The Experience Economy - Pine & Gilmore

This concept was originally proposed by Janine in one of my Core Modules presentations as a relevant research topic. The idea of having a commodity (a piece of music for example). Adding an immersive element to it gives added value. An example of the experience economy is cinema: People would not pay for admissions if the film did not immerse you. People pay for the experience of sitting down with the lights off, watching on a big screen and listening on a surround sound system. In comparison to home viewing, the cinema creates a much more memorable experience. There are ways to incorporate this into my film. I am continually finding more ways to make the film engage the senses. Using the idea of multimodality that I am researching, I want to find ways to make Big Smoke as immersive as possible. This will also have benefits for my extensive research module.

Initial quotations

• Commodities are fungible, goods tangible, services intangible, and experiences memorable.
• no two people can have the same experience, because each experience derives from the interaction between the staged event (like a theatrical play) and the individual’s state of mind.
• Just as goods and services result from an iterative process of research, design, and development, experiences derive from an iterative process of exploration, scripting, and staging—capabilities that aspiring experience merchants will need to master.
• Impressions are the “takeaways” of the experience; they fulfil the theme. To create the desired impressions, companies must introduce cues that affirm the nature of the experience to the guest. Each cue must support the theme, and none should be inconsistent with it.
• The sensory stimulants that accompany an experience should support and enhance its theme. The more senses an experience engages, the more effective and memorable it can be.
• The mist at the Rainforest Cafe appeals serially to all five senses. It is first apparent as a sound: Sss-sss-zzz. Then you see the mist rising from the rocks and feel it soft and cool against your skin. Finally, you smell its tropical essence, and you taste (or imagine that you do) its freshness. What you can’t be is unaffected by the mist.

Pine, B. and H Gilmore, J., 1998. Welcome to the Experience Economy. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: <https://hbr.org/1998/07/welcome-to-the-experience-economy> [Accessed 6 January 2022].

This makes me think about screenings of the film. Ideally, at the very least, I would want a good sound system and similar settings to that of the cinema like darkness. These would be relevant to the themes I represent; the film takes place at night and features dance music. Further to this however, as my film follows themes of protest through arts and creativity, screening at exhibitions and music events would also be effective. This would fully engage multimodality. It would also leave audiences with an experience of the film rather than simply viewing it. The experience economy is therefore an exciting concept for me and I will be looking into it further in regard to my film and extensive research work.

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GOODS TO SERVICE:

Goods are the tangible commodities which are used by consumers. With industrialisation, these goods are produced much quicker and with less people. Goods production makes up roughly 20% of the economy in the US, where service makes up 80%, ultimately making the US a service economy.

Where do music and experiential events fit in? The experience provided at such events are the main attraction. Merchandise can be sold but it is seen as secondary. The goods and service aspects are less predominant with musical experience because less physical commodities are being sold.

Interesting to consider in the age where the planet's resources are limited. Can selling experiences minus tangible products be a sustainable selling point for certain industries?