EXPERIENTIAL STATE AND EFFECT OF FACTORS

ON THE DIMENSIONS OF OFFER IN A SERVICE COMPANY

Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis: A Five Factor Model

Erick Guerrero Camacho

and Richard Huamán Ramirez

Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Jr. Las Tunas N° 256 Urbanización El Naranjal, Lima, Peru

IAE AIX Graduate School of Management, Clos Guiot Puyricard - CS 30063, 13089 Aix en Provence, France

Keywords: Experiential Marketing, Consumer experience, Consumer value, Factorial analysis.

Abstract: In recent years, experience is one of the major topics regarding the business world, which involves even

more the research in management and engineering. Customer experience is conceptualized in management

as the unforgettable event where the customer, the product and/or service, and the environment interact, and

where customers respond in a sensorial, affective, intellectual, behavioral and social fashion to stimuli

provoked by companies or brands. Experience Engineering identifies these stimuli as clues about experience

and centralizes on the proposal of humanistic y mechanical contexts, having as sources: the product, the

service, and the environment. Among the research it is possible to identify, through a scientific study using

Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the experiential state of the San Antonio Bakery, and the effect of generated

factors on the dimensions of an experientially conceptualized offer. It is found that humanistic contexts

influence considerably on affective, intellectual and behavioral experiences of customers, and that

mechanical contexts influences considerably on sensorial and affective experiences.

1 INTRODUCTION

Experience is a concept defined from the point-of-

view of the individual or the consumer. Pine and

Gilmore (1999) indicate that experience is a reaction

that presents as a consequence of stimulus. Thus,

companies have been changing their traditional

marketing focus, from providing functional benefits

in their products, to an experiential marketing focus

of providing experiences in their products or

services. Reasons for this change include the

omnipresence of information technologies,

supremacy of brands and ubiquity of

communications (Schmitt, 1999). Studies conducted

by Schmitt (1999) reveal that lived experiences can

be identified in 5 modules: sensorial, affective,

intelectual, behavioral and social, which are

produced by stimuli through media, visual and

verbal identification, product presence, etc.

In order to face this new way the consumer

perceives value, companies need to modify their

operations strategy. In such way, Carbone and

Haeckel (1994) make use of the principles of

Experiential Engineering for the design of

experiences related to the product, service and

environment, which are centralized in humanistic

and mechanical contexts.

For this paper the “San Antonio” Bakery was

chosen, which manages a network of stores in four

representative districts of Lima, Peru, and whose

service offer is well-recognized by customers who

have bought from there at least once. Therefore, is it

possible for “San Antonio” to offer high levels of

perceived experience by customers? What are the

most recognized dimensions by customers? What

types of experiences do customers live in every

offered context?

The goal of this paper is to carry out a scientific

study regarding the concept of experience, using the

measurement scale of consumption experience

proposed by Schmitt (1999) and proved by Chang

and Chieng (2006). Also to test and validate the

concept of consumption experience and to identify

factors those have an impact on the dimension of

experience, by using the Structural Equation Model

(Confirmatory factor analysis and Structural

regression).

480

Guerrero Camacho E. and Huamán Ramirez R..

EXPERIENTIAL STATE AND EFFECT OF FACTORS ON THE DIMENSIONS OF OFFER IN A SERVICE COMPANY - Using Conﬁrmatory Factor

Analysis: A Five Factor Model.

DOI: 10.5220/0003762504800483

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES-2012), pages 480-483

ISBN: 978-989-8425-97-3

 2012 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Experience

Experience occurs inside of individuals, as it is

simply the reaction to external events (Pine and

Gilmore, 1999). These reactions range from

sensorial, affective, intellectual, to behavioral and

social (Schmitt, 1999). Brakus et al. (2009) in their

studies show that the concept of experience can be

defined in three basic aspects:

 Experience of Products or Services: it

occurs when the consumer looks for the

product and examines it, this experience can

be direct, through physical contact or indirect

through advertisement or virtually. What is

sought in the consumer is to identify

purchasing behavior and purchase intentions.

 Purchasing Experience: it occurs when

consumers interact with the store’s physical

environment, staff and policies. What is

sought here is how the relation with

salespeople and environment influences the

customers’ feelings, attitudes towards brands

and satisfaction.

 Consumption Experience: it occurs when the

product or service is consumed. Consumption

experiences are multidimensional and include

hedonic dimensions, such as feelings,

fantasies and fun (Holbrook and Hirschman,

1982). This type of experience happens in

many environments, especially when

consumption of the products is carried out

during or after the purchase.

These stimuli constitute a source of subjective

information about consumers called “Consumption

experience” evoking responses from consumers,

that can be internal (sensorial, affective, intellectual)

and external (behavioral and social).

