Relationships Among Experiential Marketing, Experiential Value, and Customer Satisfaction

TLDR

Experience is a major benefit in hospitality and tourism, yet experiential marketing remains underdocumented. The study investigates experiential marketing within hospitality and tourism operations. The authors developed ten hypotheses and surveyed customers at four Taipei Starbucks in January 2003 to test relationships among experiential marketing, experiential value, and customer satisfaction. Structural equation analysis shows a good model fit and indicates that experiential marketing drives customer satisfaction through emotional and functional values, offering managers actionable insights to enhance experiential value.

Abstract

Although experience is recognized as a major benefit the hospitality and tourism industry offers, the use of experiential marketing in this industry is not well documented. Therefore, this study aims to examine experiential marketing in regard to hospitality and tourism operations. Ten hypotheses were developed to examine relationships among experiential marketing, experiential value, and customer satisfaction. Self-reported questionnaires were distributed at four Starbucks in different districts in Taipei, Taiwan, in January 2003. Results of the linear structural relation analyses (LISREL 8.5) indicate that both the measurement and structural equation models have good overall model fit. Moreover, the overall outcome suggests that experiential marketing should induce customer satisfaction through emotional and functional values provided by feel perception, think perception, and service quality. Hospitality managers can use the outcome of this study to gain in-depth understanding of customer experiences, develop effective marketing strategies, and further stage the operational environment that can maximize customers' perceived experiential value.