沉浸式顧客體驗與消費行為之關聯: 以誠品書店為例 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學位學程 International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies College of Communication National Chengchi University. 碩士論文 Master’s Thesis. 沉浸式顧客體驗與消費行為之關聯：以誠品書店為例 Investigating Relations among Experiential Marketing, Transcendent Customer Experience and Consumer Behavior: A Case Study of Eslite Bookstore. Student: 劉欣宜 Hsin-I Liu Advisor: 郭貞教授 Dr. Cheng Kuo. 中華民國 107 年 12 月 December 2018. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(2) 沉浸式顧客體驗與消費行為之關聯：以誠品書店為例 Investigating Relations among Experiential Marketing, Transcendent Customer Experience and Consumer Behavior: A Case Study of Eslite Bookstore. Student: 劉欣宜 Hsin-I Liu Advisor: 郭貞教授 Dr. Cheng Kuo. 國立政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學位學程碩士論文. A Thesis Submitted To The International Master Program in International Communication Studies, National Chengchi University. In Partial Fulfillment of The Requirement for The Degree of Master of Arts. 中華民國 107 年 12 月 December 2018. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(3) Acknowledgements It has been a long yet deeply blessed journey studying and learning in such a vibrant, energetic, and warm-hearted environment. I couldn't be more grateful for everything I have learned and everyone I have met here. First of all, I want to dedicate my sincere appreciation to the guidance from my advisor, Dr. Cheng Kuo who’s been helping me throughout the process of this long journey. I wouldn't have made it without the detailed and patient instruction from my advisor. I also would like to extend my appreciation to my committee members, Dr. Shiau and Dr. Tsai, who have both given me much helpful advice on my thesis. I couldn't be more grateful for them! Second, I would like to thank my dear classmates and friends, who have helped me through and enriched my life here. I appreciate all these happy memories with all of you. You guys are great! People always say that the friends you meet will always be the most treasured assets in you life and I couldn't agree more! Third, I am deeply grateful for the amazing courses and the professional teaching from IMICS program. I wouldn't have learned so much and gained so many inspiring experiences learning and discussing in classes were it not for the abundant courses offered by IMICS and the time spent with all of my wonderful, diverse, intelligent and humorous classmates. Fourth, I would like to thank my dearest family, my dad, my mom, and my brother, who have always been there for me to support and encourage me. I wouldn't have completed this journey without their support and love. People always say life moves on, but I believe it is what constitutes our memories that will always be here to stay. It has indeed been a life-changing experience for me. I am and always will be deeply grateful for it.. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(4) Abstract The research purpose of this study is to investigate the operation and effect of experiential marketing with specific focus on Eslite Bookstore. Firstly, the study examines how three modules from experiential marketing theory, sense marketing, feel marketing, and relate marketing, are related to immersive customer experience, the theory of which is based on transcendent customer experience. This study also examines whether the experience itself may lead to greater level of consumer satisfaction, consumer loyalty, and customer-based brand equity. This study utilized online survey and collected 272 valid responses; afterwards, simple regression, mediation analysis and hierarchical regression were conducted to investigate the hypotheses and research questions. This study found that sense marketing, feel marketing and relate marketing play significant roles in leading to greater level of consumer satisfaction, consumer loyalty, and customer-based brand equity through the mediation of immersive customer experience (also titled as TCE in the paper), indicating that atmosphere created by the marketers should be considered as an important factor when managing customer experience. It is likely that the experience can be extended as a positive perception to the brand awareness and brand image, and to reach the goal, transcendent customer experience serves as a mediator in order to put experiential marketing into effect, which provides insights for academy and industry seeking to shed light on the effect of experiential marketing.. Keywords: Experiential Marketing, Transcendent Customer Experience, Consumer Satisfaction, Consumer Loyalty, Customer-based Brand Equity.. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(5) Table of Contents Chapter One - Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1. Research Background ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Research Purpose .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.3. Research Questions and Hypotheses ............................................................................................ 3 1.4. Research Procedure....................................................................................................................... 3. Chapter Two - Literature Review .................................................................................................. 5 2.1. From Experience Economy to Experiential Marketing ................................................................ 5 2.1.1. The Origin of the Concept: Experience Economy................................................................. 5 2.1.2. Experiential Marketing .......................................................................................................... 8 2.1.3. Reviews on Previous Studies Applying the Experiential Marketing Modules ..................... 9 2.2. The Applied Aspects of Combinative Bookstore in This Study ................................................. 11 2.2.1. How Bookstore Embodies the Role of Space Communication ........................................... 11 2.2.2. Physical Surroundings, Ambient Conditions, and Individualized Customer Experience ... 13 2.2.3. Five Experiential Marketing Modules in Eslite Bookstore ................................................. 16 2.3. Extraordinary Customer Experience: Transcendent Customer Experience ............................... 18 2.3.1. Customer Experience ........................................................................................................... 18 2.3.2. Transcendent Customer Experience .................................................................................... 19 2.3.3. How Sense Marketing creates Transcendent Customer Experience ................................... 