The aim of this assessment is to encourage you to examine a sector in the service industry and analyse the service marketing issues affecting one of the organisations in that sector. You may have already identified sectors and companies of interest through your service diary.
The sectors from which you should choose are:
– Education
– Financial services
– Leisure
– Not for profit/charity
– Professional services
– Retail (excluding food retail sector)
– Telecomms (excluding mobile phones and network providers)
– Travel (excluding the airline industry)
Please note that you CANNOT select any of the following:
– The airline industry
– Food retail sector
– Telecomms retailing- mobile phones and network providers
Any work related to the above three sectors will be given a nil mark.
In Week 5 the seminar will be given over to an advisory session and discussion with your module tutor to ensure planning and progress are properly grounded, and to answer any questions you might have.
Project tasks
If your selected service industry is a broad one, you may need to narrow it by defining one competitive sector or discrete market. The sector you select for study should be UK-based, and have a defined or definable competitive structure. For example, if you choose ‘retail’ as your industry you might select ‘sporting goods’ as your competitive sector; if you choose ‘charities’ as your industry you might select ‘children’s charities’ as your competitive sector.
The elements that form this assignment are:
1. A definition of your chosen sector by size and competitive structure. If applicable, identify the major strategic grouping(s) and the one you have selected for study.
2. Your assessment of the opportunities and threats facing the sector/grouping using original and
coherent analysis based on properly referenced sources.
3. A summary of the commonalities and differences between the current service marketing strategies of your chosen sector’s ‘major players’.
4. Select ONE of the existing players (major or otherwise) and:
a identify that organisation’s key strategic service marketing issues for the next 5 years, drawing on your foregoing analysis.
b briefly demonstrate the relationship between any one of these issues and some relevant theoretical principles of services marketing, taken from any appropriate and referenced source.
Individual assignment assessment checklist
No. Assessment checklist Allocated marks % Marks given for the individual assignment
1
– Introduction and problem definition (Ability to
identify the problem specific to the case)
– Originality and appropriateness of service sector
choice by size and competitive structure (DRETS)
– Breadth and quality of opportunity/threat analysis
25
2 Ability to distinguish services marketing strategy commonalities and differences among major players 15
3 Ability to identify key strategic service marketing issues for the next 5 years 20
4
– Ability to solve company’s problems based on
relevant services marketing literature (appropriate
application of relevant theory)
– Evidence of rigorous and relevant external research
25
5 – Conclusions and recommendations
– Supporting appendices
– Bibliography and use of appropriate referencing throughout
15
TOTAL 100
Concluding comments
This is an individual project to be handed in by Week 15 (Day one). It should be a maximum of 3,500 words in length, excluding appendices and bibliography. Submissions of excessive length, or which attempt to subvert length criteria with the misuse of appendices, will be penalised.
The typical structure of case study based reports is as follows:
Title page Your name, student number, title of the case study
List of contents This should include list of tables and figures if you have any
Introduction/problem definition A brief overview of the company in a couple of sentences. Identify the problem specific to the case and address the relevant theoretical concepts underpinning the problem
Solutions and answers to the main questions This will include identifying the reasons why the problem occurred (and the theoretical concepts underpinning that), the solutions which may be appropriate. You can have more than one solution and then recommend the solution which you consider the most appropriate. Support your arguments by drawing on the relevant literature. Use headings for new sections only (not paragraphs!!)
Conclusions Summarising your main points of recommendation in relation to the problem identified right at the beginning
Supporting appendices Any theoretical diagrams/external sources you used
List of references Each and every reference must be cited in alphabetical order and must be complete
Overall: A professionally presented report, with headings and numbering for every new section
Assessment criteria
The core capability assessed by this assignment is:
Seek, handle and interpret information.
Projects will also be assessed against the following criteria:
– originality and appropriateness of service sector choice
– accuracy and relevance of structural, and environmental analysis
– overall breadth and quality of opportunity/threat analysis
– creativity and appropriateness of strategic analysis
– evidence of rigorous and relevant external research
– evidence of value added to any such external research
– appropriate application of relevant theory
– presence of bibliography and use of referencing throughout
– structure and cohesion of report
REMEMBER YOU WILL NOT HAVE MAXIMISED YOUR GRADE IF:
• you select a topic which does not meet the criteria in the brief, is subsequently unapproved or which you are studying in another module
• you do not attend the class discussions on the assessments
• your document fails to acknowledge and/or add value to published sources, particularly of secondary data
• the module tutor considers you have plagiarised or colluded
• your work is excessive in length
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