Extraordinary Experience and the Extended Service Encounter

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River Magic: Extraordinary Experience andthe Extended Service EncounterERIC J. ARNOULDLINDA L. PRICE*

This article explores the provision of extraordinary hedonic experiences oncommercial, multiday river rafting trips in the Colorado River basin. White water riverafting provides a dram atic illustration ofsome of the complex features of deliveringan extraordinary experience. Multiple methods were employed over two years odata collection to articulate the lived meaning of this experience from both theguides' and the consum ers' perspectives. Robust quantitative measures were developed from rich qualitative data. Participant observation and interview data enrichedthe interpretation of quantitative results. Experiential themes of personal growthand self-renewal, "communitas," andharmony with nature areevidenced acrosthe data; they evolve and are woven together over the course of the trip. Togethethey are significant in explaining overall satisfaction. There is a comp lex relationshibetween client expectations and satisfa ction. The narrative of the rafting experiencerather than relationships betwee n expectations and outcomes isshown to be centrato itsevaluation. Implications forother services and consumption activities are discussed.

R iver rafting is a growing compon ent of the Colo-rado leisure services industry. Th ousa nds of peo-ple take rafting trips every year for tens of thousandsof client-days. Multiday rafting trips on the Colorado,Green, Yampa, Arkansas, and others are river outfitters'most resource-intensive service offerings. River outfit-ters discuss the river rafting experience with a sense ofreverence and mysterya singular quality some call"river magic." Our findings tell of the experience ofmultiday commercial river rafting. Our research isunique in (1) focusing on key elements in deliveringtemporally extended, extraordinary experiences, (2)representing different participant perspectives in theservice encounter, (3) detailing the emergent interplayof consumer and service provider behaviors in the de -livery of service outcomes, and (4) integrating andcross-validating data collected by multiple methods.The rafting story begins by describing the pretripplanning process. Answers to how people decide on a

*Eric J. Arnould is associate professor of marketing. Departmentof Marketing, School of Business, at California State University, LongBeach. Linda L. Price is associate professor of marketing. College ofBusiness Administration, University of Colorado, Boulder. Our namesare listed in alphabetical order to reflect equal contribution to themanuscript. We wish to thank Bill and Jaci Dvorak, Patrick Tierney,Lisa Penaloza, Rick Perdue, and four reviewers for their useful rec-ommendations. We dedicate this article to the memory of Colin LucasPrice, February 7, 1992-March 27, 1992, and thank the editor andmany readers of JCR for their sympathy and support.

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river rafting adve nture, d escriptions of their pretrip ex-pectations andaccounts of their plantiing and pretripimagery display little deliberation. Although it costsmuch time and money, people do not appear to thinkabout it carefully. S ometimes a family m emb er or friendarranged the trip, and they "just went." More oftenconsumers choose it because it is something they've"always" wanted todo, butsearch is minimal and pre-trip expectations vague. Often c onsum ers articulate thedesire for "something beyond their imagination," orjust letting everything be what it is, denying specificexpectations. M any of these reports imply a desire forsomething different, without articulating what it mightbe . Some reports carry a theme of "getting away fromit all," where "it all" ranges from Nintendo to job-re-lated stress. In anticipation of the trip, consumers saythey expect that the en vironm ent will be clean and nat-ural, guides will be competent and knowledgeable, otherpeople will be friendly and pleasant, and they will " no tget killed." They expect to have fun.Our story then moves to the trip experience andposttrip descriptions and reflections. As the trip unfolds,we learn that the setting, guides, and other people onthe trip are important in articulating the narrative ofthe experience. The guide is an impresario who facili-tates the enactm ent of vaguely familiar cultural scripts,helping participants to transform experiences into trea-sured, culturally construed memories of personalgrowth, challenges overcome, teamwo rk, and persever-


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RIVER MAGIC 25

ance (Abrahams 1986; Bruner 1986; Featherstone 1991,pp. 132-1 33, 143; Kapferer 1986). The successful nar-rative transcends the comm ercial and creates temporarybonds of friendship with guides and strangers that areprofound and intimate. It includes a deep connectionto the land and the river. The narrative is held up asproof of the worth of self, family, and humanity, anddemonstrates what is really important in life. In short,the story is a romance (Campbell 1987; Urry 1990), atriumph over natural forces achieved through trust andmutual reliance.

The experience is extraord inary, offering absorp tion,personal control, joy and valuing, a spontaneou s letting-be of the process, and a newness of perceptio n and p ro-cess (Csiksze ntm ihalyi 1990). It is recalled easily foryears after, but, because of its considerable emotionalconte nt, it is difficult to describe. People sometim es re-port that it changed them forever. It is magical. As such,satisfaction with river rafting, a hedonic encounter be-tween customer, guide, and "nature," does not seemto be embodied in attributes of the experience such asamount of time spent freezing in wet clothes, uncom-fortable toilet facilities, bad food, or any summary indexof specific attributes of the trip. Rather, satisfaction isembodied in the success of the narrative, an interactivegestalt orchestrated by the guide over several days'journey into the unknown.The guide role is a demanding one fraught with il-lusion and role conflict. In contrast to familiar trans-ports of fancy provided by performing artists and them e

parks, river guides offer commercially a magic thatcomes from an interpersonal dynamic developed overan extended interval of time in a seemingly authenticenvironm ent. They give their customers som ething theydo not know how to ask for, but something that makescustomers very happy.The story we tell is emergent. We did not find it inthe literature, but we can docum ent theory and researchthat supp ort the imp ortance and plausibility of our ac-count. Before we tell our story, we briefly review somerelevant literatu re. This review emp hasizes several fea-tures. Using the literature, we describe characteristicsof extraordinary experience, speculate about why itevokes vague script expectations and complex evalua-tions of satisfaction, discuss salient features of servicesthat deliver extraordinary experience, and elaborate onthe role of the service provider in articulating this ex-perience over an extended temporal framework.LITERATURE REVIEW

Extraordinary ExperienceHedonic consumption experience has received someattention in the literature (Havlena and H olbrook 1986;Hawes 1978; Hirschman 1984; Hirschman and H ol-brook 1982; Holbrook et al. 1984; Holbrook and

Hirschman 1982; Unger and Kernan 1983). Althoughlargely ignored by consumer researchers, other re-searchers identify a special class of hedonic consump-tion activitiesintense, positive, intrinsically enjoyableexperiences. Concepts that map this domain includepeak experience (Maslow 1964), peak performance(Klausner 1968; Privette 1983), flow (Csikszentm ihalyi1985), and extraordinary experience (Abrahams 1986).Certain qualities unify these experiences, including themerging of action and awareness, attention or clear fo-cus, personal integration, personal control, awarenessof power, joy and valuing, and a spontaneous (unin-hibited) letting-be of process (Csikszentmihalyi 1975,1990; Csikszentmihalyi and LeFevre 1989; Privette1983).Intensity and the relational mode of the experiencedifferentiate these concepts from one another. The termwe use, "extraordinary experience," entails a "sense ofnewness of perception and process" (Privette 1983, p.1366; see also A braham s 1986). By contrast with flow,extraordinary experience is triggered by unusual eventsan d is characterized by high levels of emotional intensityand experience. By contrast with peak experience andpeak performance (Celsi, Rose, and Leigh 1993), ex-traordinary experience implies neither superior levelsof effort nor an independent relational mode. In fact,an important trigger for this experiential state is inter-personal interaction (Abrahams 1986).Vague Expectations and ComplexSatisfaction

What are the distinguishing characteristics of ex-traordinary experience? Specifically, how and what typeof expectations do consumers form and how do theyevaluate the experience? Muchoof consumer researchposits a model of choice and satisfaction based on de-fined expectations and subsequent performance of aconsumer alternative in terms of those expectations(Fiebelkorn 1985; Oliver and D eSarbo 1988). This dis-confirmation paradigm, however, is based on two im-portant assumptions. First, it assumes consumers haveexpectations. Second, it assumes satisfaction is a func-tion of deviations between expected product or serviceperformance and actual performance. It is questionablewhether consumers evaluate extraordinary experiencein terms of well-defined expectations or rate subsequentperformance in terms of them.

