MARX 205 - University of Otago

School of Business
MARX 205
Marketing the Professional Practice
Auckland. November, 2009
Blackboard access: https://blackboard.otago.ac.nz/webapps/login/
PAPER DESCRIPTION:
This paper caters for students planning to make a career in private professional practice as well as
marketing students interested in services marketing in a professional practice context. The marketing of
Professional Practices is an emerging need for practitioners as well as an area of career opportunity for
marketing graduates.
This paper deals with issues such as advertising the professional practice, the packaging of professional
services, measuring and improving client satisfaction, the professional – client relationship, creating and
adding value in professional services, building reputation and image, fee setting. The paper also
examines ethical issues associated with marketing a professional practice.
MARX 205
Marketing the Professional Practice
(Semester 3) 0.15 EFTS 18 points
Prerequisites: 108 points Restriction: MART 205
Lectures:
Tutorials:
See attached Schedule
TBA
COURSE LEADER, LECTURER AND COORDINATOR
Mr. David Bishop Phone: (03) 479 8196
E-mail: dbishop@business.otago.ac.nz
Administration and enrollment inquiries
Wendy Yang
L 3 & 4 University of Otago Auckland Centre
385 Queen Street
Phone: (09) 373 9700
E mail: auckland.centre@otago.ac.nz
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LECTURE TIMES AND LOCATIONS
Tuesday 17 November to Friday 20 November. Three lectures per day.
8.30 – 10.30, 11.00 – 12.50, 2.00 – 4.00
Room 3.17, University of Otago Auckland Centre, 385 Queen Street
In addition, the lecturer will be available for consultation each day of the course between 4.30 and 5 pm.
TUTORIAL TIME AND LOCATION
The Lecture series is followed up with a tutorial on Wednesday 9 December which runs from 6.30 pm to
9 pm. At this a number of topics are introduced and students encouraged to make their own
contributions to discussions.
This session also allows for general feedback on the first assignment and advice is offered on how to
handle the final examination.
ASSESSMENT
This is composed of two written assignments, due after the dates of the lectures, and a written 2 hour
examination. Feedback on the first assignment will be made available to students before the second
assignment is completed. Each assignment is worth 20% of the final grade and the examination 60%. To
receive credit for passing this paper an overall mark of 50% is required.
Details of assignments and submission dates, as well as the date of the examination, will be confirmed
shortly before the commencement of the course. To allow students to plan ahead the provisional dates
are:
Assignment One.
Assignment Two
Examination
Due Friday 4 December (Feedback by 8 December)
Due Friday 11 December (Feedback by 15 December)
Wednesday 16 December (9.30 – 11.30 at Auckland Centre)
Note that it is possible to enroll ‘for interest only’ in which case students will not be required to sit the
final examination no credit will be given towards any Degree or Diploma but confirmation of
attendance and satisfactory participation will be given. Admission on these terms is subject to approval
by the Lecturer.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
The course will present information about a number of topics. To maximize the learning outcome
students will be expected to broaden their understanding of concepts through their own reading and
study. Some materials are provided but instruction will be given on how to acquire information. Staff
will place emphasis on getting students to apply theory discussed to their past and current experiences
and consider how this will be of value to them in their future careers.
Students will be expected to acquire understanding, critically analyse what they consider and practice
how to apply this to real life situations.
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Students taking this paper will learn HOW to:
• Identify client needs
• Design service ‘packages’ to profitably meet the needs of clients
• Identify and assess market opportunities and how to influence market demand for services
• Measure client satisfaction
• Prepare Marketing and related plans
• Design Promotional tools
• ‘Sell’ services
To underpin this learning, students will be expected to acquire an UNDERSTANDING of:
• The concept of Marketing
• The nature of Professional Practice
• Ethical and moral underpinnings of marketing professional service
• The role of marketing in Professional Practice management.
