Brand Effects on Retrospective Evaluations of Past Consumption Experiences
Open AccessThere is no doubt for contemporary marketing researchers and practitioners that today's economy is an experience economy (Pine & Gilmore, 1998). This translates into much more complex consumption experiences, which combine utilitarian with hedonic benefits and span from the anticipation at the pre-consumption phase to the memories at the post-consumption phase. With the increased complexity of consumption experiences, contemporary consumers often make future decisions based on retrospective evaluations of intricate series of past consumption events. These retrospective evaluations are shaped by a variety of factors leading to discrepancies between the actual experience and the retrospective evaluation. The fact that the driver of future decision making is the retrospective global evaluation, and not the actual experience (Kahneman et al., 1997), signifies the need for better understanding of the processes behind the shaping of retrospective global evaluations. Most studies contributing to the knowledge about global evaluations have focused on experiences that include events with similar valence, events in a simple consumption situation, or series in relatively limited timeframes. This research focuses on generating better understanding about how consumers construct retrospective global evaluations of especially complex experiences such as multi-day leisure trips, and whether experiential branding efforts of destinations can positively impact the retrospective evaluations of past visitors. The presented here research is grounded in theoretical knowledge from several disciplines, namely: consumer behavior and psychology; tourism products and travel behavior; and brand management and branding of destinations. The proposed relationships in the research model are based on theoretical findings on consumption experiences, retrospective evaluations of experiences and consumer-brand relationships. This research contributes to existing knowledge on experiential consumption and consumer evaluations of consumption experiences by building on current understanding about how consumers evaluate past experiences, providing insight into the external factors that can "pollute" retrospective global evaluations, and illuminating a potentially powerful opportunity for increased effectiveness of destination brand campaigns. A cross-sectional experimental post-test design survey with one treatment and one control group was used to generate findings in line with the research objectives. The survey was administered online via a leading survey management platform called Zoomerang. The statistical analysis included three steps: descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis and structural equation modeling. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis necessitated some modifications in the originally proposed model, which were introduced. Structural equation modeling revealed a good fit for the theoretical model and allowed for the testing of Hypotheses 1, 2 and 4. All hypotheses were supported except for Hypothesis 2-b. The testing of Hypothesis 3 was performed on a nested model including only three constructs. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling steps were repeated for the nested model and revealed a good fit. Additional analysis provided support for Hypothesis 3. Dissertation findings established that despite their complexity and duration, travel experiences display the characteristics of cohesive experiences. The retrospective global evaluation of past travel experiences is highly dependent on the peak experience of a trip. Some other factors such as the nature of activities and duration, as well as the occurrence of certain negative events influence global evaluation but peak experiences remain the main defining factor. This is important contribution to current knowledge on experiential consumption and consumer evaluations of consumption experiences. It builds on the existing understanding about how consumers evaluate past experiences by providing insight into global evaluations of complex experiences extended over longer periods of time. The second important finding of this dissertation research is that brand communication can impact the experiential value that travelers assign to past leisure trips. Brand exposure seems to have a positive "polluting" effect on retrospective global evaluations of past travel experiences, which reveals a potentially powerful opportunity for increased effectiveness of destination brand campaigns.In addition to making valuable contribution to existing knowledge and theoretical frameworks across several fields such as consumer psychology, travel behavior and branding strategies, this research identifies directions for future research, which could build on the generated findings and lead to further enhancement of knowledge in these fields.
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Nikolova_gwu_0075A_10412.pdf | 2018-01-16 | Open Access |
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