Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Jo sko
Brakus, Bernd H. Schmitt, & Lia Zarantonello
Keywords: experience marketing, brand experience, customer experience management, scale development,
marketing communications
brand attachment) and develop a scale that can measure the
strength with which a brand evokes each experience dimension. However, the experience construct is not as clearly
associated with one particular basic discipline (e.g., psychology) as other brand constructs are. For example, brand
personality and brand attachment have been defined on the
basis of equivalent concepts in personality and developmental psychology; as a result, the development of
scale items was relatively straightforward. In contrast, writing on experience can be found in a wide range of fields,
including marketing, philosophy, cognitive science, and
management practice. Therefore, we must clearly conceptualize our construct and develop scale items based on this
conceptualization.
To define and conceptualize the brand experience construct, we begin with a review of consumer and marketing
research, which examines when experiences occur and how
they affect judgments, attitudes, and other aspects of consumer behavior. Next, we review the literature in philosophy, cognitive science, and applied management to distinguish brand experience dimensions and develop a brand
experience scale. We then examine the psychometric properties of the scale using standard scale validation procedures. Finally, we test whether brand experience affects
consumer satisfaction and loyalty.
Product Experience
Product experiences occur when consumers interact with
productsfor example, when consumers search for products and examine and evaluate them (Hoch 2002). The
product experience can be direct when there is physical
52
Journal of Marketing
Vol. 73 (May 2009), 5268
Reprinted with permission from the Journal of Marketing, published by the American Marketing Association,
Bernd Schmitt, Josko Brakus,
and Lia
Vol. 73, 2009, pp. 52-68.
Electronic
copyZarantonello,
available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1960358
Consumption Experience
Experiences also occur when consumers consume and use
products. Consumption experiences are multidimensional
and include hedonic dimensions, such as feelings, fantasies,
and fun (Holbrook and Hirschman 1982). Much of the
interpretive research on consumption experiences has analyzed hedonic goals that occur during and after the consumption of, for example, museums, river rafting, baseball,
and skydiving (Arnould and Price 1993; Celsi, Rose, and
Leigh 1993; Holt 1995; Joy and Sherry 2003).
In summary, experiences arise in a variety of settings.
Most experiences occur directly when consumers shop, buy,
and consume products. Experiences can also occur indirectlyfor example, when consumers are exposed to advertising and marketing communications, including Web sites.
stimuli that are part of a brands design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments. In the following
sections, we explicate the brand experience construct further and differentiate it from other brand concepts. Most
important, we distinguish various dimensions of brand
experience.
Brand Experience / 53
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1960358
Philosophical Investigations
The philosopher John Dewey (1922, 1925) views experience as the intertwining of human beings and their environments. He critiques the purely cognitive Kantian view of
experience as knowledge, arguing that knowledge (classifying, analyzing, and reasoning about things) is only one part
of a persons understanding of the world. In addition to
intellectual experiences resulting from knowledge, experiences also include perceiving (through the senses), feeling,
and doing. Moreover, human beings are fundamentally connected with other people. Following Dewey, Dub and
LeBel (2003) distinguish four pleasure dimensions: intellectual, emotional, social, and physical pleasures.
Cognitive Science
Cognitive scientists have investigated mental modules, or
special purpose computational systems that respond to specific environmental cues and solve a restricted class of
problems (Fodor 1998). Pinker (1997) identifies four mental modules that correspond closely to the experiences that
Dewey (1922, 1925) postulates: sensory perception, feelings and emotions, creativity and reasoning, and social relationships. However, Pinker does not list a separate doing
module; he considers bodily experiences and motor actions
and behaviors part of the sensory-motor module, similar
to Lakoff and Johnsons (1999) concept of embodied
cognition.
Summary
There has been considerable agreement in the categorization of experiences by philosophers, cognitive scientists,
and management thinkers. Therefore, for the scale development that follows, it is necessary to generate items along the
five experience dimensions that broadly emerged from our
literature review: sensory, affective, intellectual, behavioral,
and social.
In line with our conceptualization, the experience
dimensions are evoked by brand-related stimuli (e.g., colors, shapes, typefaces, designs, slogans, mascots, brand
characters). Note that there is no one-to-one correspondence, such that a certain stimulus type would trigger a certain experience dimension and only that dimension. For
example, although colors, shapes, typefaces, and designs
usually result in sensory experience, they may also result in
emotions (e.g., red for Coca-Cola) or intellectual experiences (e.g., when designs use complex patterns). Similarly,
Brand Experience / 55
TABLE 1
Descriptions of Experiential Brands
Abercrombie & Fitch
Its a complete experience when you enter the store.
