Services Marketing Report 1 PDF

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assignemnt about services marketing for event cinemas as a service, advantages, disadvantages, swot and about service co creation...

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Executive Summary The primary focus of this report is to the strengths and weaknesses of a service company and make recommendations based on the weaknesses using service marketing theories. The company chosen is Event Cinemas and especially Event Gold as it involves more personal touch and is more of a ‘pure service’. The core product for Event Cinemas is the screening of movies and there are some expected services from customers such as good quality of the sound and picture, cleanliness, variety of food and movies, and some augmented benefits such as their points rewards system and discounts. Some of the main strengths found were the variety of choices available to customers in terms of cinema experience type, demographic-based tickets and seating type. Other strengths were accessibility and easy and fast procedure. There were multiple weaknesses such as tangible weaknesses, high pricing, and non-reliability of the staff. Key recommendations were improving on small tangible aspects and training of staff to improve value creation for customers and improve overall customer satisfaction.

STRENGTHS

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The core product for Event Cinemas is the screening of movies. However there are many other expected and augmented benefits that customers have while watching movies. In terms of expected benefits, Event Cinemas are doing well in terms of friendly and helpful staff, fast ques and fast procedures. Buying tickets online is also relatively easy and quick with a very low booking cost. Most Event Cinemas also provide a self serve ticketing option, which most customers are very happy with and agree that it works quite well, it is especially helpful during busy hours for the theatre (Tripadvisor, n.d.). They also have a few different levels of service that they provide- Event V- Max, Event Gold, Event Boutique, Events Drive through (Event Cinemas, n.d.) which allows customers to have a higher range of experiences to choose from according to what suits them. The Event Cinema Boutique and Drive through option is a very different option that has not been used by competitors and gives a refreshing new way to watch movies according to many customers. They also offer a range of different seat selections including ‘Double Daybeds’ which are not common to most theatres. They also have a range of ticket options that allow them to reach every demographic such as adults, children, students, pensioners, Cinebuzz members, etc (Event Cinemas, n.d.). The fact that they have so many categories in many different ways shows that they understand the needs of various different customers. They also have the factor of higher accessibility than their competitors, they have more theatres and screens available and due to the higher accessibility and convenience (Reddit, n.d.), customers choose it over other companies. This reduces the service cost for the customers such as the time, money spent, physical and mental effort. For the Gold class and Boutique experiences, many customers explained that the experience felt really luxurious as the staff bring them to the seats at the start of the movies and also come to serve the food and drinks to the customers (Briggs, 2021). They also have a more luxurious menu that the customers can choose from along with a beautiful layout and seating style that provides comfort and quality, this showcases that they have a good process with reliable and friendly staff (Reddit, n.d.). Another strength that Event Cinemas has is that it provides the Cinebuzz membership which reduces the prices of the tickets for members and also provides members points with every purchase that they can redeem towards their next purchase (Event Cinemas, n.d.), this is a part of the augmented benefit of the service. They also have a good student discount scheme that discounts ticket prices for students and this promotes students to go to Event Cinemas more than others. Students often are price-conscious and not as quality-conscious of services for the low price and Event Cinemas uses this information in a profitable and successful way. Event Cinemas also does a high amount of marketing at universities where they give student cards and discounts which attracts more students to use their service. Students also find this a convenient way to get information about the company and what it offers. Event Cinemas also hosts fun stall

