SERVICES MARKETING - 2025/6

Module Overview

Services industries are a driving force of value creation. Nowadays nearly every product has a service component and as such service businesses are increasingly dominant forces in the global economy. Services are intangible, consumed at the time of their production, cannot be stored, and standardization is a challenge. This module is designed to provide students with an understanding of the challenges service organizations face due to service characteristics, consumer behaviour, and a dynamic and increasingly challenging global environment. This module introduces the core principles of services marketing and consumer behaviour considering service characteristics. In doing so students will be dealing with a variety of marketing topics allowing them to appreciate the complexity of the topic as well as relevant theories and models service providers can take advantage of in terms of managing the service experience for their customers.

To emphasize the applicability of service and consumer behaviour theories to various fields this module is divided into two parts: First, general principles of services marketing and consumer behaviour are covered. Second, industry (i.e., tourism, events, or hospitality) specific theory and applications are introduced. In an increasingly customer centered environment this module will provide an understanding about theories, approaches and techniques concerning how to attract and retain customers while dealing with challenges due to services characteristics and changing consumer behaviour. The module also creates an opportunity to facilitate 'real life' decision-making and enhances a wide range of study skills, such as independent research, analytical skills as well as critical thinking. As such the goal is to contribute to resourcefulness and resilience and to develop digital capabilities linked to the topics covered. Consequently, students develop skills relevant for employability.

Module provider

Surrey Hospitality & Tourism Management

Module Leader

STANGL Brigitte (Hosp & Tour)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 4

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

1. An introduction to services marketing, consumer behaviour, and challenges due to services characteristics


2. The consumer decision making process


3. The marketing environment and the services marketing mix


4. Service escape


5. Marketing segmenting, targeting and positioning


6. The communication mix


7. Service quality and the service processes


8. Service failure and recovery


9. Customer relationship, marketing ethics, and social responsibility

  The impact of the Internet and market research will be covered as an integral part of the various topics where appropriate

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Individual Report, maximum 2,000 words

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to gradually build up their knowledge and understanding of services marking; demonstrate their breadth and depth of understanding, both of the theory and application to hospitality, tourism or events marketing; and to allow students to evidence their achievement of the learning outcomes.

The assessment strategy has two summative elements:

• First assessment: Online multiple-choice test (mid-term): in line with the module intended learning outcomes, the multiple-choice test aims to assess the individual student subject knowledge. The test will consist of multiple-choice questions covering the understanding of services marketing and consumer behaviour terminology and theories/concepts which is an essential requirement as a basis to build on and to be able to apply theoretical knowledge to actual industry cases.


• Second assessment: The group project aims to help students to consolidate their learning and develop it further through interaction between group members by means of working together to conduct a service evaluation project for a hospitality/tourism organization or an event. The students are also required to record their findings in a 5-minute video. A separate handout explaining the details of this assignment will be posted on SurreyLearn.

Formative assessment and feedback

Students will receive verbal feedback on their performance during in-class activities.

• During the first seminar, the assignments and the feedback process are explained


• Feedback is also provided during and after in-class discussions


• As the seminars are built around topic-specific group exercises, students do not only benefit from lecturer’s feedback but also receive peer evaluations


• Pre-assignment feedback is an integral part of this module. During some sessions, students work in groups on tasks / prepare presentations which reflect assignment requirements and receive feedback on their work


• Further, as part of the formative feedback, students are provided with video examples and the key components of good and less good video contents will be discussed


• In a lecture after submission, students are provided with initial feedback on what went well and not so well, hence outlining key learning issues derived from the assignments


• Short presentations assist students in preparing for the group presentation as the task for the presentations relates to the analysis and application of marketing theory to practice

Summative feedback

• For the multiple-choice test students will receive the marks and online feedback concerning which questions were answered correctly and which ones were not.


