Lecture 6 human experiences PDF

Preview

Summary

Lecture Notes ...

Description

Lecture 6: Human Experiences & Design Management • • • • • •

Entanglement: Understand the relationship between human & things. Understand the concept of human experiences through multiple perspectives. Experience Economy & Experiential Marketing. Critique on the concepts of consumer experiences from a cultural perspective. Experience Design: focus on aesthetics & emotions. Design management contribution to holistic human experiences.

Human-Things Relationship - Importance  “…It is accepted that human existence and human social life depend on material things…We can say that we humans depend on things as technologies, that we depend on things as tools to feed us, to keep us warm, to forge social relations in exchange, to worship. Many would accept that as humans we have evolved with certain physical and cognitive capacities because of our dependence on things (Hodder, 2012: 16-17). Defining Things & Objects • Things: entities that exist as contained & defined in a certain way, at least for temporal moments - words, thoughts, institutions, events, and objects. • “Create bundles of presence or duration in the continual flows of matter, energy and information. Just by having duration and presence we say they are things” • Things & Objects – synonymous? - Both have a certain configuration. • Objects tend to signify a more ‘stable’ configuration. • Things are more evolving & transforming - brought together for a period of time. • Things - extremely important for human development – human dependence. • Not all things are objects, objects are all things ENTANGLEMENT: Hodder’s Theory Entanglement = (HT) + (HH) + (TT) + (TH) Humans depend on things (HT) + Humans depend other humans (HH) + Things depend on other things (TT) + Things depend on humans (TH) Humans depend on things (HT)  Dependence (plural: dependences) o More general focus - views the human use of things as enabling. o Depend on things to carry out tasks, the thing allows you to do something o Using things, allows us to live, socialise, eat, think, move etc. o People “depend on things, both in the sense of relying on things and in the sense of being contingent on the particular things relied upon”  Dependency (plural: dependencies) o Involves a form of constraint. o Become over dependant on things e.g. our phones o Limits people’s abilities to develop & progress

Things depend on other things (TT) & (TH) things depend on humans  Things Depend on Things (TT) o Small components can influence the function of entire structures. o Example: small metal bolt on a sail boat  Things Depend on Humans (TH) o Most things are made by humans (designers & manufacturers). o Things depend on humans to use them, repair them, and discard them. o Assumption that objects are more static than other things - not entirely static! o Objects change with time & have a direct impact on human lives o Things’ dependence on humans - things fall apart - things draw humans into their care! o Things draw people in through the different stages of human use of materials. Entanglements - Dialectic Relationships of Dependence and Dependency • “There is thus a dialectic relationship between dependence, often productive and enabling, and dependency, often constraining and limiting” Hodder • Concept of entanglement bridges the divide between materialism & social construction e.g. buildings in bath – given the object extra value • Allows “a materialism but embedded within the social, the historical, and the contingent”. • No classification of entanglements. • Localised & open-ended – flows of matter, energy & information. Entanglements – Technological Complexity < emotional importance • Some things require more human investment & and more involvement from others. • Degree of entanglement with technological complexity. • What about social or emotional entanglements? • Some objects: simpler in material but higher in emotional or social importance (gifts?). • Entanglement is both material and immaterial. Material is a good starting point for evaluating entanglement – but not the whole picture • If something means more to you, it has more entanglement value HUMAN EXPERIENCES Human Experiences - Phenomenal Nature (Coxon, 2015)  Phenomenal means ‘our’ way of experiencing • Relationship between environment & humans: reciprocal - virtuous or vicious cycle. • Human experiences mediated by things around us. • Our understanding of conscious life - created through our phenomenal way of being in / of experiencing the world around us. • The way you interpret the world around you depend on YOU. Why? Opinion based on life experiences so far interpreted through filters (social and cultural). • Our ‘phenomenal view of the world’ also called our ‘baggage’ we carry

Human Experiences - Etymological Understanding – 3 Types of Experiences:

1. Conscious experience: getting married, graduating, having a baby 2. Everyday: walking to uni, going to work 3. Life experiences: all experiences so far that influence your world view  C.A: design directly influences BOTH conscious and everyday experiences  C.A: design indirectly influences life experiences Human Experiences - Unity & Uniqueness  Experiences as Units (Dewey, 1934) o Identify experiences as units – define beginning & end. o Helps to understand & evaluate nature of experiences e.g. ‘lecture’ experience  Uniqueness of Experiences (Coxon, 2015) o Time & context render every experience different despite some degree of similarity. o An individual cannot have same experience twice. o Experiences are unique between people – no two people can have same experience. o Same for customers (Pine II and Gilmore) = difficult to create a consistent brand Human Experiences – Intensity  Authentic Experiences: o Moments where we are most at home with ourselves o Individuals are aware of surroundings and selves  Inauthentic Experience o In our more usual normal, everyday moments o ‘zoned out’ or ‘lost’ • Both facets always exist simultaneously (not separate facets) • Need balance of both – • Just unauthentic: living like robots (unaware of emotions) • Just authentic: stressful and tiring (aware of emotions)

