The objective of this course is to introduce students to the marketing of financial services. All financial institutions, including retail or consumer banks, business and institutional lenders, retirement saving and superannuation fund managers, financial advisers, consumer and business insurers and other consumer and corporate finance services, practice some form of marketing. Marketing is the process of creating, communicating, delivering and sustaining value exchanges with customers or critical stakeholders, and capturing value for the firm. Some firms market themselves better than others, as evidenced in their ability to capture differential value in their brands.

This course will highlight the contribution of marketing to the success of the firm and its business model. It demonstrate to students the benefits of using an analytical approach to marketing in the financial services industry, and will show students how to undertake that analysis. An analytical approach helps firms to (1) identify marketing options, (2) calibrate the opportunity costs associated with each option, and (3) choose the best option to achieve the firm's business goals.

This course operationalises several marketing concepts such as segmentation, targeting, and positioning. By the end of this course, students will know how to segment customers, what kind of data are required to do so, what are the different ways to segment, which customers to target, how to determine the best positioning of your brand in customers' minds, how to develop new products/services that add value to consumers and firms, how to price financial products, how to efficiently manage multiple brands across multiple segments in order to meet corporate bottom-line goals, how to develop and effectively manage a brand, how to plan and manage distribution and communication channels (including digital channels) and how to align marketing to the organisation’s purpose and social license to operate.

The pedagogic philosophy in this course is that of learning by doing. Therefore, students will go beyond learning conceptual marketing material to learning how to do marketing, using real and simulated data from the financial services industry.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. Describe a financial service organisation’s marketing-critical internal and external environments
2. Apply marketing theories, models, and/or frameworks appropriate to a financial service organisation’s marketing environment
3. Analyse the financial services industry marketing environment using extant theories and frameworks for both empirical and theoretical insights
4. Create marketing strategies in a financial services industry setting based on relevant empirical and theoretical analytical insights
5. Generate differentiated value propositions for a financial services organisation based on appropriate theories, models, and/or framework
6. Defend both verbally and in written forms, strategies or strategic alternatives to facilitate organisational marketing decision-making and problem-solving in the financial services sector

Research-Led Teaching

MKTG2003 draws insights from academic research, marketing practice, industry publications, and business literature. Students are able to develop and apply their understanding of the content through assessments that link research and practice.  

Field Trips

This course does not have field trips.

Additional Course Costs

This course does not have additional costs.

Examination Material or equipment

This course does not have an examination.

Required Resources

Ennew, C., Waite, N. and Waite, R. (2018). Financial Services Marketing: An International Guide to Principles and Practice 3rd Edition, Routledge: New York.

 

eBook (published 2017)

Cost: approx. $96.00 

ISBN: 9781315543765

URL: https://www.routledge.com/Financial-Services-Marketing-An-International-Guide-to-Principles-and/Ennew-Waite-Waite/p/book/9781138684522

 

Print Edition (published 2018)

Cost: Approx. $120.00

ISBN: 9781138684522

URL: https://www.routledge.com/Financial-Services-Marketing-An-International-Guide-to-Principles-and/Ennew-Waite-Waite/p/book/9781138684522

 

Pre-Used

Second-hand copies may be available from online sellers of used textbooks. At the time of preparing this outline, copies were available for approx. $20.00.

 

Library

Cost: Free-of-charge

Current edition ebook is available for short loan https://library.anu.edu.au/record=b4691453 

Previous edition ebook is also available for short loan https://library.anu.edu.au/record=b7178330

Recommended Resources

Lectures and workshops integrate insights from additional marketing textbooks, scholarly journals, business publications, and industry magazines. Students are not expected to purchase these sources but are encouraged to access free-of-charge versions to consolidate and extend their learning. Key sources include the following. 

 

Grewal, D. and Levy, M. (2021). M: Marketing 7e International Student Edition, McGraw-Hill Australia.

eBook available from the library for short loan https://library.anu.edu.au/record=b7102717 

 

Zeithaml, V.A., Bitner, M.J., and Gremler, D.D. (2018). Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus across the Firm, 7e International Student Edition, McGraw-Hill New York.

eBook available from the library for short loan https://library.anu.edu.au/record=b6851031

 

Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/

Marketing Week https://www.marketingweek.com/

Marketing Mag https://www.marketingmag.com.au/news-c/

The Conversation https://theconversation.com/au/business.

