Extraordinary consumer experiences: Why immersion and transformation cause trouble

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses how consumers are transformed in and out of immersion during extraordinary, long-lasting wilderness canoeing experiences. Based on a hermeneutic multi-phase empirical approach we show how extraordinary experiences can be dynamic, multi-faceted and emergent. The positive connotations of prior research are questioned as we find that consumers face various paradoxes and ambiguities throughout the various consumption phases. While a major part of research today focuses on the co-creation efforts of consumers when they combine various on-site resource of experiencescapes, our findings point to the importance of understanding consumer resources. The distinction held between the ordinary-extraordinary does not hold within the present context, and we discuss how role conflicts may influence transformation and immersion during consumption of experiences.

How Can Consumer Research Contribute to Increased Understanding of Tourist Experiences? A Conceptual Review

“…Currently, the idea of home as a stable, private or familiar place still seems to dominate although a more portable, nomadic notion also may exist (Bardhi & Askegaard, 2009). It is also recognized that the tourist may alternate between competing roles (Lindberg & Østergaard, 2015) and different bodily and mental presence during a travel or at the stay in a destination (Bauman, 2000;Urry & Larsen, 2011). This also supports the assumption of liquid frontiers between what can be identified as home and strangerhood as well as "postmodern" mobility traits (Baumann, 2000;Lash & Urry, 1994) with implications for tourists' various ways of accessing different "strangerhood experience arenas".…”

“…A travel occurs as just one of several arenas for experiences in a person's life and the influences one is exposed to after returning back from the travel will continue to form the experiences through various sources of influence (Jantzen, 2013;Pearce, 2011). In a mental sense the tourist will be transformed during the process of travelling as moving between (in and out of) the home environment and strangerhood, and the role performance will vary depending on how one copes with the tourist situation (Lindberg & Østergaard, 2015). Among the central aspects of consumer research is how the consumer searches for meaning in encounters and incidents in the consumption process and how s/he tries to interpret the environment related to her/his own role and position in the actual experience process.…”

The appropriation cycle: novice and expert consumers

“…[ Figure 1 Here] First, in response to the debate regarding the relevance of the appropriation process in the consumption practices of novice or expert art consumers (Lindberg and Østergaard, 2015), the study empirically illustrates that consumers' field-dependent cultural capital plays a significant role in shaping the appropriation cycles and thus, in the process of accessing and interpreting an aesthetic experience. This contribution extends prior consumer research on the appropriation process and consumption of art experiences by directly linking the appropriation practices with consumers' cultural capital.…”

“…Our theory building efforts are demonstrated in enriching the appropriation process and its cycles (e.g. Carù and Cova, 2006;Lindberg and Østergaard, 2015) through the integration of the role of consumers' cultural capital in shaping their appropriation practices and sense-making responses (Flyvbjerg, 2006).…”

“…Our research is informed by this conflict and investigates the appropriation process of both groups of consumers (novice and expert) to provide a deeper and more relevant understanding of the appropriation practices and consumers' sense-making activities (Lindberg and Østergaard, 2015). It concentrates on the role of consumers' cultural capital in accessing and interpreting the aesthetic context and content using an exhibition of Miró artworks as the vehicle of study.…”