Expectations. Exp ectations (includ ing beliefs, eval-uative criteria, attitu des, and activity sequences) for ex-traordinary experiences are likely to be vague. Why?First, consumers of extraordinary experience may desireintense emotional outcomes, for example, joy or ab-sorption, but not know what consumption alternativesproduce th em. T he rarity and intensity of emotions as-sociated with extraordinary experiences may mean in-


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26 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCHformation sources such as documentary films, word ofmouth, and promotional materials provide limited cuesfor linking outcomes to consumption alternatives.Moreover, emotions are subjective, fluctuating acrossindividuals and social situations (Den zin 1983; Hol-brook and Hirschman 1982), which makes them chal-lenging for consumers to predict. Since extraordinaryexperience emerges from the dynamic interaction ofparticipants, it is difficult to predict o ne's own behaviorand others' responses from behavior in ordinary con-texts. The emotional content of these interactions isepiphenomenal (Denzin 1983).A second reason scripts are apt to be vague is thatextraordinary experience is spontaneous and unre-hearsed (Abrahams 1986). Spontaneity distinguishesextraordinary events from everyday routines and con-tributes to the perception of the event as extraordina ry.Consumers value and protect these qualities. Lytig(1990, pp. 861-862) reports that many rock climbersand sky divers "regard the experience as ineffable . . .some believe that talking about edgework should beavoided because it contaminates one's subjective ap-preciation of the experience."

In a search for authenticity, consumers of extraor-dinary experience surrender their expectations to the"imm ediate encoun ter with being" (Redfoot 1984, p.295). Perceived ineffability of extrao rdinary experiencesmakes consumers unwilling to anticipate or rehearsethem.Performance. A prevailing view is tha t satisfactioncan be described with a summary index of a product orservice's performance on various attributes. In contrast,satisfaction with extraordinary experience is emergentacross the temporal frame of the experience (Deighton1992; Gergen and Gergen 1988; Howard 1991). Popularmovies depicting extraordinary experience, such as CitySlickers an d K2, illustrate this point. They highlightunpleasant and life-threatening events. But in each casea triumphant momentsaving the cattle herd and at-taining the summitleads to emphatic positive re-evaluation of all the negatives that might otherwisedominate evaluation of the experience.Satisfaction is also interpreted within the broadernarrative context of the cons um er's life (Botterill 1987;Deighton 1992). People are concerned with having ex-periences that tell about the self^define, develop, andchange it (Sarbin 1986). Consumers use extraordinaryexperiences to give agency and coherence to their storiesabout the self. Thus, consum ers of intense martial artstraining may interpret physical injury or fear as con-tributing positively to self-growth, efficacy, and authen-ticity (Donohue 1991).In summary, for extraordinary experiences we spec-ulate that expectations are likely to be vague. Moreover,evaluation of the experience evolves within th e contex tof the overall story. Hence, the disconfirmation para-

digm commonly evoked in consumer research is not useful metaphor for interpreting satisfaction with extraordinary experiences..Deliveritig Extraordinary Experietice

Commercial delivery of hedonic experiences has received little attention in marketing (for exceptions seDurgee, Holbrook, an d Sherry [1991], Holbrook [1990Holbrook and Zirlin [1985], and O 'Guinn and Belk[1989]). Commercial delivery oi extraordinary experiences has received no attention. However, importankeys to understanding service delivery come from theservices literature. This literature emphasizes the importance of setting, process, and provider-client relationships in determining consumer satisfaction (Bitne1990, 1992; Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault 1990; Czepieet al. 1985; McCallum and Harrison 1985; Mohr andBitner 1991). Each of these elements plays an imp ortanrole in delivering extraordinary experience. Howeverthe service quality literature has primarily focused onevaluation of technical and functional elements (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1985, 1988). Similarlymost evaluations of white water rafting have focusedprimarily on client-days, perceived crowding, safe runsand quality of the water (Heywood 1987; Hollenhorsand O lson 1990; Roggenbuck et al. 1991; Shelby, Bregenzer, and Johnson 1988).Research from a variety of disciplines and contextsincluding research on the delivery of hedonic outcom essuggests services providing extraordinary experiencemust emphasize process elements that have receivedless attention in marketing literature. Among these areaffect, narrative, and ritual understandings.

Affect. Service establishments must monitor andcontrol the emotions employees convey (Hochschild1983; Peters and Austin 1985; Rafaeli and Sutton 1987)For example, Disney World coaches prospective employees on how to look like they are having fun (M artin1986; Romm 1989); McDonald's stresses the importance of displaying enthusiasm and a sense of humor(Boas and Chain 1976); waitresses at Route Diner striveto boost their tips by being "especially friendly" (Paules1991, p. 27). Classical ballet dancers' expression oemotion becomes the focal point for the hedonic ex-perience (King and Straub 1984; cited in Holbrook[1987], p. 166). We speculate that engineering affect iscentral to successful delivery of extraordinary experi-ences.The engineering of hedonic outcomes should takeplace behind the scenes, below the line of visibility(Shostack 1987). "Disney World is carefully designedto prom ote a frontstage view and to supp ress backstageinformation from public awareness" (Johnson 1981, p159). For the desired affective response, provider em o-tions must be perceived as authentic (Hochschild 1983;Rafaeli and Sutton 1987; Rom m 1989)spontaneous


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responses to environment, activities, and social inter-action (Abrahams 1986), rather than directed process.In this sense, commercial delivery of extraordinary ex-perience creates a dilemmato be effective, it musttranscend the purposive, task-oriented, and comm ercialnature of the ordinary service interaction.Narrative. Service encounters facilitate enactmentof familiar, if implicit narrative understandings (Abra-hams 1986; Holbrook 1987; Shott 1979; Spradley andMann 1975; Sutton and Rafaeli 1988; van Maanen andKunda 1989). Service delivery at McDonald's enacts anumber of core American values (Kottak 1982); serviceencounters at convenience stores endorse the Am ericannorm of efficiency (Sutton and Rafaeli 1988). Coc ktailwaitresses learn a generative framework for conven-tionalized, sexual joking tha t contributes to their successin extended, commercial interactions (Spradley and

Mann 1975). Much of the hedonic satisfactions of va-cation them e parks derives from performe rs' successfulcondensations and expressions of the total park expe-rience consistent with consumers' unarticulated andvague cultural narratives (Durgee et al. 1991). DisneyWorld packages history, fantasy, and the future intoconventional plots, conveying idealized American cul-tural values (Johnson 1981; King 1981). In many ofthese contexts, customers and providers have well-de-veloped narrative ex pectations b ecause of extensive ex-perience in such settings. By contrast, novel service en-counters providing extraordinary experience will likely"require participants to engage in considerable trial anderror before they reach tacit agreement or developnorm s about which scripts should guide [their] action s"(Sutton and R afaeli 1988, p. 474; Bettenhausen andMu rnighan 1985). As a dram aturgical perspective sug-gests, meaning emerges during the process of interac-tion; communication of evolving expectations of out-comes plays a key role in satisfactory experience (Groveand Fisk 1992).

