Understanding memorable experiences-exploring experience economy

Abstract

The era of mass production, economies of scale, discounts etc have just passed leaving the companies with a search for new concept which can give them a competitive advantage over others. The goods proliferated making it inevitable for the companies to recognize the services as distinct economic offerings. Now that there is hardly any differentiation in the services offered by the companies, the question remains, what will differentiate the companies from all others? The pursuit for competitive offering takes us to the next level (Fourth) of economic offering (Substance of buying and selling) which is “The Experience”1 If you charge for raw materials, you’re in commodities; if you charge for physical things, you’re in goods; if you charge for activities you perform on behalf of another, you’re in services; but if you charge for the time people spend with you, then you’re in experiences. Today, consumers seek to spend less time and money on goods and services, but they want to spend more time and money on compelling experiences. People might confuse a service for an experience, but an experience is different from a service. When a consumer pays for a service, he pays for a certain set of intangible activities carried out on his behalf, but when he buys an experience he pays to spend time enjoying the memorable events a company stages2 The companies which recognize the need for this new economic offering and change accordingly will be able to survive these forces of commoditization. Commoditization is the evil which eats away the differentiation and makes the price competition a way of life for the companies. Creating experiences is no more a requirement of future, it has become important already. Our lives are surrounded by experiences already, be it admirable or harmful,virtuous or immoral, natural or artificial they are surrounding us and are the choices we are going to make3. Whenever a company engages with a customer and connects at a personal and a memorable way, it qualifies to be an experience. Even the most mundane transactions can be made into experiences. Consumers are not the only people to benefit from the experiences, the companies are made of people, and the B2B transactions also could be experiences