Intensities exist in consumption experience,

some can be positive while others negative. Also,

some experiences occur spontaneously and without

much thought, while others are lived in a more

conscious manner.

2.2 Dimensions of Consumption

Experience

Schmitt (1999) mentions that the achievement of

defining the dimensions of experience is the result of

conjoint work between philosophers, cognitive

scientists and management experts, and is explained

below:

 Sensorial: It’s the module that appeals to the

senses in order to create sensorial experiences

through sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.

Marketing of the senses has the potential to

differentiate companies and brands,

motivating customers and adding value to

products through esthetics and emotion.

 Affective: It refers to creating emotions inside

consumers, which range from slightly positive

mood to strong emotions like pride or joy

linked to brands. Companies need to identify

which stimuli triggers specific feelings, and

consequently captivate consumer empathy.

 Intellectual: It refers to identifying the

knowledge of individuals or consumers with

the purpose of creating memorable

experiences. Thoughts appeal to the attraction

of convergent and divergent thought from

consumers, via the surprise or intrigue.

 Behavioral: It refers to awakening of bodily

experiences, lifestyles and interactions. It

offers the customers diverse ways of doing

things, inspiration, emotion and behavioral

changes.

 Social: It refers to evoking sensorial,

emotional, intellectual and behavioral

responses, not limited to an individual level

but also related to the individual’s

environment or reference group.

Schmitt (1999) indicates that marketing strategies

are carried out through providers of factors of

experience to create sensorial, emotional,

intellectual, behavioral and social stimuli (Schmitt,

1999). In the factors of the experience:

 Communication factors: advertisement,

magazines, catalogs, etc.

 Product presence factors: these are related to

physical products design, packing, and who

represents them (brand character).

 Environmental space factors: These seek to

awaken the senses and emotions by the design

of an experiential environment.

 Working staff factors: These are factors that

greatly influence the consumers’ experience

since they’re in touch with the employees.

2.3 Experience Engineering

A product or service is always associated with an

experience; these can be achieved through

development of “clues” which consist of resources

that impress the rational and emotional parts of the

consumer (Carbone and Haeckel, 1994). The

authors reveal that consumers must be “bombed”

EXPERIENTIAL STATE AND EFFECT OF FACTORS ON THE DIMENSIONS OF OFFER IN A SERVICE

COMPANY - Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis: A Five Factor Model

481

highlighting the features of products and/or services

and the context through design and organization of

pictoric signals respectively, afterwards a Blueprint

analysis must be held for constructing contextual

clues (mechanical and humanic) creating finally

customer preference.

One of the principles of Experience Engineering

according to Carbone and Haeckel (1994) is the

existence of two types of contextual clues:

“Mechanical” which relate to sight, smell, taste,

color, sound, texture of things; and “Humanic”

which emanate from people. These two types have

also been defined for designing the desired behavior

of employees who meet the customer.

Experience Engineering considers the design of

contextual clues related to the product, service,

environment and performance of products or

services, where both types must be related.

3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Data Collection

A questionnaire containing two parts has been

prepared. The first part corresponds to 15 questions

from the measurement scale of consumption

experience about long-proved psychometric

properties (Schmitt, 1999; Chang and Chieng, 2006),

this scale has been established in abundant previous

research.

The second part of the questionnaire is focused

on factors that generate experience. Items have been

constructed based on experience clues (Carbone,

1994). Factors that influence experience are also

indicated (‘Name of product, shape of product or

packing, decorative style of products, tastes

(elements associated to the product that stimulate the

lived experience)’, ‘Staff who interacts with the

customer’ (courtesy, kindness)’, ‘Availability of the

menu, napkin styles, forks, spoons, etc (objects that

had contact with the customer)’, ‘Individuals from

the bakery environment (working staff that didn’t

interact with the customer)’, ‘Objects from the

bakery environment (pictures, chairs, tables,

decoration, etc.).

Every item is measured using a 7-point Likert

scale. Diverse means of data collection were

employed: field, on site, by telephone and mail. The

questionnaire was carried out in Lima, Peru during

the month of July, 2011.

The simple consists of clients from both genders

where 48% are male and 52% are female with an

average age between 26 and 34 years old.

3.2 Data Analysis

Analysis of this study has been carried out using

SPSS and AMOS which imply two main statistical

procedures: (1) Confirmatory Factor Analysis in

order to validate the psychometric properties of the

dimensions of consumption experience; and (2)

Structural Regressions in order to identify the impact

of factors on consumption experience.