Ritual. The relationship between extraordinary ex-perience and ritual is likely to be complex. Althoughindividuals articulate extraordinary experience asunique and ineffable, at an etic level these experiencesexemplify culturally embedded rituals that are playedout across generations (Abrahams 1986). Because allexperiences address the "ongoing ness of life as it is reg-istered through the filter of culture" (Abrahams 1986,p. 55), ritual aspects become salient even in enactingwhat the individual participants define as authentic,unique , and extraordinary. Tw o general classes of ritual(rites of passage and rites of integration) characterizedelivery of extraordinary experience.The metaphor of the pilgrimage based on van Gen-nep's (1960) formu lation of rites of passage provides auseful basis for understanding satisfaction. In particular,it helps us understand the sequencing of events in the

delivery of extraordinary experience and how overallsatisfaction is linked to underlying cultural scripts.The pilgrimage incorporates the three essential fea-turesseparation, transition, and reintegrationbut,unlike many rites of passage, a pilgrimage is typicallyvoluntary. Pilgrims leave their homes and disengagefrom their ordinary lives. They enter the sacred pre-cincts; their stay is a phase of transition. One of themost common activities in the transitional phase of arite of passage is stripping of markers of rank and status.Stripped initiates experience a fellowship with othercoritualists who, like themselves, perceive themselvesin their basic, common humanity. The transitionalphase is punctu ated by shared performances by pilgrimswho experience a sense of what Turner (1969, 1974)calls "communitas." They return home transformedand are reintegrated into their community.

A pilgrimage may also be viewed as a rite of inten-sification (Coon 1958). A rite of intensification increasesthe emotional intensity of links among persons widelyscattered and dissimilar in ordinary life but who sharea common mytbohistorical orientation. The pilgrimreturns, not transformed as in the basic formulation ofrites of passage, but affirmed, renewed, or even curedof his/her ailments (Moore 1980).Viewing the commercial delivery of extraordinaryexperience as a rite of integration is another potentiallyuseful tool for understanding. Rites of integration aredefined as "planned social interactions that consolidatevarious forms of cultural artifacts (language, displayedemotions, gestures, symbols, and the physical setting)with the objective of achieving 'a temporary sense ofcloseness' between 'potentially divergent' subsystems"(Siehl, Bowen, and Pearson 1993; see also M ills andMorris 1986; Trice and Beyer 1991). Certain serviceencounters have a feeling of a relationship rather thanmerely a transaction. These transactions can be de-scribed as "boun dary ope n," resembling a meeting be-tween friends. In boundary open transactions serviceproviders are expected to be actively involved and sharetheir feelings. Siehl et al. (1993) hypothesize that lesstangible services are more likely to be boundary open.In them, process dimensions that communicate re-sponsiveness, emp athy, and assurance becom e increas-ingly important influences on customers' satisfaction.Extraordinary experience is likely to involve boundaryopen transactions.Provider-Customer Relationships inDelivering Extraordinary Experience

Previous research has revealed that service employeeshold special relationships with customers (Mars andNicod 1984; Spradley and Mann 1975), customers areactive participants in service outcomes (Mills and Mor-ris 1986; Rafaeli 1989; Su tton an d Rafaeli 1988), andprovider-customer interdependence is high (McCallum


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28 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCand H arrison 1985). However, research on service en-counters has concentrated on comparatively brieftransac tions (Bitner 1990; Bitner et al. 1990; Fiebelkorn1985; Surpren ant and Solomon 1987; Zeitham l, Berry,and Parasuraman 1987). Virtually no literature ex-amines temporally extended service provider roles. Onedistinguishing feature of extended encounters is longtransactions that provide more time for the customerto react to the emotional behavior of an employee (Sut-ton and RafaeU 1988, p. 483). Fu rther, A merica ns' un -derlying scripts for "slow times" have more "scenes"(Nisbett and Ross 1980, p. 34) that emphasize inter-personal exchanges and the display of emotions (Suttonand Rafaeli 1988, p. 477). Because of American s' scriptexpectations about lengthy transactions, there will bepressures for extended e ncounters to become affectivelycharged, boundary open relationships. Due to the de-fining qualities of extraordinary experiences discussedabove, we might reasonably expect that customer-pro-vider interdependence, and active customer participa-tion in the successful delivery of extraordinary experi-ences, will be even more prono unced than in other kindsof extended service encounters.In summ ary, service encou nter research increasinglyrecognizes that service experience is inherently in-terpretive, subjective, an d affective (Czepiel et al. 1985;Klaus 1985; McC allum and Harrison 1985; Parasura-man et al. 1988). Enriched views of the service en-counter relate service satisfaction to script expectations,dramaturgy, and ritual enactme nts. Although the m ar-keting literature is silent on the delivery of extraord inaryexperience, literature from related research streams of-fers possible insights into individual and cultural nar-ratives that underlie extraordinary experience. This re-search suggests service establishm ents may orchestrateaffective, narrative, and ritual con tent th rough the skills,engagement, emotions, and dramatic sense of serviceproviders.

DESCRIPTION OF RESEARCHACTIVITYA combination of factors motivated the research.

First, one of us has had a memorable experience withrafting that left an impression that satisfaction with theexperience is complex: How could so many awful thingsadd up to a positive experience? Much later, serendi-pitous conversations with an outfitter led to an invita-tion to study river rafting. Our early conversations ledus to believe tha t river rafting is a different kind of ser-vice encounter than has been previously studied, andis one that lends itself to multimethod data collection.In order to find o ur story, and then tell it, we engagedin extensive data collection over a two-year period usinga variety of techn iques. Tab le 1 outlines the sequenceof data collection activities, the rationa le guiding theseefforts, and summary features of the data. The table

illustrates iteration between data collection techniqueTechniques were combined, often within the samtemporal frame and physical setting, such as the participant observation, focus group, and surveys conducted in May 1990. At each stage we revised and elaborated fundamental constructs and validated findingin a variety of ways. Further, we could move beyonthe limitations of each technique by probing systematically, through the incorporation of different methodsfor both convergent and divergent data.Table 1 also illustrates the focus of data collectionOverall, data collection aimed to gather multiple participant perspectives as well as multiple temporal perspectives. Data were gathered from outfitters, guidesand participants. Data were also gathered before, during, immediately after, and well after the experienceThe table shows how we tried to apprehend expectations, critical consumption incidents, and postconsumption evaluation through a variety of proceduresIn the first research season we gathered data from mu ltiple customers of a single outfitter. In the second research season we gathered data from guides and custom ers of several different outfitters.Finally, Table 1 summ arizes features of interest fothe data analyzed here. In general, we conducted exploratory research with small samples allowing us tadvance and amend evolving interpretations. We deployed larger samples and more formal instruments tsurvey variation in phenomena of demonstrated significance to participants. The table also shows that wexpanded the scope and formality of our data gatherinover the two seasons as we refined our measures anconstructs.

