The first part of this course introduces you to the ‘7Ps of the marketing mix’. These are designed to guide consumers to choose your goods and services over those of your competitors. Along with the 7Ps, you will learn how to complete a ‘Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats’ (SWOT) analysis to guide business decisions. Evaluating business opportunities is a vital part of developing services and this course teaches you how to plan your next move. We also explain how to conduct marketing and technical feasibility studies and lay out the important categories of market segmentation.

The course examines the six stages that customers typically follow when they purchase and consume services. We then go through the nine stages of new service development before discussing the idea of a ‘core service’ and identifying its four attributes and eight supplementary services. The course goes through the three types of customer requirements and the five gaps in the ‘Gap’ model of service quality that tracks the difference between expectation and delivery. We unpack the five dimensions of functional service quality: reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness.

People are always looking for small conveniences like pet care, grocery delivery and domestic services that will give them more time for themselves. Developing a new service should address these needs. This course helps business professionals predict consumers’ behaviour and satisfy their needs. This is a valuable set of skills for business entrepreneurs and marketing managers who want to strategically guide their company towards its business goals.