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Abstract
Experiences related to consumption processes have gained importance with consumers looking for more than just the delivery of service or product. Some scholars have gone to the extent of calling this as the "experience economy" where consumers are more interested in the experiences of consumption than the mere utilitarian value of consumption. Experiential aspects of consumption and hedonic consumption though are not new in the literature and have been explored several decades ago. Studies related to role of symbolic consumption, totally experiential consumptions, and difference between material and experiential purchases have also underlined the importance of experiential consumption in the present times. The purpose of this paper, in addition to a comprehensive literature review of experiential consumption, is to examine how consumer's age can act as a moderator between experiential consumption and the resulting customer satisfaction. Many a times, consumers of different age segments are offered the same product/ service offering. This is likely to result in satisfaction for some, while no satisfaction or dissatisfaction for others. An understanding of the moderating effect of consumer's age will therefore help marketers determine the experience component in their offerings while targeting different age group consumers.
Keywords: Experiential Consumption, Hedonic Consumption, Experience Economy, Customer Satisfaction
Introduction
Consumption is increasingly being recognized in terms of the experiential aspect of consumption. Even the consumption of conventional products is often seen in terms of consumption experience of the products. Pine & Gilmore (1999) have gone to the extent of coining the term "experience economy", and arguing that it is experiences that the customer is looking up to and not just delivery of service or a product.
In the literature of experiential consumption, Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) have probably laid the foundation for further studies through their seminal papers on hedonic consumption and experiential aspects of consumption. They pointed out that subjective experience and consumer emotions were inherent in the process of consumption. Since then researchers have explored various aspects of consumption experience. Amould & Price (1993) have brought further insights by studying service offerings that are totally experiential in nature (white water rafting). Other studies have explored the aspects of role of symbolic consumption in consumption experiences, difference between material purchases and experiential purchases, etc.
Various aspects of experiential...