Experiences Applied: The Experience Economy • While commodities are fungible, goods tangible, and services are intangible, experiences are memorable! • Company’s ‘stage’ their experiences. • It no longer offers goods or services alone but the resulting experience rich with sensations created within the customers. • Prior economic offerings remain outside the buyer - experiences are personal! • No two people have the same experience. • Individual personal experience: a result of interaction between the brand & the individual’s frame of mind. • C.A: Some argue that the ‘experience economy’ fails to offer a clear picture of the numerical scale of the experience or empirical evidence for the very fundamental claim that economies are now entering a new stage of economic offerings. In actual fact, E.E is only a small part. • C.A: others believe the E.E is just another way of marketing goods and services. Experience Marketing (Schmitt, 1999) • Experiential marketing goes beyong product or service features and benefits, and focuses on experiences that provide sensory, emotional, cognitive, behavioural and relational values. • Customers want to be stimulated, entertained, educated & challenged. • Brands that provide them with experiences & thus become part of their lives. Experience Marketing vs. Experience Economy





While in the experience economy the organisation stages experiences as its offerings, experiential marketing explores how an organisation can ‘experientially market’ products and services. Experiential value doesn’t lie in the product or service, it lies in the process of marketing these products and services – this is where the value is born.

Experiential vs. Traditional Marketing Traditional Marketing • Focus on functional features & benefits. • Product category & competition are narrowly defined. • Customers are viewed as rational decision makers. • Methods and tools are analytical, quantitative and verbal

Experiential Marketing • Focus on customer experiences. • Examining the consumption situation. • Customers are rational & emotional animals. • Methods and tools are eclectic.

Strategic Experiential Modules (SEMs) – (Schmitt, 1999) • SENSE: • appeal to the five senses with the objective of creating sensory experiences through sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. • FEEL: • appeal to customer’s inner feelings & emotions with the objective of creating affective experiences. • THINK: • appeal to customer’s intellect with the objective of creating cognitive, problem-solving experiences that engage customers creatively. • ACT: • aim to affect and enhance physical experiences, lifestyles, and interactions (demonstrate alternative ways of doing things). • RELATE: • contain aspects of the above but expand beyond personal private feelings, relate the individual to his / her ideal self, other people, or cultures & create brand communities. Experience Providers (ExPros) ) – (Schmitt, 1999) • Communications: advertising, annual reports and publications. • Visual and Verbal Identity: names, logos and signage. • Product Presence: product design, packaging and brand characters (Service: Service design). • Co-branding: events & sponsorship and product placement. • Spatial Environments: building & exhibition design. • Websites & Electronic Media: websites & digital marketing (and social media). • People: the organisations’ employees and partners. SEMs + ExPros = Holistic Brand Experience Experience Design - Power & Potential • Should not break down experience into these constituent components. • Need of understanding & designing experiences of complex combinations of objects, services, spaces, and information.

Sensory Experiences: Expressions / Impressions Framework

- brand image and brand identity are NOT the same thing

Sensory Experiences - Identity Elements Mix Four major expression components of identity management (analogy to Marketing Mix): • Properties: buildings, offices, retail spaces, and company vehicles. • Products: Sensory aspects or attributes of the product or service. • Presentations: • Surroundings of the product: packaging, labelling & tags. • Surroundings of the service: shopping bags, place settings & the appearance of employees. • Publications: promotional materials, advertising, business cards, stationery. • EXAMPLE: Adidas – property (stores), products (shoes), presentations (packaging) and publications (adverts on TV). Sensory Experiences - Primary Elements… • Aesthetic elements are created through primary elements, styles and themes. • Primary Elements relate to the five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. • They are the building blocks of style.  Shapes o Visual symbols – important sources of global identity. o Shapes cross cultural boundaries with ease. o Shapes can imitate specific objects. o Key dimensions that lead to specific associations. o Angularity (masculine/fem), symmetry = better looking, proportion and size.  Colours o Pervades Brand Identity! o Colours can be legally protected. o Can be used to separate product lines into subcategories. o Provide differentiation - stand out. E.g. Apple o Have specific associations – saturation, brightness and hues

