Interpreting value in the customer service experience using customer-dominant logic

AbstractTraditionally, customer value has been examined from the perspective of the firm. New understandings of customer value from the customer-dominant logic perspective of services emphasise the need to move away from the service-dominant perspective and adopt a customer-based approach that considers value within the broader context of a customer's lifeworld. This article explores how individual customers make sense of their participation in an extraordinary, commercially-driven consumption experience. A phenomenological approach is taken to understand the lived experience of these participants. The findings of this exploratory study reveal the highly complex nature of value in the experience in the chosen context of luxury driving experience days. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.Keywords: customer-dominant logictypes of valuevalue creationcustomer experienceluxuryexperience marketingconsumer behaviour AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers of the Academy of Marketing Conference special edition of this journal for their insightful comments, which have made a major contribution to improving this article.Notes1 http://www.topgear.com/uk/stig (accessed 30 May 2014).Additional informationNotes on contributorsCaroline TynanCaroline Tynan is Professor of Marketing at Nottingham University Business School, President of the Academy of Marketing and a Visiting Professor of Marketing at The University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. She currently represents the discipline of marketing for the UK research assessment exercise REF2014. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a Chartered Marketer serving as Dean of the CIM from 2006 to 2010. Her early career was in brand management in the utilities' and food sectors. Her research interests focus on consumption meanings, experience marketing and managerial marketing practice. She serves on the editorial boards of a number of marketing journals and has published in the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Marketing Management, the European Journal of Marketing and the Journal of Strategic Marketing among others.Sally McKechnieSally McKechnie is Associate Professor in Marketing at Nottingham University Business School, Member of the Academy of Marketing, Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a Governor of the History of Advertising Trust. Before returning to academia she held marketing positions in the exhibitions and direct marketing industries following a teaching company associateship at the University of Strathclyde. She is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Customer Behaviour and the International Journal of Bank Marketing, and has published in a number of marketing journals. Her research interests are in the areas of consumer behaviour and marketing communications, with a particular interest in consumption issues.Stephanie HartleyStephanie Hartley is currently working for Capita plc leading the marketing for Capita Talent Partnerships, a new sub-business with a focus on employer engagement with traineeships and apprenticeships. Before taking this role, she was a Marketing Executive for Capita Conferences and Capita Learning & Development. At the University of Nottingham, Stephanie read History before completing an International Business Masters, in which she spent one semester studying in Ningbo, China. Her primary research interests include experience marketing and marketing in the luxury automotive sector.