The students of Master of International Business, Department of Commerce, Delhi School of Economics organized a two day Conference on Services Marketing. Aptly titled, “Marketing Invisibles: The Road Ahead” the Conference aimed to strategise how best could the managers of tomorrow increase the ROI on this sunrise sector.

The conference saw the confluence of corporates and young aspirants. Students and future managers took this opportunity to interact with the decision makers of the services sector. The session started with a keynote address by Mr. Nishith Seth, Partner – Seth Services, who emphasised on the need for ‘social engineering’, and discussed the importance and difficulties faced in service marketing along with India’s stand in various industries of the service sector and their growth potentials.

In the Banking and Financial Services Session, Mr. Mohit Bhatia AVP (Sales & Distribution), DSP Merill Lynch enlightened the audience about the immense potential of mutual funds in India as well as the way to develop the market using newer financial products. Mr Suresh Nanda, Regional CEO ING Vysya Bank, gave the students an insight of the paradigm shift in banking services over the years, which included the technological shift, the structural shift, the product shift and the customer shift. These shifts would be the drivers of the industry in the future, he added

The next session on Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction, was panelled by Prof Sanjay K Jain, Professor of Marketing, Department of Commerce, Delhi School of Economics and Mr Animesh Thakur, Director Work Force Management, Convergys. Prof Jain discussed Service Quality and its measurement and relation with Customer Satisfaction. On the other hand, Mr Thakur elucidated on the various staffing and scheduling challenges in the service delivery process. He also discussed the real time tactics employed to resolve work force related issues.

In the Business Services Session, Mr B Narayanswamy, Executive Director, Indica Research interacted with the audience through an open discussion on the concepts of invisible marketing and a route map to effectively market intangible products. Mr Vimal Mehta, Senior Marketing Manger, India Trade Promotion Organization, discussed with the audience, the perspective of Trade Facilitation Services as an important aspect of marketing India and India’s products and services globally.

The Conference helped the managers of tomorrow get an insight into the way they should be prepared to handle the challenges and opportunities of the Services Sector, both in the local and the global markets.