Project R-1418

Retail design and Experience Economy: a theoretical approach (Research)

Competing in today┌s global market has become increasingly difficult. In a world where homogenization of products and services is widespread, retailers and manufacturers continuously (need to) look for differentiation strategies. Creating and directing memorable experiences in retail store environments seems to open interesting perspectives. From a theoretical viewpoint, it is clear that the developments in economics and marketing, in combination with the possibilities offered by retail design, open interesting perspectives for designers, retailers and consumer researchers alike. In practice however, until now relatively few companies have adopted the perspective of the customer experience (Gentile et al., 2007). Even though there seems to be a gap between theory and practice, ─experiences┌ continuously are an important subject for discussion. Given the growing recognition of this topic, more academic attention is strongly encouraged (Mathwick et al., 2001). This project will try to answer the question what the economic phenomenon of the ─experience economy┌ can entail for interior architecture in general and retail design in particular. In a first phase, an extensive literature review will make clear how an ─experience┌ and a ─customer experience┌ can be operationally defined. The operational definition of ─customer experience┌ consequently will be tested by means of in-depth interviews with retailers and customers. In a 2nd phase, a review of literature will investigate how the factors of the conceptual model, presented above, can be translated into a multi-dimensional ─experience┌ model. In the 3rd phase, a comparison between research methodologies, traditionally used in research in retail settings in marketing and design sciences will reveal the most appropriate research methodology for investigating the influence of variables from the retail environment on evaluations, affective response and behavior of customers, taking the pre-defined research goals into account. The results of the literature review of the 2nd and 3rd phase eventually will give input to the set-up of phase 4, the empirical research. In this phase, we will investigate how variables from the conceptual model presented above, can influence the customer experience in a retail setting.

16 September 2008 - 15 September 2010