FINDINGSTable 2 provides an overview of the prim ary analyseand categories of findings at each step in the researchprocess. Table 2 illustrates that certain experientiaqualities and themes showed up consistently through outhe data collection process. Other findings were pronounced in some of the data, but barely apparent inother data. Experiential them es that developed over th

course of the first season, and were cross-validated between methods, were further refined and validated inthe second season.Although different me thods, data, and analyses werused, a coheren t story emerged abo ut the experience oriver rafting. R ather than organize aroun d the sequenceor type of data, findings are organized around the storyto be told. Descriptions of findings are cross-referencedto Table 2 by the date provided in parentheses aftereach reported finding. In general, findings from the second season validate and extend the findings from thefirst season. Care has been taken to protect participananonymity by disguising names in the reporting of results. A brief introduction to the setting for a multiday


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RIVER MAGIC 29river rafting trip is provided in Exhibit 1. Unfamiliarriver rafting terminology is included in a glossary. Ex-hibit 2. Next, we explore the pretrip planning process,experiential them es emergent over the course of the trip,and, finally, posttrip recollections of the experience.Pretrip Planning Process

Prospective customers expressed minimal, varied,and veiled feelings and expectations about the experi-ence, the guides, other people, safety, comfort, emo-tions, and the setting (5/90, 6/90-8/90). We find hintsin pretrip comments of themes that would emerge morestrongly during the trip and in informa nts' retrospectivereports. Included are hints of the themes of pilgrimage,intensification and rediscovery of self, and communionwith nature and others.Expectations of the Experience. Ambiguous andprotected expectations of the experience are well illus-trated in excerpts from field notes recorded during atrip with a group of alternate high schoolers and theircounselors (5/90):- "O ne kid me ntion s that he's juststarted expecting the worst so he won't be disappo inted.I ask wh at's the worst thing he's im agined happening.He says, not coming back. Then he tells me he wo uldn'tmind falling out, that would be a ru sh."One possible explanation for the vagueness of ex-pressed expectations is that consumers may be moti-vated to imagine what their trip will be like, but illequipped with expertise to construct such images. An-other possible explanation is consumers' desire to pre-

serve the spontaneous and unrehearsed characteristicsof extraordinary experience (Abrahams 1986). Writtenprotocols reflecting back on the experience of river raft-ing suggest that limited expectations contribute to sat-isfaction with the experience (1/90): "So much of theexperience is the thrill of the unknown. Beyond all itis at least exhilarating. . . . Similar to a symphonywhen you must read several bars ahead of what you arealready playing."Expectations of the Guides. Customers rarely an-ticipated the affective role of the guides in orchestratingtheir experiences. Instead, customers hoped guides

would be "friendly," "competent," "safe," and"know ledgeable." A single, more experienced customerdid express the hope that the guide would "be genu-inely interested in rafters, their interests and facilitatehaving fun."Expectations of Others. Most inexperienced raftershave little sense of the importance of other rafters inconstructing a satisfactory, shared river experience. In-stead, customers hoped other rafters would be"friendly," "sharing," "considerate," and "sociable."The same, more experienced rafter quoted above ex-pressed a more sophisticated understanding of the ca-maraderie and sense of teamwork tbat, in fact, contrib-

ute to satisfaction in stating, "Relaxed, honest, havingfun and concerned about each other: releasing inhibi-tions is essentialbeing oneself; be paddlers notoarers."Comfort and Safety. Inexperienced customers ar-ticulate simple, general desires for safety: "knowing ourdaughter is safe"; "that I don't drown." Most fail toanticipate many factors that could affect their safety.Their concerns carry an undercurrent of fear of raft-ingthat this is something they might die doing. Suchfears contribute to perception of the experience as ex-traord inary and set the stage for a rite of intensificationthat extends and renews the selfExpectations about the Environment. Consumers'expressed expectations about the natural environmentare vague, but they are also romantic and consensual.In the first season's data the theme of a wild, clean,

natural, isolated, and "noncommercial" setting ap-peared explicitly in all but two of the pretrip expecta-tions about the river and surroundings ( 6/90 -8/9 0), forexample: "clean , with n o signs of civilization, other thanourselves, to be intruding on the pristine environment";"clean, undisturbed by commercial ventures." Whenexpectatio ns are specific, they are frequently wrong, asin these excerpts from a pretrip survey (6/91-8/91):"clear blue river with large rapids"; "grassy with a lotof trees and spacious. I want a good view with moun-tains." In fact, C olorado River basin rivers are typicallygreenish brown and muddy, the canyons narrow, floraparched and spiny, and views obstructed by canyonwalls.A number of commercial cues reinforce consumerexpectations of immersion in a pristine, uncivilized en-vironment (2/90, 5/9 0,4 /91 ). Included are the logo usedby one of our outfitters incorporating a Native Amer-ican war shield, eagle feathers, and a motif of crossedarrows. Native Americans are popularly imagined asliving in harmony with nature. Perhaps more signifi-cant, advertising brochures feature photographs ofclients in scenic, wild settings. Supply lists provided byoutfitters emphasize the absence of amenities, and thenecessity of impact-free cam ping. These lists also stressthat ready access to m edical care and telecomm unica-tions is impossible. These and other cues build expec-tations of an almost sacred pilgrimage into a world"untouched by civilization" (Belk, Wallendorf, an dSherry 1989).

Expectations about Feelings. The feelings consum-ers reported expecting often derived from their beliefsabout n ature, for example, "sense of isolation, serenity"and "to be in the great outdoors and to go back to na-ture." Consistent with our sense that consumers don'tknow what feelings to expect, comments such as "riverexperiences" and just "have fun" were common.For the second season, data sampled a broader rangeof trips and outfitters. Expectations were collected closer


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TABLE 1RESEARCH SEQUENCE AND FOCUS

Date Method Focus Summary sam ple/data features1/90 Written protocols2/90 On-site depthinterviews4/90 Drop-off/mail-backsurvey5/90 Participant observa tion

5/90 Focus group

5/90 Pretrip and posttripsurveys

5/90 Participant observation

6/90 -8/9 0 Pretrip customersurveys

6/90-8/90

7/909/90

11/90-1/911/91

4/91

5/91

6/91-7/91

Posttrip custome rsurveys

Participant observationFocus group

Member checkMaii survey

On-site depthinterviewsDrop-off, pick-upsurveysParticipant observation

Experiential view of river raftingView of commercial provision of riverexperience; input for preseasonguide survey

Description of guide expectations andcharacteristics; input for script forguide focus group

Commercial river experience; revisionof script for guide focus group;input for customer pre- and post-river-trip surveys

