How Bookstore Embodies the Role of Space Communication

Previously, the focus of literature review has been focusing on the essence and division of experiential marketing. To truly apply the theory to the combinative bookstore, a contextual look into how bookstore, being a space where consumers and the products meet, can also orchestrate the delivery of experience, forming its’ utility of space communication.

Firstly, with regard to how a bookstore function differently from other shopping spaces, David Wright has demonstrated insightful interpretation on the phenomenon. Based on the bookstore culture in London city, the paper indicated that the bookstore space provides a sphere where the mediation of production and consumption of cultural goods occurs (Wright, 2005).

Unlike general shopping spaces, the goods juxtaposed in the bookstores, which are mostly books,

are perceived differently as “cultural goods”, which is argued to have a more transformative value instead of merely a demand for products, is also the key factor that drive the readers to explore experience and well being (Keat, 1999).

As Wright has put, the bookstore may not be a place where merely literature are produced, yet it is without a doubt a place in which meanings about those literature are produce (Wright, 2005). Wright’s interpretation on the role of bookstore resonates with the observation of this study that bookstore is a sphere where something more than simply completing transaction of product and service are made through the customers’ indulgence and immersion into the space and the messages communicated within it. Examining how the cityscape of bookstore merging into other type of public places, Wright further stated that:

“The recent trend for coffee bars or even art galleries within the space of the large chain bookshop emphasizes the distinctiveness of the space and encourages browsing. This makes shopping for books, in many ways, an exemplar of the contemporary notion of shopping as leisure rather than means to a material end” (Wright, 2005, p.114).

That is to say, whilst bookstore is deconstructed, rebuilt, and merged into the space in which places such as coffee bars and art galleries are located, the shopping experience of the book has thus morphed into a distinctive process that the essence of which is perceived more as an enjoyment instead of a functional process merely in search for a certain good.

From the managerial perspective, the incorporation of space communication is significant in expressing the trajectory of brand identity, brand image and brand value, which altogether are correlated when making an impression on those who are immersed in the environments.

2.2.2. Physical Surroundings, Ambient Conditions, and Individualized Customer Experience

After discussing the significance of how a bookstore merged with public space could elicit a more subtle messages from the customers through communication of the space, the focus should therefore be shifted to “physical surroundings” (Tseng, 2016, p.328), which is composed of the facilities of the store, interior design, music, color, and even logos

Moreover, the noted theory first shedding lights on the influence of physical surroundings on the customers, Servicescape Model, has demonstrated explanation on how the surroundings are related to facilitating people’s feelings in constructing a more holistic perception to the space itself, and such notion is called Perceived Servicescape.

According to the model, what make up physical surroundings are ambient conditions, space and function, as well as logo and decoration. With the above three being antecedents, customers will further develop the Perceived Servicescape, which will in turn project effect on the customers’

internal responses, including the perception, emotion, and physical condition, eventually

contributing to certain consumer behavior such as visiting, staying and exploring, purchasing, or even revisiting (Bitner, 1992), which are indicators highly correlated with consumer loyalty.

Therefore, according to the paper, it is supported that the management of the surroundings or the marketing space is imperative since it can have certain extent of influence on those who

experience it, whether it be the staff or the customers.

Figure 3. Bitner (1992) Model of Perceived Scape

Moreover, there are studies pointing out the importance of establishing creative retail spaces so as to create possibilities for customers to be creative, for it can facilitate their “sensory

engagement, social and interactive spaces, and co-creativity between retailer and consumer”

(Kent, 2007, p.742), which has again weighed on the value space as a resort of communication.

As a matter of fact, earlier when the stores have begun rising as a huge shopping

phenomenon, researchers therefore started to investigate how managing the stores is related to

“the appearance and identity of their core brand values” (Magrath, 2005, p.734). Markin has stressed on the importance of the design of a retail place being a factor influencing customer behavior by drawing attention, eliciting emotional responses, and communicating brand messages through the signaling of marketing spaces and cues regarding the brand (Markin et al., 1976).