Stimulates me; sexy.
Its like a membership in an exclusive, country-clubish
community.
American Express
Its an interactive experience.
Part of luxury, sophistication, and exclusivity.
Because of sponsoring activities, I feel fun, excitement,
and entertainment.
Apple/iPod
I love the touch and feel of the products.
I enjoy playing with all the products.
I am part of a smarter community.
This brand intrigues me.
I really feel Apple products go with my way of life.
I use the iPod when I am jogging, and I exercise more
because of the iPod.
The Body Shop
Appeals to different senses.
I think of topics like animal testing, purity, and wellness.
I want to be with people that share the values that the
brand promotes.
BMW
I feel young; I feel stylish.
Its just great to drive.
A BMW is the symbol of my success.
Crest
I feel refreshed.
Dont really like the smell.
Feels clean, fresh, and healthy.
Disney
Stimulates my senses.
I feel like a child; I feel warm and safe; I want to discover
things; the brand reminds me to use my imagination.
I feel part of the magic.
Google
The search is elegant; it creates a mood of playfulness
and curiosity.
I feel happy and proud because I am smart and in-theknow.
With Google, I change the way I organize and interact
with information.
HBO
Puts me in a good mood.
Its discussion inducing; I want to discuss the shows
with others.
I enjoy the entertainment.
Home Depot
I did not know anything about construction, but I felt
really comfortable.
I felt confident and in good hands.
Provides the experience that any customer can tackle
any home improvement project.
MasterCard
Makes me think about precious things in life.
I feel more youthful than using American Express or
Visa.
Initially the Priceless campaign was emotive, but its
now simply a way of identifying the brand for me.
Nike
Makes me think of how to live an active lifestyle.
Makes me feel powerful.
I want to work out.
I feel inspired to start working out.
I feel like an athlete.
The store incites me to act, like swing the baseball bat,
or put on the running shoes.
I enjoy designing my own shoe that perfectly fits my
personality.
Starbucks
Smells nice and is visually warm.
Its comfortable and puts me in a better mood.
Its like being around a Barnes & Nobles crowd.
Target
Shopping experience is very pleasant.
Products are displayed to please the eye.
Many stores are putting in Starbucks for an even more
enhanced shopping experience.
W Hotel
Being part of something fun, happening, and exciting.
It was an amazing feeling to hang out in the lobby.
Service is disappointing.
Washington Mutual
I have positive feelings because of their friendliness.
Its a place I want to go and do not have to go.
I also had a negative one-time experience.
Williams-Sonoma
I had a feeling of nostalgia.
Full of memories of home.
Its relaxed and unhurried.
Brand Experience / 57
Sensory/
Affective Behavioral Intellectual
.75
.34
.19
.63
.47
.15
.59
.35
.22
.82
.13
.27
.72
.12
.38
.75
.13
.17
.18
.80
.22
.33
.77
.03
.13
.72
.27
.39
.12
.76
.26
.11
.80
.15
.24
.75
TABLE 3
Study 3: Means by Brand for Overall Experience and Experience Dimensions
Brand
LEGO
Victorias Secret
iPod
Starbucks
Disney
Puma
Viagra
Ferrari
Toys R Us
Gatorade
Hallmark
Ben & Jerrys
Harley-Davidson
Adidas
Nokia
Hersheys
Sudoku
Blackberry
Samsung
LOral
Gillette
Tropicana
Clinique
American Express
Prada
Motorola
Dannon
Calvin Klein
Crate & Barrel
La Prairie
Overall
Group
Overall Experience
Sensory
Affective
Intellectual
Behavioral
3
1
5
2
6
1
4
6
6
4
1
3
4
5
1
5
6
2
3
3
3
5
2
4
2
5
1
6
4
2
5.34c
5.28b
5.15b
4.95a
4.90
4.72
4.70
4.64
4.64
4.56
4.47
4.42
4.41
4.33
4.26
4.17
4.07
3.92
3.86
3.85
3.74
3.63
3.62
3.60
3.58
3.52
3.51
3.39
3.27
2.97
4.18
5.34b
5.78c
5.70b
5.55b
5.72c
5.26a
4.70
5.79c
5.25a
4.85
4.71
5.13a
4.66
4.46
4.63
4.90
4.03
3.92
4.32
4.40
4.14
4.42
4.17
3.67
3.90
3.57
4.07
4.25
3.55
2.99
4.60
5.24
5.67b
5.03
5.27a
5.78c
4.63
4.82
4.75
5.16
4.33
5.47b
4.42
4.38
4.02
3.71
4.75
3.31
3.80
3.32
3.75
3.46
3.76
3.53
3.67
4.26
3.20
3.76
3.75
3.31
3.01
4.25
5.60c
4.18
4.63b
4.35a
4.26
3.50
3.85
3.36
3.62
3.55
4.39b
3.56
3.66
3.14
4.14
3.22
5.27c
4.00
3.87
3.26
2.87
2.95
3.18
3.94
3.46
3.56
2.97
2.68
3.35
2.80
3.71
5.19a
5.51b
5.24b
4.62
3.84
5.51b
5.35b
4.67
4.52
5.52b
3.33
4.58
4.97
5.68c
4.56
3.80
3.65
3.86
3.91
3.88
4.49
3.39
3.62
3.12
2.69
3.73
3.23
2.89
2.91
3.08
4.17
aModerately differentiated.
