull’s
Bar-b-que Apron; straw golf hat)
X
Turkey Hill (Phillies Ball Set)
X
Peanut Chews College Night
(T-shirt)
X
Goya Latino Family’s Night
(Latino Legends poster)
X
Scout’s Day
X
Teacher Appreciation Night Fuji
Film Friday
X
Hatfield Phillies Franks Dollar
Dog Night
X
Asian Pacific Celebration
X
Modell’s Sporting Goods Run the
Bases
X
Women’s Softball Celebration
X
Modell’s Sporting Goods Senior
Stroll the Bases
X
Independence Blue Cross
Fireworks
X
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ICA 12-1: IN-CLASS ACTIVITY
Customer Contact Audit for a Service
Learning Objective. To have students identify, describe, and assess the elements of a
service to understand the activities that employees and customers perform during the service
delivery process.
Nature of the Activity. To have students develop a simple customer contact audit for a
service they are familiar with.
Estimated Class Time and Teaching Suggestions. About 20 minutes. Students may be
formed into 4-person teams. Designate half the teams as the “banking” teams and the other half
as the “fast–food” teams.
Materials Needed.
• Copies for each student of the:
a. “Customer Contact Audit” handout.
b. “Customer Contact Audit Answers” handout.
• Chalk/markers for students to write their customer contact audits on the board.
OPTIONAL: Self-stick 3M Post-It easel pad with enough sheets for students to write
their customer contact audits on the paper and affix to the classroom wall.
Steps to Teach this ICA.
1. Give the following mini-lecture on the delivery of services and the use of a customer
contact audit to improve service quality:
“Most of you have used or are familiar with financial, hospitality, entertainment,
and educational services. As a result, you have participated in the service delivery
process by opening a bank account, checking into a hotel, renting a video, or
enrolling in this class! Providers of financial, hospitality, entertainment, and
educational services need to match its delivery with customer expectations.
To do this, marketers use gap analysis, which identifies the differences between a
consumer’s expectations about and their experiences with a service based on specific
dimensions of service quality, such as reliability, tangibles (equipment, etc.),
responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. The customer contact audit, which is a
flowchart of the points of interaction between a consumer and a service provider, can
help in this analysis.
The customer contact audit graphically depicts the service delivery process and the
points of customer contact, or service encounters, so that marketers and employees
understand what the service is and their roles in its delivery. A customer contact
audit breaks down a service into its components and depicts:
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a. The logical steps or tasks in the process. These include the activities and
interactions that contact and support employees as well as customers engage in
during the delivery of the service.
b. Service encounters. The tangible aspects of the service delivery process as seen
by the customer, such as reliability, empathy, courtesy, accuracy, timeliness, etc.
These become the indicators of service quality from the customer’s perspective.
Any deviations between customers’ expectations and the service that is delivered
indicate a service failure or bottleneck that can be used to improve service quality.”
2. Briefly go over Figure 12-7 to provide students with an example of a customer
contact audit for a car rental.
3. Form students into 4-person teams. Designate half the teams as the “banking” team
and the other half as the “fast–food” team.
4. Pass out the Customer Contact Audit Handout.
5. Briefly explain the nature of this ICA to the “banking” and “fast–food” teams:
“In your teams, using the Customer Contact Audit Handout as a guide, create a
customer contact audit for your service. After about 10 minutes, one of your team
members may be selected to present your blueprint to the class.”
a. Banking teams. Making a deposit into a checking account at a local bank.
[NOTE: The deposit should be made to a teller inside the lobby and NOT via
an ATM or drive-thru banking.]
b. Fast-Food teams. Ordering food at a local fast-food restaurant. [NOTE: Order
food inside to dine in, NOT via a drive-thru or for take-out.]
6. Have a representative from each team write/tape their customer contact audits for
their “banking” or “fast–food” services on the board/classroom wall.
7. Select 2 teams from each service type to discuss their customer contact audits. Have
the rest of the students comment on their customer contact audits. Identify (1) any
significant service encounters or “behind-the-scenes” activities that are missing from
this audit and (2) where service failures are likely to occur and how can they be
corrected.
8. You may want to pass out the Customer Contact Audit Answers Handout to use as a
guide to elaborate on the student comments and bring out other issues or to compare
the sample answers to what the student teams came up with during their analyses.
Marketing Lesson. Marketers use customer contact audits to understand the service
delivery process from the customer’s perspective. It allows them to monitor the service
encounter for customer satisfaction and quality at each point of customer contact.
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CUSTOMER CONTACT AUDIT ANSWERS HANDOUT
(THESE ARE NOT MEANT TO BE EXHAUSTIVE)
AUDIT ISSUE
(A) BANKING
(B) FAST-FOOD
1. How does “Customer”
initiate service?
• Parks car in parking lot.
• Walks into lobby.
• Fills out deposit slip.
• Walks to teller window.
• Parks car in parking lot.
• Walks into restaurant to
counter.
• Waits until server is ready to
3. What does the “Support
Personnel” do?
• Teller Supervisor: Makes sure
there is enough money for
change; handles problems.
• Bank Operations: Makes sure
computer and security systems
operate; interacts with armored
car personnel; ensures money,
office, and other supplies are
adequately stocked.
