Institute for Tourism Studies hosted a public lecture on 14 August on “After the Marketing Plan: How to Create a Service Plan”, which attracted over 80 participants from the hospitality, marketing and education industry.
Marketing managers realise the importance of writing marketing plans; which focuses on a firm’s value proposition to customers. Yet, why do so many companies fail even though their marketing plans appear sound? Part of the answer stems from managers failing to realise how to create service plans. Customers’ expectation is increasing and they are no longer satisfied with the conventional service style. To meet their needs and expectation, service providers have to know the customers – as individuals, which requires a lot more interaction. For this, IFT invited Dr. Mark S. Rosenbaum to deliver a public lecture on this topic to introduce the setup of a service plan, which in return enhances service quality and customer loyalty.
Dr. Mark S. Rosenbaum received his doctorate from Arizona State University in 2003. He is a Fulbright Scholar, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Northern Illinois University, and Research Faculty Fellow, Centre for Service Leadership, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. His research focuses on service issues such as commercial social support, quality of life issues, commercial friendships, unethical shopping behaviours, ethnic consumption, and tourists’ shopping behaviours. He has published in a number of international renowned journals and is a contributing author to “Tourism Management: Analysis, Behaviour and Strategy”.
Dr. Rosenbaum also consults on service marketing planning issues with the not-for-profit organisation, Marie Stopes International, in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, and with a think-tank that works with P&G’s consumer products division. In addition, he has taught undergraduate and graduate service marketing courses in the United States, Vietnam, Bhutan and Cambodia.
The public lecture is designed to educate students, faculty, and marketing managers on the fundamentals of service planning, using an eight-step process that Dr. Rosenbaum developed around the world in health care, tourism and financial services. An example on the restaurant industry was specially discussed for participants from hotel, gaming and restaurant industry. It is hoped that through organising the lecture, the industry can enhance marketing strategy and service planning, improving service quality and thus strengthening Macao’s competitiveness and image as an international tourism
destination.