All the World's a Stage!
By B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore
FUTURE - The Aventis Magazine, Jan. 2001
Consumption is an experience, every business a stage, and work is theater. In the age of the experience economy, customers themselves become the product. They demand “experiences” that can transform their behavior, their health, even their lives.
It is becoming increasingly evident that companies are offering “experiences.”
This occurs whenever a company intentionally uses services as the stage and goods as props to engage an individual. While commodities are fungible, goods tangible, and services intangible, experiences are memorable. Buyers of experiences – we’ll follow Disney’s lead and call them guests – value being engaged by what the company reveals over a duration of time. Just as people have cut back on goods to spend more money on services, now they also scrutinize the time and money they spend on services to make way for more memorable – and more highly valued – experiences. The company – we’ll call it an experience stager–no longer offers goods or services alone but the resulting experience, rich with sensations, created within the customer.
Experiences are a fourth economic offering (commodities, goods, services, experiences), as distinct from services as services are from goods, but one that has until now gone largely unrecognized. Experiences have always been around, but consumers, businesses, and economists lumped them into the service sector along with such uneventful activities as dry cleaning, auto repair, wholesale distribution, and telephone access. When a person buys a service, he purchases a set of intangible activities carried out on his behalf.
But when he buys an experience, he pays to spend time enjoying
a series of memorable events that a company stages –as
in a theatrical play –to engage him in a personal way.
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Read the full article.
From Future,
the Aventis Magazine, January, 2001.
PDF
reader required.
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY PARADIGM FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION?
How does Starbucks leverage its EE expertise to create outstanding value?
What principle should organizations follow when designing customer engagement programs?
Why are more and more merchandisers following the dictate, "Great retail = great theater"?
Why would your company benefit from helping to solve social issues?
THE NUMBER ONE IMPERATIVE FOR THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY...
"More rapid commoditization of goods and services means the differentiation of a brand through customer experiences becomes ever more important."
"The Barista Principle -- Starbucks and the Rise of
Relational Capital," R. Gulati, S. Huffman, Gary Neilson.
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Read
the full PDF article. From Strategy+Business,
#28.
PDF
reader required.
I gave a presentation, "Welcome to The Experience Economy Show!" for the Chicago AMA.
It was done as a talk show and combined lecture with audience interviews, music, prizes and special guests who shared their stories of applying Experience Economy principles to win and keep customers.
Find out more about the presentation and how you can bring it to your company or organization.
