Title: Customer experience management through emotional connection: an Indian perspective

Authors: Sabita Mahapatra, S.S. Mahapatra

Addresses: Indian Institute of Management, Indore, Madhya Pradesh 453 331, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, Orissa 769008, India

Abstract: The marketing power of emotion traces the manner in which companies rely on emoting to connect with consumers, develop new products, improve their strategic position and increase brand recognition. Emotion is not the only element in making buying decisions, but a necessary condition if decisions are not to be continually postponed. It has been debated in the literature that consumers while making purchase, decisions are purely driven by cognitions. Recent studies, while examining how consumers actually make decisions in various shopping contexts, establish the fact that consumers are more often mindless rather than mindful decision makers. For many reasons, market research communities have been giving too much emphasis to consider rationally driven behaviours, thereby largely ignoring the influence of emotions. The present study makes an attempt to integrate these two broad themes with the propositions that it will infuse more life and realism into an understanding of consumer purchase process and theory of consumer satisfaction.

Keywords: emotion; decision making; customer experience; customer satisfaction; customer relationship management; CRM; emotional connections; marketing; emoting; consumers; new product development; NPD; strategic positioning; brand recognition; buying decisions; purchasing; cognition; shopping; market research; rational behaviour; consumer purchase processes; consumer satisfaction; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2010.032392

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2010 Vol.3 No.3, pp.333 - 348

Published online: 02 Apr 2010 *

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