Abstract
Commodities are products with low economic value, but when related to experience, they can turn into profitable businesses. In the present work, the authors seek to understand consumer behavior in the coffee industry, guided by the following research question: How can customer experience affect price perception? To answer this question, the researchers conducted an analysis using the four realms of experience from Pine and Gilmore (1999, 2011) – entertainment, education, esthetics, and escapist – and how they behave according to different kinds of customer experience, as well as their relation to price perception. To understand this, the authors conducted qualitative research with 40 consumers in two important coffee companies: Starbucks and Costa Coffee. The coffee shops analyzed are located in the city of Marbella, Spain. The results of this research show that customers are aware of the price discrepancy, but still frequenting coffee shops for different experiences according to their interests. This work is groundbreaking because of the analysis of the four realms of experience and its correlation with the price perception. The authors also introduced to the customer experience field the analysis of the four realms in the coffee shop industry. Finally, from the research results, the authors suggest various managerial practices that can improve customer experience and the perception of prices.
Highlights
Coffee is a very popular drink all over the world
The authors seek to understand consumer behavior in the coffee industry, guided by the following research question: How can customer experience affect price perception? To answer this question, the researchers conducted an analysis using the four realms of experience from Pine and Gilmore (1999, 2011) – entertainment, education, esthetics, and escapist – and how they behave according to different kinds of customer experience, as well as their relation to price perception
The authors introduced to the customer experience field the analysis of the four realms in the coffee shop industry
Summary
Coffee is a very popular drink all over the world. According to the latest coffee statistics from the International Coffee Organization (ICO, 2017), about 1.4 billion cups of coffee a day are poured worldwide to 125 million coffee drinkers. Pendergrast (2010) studied the history of coffee and legend has it that goats in Ethiopia discovered coffee in 400 AD. As the central activity of this sector is the experience economy, we used the four realms of experience of Pine and Gilmore (1999) to understand the impact of experiences in the coffee shop industry and it’s relationship with the price perception. The. According to Jurowski (2009), the passive experi- unit of analysis was two coffee shops from two ences can be absorbed by the appeal of different companies: Starbucks and Costa Coffee. The four realms of national location, we found people from different experience can be found in other studies present- regions of the world frequenting the coffee shops: ing empirical evidences that validate the concept. Drinks, but still go to a coffee shop to have them
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