Staff Feedback

Students will be given feedback in the following forms in this course:

• Written comments
• Verbal comments
• Answer guides
• Feedback to the whole class, groups, and individuals

Student Feedback

ANU is committed to the demonstration of educational excellence and regularly seeks feedback from students. Students are encouraged to offer feedback directly to their Course Convener or through their College and Course representatives (if applicable). The feedback given in these surveys is anonymous and provides the Colleges, University Education Committee and Academic Board with opportunities to recognise excellent teaching, and opportunities for improvement. The Surveys and Evaluation website provides more information on student surveys at ANU and reports on the feedback provided on ANU courses.

Other Information

Further Academic Integrity Control

As a further academic integrity control, students may be selected for a 15 minute individual oral examination of their assessment submissions. Any student identified, either during the current semester or in retrospect, as having used ghost writing services will be investigated under the University’s Academic Integrity Rule.

 

Scaling

Your final mark for the course will be based on the raw marks allocated for each of your assessment items. However, your final mark may not be the same number as produced by that formula, as marks may be scaled. Any scaling applied will preserve the rank order of raw marks (i.e. if your raw mark exceeds that of another student, then your scaled mark will exceed the scaled mark of that student), and may be either up or down.

Class Schedule

Week/Session	Summary of Activities	Assessment
1	Part 1: Foundations & Frameworks Introduction to Marketing for Financial Services Readings: Ch. 2 plus Grewal & Levy (2021) Ch. 1
2	Conscious Marketing & Social Responsibility Readings: Ch. 17 plus Grewal & Levy (2021) Ch. 4
3	The Nature of Financial Services & Consumer Decisions Readings: Ch. 3 & 6
4	Part 2: Strategy & Planning Marketing Strategy & the Environment Readings: Ch. 4 & 5	CA 1 due Tuesday 10.00am
5	Segmenting, Targeting & Positioning Reading: Ch. 7
6	Financial Service Design & the Servicescape Readings: Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler (2018) Ch. 8 & 10	CA 2 due Tuesday 10.00am
7	Part 3: Marketing Mix The Marketing Mix & Price Readings: Ch. 9 & 12
8	Products Reading: Ch. 10	CA 3 due Tuesday 10.00am
9	Promotion & IMC Reading: Ch. 11
10	Place & Distribution Reading: Ch. 13	CA 4 due Tuesday 10.00am
11	Part 4: Managing Services Service Quality & Failure Reading: Ch. 15
12	Customer Satisfaction & Relationships Readings: Ch. 14 & 16
13	No classes this week	Video Presentation due Wednesday 10.00am

Tutorial Registration

MKTG2003 has a 1.5-hour active learning workshop each week, commencing in Week 2. Workshop registration utilises MyTimetable for offshore and on-campus students is as follows.

 

Offshore Students - Online Workshop Only

Students who are located offshore and require remote study need to 1) enrol in the 1.5-hour online workshop via MyTimetable and 2) confirm their offshore status via the course Wattle site. Note: places in the online tutorial are strictly limited to students who confirm they will be offshore for all or most of the semester.

 

On-campus Students – On-campus Workshop Only

Students who are in Australia are expected to study on campus and need to 1) enrol in the 3-hour on-campus workshop via MyTimetable and 2) see the course Wattle site for information about the 2 x 1.5-hour sessions within that timeslot.

 

ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.

Assessment Summary

Assessment task	Value	Due Date	Learning Outcomes
Continuous Assessment (4 x 15%)	60 %	*	1,2,3,4,5,6
Video Presentation	40 %	03/11/2022	2,3,4,5,6

* If the Due Date and Return of Assessment date are blank, see the Assessment Tab for specific Assessment Task details

Policies

ANU has educational policies, procedures and guidelines, which are designed to ensure that staff and students are aware of the University’s academic standards, and implement them. Students are expected to have read the Academic Misconduct Rule before the commencement of their course. Other key policies and guidelines include:

• Student Assessment (Coursework) Policy and Procedure
• Special Assessment Consideration Policy and General Information
• Student Surveys and Evaluations
• Deferred Examinations
• Student Complaint Resolution Policy and Procedure

Assessment Requirements

The ANU is using Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website Students may choose not to submit assessment items through Turnitin. In this instance you will be required to submit, alongside the assessment item itself, hard copies of all references included in the assessment item.