Specifically, Confirmatory Factor Analysis

(CFA) is a statistical procedure that allows proving

whether the measures of a construction are

consistent with the understanding of the researcher

about the nature of the construction. CFA is a

derivate of the Structural Equations Model (SEM)

used to validate the quantity of factors or dimensions

of a concept under study. By building the

measurements model the researcher uses two

different types of variables, called exogenous and

endogenous.

Parting from the collection of data, lambda

coefficients are calculated, where the value of their

T-test (CR) must be greater than 1,96 in order to be

significant. Good fitting of the measurement model

corresponds to knowing whether an approximation

from the observed value to the calculated value

exists. This calculated value is determined by the

maximum verisimilitude. The index that better

shows the fitting of the model is that of RMSEA,

which must be smaller than 0,1.

For the internal validity of the measurement

scale, a Joreskog coefficient is used. Also, in order

to demonstrate the effect of a certain variable over

another one, Structural Regressions will be

employed, where this will be demonstrated based on

the effect of a latent variable over another one.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Experiential Value of Consumption

in the “San Antonio” Bakery

The experience lived by the consumers of “San

Antonio” bakery is relatively intense (5,15). The

results indicate that the sample, consisting of 157

consumers, gives similar results for all dimensions

of lived experience, with slight prominence of the

affective and social dimensions (Sensorial (4,49),

Affective (4,63), Intellectual (4,14), Behavorial

(4,14), Social (4,65); FacProMec (5,05), FacSerMec

(5,26), FacSerHum (5,19), FacEnyMec (5,12),

FacEnvHum (4,94)). Factors that have generated

intense experiences have significant value as stimuli

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482

that will allow the consumer to live memorable

moments or events.

4.2 Psychometric Quality Test of

Measurement Instruments

Remaining values are analyzed, and then they are

replaced with the average of the other values inside

each variable. Immediately a Confirmatory Factor

Analysis is carried out for the data since we based

the study on an already proven scale. We used the

method from the Structural Equation Model in order

to perform analysis of the data. The test was carried

out using the 5 dimensions of the 157 consumer’s

sample. The results of analysis show that the 5-

dimensional model is acceptable (RMSEA = 0,087 <

0,01). Different fitting indexes are satisfactory (Chi

2 Normalized = 2,17 < 3). Structural coefficients are

all significant and standardized coefficients show

robust. In the end, the model retains every item of

the measurement scale proposed by B. Schmitt

(1999). Non-standardized structural coefficients are

all significantly different from zero.

The conclusion is that, in the end, we retain this

5-dimensional model for further analysis of

psychometric quality and factorial structure.

4.3 Test of Effect of Factors on

Consumption Experience

Factors that influence significantly the dimensions

of consumption experience are the humanic and

mechanical factors of the environment. Specifically,

the humanic factor of the environment influences

significantly the affective, intellectual and

behavioral experiences, and in the same fashion the

mechanical factor of the environment influences

significantly on the sensorial and affective

experiences.

5 CONCLUSIONS

It has been demonstrated that the experiential state

of the “San Antonio” Bakery shows a positive nature

according to average consumer perception.

It is also demonstrated that the 5-dimensional

model proposed by B. Schmitt (1999) is completely

valid for the study.

The humanic factor influences significantly over

affective (t = 2,166 > 1,96; p = 0,3), intellectual (t =

2,612; p = 0,09 ) and behavioral (t = 2,599; p =

0,009) experiences; and the Mechanical Factor

influences over sensorial (t = 2,140; p = 0,32) and

affective (t = 2,317; p = 0,21) experiences, since the

value of P is smaller than 0.05, rejecting the null

hypothesis. With these results the company might

carry out improvements in the offering of its service

and boost its service in accordance to the type of

experience lived by a specific segment of customers.

REFERENCES

Brakus, J. Josko; Schmitt, Bernd, y Zarantonello Lia.

“Brand Experience: What is it? How is measured?

Does it affect loyalty?” Journal of Marketing. Vol. 73

(2009): 52-68.

Carbone, Lewis; Haeckel, Stephan. “Engineering

Customer Experiences” Marketing Management. Vol.

3, N° 3 (1994): 8-19.

Chang P. L. et Chieng M. H. (2006), “Building Consumer-

Brand Relationship: A cross-cultural experiential

view”, Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 23 (11),

November 2006, pp. 927-959.

Holbrook, M., Hirschman C. “The Experiential Aspects of

Consumption: Consumer Fantasies, Feelings, and

Fun,” Journal of Consumer Research, (1982): 132–

140.

Pine, Joseph; Gilmore, James. The experience Economy.

Boston, Massachusetts. Harvard Business Schools

Press, 1999.

Schmitt, Bernd. “Experiential Marketing” Journal of

Marketing Management. Vol. 15 (1999): 53-67.

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