The Experience Economy in 2019: Takeaways from Joe Pine’s Book Launch

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On November 25th, American best-selling author, keynote speaker and coach Joe Pine presented a new edition of an infamous Experience Economy. Almost 25 years ago, Joe and James Gilmore started their journey on education on new type of economy – the experience economy. Fast forwarding to the year 2019, we see that his theory is still relevant for many businesses who look into the future. In a modern fast-paced environment, companies must compete for the customer attention first and foremost, with time becoming the experience economy’s true currency. This transforms the way experiences take place. Therefore, we would like to share some of the major insights by an infamous writer, with the new edition reviewing the business situation at the current moment and and providing ever more examples of businesses in the experience economy.

  • For a vital business, there are three questions you always need to ask yourself: Are you customers increasing or decreasing the amount of time they spend with you? Do you have to exert ever more marketing and sales efforts to gain the attention of your customers, or do the experiences you offer create robust demand in and of themselves? Is the money customers pay you derived entirely from the sale of commodities, goods and services, or have you found ways to explicitly charge fees for various experiences? Once you have a clear answer to all these three questions, you can adjust your strategy accordingly, ensuring that you’re offering an experience, instead of just a product, and as a result win a fight for customer attention and money.
  • The five steps to cohesive experience include: 1. Theme the experience. Offerings with a clear  theme attract more attention and engage customers more. Moreover, this kind of offerings keeps them interested to explore further in subsequent visits or purchases. 2. Harmonise impressions. Ensure that the whole experience flows smoothly and is coherent in the eyes of your clients. 3. Eliminate negative cues. The experience should be positive and relevant for the consumer. 4. Mix in memorabilia and media. By providing something as a memory, you help to further the experience and help to replay it in consumers’ minds long time after it’s over. 5. Engage or evoke all five senses. Can you make your experience more memorable by alternating it in such a way which would allow customers to interact with it differently?
  • Mass customisation is the future of business. All customers are unique, and it’s important for businesses to recognise their uniqueness, instead of trying to target them in standard way.  This is achieved with customisation. Joe Pine predicts that organisations of the future will shift from Marketing to Customering – meaning focusing on individuals instead of markets.
  • Create dramatic experiences. Don’t be afraid of drama – that’s the only way to be memorable. Dramatic experiences follow a specific structure: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, crisis, climax, falling action and denouement. Crisis should be the major part of your experience. Focus on creating suspense and anticipation, leading up to a climax. The customers are driven by the desire to reach the unknown, hence anticipation of the climax will make the experience memorable. Your signature moment is the one customer are going to remember when the experience is over. Think about what is the enticing part of the experience? How do you draw them in? What happens upon entry? Focus on the peak of the experience and the end of it, since these are the parts which stick in the hearts and minds of the consumers.
  • The future of the experience is admission-based fee. Try to think, if you had to charge admission fee, what would you change? How would you achieve that? Think about the value component in your business which is large enough for customers to pay admission fee for. This will provide you with a new angle on your business and help you find out how you can become an experience business. Since you are what you charge for, the end goal of a forward-thinking company is to charge for experiences, instead of a product.
  • Therefore, in order to tackle the challenges of a fast-paced consumer society, start thinking experience now.

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