• The nature of client needs and determinants of client satisfaction
• The importance of reputation, image and positioning and positioning strategy
• Characteristics of Professional – Client relationships
• Practice branding
• Market segmentation and targeting
• Marketing research
• Packaging the professional service
• Defining, creating and managing the service offering
• Adding value through service enhancement
• Pricing strategy and fee setting
• Communicating with the market
• Business-to-client and business-to-business marketing
• Planning and monitoring promotional activity
• Client management
• Effective implementation of marketing programmes
COURSE RESOURCES:
Some notes will be provided before the course, during lectures and in briefing notes for assignments and
tutorials
Recommended Texts:
Please note that, due to the intensive nature of the course, it is not expected that students consult any
text during the four days of lectures. A number of short readings will be provided after enrollment and
before commencement of the course. Students having the time and wishing to read in more depth would
find the following of some use:
Kotler, P, G. Armstrong, L. Brown and S. Adam. (2004) Marketing. 6 th edition. Prentice Hall.
Kotler, P., Bloom, P.N. and Hayes, T.J. (2002) Marketing Professional Services, Prentice Hall
Roe, M. (1998) Marketing Professional Services, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford
Forsyth, P. (2003) Marketing and Selling Professional Services, 3 rd edition. Kogan Page, London.
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Planned schedule of lectures and tutorials:
Lectures
Day and times Subject Suggested preparation
Day 1. Tuesday 17 November
8.30 – 10.30
Lecture 1. Introduction
11.00 – 12.50 Lecture 2. The changing face of the
Professions
2.00 – 4.00 Lecture 3. ‘Players’ in the Professional
Service marketplace
Gather information on a Profession of
special interest to you. Information, and
suggestions as to preparation will be
provided
November 2007 edition of Marketing
Magazine
Day 2. Wednesday 18 November
8.30 – 10.30
Lecture 4. ‘Clients’ in the Professional
Service marketplace.
Some notes will be provided prior to
the course
11.00 – 12.50 Lecture 5. Packaging the Professional
Service and branding
2.00 – 4.00 Lecture 6.How branding can be
applied to Professional Services and
Professional Service promoted
Day 3. Thursday 19 November
8.30 – 10.30
Lecture 7. Selling the Professional
Practice
Some notes will be provided prior to
the course
11.00 – 12.50 Lecture 8. Marketing research.
2.00 – 4.00 Lecture 9. Measuring performance,
quality and customer satisfaction
Day 4. Friday 20 November
Lecture 10. Pricing and creating value.
8.30 – 10.30
11 – 12.50 Lecture 11. Legislation and related
issues.
Some notes will be provided prior to
the course
2.00 – 4.00 Lecture 12. Course review.
TUTORIAL
Day and time Subjects Suggested preparation
Wednesday 9 December
6.30 – 9.00
1) The Professional / Client
relationship, 2) ‘Good’ and
‘Bad’ service1) Advertising, 3)
Measuring effectiveness of
promotional activity, 4) ‘Selling’
Materials will be handed out at
previous lectures
The tutorial will create opportunities for deeper discussion of certain topics between members of the
student group and teaching staff. The session on 9 December will also allow for feedback on the first
assignment and guidance on how to approach the examination the following week.
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MARX 205: Marketing the Professional Practice.
Assignment No.1:
The Marketing Environment
Purpose in setting this assignment: To give students practice in producing a formal discussion paper
and encouraging them to consider broad marketing issues in a practical context. It will assist the
teaching staff to assess individual student’s needs, provide feedback. The students will be encouraged to
apply what has been taught in the course and reward them for undertaking independent research and
giving thought to the topic.
Deadline and delivery point: Please send by e mail, or as a hard copy, to arrive in Dunedin by
8 am on Friday 4 December. E mail to David Bishop on dbishop@business.otago.ac.nz (or physical
mail to David Bishop, Department of Marketing, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin.) Include
details of a physical return address but please note that it is the intention to return marked scripts at
the tutorial on 9 December.
Maximum length is 6 pages, 12 point type, typed using space and a half.