22 2.3.4. How Feel Marketing creates Transcendent Customer Experience ...................................... 23 2.3.5. How Relate Marketing creates Transcendent Customer Experience .................................. 23 2.4. Investigating TCE’s Effect on the Dependent Variables ............................................................ 24 2.4.1. Consumer Satisfaction ......................................................................................................... 25 2.4.2. Consumer Loyalty ............................................................................................................... 26 2.4.3. Customer-Based Brand Equity ............................................................................................ 27 2.4.4. The Relation between Transcendent Customer Experience and Consumer Satisfaction .... 28 2.4.5. The Relation between Transcendent Customer Experience and Consumer Loyalty .......... 28 2.4.6. The Relation between Transcendent Customer Experience and CBBE .............................. 29 2.4.7. The Relation between Consumer Satisfaction and Consumer Loyalty ............................... 30 2.4.8. The Relation between Customer-Based Brand Equity and Consumer Loyalty .................. 31. Chapter Three - Methodology ...................................................................................................... 33 3.1. Research Framework .................................................................................................................. 33 3.2. Research Question and Hypotheses ............................................................................................ 34 I. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(6) 3.3. Sampling and Analysis Design ................................................................................................... 34 3.3.1. Data Collection .................................................................................................................... 35 3.3.2. Data Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 35 3.4. Measurement of the Variables .................................................................................................... 36 3.4.1. Independent Variables ......................................................................................................... 36 3.4.2. Dependent Variables............................................................................................................ 39. Chapter Four – Results of Data Analysis .................................................................................... 41 4.1. Profile of Survey Respondents ................................................................................................... 41 4.2. A Description of In-store Consumer Behavior ........................................................................... 43 4.3. Research Measurement Validations............................................................................................ 44 4.4. Hypotheses Testing by Simple Regression ................................................................................. 47 4.4.1. Hypotheses 1, 2, 3 Testing................................................................................................... 47 4.4.2. Hypotheses 4, 5, 6 Testing................................................................................................... 48 4.4.3 Hypothesis 7 and 8 Testing .................................................................................................. 49 4.4.4. Summary of Hypothesis Testing from H1~H8 .................................................................... 50 4.5. Mediation Effect Analysis of Research Variable (TCE) ............................................................ 51 4.5.1. Investigating the Mediation Effect of TCE on Route of Sense Marketing ......................... 52 4.5.2. Investigating the Mediation Effect of TCE on Route of Feel Marketing ............................ 53 4.5.3. Investigating the Mediation Effect of TCE on Route of Relate Marketing......................... 54 4.5.4. Summary of Mediation Effect Analysis .............................................................................. 55 4.6. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis ................................................................................ 56 4.7. Summary of Results .................................................................................................................... 60. Chapter Five – Discussions and Conclusions .............................................................................. 61 5.1. Discussion of Experiential Marketing ........................................................................................ 61 5.2. Managerial Implications Regarding the Findings of Experiential Marketing ............................ 61 5.3. Discussion of TCE’s Mediating Role ......................................................................................... 63 5.4. Managerial Implications Regarding Transcendent Customer Experience ................................. 65 5.5. Summary of the Managerial Implications .................................................................................. 66 5.6. Research Limitations .................................................................................................................. 69 5.7. Research Contributions ............................................................................................................... 70 5.8. Suggestions for the Future Research .......................................................................................... 71. References....................................................................................................................................... 72 Appendix......................................................................................................................................... 75 II. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(7) List of Figures Figure 1. List of Hypotheses and Research Questions ...................................................................... 3 Figure 2. Pine and Gilmore (1998) Progression of Economic Value ................................................ 5 Figure 3. Proposed Theoretical Framework of this Study ............................................................... 33 Figure 4. List of Hypotheses and Research Questions .................................................................... 34 Figure 5. Research Model with Results ........................................................................................... 