• Line Cooks: Makes food; fulfills
beverage orders.
• Maintenance: Cleans dining
area, bathrooms, and parking
lot.
• Manager: Orders food from
suppliers; schedules and pays
employees.
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CUSTOMER CONTACT AUDIT HANDOUT
1. Identify the service delivery process to be audited.
2. Analyze the service delivery process from the “customer’s” point of
view. Answer these questions:
(a) How does the “Customer” initiate the service?
(b) What steps, activities, etc. does the “Customer” perform during the
delivery of the service?
3. Identify the “customer contact personnel” who actually deliver the
service to the customer. Answer these questions:
(a) Who are the “Customer Contact Employees” that deliver the
service to customers?
(b) What steps, activities, etc. does each “Customer Contact
Employee” perform during the delivery of the service?
4. Identify the service “support personnel” who assist the customer
contact personnel in delivering the service. Answer these questions:
(a) Who are the “Support Personnel” that enable the customer contact
personnel to deliver the service to customers?
(b) What steps and/or ‘behind-the-scene’ activities, etc. does each of
these “Support Personnel” perform during the delivery of the
service?
5. Identify the service encounters and the potential contacts where
service failure can occur.
6. If you have experienced a service failure for the service your team is
analyzing, what could the organization do to recover from it?
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Connect Application Exercises
Application Exercise 1: The Four I’s of Services
Activity Summary: In this click and drag activity, students learn about the four unique elements
of services: intangibility, inconsistency, inseparability, and inventory. Students are given eight
draggable items that provide a description of a unique element of the service when moused over
(auto shop, class choice restaurant, painter, hair salon, day spa, airline flight, and athletic club).
Students drop the service onto the unique element it exemplifies.
Tagging (Topic, Learning Objectives, AACSB, Bloom’s, Difficulty)
Topic: Services Marketing
Learning Objective: LO 12-01: Describe four unique elements of services.
AACSB: Knowledge Application
Blooms: Apply
Difficulty Level: 2 Medium
Follow-Up Activity: As a follow-up activity, instructors could ask students working in groups or
Application Exercise 2: LA Galaxy: Where Sports Marketing Is a Kick!
Activity Summary: In this 8-minute video case, students are introduced to the challenges of
services marketing a Major-League Soccer (MLS) team, the LA Galaxy in the sports-saturated
U.S. market. After viewing the video, students are asked five questions covering the topics of the
unique characteristics of services, internal marketing, and off-peak pricing.
Tagging (Topic, Learning Objectives, AACSB, Bloom’s, Difficulty)
Topic: Services Marketing
Learning Objective: LO 12-01: Describe four unique elements of services.
AACSB: Knowledge Application
Blooms: Apply
Difficulty Level: 2 Medium
Follow-Up Activity: As a follow-up to this activity, instructors can ask students to collect
Application Exercise 3: iSeeit! Video Case: Service Quality
Activity Summary: In this straightforward whiteboard animation video, the tangible and
intangible elements of service quality at the Coffee Collective are identified and the service gap
is discussed. After watching the 3-minute video, students are asked three follow-up questions
related to the unique characteristics of services and the service gap.
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Tagging (Topic, Learning Objectives, AACSB, Bloom’s, Difficulty)
Topic: Services Marketing
Learning Objective: LO 12-01: Describe four unique elements of services.
AACSB: Knowledge Application
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty Level: 2 Medium
Follow-Up Activity: Instructors could ask students to perform their own gap analysis for a local
Application Exercise 4: The Service Continuum
Activity Summary: In this click and drag activity, students are introduced to the concept of the
service continuum as the they place six products (ER visit, Yoga Class, Starbucks, Jiffy Lube,
Frito-Lay Doritos, and Lumber) on the service continuum. The products can be classified as
Service-Dominated, Balanced, or Product-Dominated.
Tagging (Topic, Learning Objectives, AACSB, Bloom’s, Difficulty)
Topic: Components and Classifications of Products and Services
Learning Objective: LO 12-02 Recognize how services differ and how they can be classified.
AACSB: Knowledge Application
Blooms: Apply
Difficulty Level: 2 Medium
Follow-Up Activity: An easy extension to this activity is to draw the service continuum (see
Service Dominated
Balanced
Product Dominated
Analytics Exercise 5: Marketing Analytics: Capacity Management
Activity Summary: In this analytics activity, students read a mini-case about a small movie
theater whose owner is evaluating a number of pricing and promotion changes with a goal of
maximizing her profit through capacity management. Key marketing metrics included in the
spreadsheet are average ticket price, revenue per screen, and admissions per screen. Students
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then utilize the interactive spreadsheet to analyze the firm’s current situation and potential
marketing tactics.
Tagging (Topic, Learning Objectives, AACSB, Bloom’s, Difficulty)
Topic: Marketing Metrics
Learning Objective: LO 12-06 Discuss the important roles of internal marketing and customer
experience management in service organizations.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Analyze
Difficulty Level: 2 Medium
Follow-Up Activity: Instructors could have students extend the spreadsheet by suggesting
additional marketing tactics for the movie theater. As an alternate activity, instructors could ask
students to think of examples of capacity management in other industries. To start the