From the list provided, select a physical organisation type:
Hotel
Coffee Shop or Tea shop
Cinema
Airport Lounge
Restaurant
Fast Food Restaurant
Motorway Services
Travel Agent
Car Servicing Centre
Bus station waiting room or Railway station waiting room
Note: Please do not select more than two areas of your chosen organisation (i.e. hotels consist of reception areas, dining areas, bedrooms, bars etc. For their assignment a student may wish to focus on just the reception area).
Design the servicescape for the above organisation.
Using existing literature, you must make recommendations for the following factors: (1) ambient conditions, (2) layout and design, (3) signs, symbols and artefacts and (4) social factors. Your work must also contain an appendix of supporting materials (e.g., photographs, sketches, colour examples). Such supporting materials can be sourced from google images and should be referenced accordingly.
In producing the assignment you should ensure that you utilise existing literature to justify your choices.
Format: Essay style with strict Cardiff Harvard referencing
Length: 3,000 words (+/- 10%)
Mark: 50%
In order to succeed you will need to:
Briefly define ‘servicescape’ in the context of your assignment (i.e. theme of firm (if applicable), positioning of the firm, demographic target market)?
Ensure that you make full use of the academic literature available – you will need to make good use of a variety of sources available to you via the Cardiff University online resources (e.g., ABI Inform, Ebsco Business Source, Emerald Insight). Your essay will apply this literature to defend your design choices rather than offering lengthy accounts of key service models and/or theories.
Ensure that you present a well-balanced essay. There are four clear areas in this essay. Consider the word count in the brief and ensure that you dedicate a suitable amount of space to each area.
Make recommendations regarding the design of your chosen organisation’s servicescape. Defend your design choice and theme. Use literature to support these choices.
Your assignment should take note of the COVID-19 restrictions (i.e. hand sanitiser, wearing of masks, 2m social distancing, one way systems and any special signage).
Initial Reading –
Bitner, M. J (1982) ‘Servicescape. The Impact of Physical Surroundings on Customers and Employees, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56, pp 57-71.
Useful sources and websites include:
Academic databases examples:
Librarysearch: https://librarysearch.cardiff.ac.uk
ABI Inform: https://bit.ly/2A1SXSA
Ebsco Business Source Premier: https://bit.ly/2LhPDrU
Emerald Insight: https://bit.ly/2NGGqWO
Academic journals examples:
Journal of Service Research
Journal of Marketing
Journal of Services Marketing
Journal of Business Research
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
European Journal of Marketing
Journal of Retailing
These journals and more are available online via librarysearch. You do need to pay for these resources, the University subscribes to all of the journals that you will need to complete this assignment.
Assessment Criteria
Your assignment will be marked against the following criteria:
Understanding and application of the task
Your essay should demonstrate that you have selected a relevant organisation from the list (and if applicable relevant areas within the firm).
You should, briefly, justify this choice particularly the theme/positioning, geographical location and target market of your chosen outlet. You should subsequently ensure that the rest of your essay is congruent with these decisions.
Use of relevant literature
You should justify all of your design choices and recommendations through the use of relevant academic literature (journal articles). While you do not need to describe relevant theories in a descriptive manner, these should be referred to and underpin your recommendations.
To produce an excellent piece of work it is anticipated that you will use multiple sources in a critical manner and will have an extensive supporting reference list.
Producing a thorough and balanced report
Four key areas of the servicescape are outlined in the above guidance notes. You should ensure that your assignment provides sufficient detail to examine each of these areas thoroughly.
In addition, you should ensure that your assignment contains an introduction and some concluding remarks which draw your recommendations together holistically.
Additional supporting materials
Additional supporting materials should be contained in appendices at the end of your work e.g., sketches, photos, plans etc. Where possible these should be referenced. While this is an integral part of your assignment you do not need to use specialised design software.
Use this section of your assignment to give the marker a visual representation of your design recommendations. It is fine for different components of your organisation to be inspired by pre-existing firms. However, the overall design must be your own.
Style and presentation
Writing style and presentation is important. This includes correct spelling, grammar, referencing and working within prescribed word limit. How your essay is written and presented does affect the grade you are awarded. This is a key transferable skill to take to future employers.
You should write in a formal style (i.e., in the third person) and avoid the use of slang and text message style abbreviations. Use of headings and subheadings throughout your work is recommended. You must use Cardiff Harvard Style referencing throughout.