60. List of Tables Table 1. Demographics Information ................................................................................................ 42 Table 2. In-store Behavior and Reading Habits Description ........................................................... 43 Table 3. Measurements Validation .................................................................................................. 44 Table 4. Hypotheses Testing of H1, H2, H3 ................................................................................... 47 Table 5. Hypotheses Testing of H4, H5, H6 ................................................................................... 48 Table 6. Hypotheses Testing of H7 and H8..................................................................................... 49 Table 7. Summary of Hypotheses Testing Results .......................................................................... 50 Table 8. Investigating the Mediation Effect of TCE on Sense Marketing to DVs .......................... 52 Table 9. Investigating the Mediation Effect of TCE on Sense Marketing to DVs .......................... 52 Table 10. Investigating the Mediation Effect of TCE on Feel Marketing to DVs .......................... 53 Table 11. Investigating the Mediation Effect of TCE on Feel Marketing to DVs .......................... 53 Table 12. Investigating the Mediation Effect of TCE on Relate Marketing to DVs ....................... 54 Table 13. Investigating the Mediation Effect of TCE on Relate Marketing to DVs ....................... 54 Table 14. Summary of Research Questions Results ........................................................................ 55 Table 15. Hierarchical Regression Analysis (1) on Consumer Loyalty .......................................... 56 Table 16. Hierarchical Regression Analysis (2) on Consumer Satisfaction.................................... 57 Table 17. Hierarchical Regression Analysis (3) on Customer-Based Brand Equity ....................... 58. III. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(8) Chapter One - Introduction 1.1. Research Background With the rising trend of incorporating different senses into marketing space, a plethora of academic as well as industrious focus have been seeking to investigate the essence and the effect of experiential marketing (Liu & Mei, 2011). Looking at the retailer spaces in Taiwan, for example, it is undeniable that more and more marketers are applying the elements of experiential marketing so as to create the customer experience that is tailored to the brand image. Being one of the brands that value customer experience that is also originated in Taiwan, Eslite Bookstore has sparked the interest of this study to further understand how the experiential marketing works and how it can serve as a channel of communicating brand messages. As for the theoretical background, after the pioneering experience economy first initiated the academic discussion on the concept (Pine & Gilmore, 1998), the notion of experience has hence been deliberated by researchers and was later refined as a groundbreaking theory (Schmitt, 2000). Since then, the theory of experiential marketing has been applied to myriad domains such as customer journey and touch points (Berry, 2002) to explore a more holistic approach in creating salient marketing value and thus better the customer relationship management, explore experiential marketing’s effect on consumer behavior, contributing to academic as well as managerial implications.. 1.2. Research Purpose It can be seen that studies have investigated the application of experiential marketing and its’ potential effect on consumer satisfaction (Liu & Mei, 2011), brand loyalty (Lin et al, 2007), and so forth. However, as Schmitt Bernd has put in his review on experiential marketing theory, there are 1. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(9) still gap regarding how experiential marketing transform into certain positive customer experience to be filled (Schmitt, 2011), which sparkles the curiosity of this study. Therefore, this study seeks to find out how exactly does experiential marketing work regarding creating certain forms of the customer experience. On top of that, more and more industrial insights have been discussing the importance and incorporation of the theory. For instance, it can be observed that more and more marketers have utilized the “pop-up” stores to engage the customers, which is also famous for using experiential marketing to promote interactive brand experience (Smilansky, 2017). Another industrial insight inspiring this research is that while some of the traditional bookstores are struggling to run their business, however, branded combinative bookstores such as Tsutaya Bookstore from Japan, have all gained prospect the other way around, expanding their stores as well as successfully established stronger brand image (Yang, 2018). In other words, these branded bookstores have all successfully transformed the goods of books, which are generic products, into something broader then selling the products itself by utilizing the arts of experiential marketing. These are all solid implications implying that to some extent, experiential marketing does work. To further investigate the essence of experiential marketing and its’ effect with especial focus on Taiwanese consumer behavior, this study decides to choose Eslite Bookstore to analyze and find some managerial references for the traditional bookstores. As for the theoretical grounding, the modules from the theory of experiential marketing will be utilized. Besides investigating how marketers can put experiential marketing into effect, this study also delves into how the customer experience can further develop certain consumer behaviors that is beneficial to the brand from both attitudinal and behavioral perspectives.. 2. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(10) This study also focuses on the level of consumer satisfaction, customer-based brand equity, and consumer loyalty as a result of transcendent customer experience.. 