Guide approach to service delivery,training, management, setting; inputfor customer pre- and post-river-tripsurveys

Consumer expectations and reasons;experiential themes; salientattributes; pretest consumersurveysGuide/customer and group dynamics;consumer experience of muitidayriver rafting; revision of customersurveysReported pretrip decision factors andexpectations; reported pretripplanning; recreational interests andparticipation; demographics

Reported best and worst experiences;elements of satisfaction;perceptions of river guide; developmeasures of experiential themes;examine relationships

Contrast one-day with multiday raftingexperience; peak season river trip

Multiple consumer perspectives; howexperience remem bered; texture ofthemes; differentiate from otherexperiencesIncorporate perspective of outfitter onfindingsPostseason guide perspective onwhat customers value, what makesa trip work; difficult encounters,river crew experience

Perspective of different outfitters inremote river area; setting; input oncustomer surveys

Preseason guide skills andexpectations; training; input oncustomer surveysPerspective on experiencenewrivers, "t ypic al" trips, differentoutfitter, use of "duckies,"elaborate understanding ofnarrative and ritual themes

Convenience sample, n = 35Outfitters, n = 2; field notes and photoaccounts; collection of promotional andtraining m aterials

Census of guide trainees for one outfitter, n =

Field notes and ph oto accounts; tw oresearchers, separate rafts; trip with guidetraineesRiver guides, n = 8; two-hour focus group;notes transcribed; two facilitators

Teens and counselors, n = 17; pretrip surveyadministered at put-in; posttrip surveycollected Monday following three-dayweekend trip; triangulation with participantobservation for tripField notes and ph oto record; tw o researchers,separate rafts; trip w ith teens and counselors

n = 19, telephone precontact of group leaders,mailed to arrive within a week to 10 days ofdeparture; of the 36 groups, responses werereceived from 13, or 36 percent; responseswere received from more than one participantin six of the groups

n = 43, mailed to be waiting after trip, withfollow-up mailing after two weeks ; of 54groups, mailings to three were undeliverable;responses were received from 26 groups, or51 percentField notes and photo record, one researcher,

one dayPast season river consumers, n = 4; 90minutes, videotaped and then transcribed;member check of draft of account with one

member of focus groupTwo 90-minute interviews with outfitter; t wo

researchersCensus of guides of one ou tfitter; of 19 surveysmailed, five returned as undeliverable, sevenresponses for response rate of 50 percentFour interviews, about 60 minutes each; fieldnotes and photo reco rd; two researchersCensus of guides of three outfitters hired as of5/91, n = 34Three-day trip and four-day trip; taped fieldnotes and pho to record; one researcher oneach trip other served as member check;

interview with river guide one week laterserved as member check


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TABLE 2DATA ANALYSIS AND CATEGORIES OF FINDINGS

Date Method Primary analyses Oategories of findings1/902/90

4/90

5/90

5/905/90

5/90

Written protocolsOn-site depthinterviews

Drop-off/mail-backsurvey

Participant observation

Focus groupPre-river-trip and post-river-trip surveysParticipant observation

6/90-8/90

6/90-8/90

7/909/90

11/90-1/911/914/91

5/91

6/91-7/916/91-8/91

6/91-8/91

Pretrip customersurveys

Posttrip customersurveys

Participant observationFocus group

Member checkMail surveyOn-site depthinterviews

Drop-off, pick-upsurveys

Participant observationPretrip drop-off andcollect surveys

Posttrip drop-off,collect postcard,mail-back survey

Text analyses, key wo rd search,summary statisticsText analysis of transcribed field notes;sequential photo analysis

Simple frequencies; text analysis of open-ended responses

Text analysis of transcribed field notes;sequential photo analysis

Text analysis; key word searchSimple frequencies; text analysis of open-ended responsesText analysis of transcribed field notes;key word search; notes of tw oresearchers compared for convergenceand divergenceFrequencies, cross-tabulations, f-tests,ANO VA, an d correlations; reliabilityanalyses; text analysis, key wordsearches, and counts on open-endedresponsesFrequencies, cross-tabulations,'Mests,ANOVA, and correlations; select factoranalyses; correlations; text analysis,

key word searches, and statistics onopen-ended responsesText analysis and sequential photoanalysisText analysis and key word search andstatistics on transcribed videoText analysis of notes; solicitation andincorporation of feedback into reportFrequencies; text analyses of open-endedresponsesText analysis and sequential photoanalysis

Frequencies, cross-tabulations, f-tests,ANOVA, and correlations; select factoranalyses; correlations; text analysis,key word searches, and statistics onopen-ended responsesText analysis, key word search andstatistics; sequential photo analysisFrequencies, cross-tabulations, f-tests,ANOVA, and correlations; select factoranalyses; correlations; text analysis,key word searches, and statistics onopen-ended responsesFrequencies, cross-tabulations, f-tests,ANOVA, and correlations; select factoranalyses; correlations; text analysis,key word searches, and statistics o nopen-ended responses

Extraordinary experience; components ofsatisfactionConsumer com plaints; outfitter motives,feelings; descriptions of guides and clients;descriptions of equipment, settings; storiesof transformation and "river magic"Variance in background and experience; guidemotives, feelings; guide expectations ofservice delivery factors; selection ofoccupation and ou tfitterGuide/customer dynamics; guide skills;setting; experiential qualities ofextraordinary experience; components ofsatisfactionGuides' role conflicts; transcendence of thecommercial; themesExpectations; components of satisfaction;elements of extraordinary experience;experiential themesThemes and rituals; guide characteristics;narrative components of satisfaction andexperience

Pretrip expectations; word-of-mouth influence;prepurchase search

Measures of experiential themes; validity ofthemes; emotion work of guides;components of satisfaction

One-day trip themes; group dynamics; guideroleExpectations; experiential themes; guide/customer dynamics and transcendence ofthe commercial; pilgrimage script, reentryGuide weaknesses and variability amongguides; guide role conflictsGuide role conflict; postseason understandingsof themesOutfitters' positioning strategies and approach;history and stories of commercial provisionof river rafting in Dinosaur NationalMonument, knowledge of setting; day-to-day operationsPreseason perceptions of guide roles, clientservice topics in training; guide motives

Narrative compohents of experience; groupdynamics; guide use of ritualPrepurchase search; planning and character ofpretrip imagery for first-time river rafters;pretrip expectations

Measures of experiential themes andrelationship to satisfaction; guide successfactors; relationship between pretripexpectations and satisfaction