bHighly differentiated.
cUnique.
Brand Experience / 59
the chi-square statistic in similar models; thus, we considered other fit statistics more valuable in this context. In
addition, the ratio between the chi-square statistic and the
number of degrees of freedom was 5.8, close to 5, indicating an adequate fit (lower values are more desirable; Thomson, MacInnis, and Park 2005). The fit measures for this
model were better than those for all other tested models,
and the chi-square statistic of this model represented a significant improvement over any of the competing models,
except for the one-factor second-order model (with four
FIGURE 1
Study 3: Confirmatory Factor Analysis: The Four-Factor Model
This brand makes a strong impression
on my visual sense or other senses.
.83*
.76*
Sensory
.66*
This brand does not appeal to
my senses.a
.81*
This brand induces feelings and
sentiments.
I do not have strong emotions for this
brand.a
.70*
.84*
.76*
Affective
.67*
This brand is an emotional brand.
.59*
I engage in physical actions and
behaviors when I use this brand.
.77*
.69*
.69*
Behavioral
.53*
This brand is not action oriented.a
.57*
I engage in a lot of thinking when I
encounter this brand.
.80*
.86*
.69*
Intellectual
.62*
This brand stimulates my curiosity and
problem solving.
aReverse
coded.
*p < .01.
Notes: All coefficient values are standardized and appear above the associated path. Dotted lines represent correlations.
TABLE 4
Study 3: Confirmatory Factor Analysis Model Fit Comparisons
Model
Null
One factor
Three factor
One-factor higher order (three subdimensions)
Nesteda
Four factor
One-factor higher order (four subdimensions)
Chi-Square Differenceb
Chi-Square
d.f.
5079.50
1043.50
527.90
1497.16
1209.89
278.61
278.61
66
54
51
48
48
48
44
GFI
CFI
RMSEA
.92
.92
.91
.91
.09
.08
4036,
515.60,
969.26,
287.27,
931.28,
p<
p<
p<
p<
p<
0
.001
.001
.001
.001
.001
of subsequent models (e.g., null versus one-factor model, one-factor model versus three-factor
model).
Brand Experience / 61
.07
.21
.26
.23
.19
.05
.55
.44
.73
.88
.75
.48
.82
.58
.14
.33
.00
.02
.23
.02
.01
.32
.13
.54
.81
.68
.45
.58
.05
.00
Sensory experience
Affective experience
Intellectual experience
Behavioral experience
Overall brand evaluation
Brand involvement
Affection
Connection
Passion
Customer delight
Conclusion
The 12-item brand experience scale captures in a reliable
and stable way four dimensions of brand experience: sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual. The scale is
short and easy to administer, and it is internally consistent
and reliable. Importantly, the brand experience scale is
related to, but distinct from, other brand scales. From the
results of Studies 3, 4, and 5, the scale as a whole can also
be viewed as indicating the overall degree to which a brand
evokes experiences, in the sense of a single higher-order
factor. In the next study, we examine how brand experience
is related to brand personality and whether it can predict
behavioral outcomes.
expect that brand experience affects these behavioral outcomes through a direct and indirect route (Chaiken, Liberman, and Eagly 1989; Petty and Cacioppo 1986). If a brand
evokes an experience, this alone may lead to satisfaction
and loyalty. In addition, an experience may be the basis for
more elaborative information processing and inference
making that results in brand-related associations (Keller
1993). In turn, these associations may affect satisfaction
and loyalty.
