Editorial
The Gist
-
Experience drives spending. Consumers spend more on experiences like vacations and concerts because of the emotions and lasting memories they evoke, a principle known as experience economics.
-
Micro-experience economics. Brands can apply the principles of experience economics on a smaller scale through micro-experiences and create emotional connections that resonate with everyday customers.
-
AI and immersive experiences. By using AI-driven tools, brands can enhance CX with personalized and immersive digital interactions that evoke powerful emotions.
Why is it that when consumers go on vacations, they have no issue shelling out dollars to buy dinners, rounds of golf, spa visits and anything else their hearts desire? And yet, when they’re not on vacation, they watch every penny with distinctive scrutiny and observation?
Seriously, that’s a great question. As I typically do, I have opinions, and my opinions are rooted in one simple, yet important concept: Experience.
Dictionary.com defines a vacation as “a period of suspension of work, study or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation or travel; recess or holiday.”
Okay, so people like rest, recreation and travel. But why do consumers open their wallets up? What is it about a vacation that snips their purse strings and opens the flood gates of spending?
This brings me back to Taylor Swift. In a Barclays article that came out last year about her record-breaking Eras tour, Dr. Peter Brooks, chief behavioral scientist at Barclays, said that fans know that they will be making more than just friendship bracelets when they buy a ticket to see Swift. “For Eras Tour ticketholders, every pound they spend is an investment in the memories they’ll create,” he said.
Another real world example of this in action are the various country (not brand) engagements setup around SXSW this week in Austin Texas. The UK, Dubai, Brazil, Australia – all have house brand engagements setup around the city. Why? Simple, they all realize SXSW attendees come from all over, and regardless of if someone has visited their country before and they want to drum up some past memories, or stir up desire to make new memories – experiences and connection are so 2025.
Eighty-six percent of consumers are willing to spend more on experiences. That brings me to an important concept called experience economics.
Table of Contents
- How Experience Economics Drives Consumer Spending
- Transforming Customer Interactions with Experience Economics
How Experience Economics Drives Consumer Spending
Coined in 1998 by economists B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, experience economics is rooted in the idea that brands can attract customers through experiences that evoke strong feelings and create lasting impressions
Why are some people willing to spend $1,500 to see Taylor Swift? Why not! And that’s the point; experience economics is grounded in the fact that consumers will save, spend and seek experiences that make them feel connected and evoke the emotions to make them feel truly alive. This is incredibly important for brands to understand in 2025. If you can make a consumer feel, you can build a connection that will last a lifetime.
But customers won’t shell out $1,500 every week on experiences. So how can brands apply this same methodology to their everyday operations and customer interactions?
Let me explain something I like to call “micro-experience economics,” which takes the Eras Tour effect and applies it to the interactions that brands can build and share with customers on a daily basis.
Instead of explaining how this is done, I figured it would be best to give you, my readers, an experience. I’ll show you where this is happening today and how you can apply these ideas to your business.
Let’s explore two examples that I really like:
Let’s Get Saucy With KFC
Kentucky Fried Chicken has reimagined chicken (and sauce) in a bold, unrecognizable way. In December of 2024, KFC launched a new concept called Saucy focused on pulling in younger generations to their stores. How? Through experiences.
This new concept is targeted at Gen Z and offers up a fun, fresh vibe that inspires youngsters to explore various sauce options, take photos and share what they’re doing.
Saucy also encourages customers to stay and hang out. They’re building on the idea that food can also be an experience that is enjoyed among friends and family. Bringing people together and letting the food be the conduit of emotion, feelings and connection helps the brand connect with customers on a humanistic level.
Here’s some advice for your brand. Build on what’s traditional and find ways to use your core products. At the same time, look for opportunities to connect with new generations of customers who may not be familiar with your brand. Look to what’s been traditional, and find ways to leverage what you already have as core products but look for ways to align to new generations of customers who maybe haven’t heard of you. What will they care about? How will you talk to them in ways that feel authentic and real?
Find Your New Muse With Wayfair
Like to shop online? Like Pinterest? Want to do both? Wayfair just solved that problem with their release of an AI immersive shopping experience called Muse. Muse is a digital shopping experience that gives customers the ability to search for interior designs by typing in search terms like “Man cave ideas” or “Help me find furniture for my son's room, he’s 13 and likes cars.”
Through generative interfaces, Muse creates room visualizations and lets customers shop the look by selecting products that are shown within the images. It also gives them the ability to add to cart.
Pretty cool, huh? But they aren’t done there. Taking it a step further, you can upload a photo of your room and ask Muse to furnish it based upon your style preferences or ideas.
Immersive shopping experiences like this allow customers to essentially take ideas in their minds and put pen to paper. By allowing customers to generate ideas they can see, concepts become reality and customers can feel and see the experience that Muse creates.
If you’re like most brands, you have digital customer experiences today that could benefit from similar visualizations and features. Try to focus on product categories that customers may need additional help with and make sure your product data is clean and prepared. When it comes to anything AI, garbage in means garbage out. You must first start with your product data. If not, you’ll end up building experiences that are counterintuitive to elevated experiences, and you’ll just end up frustrating your customers.
Related Article: Retail Trends: Crafting an Adventurous Shopping Experience
Transforming Customer Interactions with Experience Economics
Both of the above examples bring micro-experience economics to mind. Yes, they require investment to develop, but their goal is to not sell $1,500 chicken tenders. Their goal is to give customers the “Taylor Swift Eras Tour” emotional experience on a smaller scale.
This is why every time you go out to dinner, you see people taking photos of their food before they eat it. It’s why people take selfies in front of destinations they travel to. We live in a time where humans want to experience, but they also want to share their experience. There’s nothing more powerful than social validation through social media posting.
Webinar
Sep
25
CMS Briefing: A Live Look at What’s Next in AI-Driven Platforms
Learn how leading organizations are using AI‑driven tools to publish faster, personalize smarter and stay secure.
Register
Webinar
Sep
25
Call Spoofing Trends Financial Institutions Can't Afford to Ignore
Don't let robocalls sabotage your customer relationships. Learn how to secure your voice channel.
Register
Webinar
On demand
Ready or Not: How Data-First Organizations Are Unlocking Agentforce Potential
Learn how to cut through the noise, activate Agentforce and build a Salesforce AI strategy that actually delivers.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
CX Reality Check: What Your Customers Are Really Thinking
Register now and get the insights you need to not just meet rising expectations, but exceed them.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Content Leaders Collective: What a Good CCMS Actually Looks Like
Discover how content leaders transform clunky systems into growth engines — and why your competitors are ahead.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
From Hype to High-Impact CX Strategies That Actually Scale
Turn buzzworthy AI and outsourcing trends into measurable CX wins with fresh 2025 data.
Watch Now
Brands today need to realize that now more than ever, consumer individualism is in, and your brand has the opportunity to cater to each customer's unique needs. As Taylor Swift once said, “People are going to judge you anyway, so you might as well do what you want.”
Don’t listen to the haters. Be bold. Be different. Above all else, make sure whatever you do, you give experiences to customers that let them feel strong emotions and express their identity through your brand and the emotional connections you create. And maybe ask them to share their experience on social media, of course.
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