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RIVER MAGIC 33EXHIBIT 1

RIVER RAFTING: THE SETTINGEXHIBIT 2

GLOSSARY OF RIVER TERMSOutfitters:Most rafting firms are family-run businesses located in ruraltowns. Their capital investment consists primarily of warehouse/dormitory buildings and rafting equipment amounting to about$200,000. Outfitters' largest recurrent cost is for liability insurancecovering the 2-25 guides employed. The business is highlyseasonal; there is a maximum five-month window for commercialtrips bracketed by cold weather and flood water in the spring, thenlow water in the late summer. Business is further constrained byfederal regulations on river access.Clients and trips:A trip brings together clients and guides, typically numbering fromsix to 25 persons on a 3-12-day excursion down one of Colorado'swhite water rivers. Groups meet in the chilly morning hours either atthe outfitters' headquarters or at the put-in. At the put-in the raftsare set up and gear is stowed. Guides explain the fundamentals ofequipment, gear, safety, and paddling as clients listen in nervousanticipation.A typical day:A typical day begins as the sun lights up the red wall of amajestic canyon summit high above the riverside campsite. Atdawn, guides prepare breakfast, clients crawl from their tents andvisit the "groover" (a primitive toilet made from an ammunition box).With numb fingers, guides and clients pack, stow, and tie downgear in the raft. The cold, muddy water sings by. Guides inviteclients to pilot a "duckie" (one-person, inflatable rubber kayak). Forseveral hours people paddle through an ever-changing landscape ofbreathtaking geological contrasts. They chart courses and negotiatetheir way down roaring giddy rapids. The trip is exhilarating andrestful by turns. Occasionally, guides find eddies where they tie upto climb up the canyons to wonder at native American pictographs,archaeological sites, or early settlers' camps. About noon, there is alunch break. Guides prepare a light meal; people chat and explorethe tumbled boulders and cbttonw ood thickets around the lunchsite.

The afternoons are much like the mornings. Usually the trip tiesup at a prearranged camping spot around 4:00 P.M. Clients andguides form a human chain to unload the boats; clients pitch tents,change out of wet clothes, and explore the area. Guides and clientsprepare a hot dinner. After dinner guides may orchestrate gamesand stories; some clients may read the natural history literature thatguides typically pack along. After relaxing around a fragrant'campfire, enjoying the slice of star-spattered sky overhead, peoplenormally retire by 9:00 P.M., but guides often stay up later takingcare of camp details and unwinding.

Boatman The guide's preferred term for themse lves; it lackscommercial connotationsDay bag A small Dungee bag used for carrying suppliesneeded during the day when the other bags arestowed and tied downDry bag See Dungee bagDuckie An open , rubber, inflatable kayakDungee bag A rubberized , wate rproof duffle bag, closed byrolling one end over and over and clipping theends togetherFan hole Drop-off of water running over a flat rock;watched for in order to avoid wrapping the raftaround the unseen rock or boulderMaytagg ed Getting caught in a recirculating holeWrap ped Getting a raft hung up on a boulder in such a waythat both ends of the boat are caught in thecurrent and the middle is caught over the rockor boulderGroover Metal amm unition can, lined with plastic and usedas a toilet; the name comes from effect of thecan's edges on one's derriereOarboat A raft that is rowe d by a guideOarers Rafters who merely sit on the boat while a guiderowsP addle boat A boat that is rowed by the customers underguide supervisionP addler A rafter who takes charge of rowing the boatunder a guide's supervisionP ut-in A spot along the river bank where the rafts areset up, gear stowed, and from where the trip islaunchedRecirculatinghole Imagine a whirlpool turned on its side; caused by

the force of water dropping down forcefullyover a rock ledge; dangerous for a swimmer tobe caught inRiver kill Left-over foodStrainer A pile-up of logs, sticks and other debris, usuallyby a river bank; extremely dangerous forduckies or individuals since the force of thewater makes it difficult to extricate oneself fromoneTake-out A spot along the river bank where the rafts arebroken dow n, gear unloaded, and the trip endsTrip A load of clients and one or more guides whotravel together for as little as a few hours to asmuch as a few days

individual multiday rafting trips. In part, these expe-riences are guided by service providers; in part, theyseem to be produced from unarticulated narrative ex-pectations that clients already "k no w " in some unspeci-fied way.Communion with Nature. Weaving through all ourdata is an emergent feeling of rejuvenation associatedwith a sense of communion with nature. Two episodesfrom transcribed notes from one river trip suggest theguides' reverant feelings toward natu re. At a particularlystupendous po int in one canyon, a guide threw his armswide and said to everyone within shouting distance, and

no one in particular, "Y ou have to believe in som ethingin a place like this." The second episode occurred onthe last night of a trip. An especially eariy start wasplanned for the next morning and the day would bevery long. Most clients retired early, but the guidesstayed up "to watch the [full] moon come up over thecanyon wall." They sat on the beach with a few die-hard clients and waited until well after midnight for thefull moon to rise.Numerous examples from transcribed field notes il-lustrate an active role played by the guides in providingcues to facilitate consumers' communion with nature.


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34 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

For example , one of us wrote , "I remember a t somepoint in the day someone had asked Mel [a guide] aboutthe t imes in which we would do things. She said we'dget up when the sun got up and go to bed when the sunwent down. We'd basical ly be on 'river t ime. ' She hadjoked with me about get t ing rid of my watch. She saysonly the guides are al lowed to have watches on thet r i p" (6 / 91) .Other r i tua l s passed down through genera t ions ofriver guides convey bel iefs about the enduring powerof na ture and humans ' vulnerabi l i ty to immeasureablenatural forces. At one point in the Yampa River, abovea series of wild rapids, is a place cal led "kissing rock."Guides instruct cl ients in the tradi t ion of kissing therock in order to ensure safe passage of the "dangerous"rapid be low. Our p hotog raphs show padd lers of a ll ageskissing the rock. Thu s, what is imp orta nt is not so mu chwhat guides know, but the feel ings and values they em-body and communi ca t e t o cus t omers .

Responding to these cues and the s tunning na tura lset t ing, another excerpt from transcribed field notes (7/91) i l lus t ra tes the sense of communion wi th na tureraft ing customers can create for themselves:And at the to p of this hike there was a beautiful freshspring waterfall. And it was fabulous. A nd it felt so goodfor everybody because everybody's been in dirty watersince yesterday when we embarked on this trip. . . . oneof the college girls organized a group shot. . . . And inthat group shot there was a clear intermingling of groupsthat included hugging and having arms around peoplewho I think u nder o ther conditions would be consideredstrangers. . . . And it was a really w onderful sharedmoment. And we were all huddling in there and at thesame time sharing space with each other so that no onewas hogging the water.

Water provides a catalyst for a profound experienceof nature for some; the impressive geology of the can-yons provides this catalyst for others, as shown in thisexcerpt from part icipant observat ion field notes (6/91):After lunch, after cleanup, Mel organized a little hike upthe cliff beh ind us to a site where there were mod el fossilsof rock. I sort of got started early, as I wanted to. Theothers cam e along in a bitsingle file. Mel talked a littleabout the geology. We showed off the fossils, talked alittle about the fossil corals, rim rock and further up,krinoid stems. As she talked about those, people lookedon appreciatively.