Moderation of Assessment

Marks that are allocated during Semester are to be considered provisional until formalised by the College examiners meeting at the end of each Semester. If appropriate, some moderation of marks might be applied prior to final results being released.

Participation

** Flipped Learning with Hybrid Delivery **

MKTG2003 is taught using Flipped Learning with hybrid delivery. Each week, the course integrates 1.5 hours of pre-recorded lecture videos and resources with a 1.5-hour active learning workshop. Students complete the background learning for each topic (i.e., watch the videos, access the resources) in their own time before attending the topic workshop. The topic workshop then provides hands-on, active learning opportunities to engage with, apply, and extend the background learning for that topic. Participation involves completing the background learning and engaging with the workshop activities as scheduled. The combination and timing of pre-workshop and during-workshop components directly supports the learning process and outcomes (e.g., performance in assessment tasks). Not engaging with all components as scheduled is likely to hinder performance in the assessment tasks.  

Examination(s)

This course does not have an examinations.

Assessment Task 1

Continuous Assessment (4 x 15%)

Worth: 60%

Learning Objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Type: Individual

Format: 4 x 500-word short answer tasks

Word Limit: The word count includes ALL words on the pages except the list of references (i.e., from the first word on the first page to the last word before the list of references). Any portion in excess of the 500-word limit will not be read or marked.

Submission: via Turnitin on the course Wattle site

Due: Tuesday 10.00am of Weeks 4, 6, 8, 10

Return Date: Answer guides are published shortly after each submission due date. Students receive their mark and completed marking rubric within two weeks of each task submission.

Overview:

The Continuous Assessment comprises 4 short answer tasks worth 15% each (total 60%). Each task has a set of questions that assess understanding and application of topics from the relevant weeks. The questions are posted on Wattle by Friday 10.00am of the week before the task is due. Students answer the questions individually and submit their work by Tuesday 10.00am of the due week.

 

For each task, an answer guide is posted on Wattle shortly after the task was due to provide timely and detailed feedback. Students are encouraged to engage with, and reflect on, the answer guide before the next task is due. Within two weeks of each submission, students receive a mark out of 15 and a completed marking rubric for the given task. Separate marks for each question and personal written comments are not provided. Rather, the most timely and detailed feedback comes from the answer guides plus the relevant course content and workshops.  

 

Further information about the task requirements, marking rubric, and supporting resources will be posted on Wattle no later than Week 2.  

 

Note: Late submissions are not accepted for this assessment because answer guides are published shortly after submissions are due. Students who would otherwise be eligible for an extension can use the RSM extension application procedure to request a substitute task with alternate questions. If approved, the substitute task would be due in Week 12.

Assessment Task 2

Video Presentation

Worth: 40%

Learning Objectives: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Type: Individual

Format: Five-minute PowerPoint Video Presentation plus a handout with the slides and transcript

Time Limit: The time limit applies to all elements from the start of play to the end of the video.  Any part of the video (and corresponding point in the handout) that exceeds the time limit will not be viewed or marked.

Submission: via the course Wattle site

Due: Wednesday 10.00am 03 November 2022

Return: After release of grades

 

Overview:

The Video Presentation involves explaining, illustrating, assessing, and recommending in relation to a given topic or aspect of marketing financial services. Students deliver their work in two parts: i) a PowerPoint video presentation with narration and live headshot and ii) a presentation handout that uses the ‘notes’ layout to show each slide with the corresponding narration transcript.

 

Students are required to perform their own narration with the video camera turned on to record their live headshot throughout (no outsourcing or digitally generated voiceovers). All presentation videos and handouts with transcript must be submitted via Wattle for academic integrity.

 

Further information about the task requirements, marking rubric, and supporting resources will be posted on Wattle no later than Week 2. This will include information about using PowerPoint, obtaining free access to Microsoft 365 (if required), and how to make the videos. Details of the topic options and registration process will be provided by Week 6 and various workshops will include activities that practice using PowerPoint to make the required video and handout.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a core part of our culture as a community of scholars. At its heart, academic integrity is about behaving ethically. This means that all members of the community commit to honest and responsible scholarly practice and to upholding these values with respect and fairness. The Australian National University commits to embedding the values of academic integrity in our teaching and learning. We ensure that all members of our community understand how to engage in academic work in ways that are consistent with, and actively support academic integrity. The ANU expects staff and students to uphold high standards of academic integrity and act ethically and honestly, to ensure the quality and value of the qualification that you will graduate with. The University has policies and procedures in place to promote academic integrity and manage academic misconduct. Visit the following Academic honesty & plagiarism website for more information about academic integrity and what the ANU considers academic misconduct. The ANU offers a number of services to assist students with their assignments, examinations, and other learning activities. The Academic Skills and Learning Centre offers a number of workshops and seminars that you may find useful for your studies.

