How Do You Spell Experience? Insights from the 2008 Demographic National Convention

Joseph Pine and Jim Gilmore coined the term "experience economy" to describe a paradigm shift in consumer choices (Pine and Gilmore; 1998, 1999). Experience economy, they contend, is the next economy following the agrarian economy, the industrial economy, and the most recent service economy. To survive in the new economy, businesses must provide customers with memorable customer experiences. Using the 2008 Democratic National Convention as the referent, and by means of a phenomenological approach, the authors deconstruct this landmark event to distil eight attributes that together constitute an unforgettable experience: planning, resourcing, targeting, anticipating, enabling, empathizing, framing, and engaging. They contend that commercial experience providers can substantially improve their product offering by incorporating each of these elements so as to create compelling customer experiences.