 Typefaces (font) o A typeface is composed of shape, colour & material. o Consider separately & together. o Infinite variety & convey infinite images. o Add representational qualities directly to words which already convey meaning.  Sounds o Enhance identity or Identity-creating elements. o Jingles, voiceovers, and background music. o Easier to change & less costly / Variable & changing - a flexible creative device. o Background sound: micro-activity (Burrows, 1990): Relax, hurry, happy, sad  Materials & Textures o Create a certain ‘feel’ for the product. o Important sources of identity: print communications, packaging, product design, office exteriors & interiors, company uniforms. o Associations: warmth, strength & naturalness. o Apply equally to: materials and pictures & drawings of the materials & their patterns.  Scents o Smell = most powerful of all senses! o Scents are ubiquitous - they are everywhere! o Identity creators or subtle identity enhancers like background sound / music. o Different reactions to certain smells between males & females.

Style - Definitions & Functions What is style? • “The constant form - and sometimes the constant elements and expression - in the art of an individual or a group” (Shapiro, 1953). • Used in a variety of disciplines: from art history & literature to design. Function of style: • Create brand awareness & Cause intellectual & emotional associations. • Differentiate products & services / help customers categorise them. • Subcategorise variations of product within product lines. • Fine-tune the marketing mix across target segments. • Beautify, create pleasure, relaxation, reduce stress & facilitate socialisation. Creating Style - Synesthesia  Primary elements combined constitute a style.  ‘Synesthesia’ is the stimulation of one sense by another sense.  Greek - Synesthesia = syn (together) + aisthanesthai (perceive).  Synesthesia creates a Holistic result.

Styles & Themes • Messages - communicate content & meaning, projected image of identity. • Cultural signs & symbols to express brand characteristics. • Provide mental anchors, reference points and memory cues. • Reference points: allow customers to place a brand in a wider context & distinguish. • Names, jingles, narratives, slogans. • Used as expressions of brand mantra. • Repeated (to be embedded in customer’s memory). • Adapted over time (to avoid appearing dated). EXPERIENCES: Think Experiences • Think marketing aims to encourage customers to engage in elaborative & creative thinking that may result in a re-evaluation of the brand. • Guide ‘paradigm shifts’ - rethink old assumptions & expectations. • Individuals engage into two different types of thinking (Guilford, 1950): • Convergent thinking: narrowing the mental focus until it converges on a solution. (directional think campaigns) • Divergent thinking: broadening the mental focus in many different directions. (Associative think campaigns) • Objectives: 1. Surprise: depart from common expectations (more or different) 2. Intrigue: arise customer’s curiosity, puzzle, fascinate, challenge deeply held assumptions. 3. Provocation: stimulate discussion, create controversy or shock. • C.A: Must still link to brand – example: United Colours of Benetton Think Experience – Example: Nike  Emotional Experiences • Aim to attach affect to the brand/product via ExPros. • Have to understand how to create feeling during consumption experience. Affective experiences • Moods: light, positive, negative or neutral, often unspecific. • Feelings & emotions: strong, positive or negative, meaningful, triggered by events, agents and objects. • Basic emotions: positive (e.g. joy) and negative (e.g. anger, disgust, sadness). • Complex emotions: e.g. nostalgia – both positive and negative

•

In consumption situations, face-to face interactions are the most important cause of strong feelings..

Emotional Experiences - Typology of Consumer Emotions

Properties of Objects & Experiences - Synergies

Experience Concepts  A Cultural Critique (C.A) • An experience is a subjective process - phenomenal nature of experiences. • Organisations cannot offer experiences but experiential platforms/context - “devices and stimuli that consumers mobilize to realise their own experiences” (Carù and Cova, 2012: 165).  Three Qualities – Experiential Context 1. Enclavisation - experience must be ‘enclavised’ within specific boundaries -the customer enters a separate world of entertainment – escaping.

2. Security - experiential context needs to be secure & closely monitored in order to remove the customers’ need to pay attention to themselves & their possessions 3. Thematisation - context must be thematised. A theme can be an activity, era, region, population, or any combination of these elements and must be very distinctive Continuum of Experiences - Experience Constructor  A cultural approach of experiences indicates a ‘continuum of experiences’ that customers go through, which of course can be associated with certain marketing activities: o C.A: one could argue that companies can create organisations that take place in the home e.g. shower gel

Design Management & Experiences Synergies • “…design is an unequivocal source of differentiation and has become a key element for branding; not only because aesthetically pleasing products and services better compete for consumer’s short attention span, but also because design may serve as the cohesive factor for all elements that configure a brand experience” (2007: 829). • Design(Management) - leading role in creating & managing coherence within portfolio of meanings of a brand (Montaña et al, 2007) • Relationship - reciprocal – both benefit from each other....