Transcendent customer experience and brand community

John W. Schouten, James H. McAlexander, Harold F. Koenig

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science · 2007 · Volume 35 · Issue 3

Abstract

Transcendent customer experiences (TCEs), which have aspects of flow and/or peak experience, can generate lasting shifts in beliefs and attitudes, including subjective self-transformation. With data from a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental field experiment we examine the impact of TCEs on customers’ integration in a brand community. Because TCEs are highly desirable and valued for their own sake, customers value marketing activities they perceive as instrumental to them. This study demonstrates that a TCE in the context of a marketer-facilitated consumption activity can strengthen a person’s ties to a brand community, delivering a particularly strong form of brand loyalty.

Keywords

Brand community, Brand loyalty, Transcendent experience, Peak experience, Flow, Multi-method

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