1.3. Research Questions and Hypotheses The table shows all of the hypotheses and research questions this study proposed： H1:. Sense marketing may lead to the transcendent customer experience.. H2:. Feel marketing may lead to the transcendent customer experience.. H3:. Relate marketing may lead to the transcendent customer experience.. H4:. Transcendent customer experience may lead to greater level of consumer satisfaction.. H5:. Transcendent customer experience may lead to greater level of consumer loyalty.. H6:. Transcendent customer experience may lead to greater level of consumer-based brand equity.. H7:. Customer with consumer satisfaction may enhance consumer loyalty.. H8:. Consumer-based brand equity may enhance consumer loyalty.. RQ1a:. Will TCE mediate the route from sense marketing to consumer satisfaction?. RQ1b:. Will TCE mediate the route from sense marketing to consumer loyalty?. RQ1c:. Will TCE mediate the route from sense marketing to customer-based brand equity?. RQ2a:. Will TCE mediate the route from feel marketing to consumer satisfaction?. RQ2b:. Will TCE mediate the route from feel marketing to consumer loyalty?. RQ2c:. Will TCE mediate the route from feel marketing to customer-based brand equity?. RQ3a:. Will TCE mediate the route from relate marketing to consumer satisfaction?. RQ3b:. Will TCE mediate the route from relate marketing to consumer loyalty?. RQ3c:. Will TCE mediate the route from relate marketing to customer-based brand equity?. Figure 1. List of Hypotheses and Research Questions. 1.4. Research Procedure Regarding the flow of the literature review, this study first discusses the theoretical background of Schmitt’s experiential marketing. Moreover, to incorporate the theory into the combinative space of branded bookstore, this study will further discuss the communication of the retailer space and how it affects consumer. 3. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(11) As for the customer experience, this study utilizes the scale “Transcendent Customer Experience”, which has been supported in its’ original paper that such customer experience can develop stronger sense of brand community while conducting marketing campaigns (Schouten et al., 2007). The reason this study chooses transcendent customer experience to represent the customer experience this study focuses on is that through some industrial studies (Chen, 2015) as well as observations regarding Eslite Bookstore, the word “immersive” has become one of the key words describing consumers’ activity in the retail space (Lin, 2013), which this study finds truly intriguing. Since there has not been much academic focus on the immersive effect contributed by experiential marketing, this study intends to conceptualize the working of experiential marketing and see how it can possibly shape certain types of customer experience explaining the behavior of consumer’s immersion, and TCE has been adopted by the study to be investigated. Afterwards, followed by TCE, since this paper seeks to delve into customers’ point of view, the dependent variables this study examines will be consumer satisfaction, customer-based brand equity, and consumer loyalty. As for the design of methodology, this study utilized online survey that were distributed by snowball sampling and convenient sampling in order to draw authentic data and insights to answer the research question and hypotheses proposed in this paper. The online survey was targeted at the suitable population with filtering questions to ensure the validity of the questionnaire.. 4. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(12) Chapter Two - Literature Review 2.1. From Experience Economy to Experiential Marketing 2.1.1. The Origin of the Concept: Experience Economy In the paper Welcome To The Experience Economy, it is proposed that economic value has evolved through three stages, which are commodity economy, manufacturing economy, service economy, and comes the fourth stage, experience economy. With the progression of economic value, the focus on services has been shifted to experience, which is identified as “fourth economic offering” (Pine and Gilmore, 1998). In the beginning of the paper, they have pointed out that: “Today we can identify and describe this fourth economic offering because consumers unquestionably desire experiences” (Pine and Gilmore, 1998, p.97). Furthermore, it is suggested by them that experiences have “emerged as the next step”, of which they addressed to be “progression of economic value” (Pine and Gilmore, 1998, p.97).. Figure 2. Pine and Gilmore (1998) Progression of Economic Value. 5. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(13) The progression of economic value starts with extraction of commodity, production of goods, delivery of the services, to the latest stage, experience (Pine & Gilmore, 1998). According to the founder of the experiential marketing theory, Bernd Schmitt’s further interpretation on the four stages, it was not until the occurrence of Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, manufacturing economy had come as the succeeding stage features the making of the products. Next, in the 20th century, the third stage, service economy emerged and the economic value has evolved into the focus on providing the customers with “intangible service” (Schmitt, 2010, p.67). Before investigating the details regarding experience, it is worth noticing that before the focus on experience was weighed, there had been increasing discussion on the third stage, delivery of the service, therefore myriad studies were focusing on the significance of service quality being an indicator of creating values for the companies (Parasuraman et al, 1985). It was not until late 1990s that the fourth economic value, experience economy, was introduced, followed by Bernd Schmitt proposing the noted experiential marketing (Schmitt, 2000), engendering a series of academic studies and commercial exploration in this field, shifting the focus from service quality to the concept of customer experience. Responding to previous studies which have focused on the rational aspect of consumer behavior such as the noted information processing model (Bettman, 1979), researchers had been indicating the importance to value customers’ emotional aspect (Schmitt, 2000), triggering the concept of “experiential consumption” as a new scope on which to focus besides merely the cognitive part of information processing, calling for more studies to include elements such as “fun” into consideration (Holbrook & Hirschman, 2010). That being said, shedding light on taking the hedonic aspects for the consumer experience and recognizing the importance of appealing to customers’ emotional arousal has opened a pivotal new page for experience related studies. 6. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(14) Delving into the concept of experience mentioned in Pine and Gilmore’s paper, it occurs when service are utilized on purpose by the companies, in order to create certain memories for the customers (Pine & Gilmore, 1998). Thus, what appeals to consumers is no longer limited to the service or goods, but that creating a specific type of experience has also become an important indicator not only by engaging consumers but also making impressions on them. However, Pine and Gilmore also pointed out that implementing experience economy does not mean that there are no services and goods to be included. As a matter of fact, experience and services as well as goods are interrelated and even complimentary to one another. Taking the pioneering innovators that first implemented the concept of experience, Disney as example. Seeing that experience is the heart of this entertainment business, Walt Disney then designed the theme park to be a place featured the atmosphere and the characters he created to establish the image of Disney Land being a dream land, with the experience set, those who flooded into the theme park are more likely to relate their memories of these characters to the goods sold in the park (Pine and Gilmore, 1998). Lastly, regarding the essence of creating a memorable experience, the authors proposed five principles that can facilitate the staging of experience, which are theming the experience, harmonizing impressions with positive cues, eliminating negative cues, mixing in memorabilia, and engaging all five senses. Since then, reacting to the need from industry as well as academic research, more and more scholars have participated in the studies in this regard.. 7. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(15) 2.1.2. Experiential Marketing So what exactly is “experience”? How can it be evaluated? And how does it affect consumer behavior? To investigate these questions, it is essential to start with the discussion from the theory founder, Bernd Schmitt, who coined the term “experiential marketing” and has presented the approaches of experiential marketing, also being named as strategic experiential modules consisting of sense, feel, think, act, and relate (Schmitt, 2000). Firstly, the “sense marketing” resorts to consumers’ senses such as sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell; “Feel marketing” is about eliciting the internal feelings within consumers meanwhile linking that emotion to the brand; “Thinking marketing” focuses on extracting cognitive and problem-solving experiences from customers. “Act marketing” concentrates on behaviors, lifestyle, and interactions. As for the last module, “relate marketing”, it resorts to the experiences that connect the consumers with some kind of social context (Schmitt, 2000). Later in another review, Schmitt further interpreted the concept and stated that “I will use the term to refer to experiences in the here and now — perceptions, feelings, and thoughts that consumers have when they encounter products and brands in the marketplace and engage in consumption activities — as well as the memory of such experiences” (Schmitt, 2011, p.69). Concluding the previous literature on experiential marketing, the theory seems to be salient in engaging the consumers not only through rational but also sensorial implications. Namely, as long as it reaches the target of connecting consumers with the brand, any sorts of messages implanted in any sorts of consumer environment that successfully deliver the goal by incorporating the sense method, feeling method, thinking method, act method and relate method can altogether become “stimuli” in the consumer environment that are designed to evoke “specific sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioral responses” (Schmitt, 2011, p.64).. 8. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(16) 2.1.3. Reviews on Previous Studies Applying the Experiential Marketing Modules Utilized in previous studies that investigate the correlation between five modules of experiential marketing and some of the important indicators of consumer behavior such as purchase intention, perceived value, and consumer loyalty, the following two studies done in Taipei which focus on experience in Starbucks and experience at IKEA, have both exemplified the incorporation of experiential marketing. To begin with, in the paper Starbucks Experience Explored in Taipei, the researchers used the five modules of experiential marketing to investigate how Starbucks reach their customers by creating the “touchy-feely” or lifestyle related emotional appeals. Regarding the items that they utilized to measure the five aspects, first of all, for the sense experience, questions such as “the quality of the coffee”, “the cleanliness and comfort of the environment”, and “payment rapid” are mentioned; Secondly, to measure “feel” aspect, items such as “jazz music play”, “unique graceful adornment with artistry”, “humanistic space”, and “barista expert attitude”, are included; Thirdly, for the “think” experience, a more cognitive aspects are meant to be evoked, therefor items such as “reasonable prices”, “clear categories”, “public image”, and “business hours” are included; Next, “humanity of service provided”, and “smile to customers”, “promotion often” are listed to measure “act” aspect; Lastly, items to measure “relate” experience are “value sharing on blog” and “cards with easy and budget-friendly way” (Liu et al, 2012, p.115) .The study eventually concluded that for Starbucks to stand out as a successful brand in Taipei, it must provide their customer with “comfortable aesthetic and humanistic environment and customized coffee” (p.115), along with providing a “third extraordinary place to inspire, nurture, and clean your mind” (p.115). As for the demographic part, the result indicates that women and men interpret their experience at Starbucks differently. For the female customers, they are inclined to value the 9. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(17) aesthetic and humanistic environment more then their male counterpart; On the other hand, men tend to concentrate on the quality of coffee than the atmosphere of the environment (Liu et al, 2012). Learning from this study, it is clear that for in-store environment management, appealing to the customers through a certain designed set of atmosphere, along with other implications that altogether create the experience expressing the brand image meanwhile catering to customers’ need for “an extraordinary place to inspire, nurture, and clean your mind” (Schmitt, 2011, p.17). is an important factor to consider while approaching the experience design of a retail space. Such space is also described as third space that is “between home and office” (p.17). Another paper that utilized the theory to investigate how IKEA uses experiential marketing to affect consumer behavior, which is purchase intention, has also provided significant outcomes as well as showcasing the measurement of the five modules. According to the result, since IKEA is defined as a shopping space that shows the customer their products by creating the immersive environment so the customers can truly indulge themselves into the experience. The research points out that by incorporating sensorial stimuli with the focus especially on sight and feel/touch, which is derived from the sense and feel element out of the five modules of experiential marketing, the sensorial stimuli will have positive effect on the quality of experience, of which is composed of participation, immersion, learning, surprise, and fun, and will eventually enhance consumers’ purchase intention (Chen, 2017). As for the measurement part, the paper included two out of five senses. Firstly, items such as “perception of attractiveness of the space”, “the utilization of the space”, and “impression on visual enjoyment” (Chen, 2017, p.29) are listed to measure the sight part of sensorial stimuli; as for another sensorial stimuli, which is feel/ touch, the items that are. 10. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(18) included are “willingness to sit on the sofa”, “authentic touch on the furniture”, and “impression on feeling of touching the products” (p.29). Learning from previous studies, it can be seen that experiences could be elicited by real engagement with products, in-store interactions, relationships with others, immersion in the environment, and so forth, which will also be aspects this study take reference from while dealing with the example in this paper after appropriate adjustment. Before going deep into the object this study is examining, which is the combinative bookstore, it is also worth mentioning that experiential marketing is not limited only to in-store experiences, online activities is as well likely to evoke such experience from consumers (Novak et al, 2000). In this paper, in-store experiences will be the major realm of consumer experiences this study targets at.. 2.2.. The Applied Aspects of Combinative Bookstore in This Study. 2.2.1. 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,. 11. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(19) 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.. 12. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(20) 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.. 13. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(21) 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).. 14. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(22) 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. 15. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(23) 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.. 16. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(24) 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. 17. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(25) 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.. 18. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(26) 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. 19. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(27) 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).. 20. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(28) 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.. 21. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(29) 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).. 22. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(30) 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, awakening separations from mundane, and connectedness to larger phenomena outside the self” (Schouten et al, 2007, p.358), there must certain relation between feel marketing and transcendent customer experience. Thus, according to the above, hypothesis 2 is proposed: H2: Feel marketing may lead to the transcendent customer experiences (TCE).. 2.3.5. How Relate Marketing creates Transcendent Customer Experience As for “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. 23. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(31) experience relatable to (Schmitt, 2000). Moreover, relate marketing is argued to be a certain type of “symbolic consumption” (Wattanasuwan, 2005), which is to consume not only to “create and sustain the self” but also “locate us in society” (Wattanasuwan, 2005, p.179). As Schmitt has put: “The purpose of relating to others seems to be motivated by a need for categorization and a search for meaning. When we are asked to describe ourselves as individuals, we may describe ourselves in terms of certain individual traits. But, equally likely, we can use certain social categories to describe ourselves. Or others may describe us in terms of social categories” (Schmitt, 2000, p.199). Coming back to the essence of transcendent customer experience, “self-transformations, awakening separations from mundane, and connectedness to larger phenomena outside the self” (Schouten et al, 2007, p.358), it is therefore argued that after the relate marketing is put into effect, it is more likely for those who are under the influence of related marketing go through the transcendent customer experience. Therefore, hypothesis 3 is proposed: H3: Relate marketing may lead to the transcendent customer experiences (TCE).. 2.4. Investigating TCE’s Effect on the Dependent Variables To measure the outcome of transcendent customer experience, this study intends to investigate three dependent variables, which are consumer satisfaction, customer-based brand equity, and consumer loyalty. In the original paper that proposed the transcendent customer experience, it has been testified that transcendent customer experience is positively related to the strengthening of brand community, which is an important indicator of consumer loyalty. However, to be meticulous enough, since this study is applying former model on a new scenario, which is Eslite Bookstore, it is imperative to ensure the relationship between transcendent customer experience and consumer loyalty.. 24. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(32) Furthermore, since it has been investigated in previous studies that consumer satisfaction can also be antecedent of consumer loyalty, this study hence wants to look into the relationship between transcendent customer experience and consumer satisfaction. Ultimately, to apply for the scenario this study intends to examine, relation between consumer satisfaction and consumer loyalty, as well as the relation between customer-based brand equity and consumer loyalty will be double-checked. In the following passages, the definition of the dependent variables will be investigated, followed by the discussion among transcendent customer experience, consumer satisfaction, customer-based brand equity and consumer loyalty.. 