Evaluating Dance Consumption through the Experiential Value Approach
Evaluating Dance Consumption through the Experiential Value Approach

Summary/Abstract: Purpose – The experiential paradigm has been confirmed as a valuable means to explore and understand people’s consumption of cultural services, thus drawing an increasing interest in the marketing and consumer behavior literature. In this context, consumers’ behavioral decisions are considered not as merely functional but also strongly influenced by emotional dimensions and intrinsic aspects. As consumption of arts is strongly associated with feelings, the experiential approach is a valuable lens for exploring and understanding individuals who consume cultural services. This paper therefore adopts the experiential approach to assess dance as a consumption experience, which is meant to be inter-subjective, i.e. different by demographic profiles. In particular, it analyzes the habits (frequency of attendance, sources of information, motives, and barriers) and attitudes (perceived value and intention) of people towards dance shows, considering different demographic profiles of respondents.Design/Methodology/Approach – An exploratory and descriptive marketing research was undertaken after developing a literature review. The research was conducted through personal survey using a structured questionnaire. Quota sampling (age and gender) was the method used to select the sample, which comprised 672 individuals. Univariate and multivariate analysis were conducted to statistically process the information gathered.Findings and implications – Research results show that major differences regarding the consumption of dance may be explained by gender. Women scored higher on different motives (personal, emotional, learning) for attending such type of plays, while men scored higher on barriers (dislike, other options, misunderstanding). In addition, differences in every item of perceived value of dance were statistically significant, being higher for female survey participants. These results could be of interest to marketing decision makers in adjusting strategies to their target audiences.Limitations – This study only offers a snapshot of the research field examined and is descriptive in nature.Originality – Although the experiential marketing framework can be applied to many different fields thanks to its applicability, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no attempts have been made to research the habits and attitudes associated with the attendance of dance shows. The present paper addresses this issue.

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