This assignment contributes 20% of your final grade.
The Assignment:
Choose any profession you like, preferably one that you are already involved in or might one day be
involved in. Imagine that you are a senior partner in a practice. It is a well established and successful
practice with 5 other partners. In total it employs 30 people. You are concerned about the failure of the
practice to respond to long term changes in the market place. In particular you are frustrated by the fact
that the other partners will not acknowledge that they are operating in a competitive market for services
such as yours and that the proper application of appropriate marketing skills is crucial if the practice is
to survive.
Recently some of the partners appear to have started to share your concern to the extent that they have
asked you to prepare a discussion paper for the next partners’ meeting.
The discussion paper needs to describe the forces that are now shaping the market place and influencing
the way that professional practices operate. You need to explain how these forces impact, or might
impact, on the way that practices like yours operate and how they will need to be addressed. One of the
partners has also asked you to make special mention of the changing nature of professional-client
relationships.
The discussion paper should describe how your practice would benefit from adopting a marketing
orientation. You also know that some of the longer established partners consider that ‘marketing’ is
unethical and feel uncomfortable about becoming too marketing orientated for that and other reasons.
The discussion paper will need to persuade all partners that ‘marketing’ can be perfectly ethical and that
all partners can contribute to future marketing initiatives.
Write the discussion paper. You should make reference to literature relating to marketing in
general but especially the marketing of Professional services. You also need to ensure that you
include relevant information related to your chosen profession for this assignment.
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MARX 205: Marketing the Professional Practice.
Assignment No.2:
Branding and Advertising the Professional Practice
Purpose in setting this assignment: To give students the opportunity to show they understand the
practical aspects of branding and advertising a professional practice. The assignment will assist the
teaching staff to assess individual student’s needs, provide feedback. The students will be encouraged to
apply what has been taught in the course and reward them for undertaking independent research and
giving thought to the topic. Special attention should be given to both theoretical and practical
applications.
Deadline and delivery point: Please send by e mail, or as a hard copy, to arrive in Dunedin by
8 am on Friday 11 December. E mail to either David Bishop on dbishop@business.otago.ac.nz (or
physical mail to David Bishop, Department of Marketing, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin.
Include details of a physical return address so that a hard copy of your assignment and feedback can
be mailed to you on 15 December. It is our intention that we give you feedback via e mail no later
than 15 December so that you will then know what your course marks are prior to the examination
on 16 December.
Maximum length is 6 pages, 12 point type, typed using space and a half. This assignment contributes
20% of your final grade.
The Assignment:
You are a senior partner in a dental practice called ‘Grate, Grate, Payne, Pullittchevsnovski and ..(Your
surname)’. The practice was founded by Edward Grate in 1968 and, although Edward is nearing
retirement, his son Arthur is now a well established partner, so the Grate name can live on. Alison Payne
is a cosmetic specialist and Igor Pullittchevsnovski is a recent arrival from an eastern European dental
school where he qualified in restorative dentistry. You are an expert in your own field having graduated
from the Otago School in 1998.
You have become concerned that the name of the practice is difficult to remember and, especially since
the arrival of Igor (Who is a great operator and whose personal charm seems to appeal to all your
clients), people seem to now have great difficulty in even pronouncing the name of the practice.
Edward has just announced that he plans to retire from the practice at the end of the year. You think
that this may be the time to rename the practice and undertake a major branding exercise. The partners,
especially Edward and Arthur, will need to be convinced and, when you mentioned the idea, they
seemed reluctant to change. Alison simply could not see the point. The partners need to be convinced
and have asked you to prepare a briefing paper explaining:
1. What you mean by ‘Branding’ and ‘re-Branding’
2. What you feel may be wrong with the current name
3. What might be a better name and why.
4. What would be involved in a brand building exercise and how you would go about it
5. What the likely benefits would be from making a name change, and
6. What risks might be involved.
Write the discussion paper. You should make reference to literature relating to marketing in
general but especially the branding of Professional Services.
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