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events at universities which often attracts students as they connect with the fun and vibrant show of the company. All these supplementary benefits are extremely important to especially repeat customers. WEAKNESSES For weaknesses of Event Cinemas, a lot of reviews suggested that there were issues with the expected benefit of the product. Normally customers expect to be presented with excellent cleanliness and comfortability, however many reviews on websites such as Tripview or Reddit suggested that customers found a lot of the Event Cinemas were unclean, the seats and walkways had not been cleaned thoroughly between movies (Tripadvisor, n.d.). This suggests that the process that Event Cinema implements to prepare halls for each movie is not efficient enough and must be changed. There were also problems with other tangibles such as the sound and picture quality that some users claimed saying that it was not up to mark with the price they were paying for the tickets (Tripadvisor, n.d.). There were many customers that complained that during silences in the movie, they could hear the movie playing in the halls beside them (Reddit, n.d.). Another problem arose from the design of the theatre itself, that the seats were uncomfortable and too clustered, in the way that there was not enough legroom. In terms of their luxury brand- Events Gold they faced criticism in terms of the food quality for the price and that the style of the cinemas was getting outdated with Event Cinemas competitors such as Hoyts Lux providing better comfort and luxury (Hoyts, n.d.). Another weakness of Event Cinemas regular theatres is that they do not have a large range of snack and beverage options- most of them just having popcorn, chips, ice creams, and basic aerated drinks (Tripadvisor, n.d.). All these points show that there are many areas to improve for Event Cinemas especially if they want to maintain their repeat customers. When it comes to the marketing mix, Event Cinemas fell short in the category of price, the company charges about 22 Dollars for a regular ticket and event with being a Cinebuzz member around 20 Dollars for a ticket (Event Cinemas, n.d.), which is considered quite expensive for the quality they provide. In terms of competitors, this price is not as much a Hoyts or specialty theatres but is definitely quite a bit more than smaller theatres all over Australia (Reddit, n.d.). In terms of their luxury Gold class option, although being cheaper than a competitor like Hoyts , people were not satisfied with the experience whereas most users of Hoyts have been highly impressed with the quality of food, service, and picture of their luxury option although more expensive (Tripadvisor, n.d.). A threat faced by the movie theatre industry is the rise of online streaming services, especially since the pandemic. Since movie theatres are closed, many people have had to resort to streaming services and have started liking it better due to the convenience, price, and variety of

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movie and tv shows available, especially in terms of international content. Sites like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney Plus have been releasing their own original content and have been re-releasing older films and movies giving audiences a chance to watch them- something movie theatre companies do not do. This affects the overall profitability of movie theatre companies like Event Cinemas (Feldman, 2019). Recommendations Despite having many good areas, there are various ways Event Cinemas can improve as a service. It is important to improve customer experiences because according to research it takes about 12 positive experiences to make up for one negative experience (Glance, 2015), about 80% of customers also say they will switch to a competitor after one negative experience from a company, so it is almost crucial for companies to enhance their customer service to the highest level possible (Zendesk, 2020). The SERVQUAL model, which will be looked at below, implies that in order to cover the gap between ‘perceived quality’ and the actual quality- this is based on five aspects- tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy (Chen et al., 1994). In terms of their expected product, Event Cinemas can look towards building higher customer satisfaction by some simple procedural changes. For example, in order to improve cleanliness, they could increase the free time between movies and hire more/ efficient staff that could work towards cleaning the theatres properly. They could also promote their customers throwing away their own trash and trying to be as clean as possible- as services are essentially co-creation of value between customers and the service providers (Hilton et al., 2012). Even though the primary space used by customers is the theatre hall itself, it’s important to also hire proper cleaners for areas such as bathrooms which Event Cinemas has also received criticism for (Tripadvisor, n.d.). In terms of other tangible aspects (Chen et al., 1994), they could bring in some more technological changes in terms of audio and video, as it is the primary part of their service- to allow customers to watch movies in the best way possible. By working towards making their quality better they will be able to reach some of their competitors such as Hoyts and there will be more customer satisfaction in terms of price as well. Other ways to improve their theatres would be to develop a more comfortable seating format- more spacious with more legroom, and although this is an expensive option, if implemented slowly and surely, they will be able to give more value to the customer. In terms of supplementary services such as providing snacks and beverages they could improve their variety, providing hot snacks for even the regular tickets and not just Gold class, and in terms of Gold class, they could try to improve their food quality in terms of taste and also add more options (Briggs, 2021).