• For the second assessment, students receive written feedback for their submitted videos. More specifically students will receive formal feedback in SurreyLearn that outlines the video's strengths, limitations, and suggestions on how to improve students’ performance for future assignments.

As this outline shows, the syllabus presented in the module document will be covered using a variety of teaching and learning methods. Methods used may include academic lectures, lectures by industry guests, seminars, hands-on usage of tools/applications, and directed reading. As such the module will contribute to students’ development of skills relevant for employability, resourcefulness and resilience, and development of digital capabilities (see below).

Module aims

• Appreciate services characteristics and understand the unique challenges involved in marketing and managing services.
• Provide students with knowledge of the meaning and application of marketing in the events, tourism or hospitality context.
• Understand consumer behaviour and the determinants of service quality and the process of service quality measurement.
• Use frameworks/tools to analyze services and consumer behaviour as a prerequisite to develop competitive marketing strategies.
• Manage the process of the extended marketing mix in service industries.
• To provide students with an understanding of how to transfer and apply general services marketing and consumer behaviour models, theories and concepts to their field of study (i.e., tourism, hospitality or events).
• To provide a solid foundation for further services related marketing studies.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to encourage students to think critically about the different aspects of marketing and to engage in evaluating applications in their field of study, i.e., the hospitality, tourism or events industry.

  The principal teaching and learning methods are lectures and seminars including the following elements to achieve the module learning outcomes:

• Lectures are designed to develop an understanding of services marketing in general.


• Student-led class discussions of real-world case studies to put theory into application and transform the acquired knowledge into practice in the student's field of study, i.e., hospitality, tourism or the event context.

  Students are expected to undertake a number of independent learning activities:

• Preparatory reading of the relevant chapters suggested on SurreyLearn


• Application of the learned theories to written case studies.


• Guided further reading to enable them to extend their field specific (i.e., hospitality, tourism or events knowledge and understanding. SurreyLearn will be used to support student learning by providing them with additional resources.

 

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAN1130

Other information

This module adopts the university curriculum framework which aims to develop learners with strong capabilities in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module contributes to the development of the following capabilities:

• Development of skills relevant for employability: More specifically students will have to examine and evaluate an existing tourism, hospitality organization or an event in the light of literature. |In doing so, students will have to use various marketing tools to analyze the organization and to compare it with competitors. As such students will be trained to apply learned theories to real life cases and how to use marketing tools to examine organizations in the light of theories as well as in comparison to competitors.
• Resourcefulness and resilience: The assessment of this module is designed in a way that students must have academic/theoretical marketing knowledge, an understanding of how to apply various marketing tools, and apply theory to examine a real-life organization. Considering the formative feedback provided based on guided learning activities students will experience this together, sharing experiences, providing support and empathy, and supporting each other. Through the applied guided learning elements, the second assessment and presentations throughout the term in seminars students can draw upon and develop their own resourcefulness and problem solving and building their own confidence and self-efficacy. They will also develop an appreciation of barriers and challenges people face because of working in a team as well as because of presenting and being assessed, and how these may be overcome, while developing an appreciation of their personal experiences, and the shared experiences of the collective cohort.
• Development of digital capabilities: The topics covered each week are linked and embedded in the digital environment and recent developments. Digital aspects will be an integral part as students are required to work in teams to prepare guided learning activities. Thus, collaborative tools such as WhatsApp, Teams and shared documents are essential to communicate with each other as well as the usage of digital sources in terms of finding evidence. Further, the preparation a professionally looking video for the second assignment will require students to use appropriate tools and methods

Students should be prepared for assessments on topics from across the syllabus - irrespective of the mode of delivery e.g., whether the topic was covered by a formal lecture, seminar, self-directed study task, directed reading, or any other method used.

The knowledge and skills acquired in this module will be relevant for a variety of other modules in the following years (e.g., for Digital Marketing in Tourism, Hospitality and Events) as general services marketing knowledge and skills are relevant for all subject fields, namely hospitality, tourism and events.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.