One prior study considers how experience affects consumer behavior. Specifically, Chang and Chieng (2006)
examine how experiences and brand personality affect
brand relationships. However, they do not use various
brands but rather focus on coffee retail shops in Shanghai
and Taipei, including only one dimension of brand personalitynamely, excitement.
Hypotheses Development
In the following section, we first discuss the direct effects of
brand experience on consumer behavior and then the indirect effects mediated by brand personality. People seek sensory stimulations (McAllister and Pessemier 1982) and
show negative effects under sensory deprivation (Goldberger 1993). They seek pleasure and avoid pain (Freud
[1920] 1950), and they need intellectual stimulation to
avoid boredom (Cacioppo and Petty 1982). Thus, experiences provide value and utility similar to utilitarian attributes (Brakus, Schmitt, and Zhang 2008). The notion of
experiential value is also inherent in the applied work on
experience, especially in the work Pine and Gilmore (1999).
Because experience provides value, we expect that the more
a brand evokes multiple experience dimensions, and therefore has a higher overall score on the scale, the more satisfied a consumer will be with the brand.
Moreover, because experiences result from stimulations
and lead to pleasurable outcomes, we expect consumers to
want to repeat these experiences. That is, brand experience
should affect not only past-directed satisfaction judgments
but also future-directed consumer loyalty. Consumers
should be more likely to buy a brand again and recommend
it to others and less likely to buy an alternative brand (Mittal and Kamakura 2001; Oliver 1997; Reicheld 1996).
H1: Brand experience affects consumer satisfaction positively.
H2: Brand experience affects consumer loyalty positively.
Procedure
A total of 209 students participated in Study 6 for a compensation of $5. Each participant rated the extent to which
the items described his or her experiences with the brands
listed, the personality of the brands listed, and feelings of
satisfaction and loyalty toward the brands.
The brand experience scale included the 12-item scale
we used in Studies 3, 4, and 5. To measure brand personality, we included a version of the scale that consisted of the
15 brand personality items that represented the five brand
personality dimensions: down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, and cheerful (for sincerity); daring, spirited,
imaginative, and up-to-date (for excitement); reliable,
intelligent, and successful (for competence); upper64 / Journal of Marketing, May 2009
TABLE 6
Study 6: Exploratory Factor Analysis (Varimax
Rotation) with Brand Personality Dimensions and
Brand Experience Dimensions
Factor
Sensory 1
Sensory 2
Sensory 3
Affective 1
Affective 2
Affective 3
Behavioral 1
Behavioral 2
Behavioral 3
Intellectual 1
Intellectual 2
Intellectual 3
Sincerity 1
Sincerity 2
Sincerity 3
Sincerity 4
Excitment 1
Excitment 2
Excitment 3
Excitment 4
Competence 1
Competence 2
Competence 3
Sophistication 1
Sophistication 2
Ruggedness 1
Ruggedness 2
.36
.25
.22
.23
.08
.15
.03
.01
.11
.25
.15
.27
.03
.34
.16
.45
.69
.68
.63
.80
.63
.77
.77
.69
.57
.15
.33
.67
.60
.62
.71
.73
.58
.28
.22
.27
.78
.74
.72
.07
.17
.04
.08
.25
.25
.29
.26
.15
.31
.24
.19
.21
.12
.06
.25
.41
.13
.20
.12
.32
.73
.78
.47
.08
.13
.11
.14
.06
.16
.33
.41
.40
.29
.05
.06
.05
.05
.07
.36
.66
.55
.17
.15
.07
.15
.05
.08
.09
.11
.03
.08
.09
.05
.86
.79
.86
.50
.06
.09
.07
.05
.42
.27
.22
.08
.26
.32
.10
Notes: Bold values indicate the factor on which each item predominantly loads.
General Discussion
Brand experiences arise in a variety of settings when consumers search for, shop for, and consume brands. Accordingly, we conceptualized brand experience as subjective
consumer responses that are evoked by specific brandrelated experiential attributes in such settings. We demonstrated that brand experience can be broken down into four
dimensions (sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral),
which are differentially evoked by various brands.
The brand experience scale that we constructed is short
and easy to administer, consisting of only 12 items. Psychometrically, the scale is internally consistent and consistent
across samples and studies. The scale also successfully
passed various reliability and validity tests, including test
retest reliability and criterion validity. Most important, the
brand experience scale displays discriminant validity from
some of the most widely used branding measures and
scales, including brand evaluations, brand involvement,
brand attachment, customer delight, and brand personality.
Finally, brand experience has a behavioral impact; it affects
consumer satisfaction and loyalty directly and indirectly
through brand personality.