Online Submission

The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.

Hardcopy Submission

For some forms of assessment (hand written assignments, art works, laboratory notes, etc.) hard copy submission is appropriate when approved by the Associate Dean (Education). Hard copy submissions must utilise the Assignment Cover Sheet. Please keep a copy of tasks completed for your records.

Late Submission

For the Continuous Assessment tasks, late submissions are not permitted because answer guides are published shortly after submissions are due. Students who would otherwise be eligible for an extension can use the RSM extension application procedure to request a substitute task with alternate questions. If approved, the substitute task would be due in Week 12.

 

For the Video Presentation, late submissions are permitted. All requests for extensions must be submitted to the RSM School Office with a completed RSM Extension application Form application form and supporting documentation. The RSM Extension Application Form and further information on this process can be found at https://rsm.anu.edu.au/study/students/extension-application-procedure

 

Where late submissions are permitted but an RSM extension has not been approved, late submissions are penalised at a rate of 5% of the possible mark per day or part thereof. Late submissions are not accepted 10 working days after the due date, or on or after the date specified in the course outline for the return of the assessment item.

Referencing Requirements

Accepted academic practice for referencing sources that you use in presentations can be found via the links on the Wattle site, under the file named “ANU and College Policies, Program Information, Student Support Services and Assessment”. Alternatively, you can seek help through the Students Learning Development website.

Returning Assignments

See assessment task details above.

Extensions and Penalties

Extensions and late submission of assessment pieces are covered by the Student Assessment (Coursework) Policy and Procedure The Course Convener may grant extensions for assessment pieces that are not examinations or take-home examinations. If you need an extension, you must request an extension in writing on or before the due date. If you have documented and appropriate medical evidence that demonstrates you were not able to request an extension on or before the due date, you may be able to request it after the due date.

Resubmission of Assignments

Unless specified otherwise in the assignment requirements, re-submissions are not allowed.

Privacy Notice

The ANU has made a number of third party, online, databases available for students to use. Use of each online database is conditional on student end users first agreeing to the database licensor’s terms of service and/or privacy policy. Students should read these carefully. In some cases student end users will be required to register an account with the database licensor and submit personal information, including their: first name; last name; ANU email address; and other information. In cases where student end users are asked to submit ‘content’ to a database, such as an assignment or short answers, the database licensor may only use the student’s ‘content’ in accordance with the terms of service — including any (copyright) licence the student grants to the database licensor. Any personal information or content a student submits may be stored by the licensor, potentially offshore, and will be used to process the database service in accordance with the licensors terms of service and/or privacy policy. If any student chooses not to agree to the database licensor’s terms of service or privacy policy, the student will not be able to access and use the database. In these circumstances students should contact their lecturer to enquire about alternative arrangements that are available.

Distribution of grades policy

Academic Quality Assurance Committee monitors the performance of students, including attrition, further study and employment rates and grade distribution, and College reports on quality assurance processes for assessment activities, including alignment with national and international disciplinary and interdisciplinary standards, as well as qualification type learning outcomes. Since first semester 1994, ANU uses a grading scale for all courses. This grading scale is used by all academic areas of the University.

Support for students

The University offers students support through several different services. You may contact the services listed below directly or seek advice from your Course Convener, Student Administrators, or your College and Course representatives (if applicable).

• ANU Health, safety & wellbeing for medical services, counselling, mental health and spiritual support
• ANU Diversity and inclusion for students with a disability or ongoing or chronic illness
• ANU Dean of Students for confidential, impartial advice and help to resolve problems between students and the academic or administrative areas of the University
• ANU Academic Skills and Learning Centre supports you make your own decisions about how you learn and manage your workload.
• ANU Counselling Centre promotes, supports and enhances mental health and wellbeing within the University student community.
• ANUSA supports and represents undergraduate and ANU College students
• PARSA supports and represents postgraduate and research students