IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jconsa/v54y2020i3p978-1001.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Want to make me happy? Tell me about your experiences but not your objects

Author

Listed:
  • Wilson Bastos

Abstract

Evidence indicates that experiences bring greater benefits to consumers than objects. Extending this research beyond the actual purchaser, this work examines individuals who experience the purchase only indirectly via a conversation—listeners. It explores how conversations about experiential versus material purchases affect listeners socially and emotionally. Results show that hearing about others' experiences (vs. objects) advances listeners' happiness more. This finding shows that the scope of experiential purchases' advantage is wider than previously known. Further, this work identifies a sequential mechanism: Conversations about experiences (vs. objects) are more substantive, allowing listeners to build stronger social connections with tellers and, in turn, gain more happiness from the interaction. Critically, this mechanism explains the effect above and beyond a previously‐advanced mechanism via perceived motivation. Additionally, this work identifies a boundary of the model: purchase valence. Theoretical and practical implications for managers, consumers, and policymakers are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Wilson Bastos, 2020. "Want to make me happy? Tell me about your experiences but not your objects," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 978-1001, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:54:y:2020:i:3:p:978-1001
    DOI: 10.1111/joca.12321
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12321
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/joca.12321?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer J. Argo & Katherine White & Darren W. Dahl, 2006. "Social Comparison Theory and Deception in the Interpersonal Exchange of Consumption Information," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(1), pages 99-108, June.
    2. Sarah G. Moore, 2012. "Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid: How Word of Mouth Influences the Storyteller," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(6), pages 1140-1154.
    3. Arnould, Eric J & Price, Linda L, 1993. "River Magic: Extraordinary Experience and the Extended Service Encounter," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 20(1), pages 24-45, June.
    4. Bastos, Wilson, 2020. "“Speaking of Purchases”: How Conversational Potential Determines Consumers' Willingness to Exert Effort for Experiential Versus Material Purchases," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-16.
    5. Rajesh Iyer & James A. Muncy, 2016. "Attitude toward Consumption and Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 48-67, March.
    6. Bastos, Wilson & Barsade, Sigal G., 2020. "A new look at employee happiness: How employees’ perceptions of a job as offering experiences versus objects to customers influence job-related happiness," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 176-187.
    7. Wilson Bastos & Merrie Brucks, 2017. "How and Why Conversational Value Leads to Happiness for Experiential and Material Purchases," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(3), pages 598-612.
    8. Jonah Berger & Raghuram Iyengar, 2013. "Communication Channels and Word of Mouth: How the Medium Shapes the Message," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(3), pages 567-579.
    9. Kaplan, Andreas M. & Haenlein, Michael, 2010. "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 59-68, January.
    10. Leonardo Nicolao & Julie R. Irwin & Joseph K. Goodman, 2009. "Happiness for Sale: Do Experiential Purchases Make Consumers Happier than Material Purchases?," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 188-198.
    11. Veenhoven, Ruut, 2007. "Measures of Gross National Happiness," MPRA Paper 11280, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Rik Pieters, 2013. "Bidirectional Dynamics of Materialism and Loneliness: Not Just a Vicious Cycle," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(4), pages 615-631.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bastos, Wilson & Moore, Sarah G., 2021. "Making word-of-mouth impactful: Why consumers react more to WOM about experiential than material purchases," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 110-123.
    2. Bastos, Wilson & Barsade, Sigal G., 2020. "A new look at employee happiness: How employees’ perceptions of a job as offering experiences versus objects to customers influence job-related happiness," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 176-187.
