The Economy Experience of Country Living: Christmas FairLondon 12th -16th November 2014 venue: BDC (Business Design Center) Islington

By Tanya Barrett - email: tag0170@londonmet.ac.uk

Introduction

One of the most profound trends, in the development of events, have seen Upper Street Events embracing of the concept of “experiences” for the purpose of consumer marketing and branding.

Event experiences have been applied to events as a method of understanding more about what takes place when participants attend or engage in certain activities .(Getz, 2012 , p.197)

The principle objectivity of this research is to assess the demand for economy experiences and to understand what visitors come to experience using Pine and Gilmore’s claim that companies stage experiences whenever they engage customers to connect with them in a personal memorable way.

Method

Three-day volunteer at Country Living: Christmas Festival . A basic qualitative research using images taken on the day of the event will describe and provide meaning. This method was used to analyse the messages and explore the way in which consumers evaluated their experiences. Literacy review – an in-depth verification of existing documentation , journals and consumer magazines.

• Visited several exhibitors and stalls to observe consumers behaviour in relation to all five senses using Pine and Gilmore’s model (see figure 3)

• Observed consumer expectations in purchasing goods (figure 4)

• Investigated comparisons between dark and light stalls including display signs (see figure 6 )

Figure 2. Entrance to Auditorium

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Figure 3. Stall holder in the Auditorium

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Figure 5. Light and dark stall

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ResultsIn the food and beverages section, the experience was paramount and it was clear to see that food and meals were a central field in the communication of culture. The visual effect, taste, reflection of style and standard of service facilitated all of the senses being stimulated to create an immersive experience. However, lighting was extremely poor in these stalls/exhibits.

Figure 2 – Despite the lack of light within this area, consumers upon entry to the Auditorium, have engaged all five senses upon the sight of a colourful display of nutrition food. This creates a consistent theme for the entire economy experience. Consumption is now seen as involving a steady flow of fantasies, feelings, and fun encompassed in what is called the “experiential view” … this is now phenomenological in spirit (Morris B. Holbrook, Elizabeth C. Hirschmann) See figure 5.

Figure 3 - Observation of the consumers’ clearly demonstrated and viewed the food and beverage event as the most vibrant aspect of the event. . It is clear that emotions form an important abstract of consumption and that it is a key requirement for the successful application of experiential perspective. (M.Holbrook; E.C. Hirschman)Figure 4 – the display of this stall visually distracts and contradicts the events theme. Brand is not clearly displayed.to eliminate negative marketing service as consumers walked straight pass.Figure 6 - this display sign is placed high and is not clearly displayed. Visitors can benefit from booths with appropriate signage, video, product display and sales literature. (Bello & Lotha, 1998)

Figure 6: Entry adjacent to the Lifestyle Theatre

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Conclusion

On the basis of this observational research which has been assembled by the following steps, a conclusion and suggestion has been made. This research should provide various changes in regards to consumer habits, tastes and preferences.

It is clear from this research that events are like other service businesses; the true measure of success will be the organisation’s ability to continually satisfy customers who increasingly demand value for money (Getz, 2012).

The quality of exhibition [and] services positively affected overall visitors’ satisfaction and behavioural intentions. However developing an understanding of the wider spectrum of motives can help exhibitions and organisers to create selective advertising and marketing strategies that will appeal to both exhibitors and visitors.

However Berridge (2007, p. 121) , argues that in looking at events we need to be able to not only analyse the different component parts of an event but also the way each of them integrate to create the total event experience. These suggestions relate to the present and future sustainability of Upper Street Events.

References:

Berridge, Graham. 2007., Events Design and Experience. [online]. Routledge. Available from:<http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=74737> 21 November 2014 , chapter 6 & 7

Getz, Donald. 2012., Event Studies. [online]. Routledge. Available from:<http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=463240> 21 November 2

Various aspects of experimental experiences are discussed in academic literatures listed below:-

 Lee, Myong Jae; Lee, Sanggun,  Event Management, Volume 18, Number 3, 2014, pp. 377-386(10)PINE, B. J., & GILMORE, J. H. (2011). The experience economy. Boston, Mass, Harvard Business Review PressMartin O’Neill, Donald Getz, Jack Carlsen, (1999) "Evaluation of service quality at events: the 1998 Coca‐Cola

Masters Surfing event at Margaret River, Western Australia", Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 9 Iss: 3, pp.158 – 166

Objectives

This research aims to analyse and explore the way consumers evaluate their experience at Country Living: Christmas Fair :-

• establishing how consumers’ engage all five senses through sights, sounds, taste to heighten experience (see figure 2)

• to critically analyse the experience and social behaviour patterns, with exhibitors, when purchasing products (see figure 1)

• analyse the exhibition service marketing

This research will also put forward a small recommendation that could be implemented to ensure the organisations’ place in the United Kingdom.

London Metropolitan University

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Figure 4. Stall in Country living Mezzanine Stand