Expand Experiences by Inspiring Intimacy

Would diners at your restaurant be more willing to tolerate longer wait times when accompanied by a close friend than if dining alone? Yes, for a number of reasons. The reason experimentally supported by studies at Texas A&M University, Harvard University, and University of Maryland is that consumers are attracted to the opportunity to create shared memories of experiences.
     Marketers can make an otherwise less-favorable experience more attractive by providing for physical togetherness with a relationship partner. In one of the studies, a participant was more likely to choose two free adjacent Cirque du Soleil tickets in row 55 than two free non-adjacent tickets in row 10 when the companion was a close friend rather than a casual acquaintance. Those participants imagining they were accompanied by a close friend reported placing more importance on the ability to create shared memories.
     This shared-memory effect is stronger regarding hedonic experiences—those in which pleasure comes from the experience itself—than regarding utilitarian experiences—where the pleasure comes from the outcome. In another of the studies, participants were asked to assume they were spending a week in Barcelona with a romantic partner and were offered a free upgrade to first-class on a train to Figueres. But the two partners would need to sit eleven rows apart rather than together, as with their coach seats. Then for some of the participants, the ride was described as an interesting narrated tour. For the other participants, the ride was described as not having much to see along the way.
     Participants in the second group expressed a greater interest in the free upgrade and also said they’d care less about creating shared memories.
     The researchers also find that the attractiveness of an experience can be increased by pointing out to the consumer how shared memories can be created even when the participants do not live through the experience physically together. This is useful to marketers because shoppers are going solo in life, such as choosing to live alone, but hesitate going solo to activities, since they think it wouldn’t be as much fun without a close companion.
     What goes into a customer’s memory to be shared also is affected by whether the experience is shared with others. People in a group are greatly influenced by what happens early on. First impressions set the scene. Solo consumers are more influenced by what happens to them late in their experience.

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