    3. S. Venus Jin & Ehri Ryu, 2022. "“The greedy I that gives”—The paradox of egocentrism and altruism: Terror management and system justification perspectives on the interrelationship between mortality salience and charitable donations ," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 414-448, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bastos, Wilson & Moore, Sarah G., 2021. "Making word-of-mouth impactful: Why consumers react more to WOM about experiential than material purchases," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 110-123.
    2. Bastos, Wilson & Barsade, Sigal G., 2020. "A new look at employee happiness: How employees’ perceptions of a job as offering experiences versus objects to customers influence job-related happiness," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 176-187.
    3. Wilson Bastos & Merrie Brucks, 2017. "How and Why Conversational Value Leads to Happiness for Experiential and Material Purchases," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(3), pages 598-612.
    4. Bastos, Wilson, 2020. "“Speaking of Purchases”: How Conversational Potential Determines Consumers' Willingness to Exert Effort for Experiential Versus Material Purchases," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-16.
    5. Chaplin, Lan Nguyen & Lowrey, Tina M. & Ruvio, Ayalla A. & Shrum, L.J. & Vohs, Kathleen D., 2020. "Age differences in children's happiness from material goods and experiences: The role of memory and theory of mind," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 572-586.
    6. Bogner, Anna, 2023. "Memory asymmetries in experiential and material purchases: The role of self-expression," Junior Management Science (JUMS), Junior Management Science e. V., vol. 8(1), pages 163-187.
    7. Ma, Jianfeng & Tu, Hongwei & Zhang, Pan & Fan, Lele & Cheng, Bao & Ma, Jie, 2021. "Can work–family conflict influence purchase preference? Experiential vs. material consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 620-632.
    8. Jurewicz., Zuzanna & Goode, Miranda R. & Thomson, Matthew, 2024. "A tonic for the highly stressed: Memories of extraordinary group experiences lead to greater cohesion and well-being," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    9. Chen, Siyun & Kou, Sining & Lv, Linxiang, 2024. "Stand out or fit in: Understanding consumer minimalism from a social comparison perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    10. Choung, Youngjoo & Pak, Tae-Young & Chatterjee, Swarn, 2021. "Consumption and Life Satisfaction: The Korean Evidence," MPRA Paper 115765, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Milanova, Veselina & Maas, Peter, 2017. "Sharing intangibles: Uncovering individual motives for engagement in a sharing service setting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 159-171.
    12. Garner, Benjamin & Thornton, Corliss & Luo Pawluk, Anita & Mora Cortez, Roberto & Johnston, Wesley & Ayala, Cesar, 2022. "Utilizing text-mining to explore consumer happiness within tourism destinations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1366-1377.
    13. Kumar, Ajay & Paul, Justin & StarÄ ević, SlaÄ‘ana, 2021. "Do brands make consumers happy?- A masstige theory perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    14. Jaspers, Esther, 2018. "Opening up on consumer materialism," Other publications TiSEM a21cb1c8-5af1-46cc-9ea0-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Iñigo Gallo & Chadwick J Miller & Nasir Haghighi & Thomas D. Gilovich, 2024. "The differential impact of uncertainty on the evaluation of material and experiential purchases," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 187-203, June.
    16. Joseph K Goodman & Selin A Malkoc & Mosi Rosenboim, 2019. "The Material-Experiential Asymmetry in Discounting: When Experiential Purchases Lead to More Impatience," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 46(4), pages 671-688.
    17. Martina Toni & Maria Francesca Renzi & Laura Di Pietro & Roberta Guglielmetti Mugion & Giovanni Mattia, 2021. "The Relation between Collaborative Consumption and Subjective Well-Being: An Analysis of P2P Accommodation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-17, May.
    18. Kemper, Joya A. & Bai, Xue & Zhao, Fang & Chiew, Tung Moi & Septianto, Felix & Seo, Yuri, 2022. "Sharing luxury possessions in the age of digital experience economy: Consumption type and psychological entitlement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 875-885.
    19. Park, Joowon & Banker, Sachin & Masters, Tamara & Yu-Buck, Grace, 2023. "Person vs. purchase comparison: how material and experiential purchases evoke consumption-related envy in others," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    20. Jordan W. Moffett & Judith Anne Garretson Folse & Robert W. Palmatier, 2021. "A theory of multiformat communication: mechanisms, dynamics, and strategies," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 441-461, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:54:y:2020:i:3:p:978-1001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-0078 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.