Another example to illustrate how retail environment is correlated to the value of the brand is by looking at the Apple Store. According to Kent’s observation, Apple Store’s use of “large, open internal spaces, minimal stock densities, opportunities for interaction with products and services, and its’ high flow of visitors and customers” (Kent, 2007, p.38), render its’ a model being

successful in drawing people into their space, exemplifying space communication effectively.

While developing the holistic physical surroundings can be salient in appealing to customers’

attention and even making them stay, thinking from the perspective of customers, to answer this question becomes important: Whether they are willing to stay and why? Kent indicated in his paper that developing “key sense” has been used in retail spaces such as “department stores and shopping malls”. For instance, by utilizing the playing and demonstration of color and lightning, it not only serves as decorative purpose but also “give meaning” about that space (Loe, 2002). Just as Kent has put, “The use of different sensory elements such as in-store music, carefully chosen aromas, different textures and surfaces and lighting techniques, create unique micro-environments within a conventional retail space” (Kent, 2007, p.737).

Coming back to the experience of being immersed in the retail space from customers’

perspective, understanding how the experience can be personalized, individualized, and

meaningful at a personal level thus become essential. While mostly the act of visiting a shopping space is considered simply a utilitarian process for customers to look for certain goods, other functions such as socializing and leisure should also be considered (Hu and Jasper, 2006).

Therefore, it is argued that while designing retail space as a museum of products, it also can be seen as a way to make the store capable of meeting commercial need and social need for the customers, while could further elicit emotions with respect to purposes of leisure or socializing under the influence of space communication, exemplifying the gist of experiential marketing.

2.2.3. Five Experiential Marketing Modules in Eslite Bookstore

As previous sections that discuss the theoretical foundation of experiential marketing has concluded, there are five modules of the theory, sense, feel, think, act, and relate, which could be utilized separately or collectively in order to achieve the marketing goal of creating certain

experience to connect the customers (Schmitt, 2000). Since this study intends to shed light on how Eslite Bookstore incorporate the five modules in creating their signature physical surroundings, and how this outcome are related to the following consumer behaviors from their own perspective, the following passages will conceptualize how the five modules can be put into practice in the case of Eslite Bookstore.

To begin with, since sense marketing resorts to consumers’ senses such as sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, it is the process that consumer have contact with their surroundings through their perceptive system such as input from visual, audial, gustative, olfactory to tactile input (Schmitt, 2000). In the case of Eslite Bookstore, sense marketing can be seen in aspects such as their wooden floor, warm lighting, bookshelf oozing with wooden smell, air full of coffee aroma, and so forth (Tseng, 2016).

Secondly, for the second module, feel marketing, it is about eliciting the internal feelings within consumers meanwhile linking that emotion to the brand (Schmitt, 2000). The need of seeking for “positive and meaningful experience” (Tseng, 2016, p.341) deriving from human nature, creating an environment that is effective in evoking such feelings is always the goal. Eslite Bookstore does seek to project such ambient conditions by providing a plethora of choices of readings, which is deemed to be the key factor that are able to elicit consumers’ internal feeling for those who immerse themselves into the retail space and the products, the books.

Thirdly, with thinking marketing focusing on extracting the experiences of cognitive and problem-solving from customers, successfully incorporating this element is significant as this aspect play a key role in enabling consumers’ to form certain value towards the retail environment, hence further affect their perception to the brand on behalf of the store (Schmitt, 2000). With positive experience being formed, consumers may reckon this experience as, for instance, “a place worth visiting”, or “a space offering chances for people to relax themselves from the hectic life”

(Tseng, 2016, p.341).

Furthermore, as for the act marketing, it concentrates on the physical behaviors, lifestyle, and interactions that consumers undergo after being affected by the environment, which is also

considered to be highly correlated with their attitude to the brand afterwards (Schmitt, 2000). In this case, for example, people may be affected by the decorations and the interior design of Eslite Bookstore, therefore, they would rather stay in the retail space a little bit of longer than merely passing through it; Even more, it is also possible that after the immersion in the environment and the reading experience, people become more aware of the atmosphere of the bookstore, hence their following decision of how they want their renovation of home style model after the environment of Eslite Bookstore (Tseng, 2016).

