Hockey game a part of their studies

– The course teaches students how services are designed, produced and communicated, and how marketing of services is different from marketing of products. In the course we discuss how to market something that you cannot touch and that is produced and consumed at the same time, says Åsa Wallström, Professor and teacher of the course.

Surveys leads to suggestions of improvement

The twelve students are divided into four groups to explore different areas of service marketing linked to Lulea hockey. For example, customer experience in connection with the games and what determines whether one chooses to see a game on television, in a sports bar or at the arena.

To collect data for the project work have the students been given free access to Lulea hockey’s games, a slightly different course elements that were appreciated by the students. Christian Frisch and Simon Seiter comes both from Germany. Along with Linnea Malmström they have focused on the visitor's overall experience of the game events.

– We got first-hand experience of what it is like to be a customer and the service you get as a customer when we went to the arena and saw a game, says Linnéa Malmström. 

– We used a questionnaire in order to survey the customers who watched the game as well as the fan club and the Facebook fans, says Christian Frisch.

– We are going to analyse the data gained from it and end up with recommendations for Luleå hockey in order to improve their service marketing. It is really exiting to take part in a cooperation with a company because the things you have learned can then be translated into practice, says Simon Seiter.

A collaboration that benefits all

Monica Wikström-Johansson is marketing and sales manager at Luleå hockey. She sees the cooperation with Luleå University of Technology as a win-win situation.

– The students come here with new eyes. Some younger, others older. Some come from Lulea, some from southern Sweden and a few from other countries. We believe that their different experiences will lead to smart, simple solutions that are not so expensive and easy going to add to our current operations, says Monica Wikström-Johansson.