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When it comes to process, people, and pricing, some customers have commented saying that they are not satisfied with the pricing and the people. When it comes to pricing customers directly co-relate that to the quality of the service that is being provided, instead of reducing their prices, Event Cinemas should work towards creating better value for the customers as mentioned in the points above, in aspects such as cleanliness, further developing their expected product (sound and audio) and making their supplementary services better. This would help justify the prices that they are charging (Chen et al., 1994). An example where this has worked is with Hoyts, wherein the movie ticket prices are relatively higher than anywhere else, however since they add enough value to their products, customers are satisfied with it enough to pay the priceperceived quality is directly related to the price people are willing to pay (Hoyts, n.d.). In terms of people, there is a mix between people who are satisfied and dissatisfied with the service of the staff, just like in most services, as not every individual service provider provides the exact same service. Good customer service according to research is very important- about 93% of people who receive good customer service would make repeat purchases with the brand and in turn, about 38% of people who receive good customer service are more likely to recommend that brand to others (Dorsey et al., 2020). In order to have a more unified, reliable, and empathetic staff they could look towards developing better training programs and follow up on and complaints that customers have on sites such as Reddit, TripAdvisor, and Google Reviews to improve their responsiveness to customers. About 80% of companies suggest that using analytical tools to analyse customer experiences improves them, which may be a good idea for Event Cinemas to pursue too (Dixon et al., 2010). It is also important for Event Cinemas to have extensive training for staff working at the Gold or Boutique options of the cinema company as it involves a higher personal touch and requires friendly and efficient staff to enhance the luxury experience (Briggs, 2021). Having exemplary staff is one of the most important aspects of value co-creation (Hilton et al., 2012). Finally, in order to compete with the problem of the rising of online streaming services with the pandemic, Even Cinemas should look towards augmented services such as re-opening discounts and vouchers to push customers to visit the theatres. It is important for them to work on their weaknesses and be customer-focused in order to have a co-creation of value.

References

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Briggs, S. (2021, June 24th). The Two Titans of Luxury Cinema: Hoyts Lux vs Event Gold Class. The Market Herald. https://themarketherald.com.au/fancy/the-two-titans-ofluxury-cinema-hoyts-lux-vs-event-gold-class/ Chen, I. J., Gupta, A., & Rom, W. (1994, May 1st). A Study of Price and Quality in Service Operations. International Journal of Service Industry Management, Volume 5(Issue 2). Emerald Insight. 0956-4233 Dixon, M., Freeman, K., & Toman, N. (2010, August). Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers. Havard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2010/07/stop-trying-to-delight-yourcustomers Dorsey, M., Segall, D., & Temkin, B. (2020, August). ROI of Customer Experience, 2020. Qualtrix XM Institute. https://success.qualtrics.com/rs/542-FMF-412/images/ROI%20of %20customer%20experience%202020.pdf Event Cinemas. (n.d.). Event Cinema Experiences. Event Cinemas. https://www.eventcinemas.com.au/Experiences Feldman, D. (2019, July 28th). How Netflix Is Changing The Future Of Movie Theaters. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danafeldman/2019/07/28/how-netflix-is-changingthe-future-of-movie-theaters/?sh=733def275f46 Glance. (2015). The Complete Guide to Dynamite Customer Care. Glance. http://ww2.glance.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Counting-the-customer_Glance_eBook-4.pdf Hilton, T., Hughes, T., & Chalcraft, D. (2012, November 2nd). Service co-creation and value realisation. Service Integration and Coordination in a Complex World, Volume 28(Issue 13-14). 10.1080/0267257X.2012.736874

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Hoyts. (n.d.). Cinemas. Hoyts Cinemas. https://www.hoyts.com.au/ Reddit. (n.d.). What’s your favourite cinema in Sydney and why? [stregths and weakness of Event Cinemas]. Reditt. https://www.reddit.com/r/sydney/comments/b96ii6/whats_your_favourite_cinema_in_syd ney_and_why/ Tripadvisor. (n.d.). Event Cinema [Reviews for Event Cinemas]. Tripadvisor. https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g255060-d6902893-ReviewsEvent_Cinema-Sydney_New_South_Wales.html Zendesk. (2020). Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2020. Zendesk. https://d1eipm3vz40hy0.cloudfront.net/pdf/cxtrends/cx-trends-2020-full-report.pdf

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