The t r ip orches tra tes many o ppo rtuni t ies for the par-t ic ipants to commune wi th na ture . Some par t ic ipantsare affected by the water, others by geology, still othersare moved by the wildl ife, old set t lers ' camps, starl i tbeaches , or the remains of Nat ive Am erican dwel l ings .The trip al lows part icipants to share their experiencesof nature; i t operates for some as a sacred passage.Communitas. A second theme preva lent in a l l our

data is an evolving feel ing of communion with friends.

fami ly, and s t rangers . This sense of communion, orcommuni t a s i n Turne r ' s (1974) d rama t urg i ca l f r ame-work, is i l lustrated below. Feelings of l inkage, of be-longing, of group devot ion to a t ranscendent goa l a refaci l i tated by proximity forced by the narrow canyons,smal l camping areas , boa ts , and teamwork assoc ia tedwith rafting itself. The emergence of com mu ni tas var iesin degree with the characterist ics of the group cominginto the trip. Nonetheless, i t emerges in subtle waysover t ime. Guides impose rules and order on the t r ipfrom the beginning tha t pref igure the development ofcommunity. Excerpts from part icipant observat ion fieldnotes of the teen trip (5/90) evoke this:A girl comes to ask the head chaperone. Rick [head ofthe grou p] wh ether she should ta ke off her ring. It's loose,she explains. I notice she has hickies on her neck. Ricksays yeah take it off. What about her friends with looserings. I say take 'em off'cause of blisters. Blisters? Fromrowing, I explain. She gets a glimmer of understandingon her face and goes off to tell her friends.People are invited to leave some gear behind in the carsand to pack other stuff out of the way for the day byPeter, by Tom [guides], and also by the head chap erone,so he gets the m essage. Peter annou nce s there is rain gearfor all of the b oats. So is there a kind of hom ogenization,throwing off old roles implicit here? Kids load bags withcigarettes and other junk.

In a r it e of passage, the c rea tion of com mu ni ta s typ -ically begins with a casting off of goo ds that differentiatemembers in favor of shared goods (Turner 1969; vanGennep 1960) . Thus , here the kids a re urged to leavestuff behind and are informed that there is a uniform,tha t is, the life jack et an d th e rain gear, for all. Of cou rse,there is resistance, too, and kids pack their bags withgoods emblemat ic of everyday personae , for example ,c igare t tes , bandanas , and so on.

Gui des i nv i t e t he p roduc t i on of communi t y , bu tpeople already seem to be prepared to perform in acommuni ta r ian way. Remarkably, some of the kids onthe teen trip seemed to be act ing in terms of a scriptfavorable to the c rea t ion of communi ty a t the put - in.Thu s, several girls offer to leave behind the "frien dsh ip"r ings emb lemat ic of boyfr iends w ho are not par t of thegroup but remain in the everyday world a t home.Guides re inforce teamwork themes in a var ie ty ofways . Fie ld notes and photographs from each of thetrips shows teamwork in loading and unloading supplies(e .g. , pass ing "dr y bag s" up and down the bank throug ha chain of cl ients), tying gear into the boats, cookingand doing dishes, and part icipat ing in campfire act iv-i t ies. Guides sometimes at tempt to faci l i tate the devel-opment of communi ty by leading people through var-ious team-bui lding games over the course of the t r ip .On e set of t ranscr ibed p art icip ant ob serva t ion fieldnotes (6/91) sa id.

The next game we played was a trust game where westood in a tight circle and the person went in the middle.


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RIVER MAGIC 35

and went stiff and closed their eyes and we then sort ofrocked them around the circle. Each person in turn didthis. Bev hesitated at first, saying that she wasn't goingto do this one, but finally she did. . . . So this was aneveningin which hair wasmuch more let down. . . . thiswas sort of a turning p oint I think in terms of the creationof community on the trip.

The l ingering impact of these games is i l lustratedfrom the second morning of another set of transcribedparticipant observation field notes (7/91): "I have toadmit that that silly name game that we played lastnight probably has a lot to do with having loosenedeverybody up. . . . there were several references allday long to names from the game and motions fromthe game. . . . And that's weird because it's as if peoplewere just looking for a way to do that."No rms of cooperation are further reinforced by help-ing behaviors amon g guides and between different out-fitters on the many occasions when novice paddlers losetheir paddles, boats become grounded, or rafts flip. Inthese and other instances guides provide cues to channe lcooperative activity. Some clients seek ou t ways to help;others need guidance. Few refuse to become involved.Thus, guides invite and clients voluntarily transcendtheir passive role as service recipients (spectators) totake an active role in the production of community.As the trips progress the opportunities for group ex-perience accumu late. One excerpt from field notes pro-vides an exam ple of a playful context in which both thetheme of communion with nature and that of com-munitas are evident:To create this waterfall faucet means that people have toblock off the water with their bodies at several juncturepoints on this little stream so that the water accumulates.And then somebody stands under the place where thetrickle of water is going down. And it creates a gushingwaterfall that comes over on top of them. And I guesswhat was interesting about this was two things. First, it'sreal dependent on lots of bodies participating in the wholething to make it happen. And it also meant getting realclose together. 'Cause you have to put your bodies realclose together in the little part of the stream where you'retrying to block off the water.And that wasit was reallyfun.

After negotiating each stretch of white water, crewscongratulate themselves and are typically congratulatedby the guides. In one case, in the aftermath of an ac-cident in which a boat turne d over and everyone helpedto right it, discussion often returned to whether equip-ment had dried out as in this excerpt from participantobservation notes: "It was a quiet morning in camp.People revived the discussion of^things being wet. Peoplewere heard to exclaim, 'H ey tha t pretty well dried o ut!'and 'How are your sleeping bags, are they pretty welldried o ut?' and things of that natu re."Participant observation research provided numerousillustrations of the evolution of community over the

course of a three-day trip. O ur photographs record somedramatic examples. One features a picture of four ofthe six high school girls braiding each other's hair intoidentical French braids. These giris were not friendswhen the trip began. What drove their emergent senseof identity was shared recognition of a common prob-lem: their fear of the river, including shampooing theirhair in it. This photograph was taken on the final dayof the trip.Participants' embodiments of communitas becomeparticularly evident and striking as leave-taking ap-proaches. Field notes from the final day of one four-day river trip reveal this evolution:

Allen [a customer], at one point, said that we should allget together and do this again next year. That we shouldcome as a group. And I think tha t's not som ething I hadheard before. But it's real clear that he'd come to thinkof iis as a group of people that belonged together as agood team. And that's funny because Becky and Rex,and really all of us were all so different from each other.And come from much different backgrounds and ori-entations and everything else. I mean Allen and Jane arethe perfect yuppie couple. And Becky and Rex both chewtobacco. So it's quite a contrast.

Field notes from the end of this trip disclose the dep thof emotional attachme nts formed among the membersof the trip. There were lots of staged photographs ofsubsets of people who hadn't known one another at thebeginning of the; trip that symbolized the sense of com-munity that had developed:So, one of the last parts of this ending here was that oneof the people in the group of eleven suggested that ev-erybody get into the bags that we had packed our stuffin. And so, many of us, absent Kate and Dennis andsome of the people who weren't quite brave enough tojump into that shot, jumped into the bags and crowdedtogether into a group shot. . . . one of the guides whohadn't gone along on the trip took a picture with mycamera and several other cameras were involved in takingpictures of that shot.

