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Transcendent customer experience and brand community

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Abstract

Transcendent customer experiences (TCEs), which have aspects of flow and/or peak experience, can generate lasting shifts in beliefs and attitudes, including subjective self-transformation. With data from a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental field experiment we examine the impact of TCEs on customers’ integration in a brand community. Because TCEs are highly desirable and valued for their own sake, customers value marketing activities they perceive as instrumental to them. This study demonstrates that a TCE in the context of a marketer-facilitated consumption activity can strengthen a person’s ties to a brand community, delivering a particularly strong form of brand loyalty.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pamplin School of Business Administration, University of Portland, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd., Portland, OR, 97203, USA

    John W. Schouten

  2. College of Business, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    James H. McAlexander & Harold F. Koenig

Authors
  1. John W. Schouten
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  2. James H. McAlexander
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  3. Harold F. Koenig
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Correspondence to James H. McAlexander.

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Schouten, J.W., McAlexander, J.H. & Koenig, H.F. Transcendent customer experience and brand community. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 35, 357–368 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-007-0034-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-007-0034-4

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