Purpose of Service Environments
?(Muvico's CEO, Hamid Hashemi)
The power of servicescapes is being discovered
Insights from Mehrabian-Russell 

Stimulus-Response Model

It is a simple yet fundamental model of how people respond to 

Environments that holds: 

?use colors, textures, sounds, scents, and spatial design to 

Enhance desired service experience
Servicescape as Part of Value 
Proposition
?Florida-based Muvico: builds extravagant movie theatres and 
offers plush amenities.Las Vegas: repositioned itself to a somewhat more wholesome fun 
resort, visually striking entertainment center 
?If higher levels of cognitive processes are triggered, the 
interpretation of this process determines people's feelings
?Facilitate service encounter and enhance productivity
Shape customers' experience and 

Their behaviors

?Typical outcome variable is 'approach' or 'avoidance' of an 

Environment, but other possible outcomes can be added to model
Insights from Russell's 
Model of Affect
?symbolic cues to communicate the distinctive nature and quality of 

The service experience

?Emotional responses to environments can be described 
along two main dimensions:
?Pleasure: subjective, depending on how much individual likes or 
dislikes environment
?Arousal: how stimulated individual feels, depends largely on 
information rate or load of an environment
?Firms can set targets for affective states
Drivers of Affect
?Caused by perceptions and cognitive processes of any 
degree of complexity
?Pleasant environments result in approach, whereas 

Unpleasant ones result in avoidance

?If environment is pleasant, increasing arousal can generate 

Excitement, leading to a stronger positive consumer response

?make servicescape stand out from competition and attract 

Customers from target segments

?e.g., Disneyland, Denmark's Legoland
?The more complex a cognitive process becomes, the more 
powerful its potential impact on affect
Behavioral Consequence of Affect 

?Support image, positioning, and differentiation
?Message-creating medium 

?Attention-creating medium

?Effect-creating medium 

?Physical surroundings help shape appropriate feelings and 
reactions in customers and employees
?Servicescapes form a core part of the value proposition
?The environment, its conscious and unconscious perceptions, and 

Interpretation influence how people feel in that environment

?Arousal amplifies the basic effect of pleasure on behavior 

?Shape customers' experience and their behaviors
?Part of the value proposition 
?Feelings, rather than perceptions/thoughts drive behavior

?It determines how people feel in a service setting
?"What sets you apart is how you package it."Advantage: simple, direct approach to customers' feelings
?