2.4.1. Consumer Satisfaction In some of the earlier studies, consumer satisfaction has been stated to be a key factor assisting the company to attract more new customers, retain more existing customer, and avoid more lost customers (Parasuraman et al, 1987). As for the definitions, consumer satisfaction indicates the extent products embodies the value (Hempel, 1977); Oliver further defines consumer satisfaction as an outcome generated through the surprise in the midst of consumption (Oliver, 1980); Fornell takes a rather rational approach, suggesting consumer satisfaction an evaluation of certain consumption experience (Fornell, 1992); In later studies, consumer satisfaction is even divided into general satisfaction, product satisfaction, and service satisfaction (Bakakus, Beinstock and Scotter, 2004). Combining what has been mentioned in the previous studies and adjusting to the experiential marketing aspects this study aims to look at, the measuring items for consumer satisfaction will be “the extent the experience render valuable”, “satisfaction to the product”, “satisfaction to the service”, and “satisfaction to the shopping experience overall”.. 25. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(33) 2.4.2. Consumer Loyalty Consumer loyalty has been an imperative role in evaluating customers’ positive attitude to marketing effect. In early studies, it is defined as an representative of consumers’ behavioral intention to the product and service, which is indicator of purchase itself (Selnes, 1993); Jones and Sasser further divided consumer loyalty into long term and short term loyalty, which is based on whether consumer is subject to changing their loyalty under the influence of other competitive and more ideal service (Jones and Sasser, 1995); Griffin then extended the definition of consumer loyalty to several indicators, which are repeating purchase, participation of the product and service from certain company, generating word of mouth, and immune to the same type of promotions from other competitive brands (Griffin, 1995); Lastly, Chaudhuri and Holbrook recapped the definition in simpler put, suggesting that consumer loyalty takes effects as long as consumer choose to buy the same type of products from the brand over and over and again (Chaudhuri and Holbrook, 2001). Throughout the previous studies deliberating the imperative indicators on consumer behavior, purchase intention, brand preference, consume loyalty, and so forth, have been reckoned as representative variables that implies the value of the brand and its’ owned company, yet among all these outcome, customer satisfaction has been proved in many studies to be the decisive driver (Adb-El-Salam et al, 2013). Therefore, while this study aim to examine how incorporating the elements of experiential marketing into consumer related space could create positive experiences, since the ultimate goal is to see whether this adoption is likely to create consumer satisfaction for those who are immersed in the experience, and in most cases consumer satisfaction is highly linked to the succeeding consumer attitude, which is consumer loyalty. Incorporating what has been mentioned in the previous studies and adjusting to the experiential marketing aspects this 26. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(34) study aims to look at, the measuring items for consumer loyalty will be “repeating purchase”, “participation of the product and service from certain company”, “word of mouth”, and “favorability of leisure time choices”.. 2.4.3. Customer-Based Brand Equity Before investigating the notion of customer-based brand equity, it is worth noticing that the concept is, in fact, derived from brand equity, which has been widely deliberated and interpreted by previous studies. Dated back to the definition made by Pride and Ferrell, brand equity is defined to be “the marketing and financial values linked with a brand’s strength in the market, including actual proprietary brand assets, brand name awareness, brand loyalty, perceived brand quality, and brand associations” (Pride & Ferrell, 2003, p. 299). Moreover, according to Lassar, Mittal, and Arun, brand equity should be perceived from two perspectives, which are financial perspective and customer’s perspective (Lassa et al, 1995). The former deals with the value and profit of a brand, whereas the latter focuses more on customer’s insight. In the meanwhile, Keller proposed the customer-based brand equity, which can be evaluated by measuring customer’s brand awareness consisting of brand recall as well as brand recognition and brand image, which can be divided into types, favorability, strength and uniqueness of brand associations (Keller, 1993). Regarding the importance of customer-based brand equity, Keller further concluded that: “A brand is said to have positive (negative) customer-based brand equity if consumers react more (less) favorably to the product, price, promotion, or distribution of the brand than they do to the same marketing mix element when it is attributed to a fictitiously named or unnamed version of the product or service” (Keller, 1993, p.7).. 27. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(35) In other words, an ideal outcome of customer-based brand equity should be encouraging consumers to demonstrate attitudes that differentiate the brand from others. Incorporating the essence of customer-based brand equity and adjusting to the experiential marketing aspects this study aims to investigate, the measuring items for customer-based brand equity will be “perceived uniqueness”, “demonstration of the brand value”, and “representative brand”. 2.4.4. The Relation between Transcendent Customer Experience and Consumer Satisfaction As previous passages have pointed out, the measuring items for consumer satisfaction are “the extent the experience render valuable”, “satisfaction to the product”, “satisfaction to the service”, and “satisfaction to the shopping experience overall”. According to the paper that proposed transcendent customer experience, it has pointed out that such experiences can elicit a “re-definition” of the self. Featuring “self-transformations, awakening separations from mundane, and connectedness to larger phenomena outside the self”, (Schouten et al, 2007), transcendent customer experience is therefore reckoned to be positively related to consumer satisfaction since after being immersed into the experience, the individuals are more likely to gain sense of satisfaction. Therefore, hypothesis 4 is proposed: H4: Transcendent customer experience may lead to greater level of consumer satisfaction.. 