Experiences are not ready-to-give. The products (goods, services) are not „ready-made”, the knowledge-, the time- and attitude of the visitors/consumers needed to open up „the experiences”. Part of the consumption and experiences is the existence of other tourists (co-consumers) and their behaviours. The service provider creates only the value pack (the offer). The value is created during the consumption, the overall impressions, the consumption of experiences and with the active participation of the visitor/consumer. Consumer is more interested in impacts of consumption, to gain, memorable experiences and the value of consumption. The satisfaction depends not only on the quality but also on the perception of the consumers.
Consequence: the service provision, the environment changes due to external conditions and the uniqueness of consumers.
Nevertheless, the experiences should be understood more. Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) experience economy model has stood out. The model delineated four realms of consumer experiences: educational, escapist, aesthetic, and entertainment experiences, which they have coined, the ‘4Es’. One way to think about experiences is across two dimensions: the first corresponds to customer participation, while the second dimension of experience describes the connection, or environmental relationship, that unites customers with the event or performance. (See figure 3) Typical wine tourist activities within the 4E model of the experience economy are listed in figure 4.
Experience design will become as much a business art as product design and process design are. Pine and Gilmore (1999: 102-104) have identified five key experience-design principles:
- Theme the experience – An effective theme is concise and compelling. It is not a corporate mission statement or a marketing tag line. It needn’t be publicly articulated in writing. But the theme must drive all the design elements and staged events of the experience toward a unified story line that wholly captivates the customer.
- Harmonize impressions with positive cues – While the theme forms the foundation, the experience must be rendered with indelible impressions. Impressions are the “takeaways” of the experience; they fulfil the theme.
- Eliminate negative cues – Experience stagers also must eliminate anything that diminishes, contradicts, or distracts from the theme.
- Mix in memorabilia – Certain goods have always been purchased primarily for the memories they convey. These goods generally sell at price points far above those commanded by similar items that don’t represent an experience.
Engage all five senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting) – The more senses an experience engages, the more effective and memorable it can be. It matters what you engage, how you pack it and how you involve the consumers.
REFERENCES
Bowdin, G, Allen, J, Harris, R, McDonnell, I and O’Toole, W (2012) Events Management, 3rd ed. Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford
Getz, D (2007) Event Studies: Theory, Research and Policy for Planned Events (Events Management), Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford
Shone, A and Parry, B (2013) Successful Event Management: A Practical Handbook, 4th ed. Cengage Learning EMEA, Andover
Pine BJ II and Gilmore HJ (1998) Welcome to the experience economy. Harvard Business Review 76(4): 97–105. Pine BJ II and Gilmore HJ (1999) The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre & Every Business a Stage. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press
Price, H, C. (2013) Thee complete guide to professional meeting and event coordination, George Washington University
Quadri, D. Fiore, A. (2012) Experience economy constructs as a framework for understanding wine tourism. Journal Of Vacation Marketing 18 (1) 3–15