The scale will be useful not only in academic research
but also in marketing practice. As marketers engage in projects to understand and improve the experience their brands
provide for their customers, they can use the scale for
assessment, planning, and tracking purposes.
We encourage further research on the brand experience
scale. The scale currently does not measure whether an
experience is positive or negative. As we have conceptualized and shown empirically, having experiences in and of
themselves seems to have value and results in positive outcomes. However, further research should explore positively
Brand Experience / 65
FIGURE 2
Study 6: Discriminant and Predictive Validity of the Brand Experience Scale
Ruggedness
Sophistication
.53*
Competence
.79*
Excitement
.83*
.82*
Sincerity
.62*
Brand
Personality
Sensory
.86*
.69*
Affective
.67*
.13 * *
.81*
.81*
Brand
Experience
.15**
Satisfaction
.59*
Loyalty
Intellectual
.60*
Behavioral
.24*
*p < .01.
**p < .05.
Notes: All coefficient values are standardized and appear near the associated path.
REFERENCES
Aaker, David (1996), Building Strong Brands. New York: The Free
Press.
Aaker, Jennifer L. (1997), Dimension of Brand Personality,
Journal of Marketing Research, 34 (August), 34756.
(1999), The Malleable Self: The Role of Self-Expression
in Persuasion, Journal of Marketing Research, 36 (February),
4558.
Anderson, Eugene W. and Mary W. Sullivan (1993), The
Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Satisfaction for
Firms, Marketing Science, 12 (2), 12543.
Ariely, Dan (1998), Combining Experiences over Time: The
Effects of Duration, Intensity Changes and On-Line Measurements on Retrospective Pain Evaluations, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 11 (1), 1945.
and Gal Zauberman (2003), Differential Partitioning of
Extended Experiences, Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes, 91 (2), 12839.
Arnheim, Rudolf (1974), Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology
of the Creative Eye. Berkley: University of California Press.
Arnold, Mark J., Kristy E. Reynolds, Nicole Ponder, and Jason E.
Lueg (2005), Customer Delight in a Retail Context: Investigating Delightful and Terrible Shopping Experiences, Journal
of Business Research, 58 (8), 113245.
Arnould, Eric J. and Linda L. Price (1993), River Magic: Extraordinary Experience and the Extended Service, Journal of
Consumer Research, 20 (June), 2445.
, , and George L. Zinkhan (2002), Consumers, 2d
ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Richard D. Irwin.
Bagozzi, Richard P. and Todd F. Heatherton (1994), A General
Approach to Representing Multifaceted Personality Constructs: Application to State Self-Esteem, Structural Equation
Modeling, 1 (1), 3567.
Bellizzi, Joseph A. and Robert E. Hite (1992), Environmental
Color, Consumer Feelings, and Purchase Likelihood, Psychology and Marketing, 9 (5), 34763.
Berlyne, David E. (1974), Studies in the New Experimental Aesthetics: Steps Toward an Objective Psychology of Aesthetic
Appreciation. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
Biel, Alexander L. (1993), Converting Image into Equity, in
Brand Equity and Advertising, David A. Aaker and Alexander
L. Biel, eds. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,
6782.
Bloch, Peter H., Frdric F. Brunel, and Todd J. Arnold (2003),
Individual Differences in the Centrality of Visual Product
Aesthetics: Concept and Measurement, Journal of Consumer
Research, 29 (March), 55165.
Boulding, William, Ajav Kalra, Richard Staelin, and Valarie Zeithaml (1993), A Dynamic Process Model of Service Quality:
From Expectations to Behavioral Intentions, Journal of Marketing Research, 30 (February), 727.
Brakus, J. Josko, Bernd H. Schmitt, and Shi Zhang (2008), Experiential Attributes and Consumer Judgments, in Handbook on
Brand and Experience Management, Bernd H. Schmitt and
David Rogers, eds. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
Cacioppo, John T. and Richard E. Petty (1982), The Need for
Cognition, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42
(1), 11631.
Carroll, Barbara A. and Aaron Ahuvia (2006), Some Antecedents
and Outcomes of Brand Love, Marketing Letters, 17 (2),
7989.
Celsi, Richard L., Randall L. Rose, and Thomas Leigh (1993), An
Exploration of High-Risk Leisure Consumption Through Skydiving, Journal of Consumer Research, 20 (June), 123.
Chaiken, Shelly, Akiva Liberman, and Alice H. Eagly (1989),
Heuristic and Systematic Information Processing Within and
Beyond the Persuasion Context, in Unintended Thought,
Brand Experience / 67