2.4.5. The Relation between Transcendent Customer Experience and Consumer Loyalty Remarked by Schmitt in a latter review, the capacity of transcendent customer experience is stated to be “critical integration of a brand community and for building brand loyalty among brand community members” (Schmitt, 2010, p.72). Furthermore, delving into the framework of the original study, the independent variable that was used to measure the transcendent customer 28. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(36) experience is the enhancement of brand community, which was proposed by McAlexender to be imperative indicator for customer-brand relationship studies. Featuring “repeating purchase”, “participation of the product and service from certain company”, and “word of mouth, consumer loyalty is therefore considered a possible outcome for those who undergo transcendent customer experience since having such experience that enable the customer to develop the sense of transformation, connection to themselves, and the society is regarded to be a positive experience that could therefore result in consumers’ eagerness for revisiting the retail space or even promote the experience through sharing with others. In such case, consumers are likely to develop loyalty to the experience, which represent the brand itself. Therefore, hypothesis 5 is proposed: H5: Transcendent customer experience may lead to greater level of consumer loyalty.. 2.4.6. The Relation between Transcendent Customer Experience and CBBE Featured capability of eliciting customer’s sense of separation from mundane and relaxing feelings, transcendent customer experience is hypothesized to create positive and meaningful effect on those who undergo the experience. Since customer-based brand equity (CBBE) deals with customer’s brand awareness and brand image from their own perspective, it is hypothesized that through transcendent customer experience, customer will demonstrate greater reflection on how they perceive and interpret the brand, and will thus also show greater level of customer-based brand equity. Therefore, applying the scenario this study are looking at, hypothesis 6 is proposed: H6: Transcendent customer experience may lead to greater level of CBBE.. 29. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(37) 2.4.7. The Relation between Consumer Satisfaction and Consumer Loyalty There have been myriad studies discussing the essence and the divisions of consumer loyalty, and it could be roughly categorized into attitudinal and behavioral types (Oliver, 1999; Zeithaml, 2000). In early times, Czepiel and Gilmore proposed that it could be seen as “a specific desire to continue a relationship with a service provider”, which is from attitudinal perspective; yet it is defined as “repeat patronage”, which is further interpreted as “the proportion of times a purchaser chooses the same product or service in a specific category compared to the total number of purchases made by the purchaser in that category” (Yang and Peterson, 2004). In Yang’s research, the relationship among customer perceived value, consumer satisfaction and consumer loyalty has been scrutinized and the results indicates that consumer loyalty can be effectively strengthened through “improving customer satisfaction” and “offering high product/ service value” (Yang and Peterson, 2004, p.814). Furthermore, it has been concluded that perceived value and consumer satisfaction both stand as important precursor for consumer loyalty. Therefore, applying the scenario this study are looking at, hypothesis 7 is hence proposed:. H7: Customer with consumer satisfaction may enhance consumer loyalty.. 30. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(38) 2.4.8. The Relation between Customer-Based Brand Equity and Consumer Loyalty As it has been mentioned and discussed in previous passages, consumer loyalty can be seen from both behavioral and attitudinal aspects. Moreover, in the adapted version this study has concluded to be the items of evaluating consumer loyalty, which are “repeating purchase”, “participation of the product and service from certain company”, “word of mouth”, and “favorability of leisure time choices”, it can be seen that behavioral approach holds greater proportion. Moreover, in the plethora studies that measured consumer behavior, attitudinal and behavioral factors are interconnected. In the case of Eslite Bookstore, it is hypothesized that after developing greater sense of customer-based brand equity, which is composed of brand awareness and brand image, a stronger lever of consumer loyalty should be developed. Therefore, applying the scenario this study aims to focus on, hypothesis 8 is proposed:. H8: Consumer-based brand equity may enhance consumer loyalty.. 31. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(39) On top of that, to further examine whether the model this study propose is salient in positioning transcendent customer experience as a necessary pathway for sense marketing, feel marketing, and relate marketing to really work and therefore develop positive consumer behavior, which are consumer satisfaction, customer-based brand equity, and consumer loyalty, this study proposes that transcendent customer experience is possible to have mediating effect. Therefore, the following are the research questions proposed based on the hypotheses:. RQ1a: Will TCE mediate the route from sense marketing to consumer satisfaction? RQ1b: Will TCE mediate the route from sense marketing to consumer loyalty? RQ1c: Will TCE mediate the route from sense marketing to customer-based brand equity? RQ2a: Will TCE mediate the route from feel marketing to consumer satisfaction? RQ2b: Will TCE mediate the route from feel marketing to consumer loyalty? RQ2c: Will TCE mediate the route from feel marketing to customer-based brand equity? RQ3a: Will TCE mediate the route from relate marketing to consumer satisfaction? RQ3b: Will TCE mediate the route from relate marketing to consumer loyalty? RQ3c: Will TCE mediate the route from relate marketing to customer-based brand equity?. 32. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.

(40) Chapter Three - Methodology 3.1. Research Framework Basing on the research purpose and the discussion of literature review, this study hereby has proposed a confirmatory research framework connecting all of the hypotheses as well as the research questions this study seeks to investigate. The following table is a visualized illustration of the theoretical framework of this study.. Figure 3. Proposed Theoretical Framework of this Study. 33. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.018.2018.F05.