As for the last module, relate marketing, it resorts to coining the experiences that include the consumers into some kind of social context, and could even generate consumers’ relation to their own identity, self perception, social role, society group or even a bigger context as long as they find which the experience relatable to (Schmitt, 2000). For instance, after visiting the Eslite Bookstore, the experience inspires a teacher to ponder over the status quo of how students view knowledge and reading, therefore motivate the educator to design a series of teaching plan that seeks to enlighten the students in pursuit for deeper thinking towards the material in class.

The five modules could be utilized to create different cues, yet all possess the function of reminding or even sparkling certain outcome from the consumers through eliciting their “sense”

that shape the input of senses in advance, “feeling” that explain whether they are happy or have undergone meaningful experience, cognitive “thinking” that help form their value perception to the retail space, “act” that cause them to further act on certain things, and “relate” that let them connect the experience to their own selves.

2.3. Extraordinary Customer Experience: Transcendent Customer Experience

2.3.1. Customer Experience

After experiential marketing was brought to academic discussion (Schmitt, 2000), more and more studies have thus started to concentrate on the concept, prompting the marketing

management to shift their focus from service to experience (Bettman, 2002). Further, Schmitt has published another book Customer Experience Management, A Revolutionary Approach to

Connecting Your Customers, proposing a more conceptualized model for carrying out the strategies (Schmitt, 2010). In the CEM (Customer Experience Management) framework that he has proposed, there are five principles for managerial parties to take reference after, which are

“analyzing the experiential world of the customer”, “building the experiential platform”,

“designing the brand experience”, “structuring the customer interface”, and “engaging in continuous innovation” (Schmitt, 2010, p.32). To draw more insights and implication from the perspective of customer and to analyze the experience in depth, this study seeks to fill the gap

which the first principle, “analyzing the experiential world of the customer” (p.32), has suggested.

Speaking of customer experience, according to Schmitt, “extraordinary experiences” are a type of experience, which is characterized as “active, intense, and stylized” (Schmitt, 2011, p.71).

The earliest record of the concept can be dated back to the prestigious flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), followed by peak experiences (Privette, 1983), while the latest theory concerning the issue would be transcendent customer experiences (Schouten et al., 2007). According to Schmitt’s elaboration on the topic, both flow and peak experiences can be attained through some type of activity that elicit people’s intense attention along with the absorption or immersion, which hence provoke the experience a more extraordinary level (Schmitt, 2011).

That being said, with the absorption and immersion into the activities, the experiences could be thus driven as something memorable to the consumer whether the stimulation is external or internal. Therefore, the following passages will be focusing on customer experiences with a specific focus on a type of extraordinary experience, transcendent customer experience (Schouten et al, 2007).

2.3.2. Transcendent Customer Experience

So what exactly is transcendent customer experience? What is the theoretical foundation it grounds on? As a matter of fact, according to the original study, the theory extends the scope based on the previous noted theory regarding experience, including flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) and peak experience (Privette, 1983). The model of transcendent customer experiences was therefore developed in explanation to its’ effect on enhancing people’s relationship with others, with activities, or even with values and symbols, (Schouten et al., 2007), which are imperative

indicators for constituting brand community and have been proved to be significant precursors for brand loyalty (McAlexander et al, 2002).

Another important contribution the paper has made is that customers are reported to have purposes of transcending the mundane consumerism, which is also an intriguing avenue for related studies while focusing on the proactive role of consumers (Schouten et al., 2007). It is tested under the condition of adopted experiential marketing campaign and was eventually supported to be valid in creating the sense of brand community (Schouten et al, 2007).

From the original paper, it is stated that TCE is characterized by “self-transformations, awakening separations from mundane, and connectedness to larger phenomena outside the self ” (Schouten et al, 2007, p.358), and their results have shown the fact that consumers going through the transcendent customers experiences will eventually develop stronger sense of brand

community. Although brand community is not the ultimate variable this paper will investigate in the end, it is significant to understand the origin of the theory. With the academic focus of experiential marketing on designing consumer environment to be a place enriched with different senses (Schmitt, 2000), the process of experiencing the environment and the space from the perspective of customer has therefore become an important issue to discuss. It is ascertained that consumer experiences had been valued due to its’ effectiveness on consumer behavior (Donovan and Rossiter, 1982). Moreover, besides discussing how transcendent customer experiences (TCE) was formed and tested, after the result being proved valid, the authors have shown a more detailed yet intriguing explanation on the theory itself. TCEs are characterized by the following feelings, which are “self-transformation or awakening, separation from the mundane, and connectedness to larger phenomena outside the self” (Schouten et al, 2007, p.358).

