Services Marketing Second Edition helps students understand the role that services marketing plays in creating customer value and the increasing contributions that services make to national economies. Service marketers need to understand the practical implications associated with the definitive characteristics of services because that knowledge will enable them to recognize, and effectively manage, the marketing opportunities arising from global service-based economies.

This text encourages students to develop an understanding of the service processes that create value for identified target markets. An analytical learning approach, based on applying established and evolving services marketing concepts for Australasian organisations, is the rationale of the pedagogy adopted by this text. That approach is warranted for two reasons:
- Australian and New Zealand service organisations are developing closer economic ties with the growing markets of their South-East Asian counterparts.
- By understanding Australasian service organisations, students will be able to adopt an international perspective on services marketing.