Introduction to Experience Creation

Abstract

The concept of experience is rather new, primarily introduced by two works, namely Gerhard Schulze's analysis of cultural behaviour in different social strata in Nürnberg ('Die erlebniss gesellschaft' -the Experience Society, Schulze, 1992) and Pine and Gilmore's book 'The Experience Economy ' (1999) which suggest that experiences are going to substitute services and become the next value-creating element in firms.Experience is not a new phenomenon as such.It includes activities that have been analysed and discussed using other terms such as leisure, tourism, cultural activities, marketing, Internet services and so forth.These terms will be used in the chapters of the book.However, the perspective of the book, namely creation of experiences, is a new one.We shall briefly elaborate the concept.An experience can consist of a product, for example a theatre play.An experience can also be a supplement to the product, such as a dinner at a certain restaurant, or the experience can be the whole package, making the experience not just a product, but a mental process, a state of mind, for instance an evening out combining dining and seeing a play.The main point here is that experiences are always more than just the product.The core of the product might be an experience, like a theatre play, but it is always more than this: it includes where it takes place, the décor, whether the seats are good or not and so forth.One can also gain an experience via technology, such as the web net or watching television.The experience can also be a supplement to a good or a service.It is not the product, but the supplements of it which provide the consumer with the experience.It is not the shoes, but the fact that these shoes are fashionable and show who you are, which is the experience.This is an experience you cannot get from just any pair of shoes.It is the design, the marketing, the usage and symbolic value of the shoes that makes them an experience.The shoes acquire a story or a theme and it is the story or the theme, rather than the product, which the consumers buy and cherish in the experience economy (cf.Jensen, 1999).The story or the theme is constructed to sell whatever the product might be, whether tangible or intangible: shoes, vacations, music, films, food, museum visits or events.

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