In other words, while going through transcendent customer experiences (TCE), customer may experience the feelings of “difference” from their normal daily life, which is also featured

“emotional intensity, epiphany, singularity and newness of experience, extreme enjoyment,

oneness, ineffability, extreme focus of attention, and the testing of personal limits” (Schouten et al, 2007) with important factors arousing TCE being “self-transformation, separation from the

ordinary and mundane, and connectedness to larger phenomena outside one’s self” (Schouten et al, 2007, p.358). In this sense, transcendent customer experiences (TCE) are likely to be a possible experience the customer undergo under the influence of experiential marketing, since the intended usage of experiential marketing is as Schmitt has put, utilizing the sense, feel, think, act, and relate methods to elicits customers’ experience and thus create the connection between themselves and the brand, product, or service (Schmitt, 2000).

In conclusion, through the literature review in previous passages, it can be seen that the five modules could be utilized to create different marketing cues by eliciting their “senses” that shape the input of senses in advance, “feelings” that explain whether they are happy or have undergone meaningful experience, cognitive “thinking” that help form their value perception to the retail space, “acts” that cause them to further act on certain things, and “relate” that enable them to connect the experience to their own selves. Yet, considering the scope of the research and the purpose of catering to the attribute of Eslite Bookstore being an environment designed for immersive experience, this study wants to especially focus on three modules, which are sense marketing, feel marketing, and relate marketing.

2.3.3. How Sense Marketing creates Transcendent Customer Experience

To begin with, since sense marketing resorts to consumers’ senses such as “sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell” (Schmitt, 2000, p.115), it is the process that consumer have contact with their surroundings through their perceptive system such as input from visual, audial, gustative, olfactory to tactile input. Just as the founder of the theory has put, the purpose of sense marketing is to evoke “aesthetic pleasure, excitement, beauty, and satisfaction through sensory stimulation”

(p.115). In order to carry out the sense marketing, the company needs to make effort in creating certain styles or themes, which are called “corporate expression”, so that such experience that is created can evoke certain “customer impressions” (Schmitt, 2000, p.118). By doing so, this is how marketers can utilize sense marketing to achieve one of the aspects of experiential marketing.

With the characteristic of transcendent customer experience being “self-transformations, awakening separations from mundane, and connectedness to larger phenomena outside the self”

(Schouten et al, 2007, p.358), this study argues that to evoke such customer experience, it is imperative that the surroundings are effective in provoking so by the incorporation of sense marketing. In the case of Eslite Bookstore, sense marketing can be seen in aspects such as their wooden floor, warm lighting, bookshelf oozing with wooden smell, air full of coffee aroma, and so forth (Tseng, 2016). Therefore, hypothesis 1 is proposed:

H1: Sense marketing may lead to the transcendent customer experiences (TCE).

2.3.4. How Feel Marketing creates Transcendent Customer Experience

Secondly, as for the second aspect this study seeks to examine, “feel marketing”, which is a marketing strategy that requires certain emotion to be aroused by creating certain kind of

“consumption experience” (Schmitt, 2000, p.137). In other words, it seeks to elicit the internal feelings within consumers meanwhile manage to link that emotion to the brand (Schmitt, 2000).

Moreover, it is stated that seeking “meaningful experience” (Diller et al, 2005) is essential in communicating marketing messages as well as related to positive customer experience. Therefore, creating an environment that is effective in evoking such feelings is always the goal. Eslite

Bookstore does seek to project such ambient conditions by providing a plethora of choices of readings, which is deemed to be the key factor that are able to elicit consumers’ internal feeling for those who immerse themselves into the products, the books, and most importantly, the shopping experience itself.

Since transcendent customer experience is featured by characteristics “self-transformations,

Since transcendent customer experience is featured by characteristics “self-transformations,