Communitas develops not only among the customersbut between customers and the guides. In most of thefield note illustrations provided, the guides were fullyintegrated into the experience as members of the team.Consistent with our conceptualization of the experienceas a rite of intensification, photographs illustrate theaffectionate, playful construction of a community thatdoes not separate guides from clients, young from old,or rich from poor. People report thinking of the guide,not in service provider terms, but as a friend. Participantobservation notes from the end of a trip (7/91) depictthe emotionally charged, boundary open relationshipsthat develop: "It 's real clear that Jeff [one of the guides]made an impact on people. And that a lot of peoplewould come up to him and say, you made this trip forme. . . . the people from Carbon wanted Jeff to comeup and interview with the school in Carbon, because


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RIVER MAGIC 37

guides' and other rafters' stories of close calls, clientsemerge with a sense of mastery and enhanced agency.Recollections of the Experience

Transcribed field notes (7/91) convey a sense of ex-haustion and reentry into the everyday world: "One ofthe things that we joked about as we were sitting arou ndat the take-out, Russ reiterated how he thought that ascotch and soda, a cold, cold Pepsi Cola, or cold CocaCola with some ice cubes in it would really be som ethingto be looking forward to and then perhaps a scotch andsoda on ice after that."A client (9/90) reflecting back on his feelings at theend of the trip, remarked: "I don't think you feel likeyou want to immediately go on another raft trip. Whatyou're really interested in is having a shower, an d a nicehot shower, and get in some dry clothes, and a m artin i."Also reflected in the reentry to the everyday world isa sense of being hit with the routin es, noises, and otherfeatures of everyday life. A focus group participan t re-flecting on end-of-trip feelings talked about the "yuk"mail. Then she continued in a more reflective vein:"You let your perception all open up. All these defensesthat we have, and take for granted, that we don't eventhink about them in the city, where you block outsounds, and you block out a lot of things. You haven'tdone that for awhile. All of a sudden you come back.And that's one reason that we get hit so quickly."In one sense the trip ends at the take-o ut. But, as ourdata reflect, many years after a river trip, the memorylingers. Vivid recall of the experience is evidencedthroughout retrospective reports, with comments suchas that it "made a lasting impression" or "was an over-whelming experience." One participant notes, "Al-though it has been a long time, probably eight years,once I began writing, the feelings and sensations comeright back." Responden ts vividly remember their raftingexperience but find it difficult to describe. A consistenttheme was, "You almost have to do it to really under-stand the experience." One participant said, "It is eaisierfor me to describe the intense moments experienced inrafting and these are perhaps more alive memories.Those longer periods of quiet solitude, which are just

as vivid in my mind and heart, are somehow more dif-ficult to pu t into w ords."Participants do not appear to want to engage in verymuch cognitive recall of the experience. It is as if rivermagic is best preserved if the associated feelings andsensations are not examined too closely. Commentsfrom the client focus group (9/90) exemplify this re-sistence: "You know, I've treated the trip as somethingto be enjoyed. . . . I happen to be in academia. Andso, what you need to do is get away from that atmo-sphere and do something else. And a raft trip is a wayof doing that. So it's enjoyable and that's exactly howI look upon it. No point in making it all complicated."

Evident in all of our data is that the experiences areproductive of emotional outcomes, and in retrospectare often described in terms of these outcomes, as thefollowing quotation shows (1/90): "It is an experiencethat com bines a multitude of feelings and em otions tha tcould differ depending on a person's likes and dislikesand their fears."The narrative qualities of the experience and artic-ulation of the interwoven themes of communion withnature, com mun itas, and extension and renewal of selfbecome more pronounced with time and retelling.

Com munion with Nature. Posttrip responses towhat were the best things that happened on the trip (6/90-8 /90) co ntained n umero us references to "great sce-nery," "natural environment," and the "solitude of thecanyons." One rafter observed, "The solitude in thevastness of the canyon was uplifting and exciting."Neariy half of respondents (49 percent) mentioned nat-ural environmental features as one of the best thingsthat happened on their trip.A particularly rich articulation of the communionwith nature that derives from rafting in a river canyonwas provided by a participant in our focus group (9/90): "But in the river, there's something about the can-yon and the river and the narrowness. T here's a limited,you're not just limited by no noise from the city, ornot, you know, bus stops and all. But you're limited bythe wall or the beach. . . . And go to look . . . up atthe stars and you know , identify a few of the stars, thatyou know you can identify because the rest of them are

blocked out. It just ah . . . in every way . . ."First-season quantitative analyses provided statisticalsupport for the relationship between a feeling of com-munion with nature and reported satisfaction with thetrip. A seven-item scale (alpha = .84) measured com-munion with nature (scale items are included in theAppendix). The correlation of the "communion withna tur e" scale and a six-item measure of overall trip sat-isfaction (alpha = .90) was .70 (p < .001).Long afterward, the memory of the absorption in na-ture and the newness of perception associated with thetrip linger. Recollections of what it is like to go riverrafting (1/90) carry these themes: "As the river carvesits way through majestic ca nyon s one can feel the in nersense of fulfillment that only na ture can bring ou t." "Itgives you a chan ce to see things one wo uldn 't see unlessthey partook in the experience. It is an experience thatallows you to witness the beauty and the imm ense powerof our natural environment."Data from the second season echo the theme of com-munion with nature. Comments suggest the newnessof perception and melding with nature characteristic ofthis experience. When asked to describe the river andsurroundings, people wrote: "Stark, but beautiful. Therewas a grandness and awesomeness in the sheer wallsand steadily changing slopes of the river and the rocks.


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38 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCIt was unhurried and restful." "Peaceful, I felt at timeslike a child seeing things for the first time. I was in awe.Sometimes we tend not to appreciate our own country.We want to visit outside th e USA. Colorado is wonderful."Qu antitative analyses from second-season data againsupport the importance of communion with nature intrip satisfaction. On the basis of our experiences duringthe first season we revised slightly our me asure of com -munion with nature (scale items for season 2 are in-cluded in the App endix). Correlation of the revised six-item scale (alpha = .86) with overall trip satisfaction(alpha = .93) was .61 {p < .001).

Communitas. In the first season, one -third of post-trip responses (6/90-8/90) made mention of interac-tions with others as one of best things that happenedon the trip. Examples include "our family being to-gether," "friendships you would form," and "com-radeship."Vivid articulations of the communion with othersthat derives from rafting in a river canyon were providedby focus group verbatims (9/90) in response to a mod-erator's probe about the "most appealing aspect" ofrafting: "Even people you didn't know, you meet themand you get to know them real well on the river, andthen you maybe never see them again. But for thosefew days, you know, you shared something in a reallyintimate way."

A sense of communitas is not produced merely byshared experience. Shared "edgework" (Lyng 1990),such as working a craft through dangero us rapids, m orequickly creates a sense of communion, one that differssomewhat from that b uilt up over the course of the trip.Another verbatim from the focus group suggests thisdynamic: "A nd so there's a bonding that occurs prettyquickly I think, when you come through an experiencethat frightens you, or intimidates you or excites you.Guess everyone's emo tional levels are going pretty high,and it's through teamwork that you're going to getthrough this experience. And when you come throughit on that other side of the rapids, you're a little bitcloser than you were when you went in."

In the first season, we developed the communitasscale on the basis of repeated comments from outfitters,guides, and river trip participants to the effect that beingwith family and connecting with others gives a "newperspective on life" and helped participants see "whatreally matters." One outfitter emphasized how she de-veloped her rafting business partly b ecause of the uniqueability of the river experience to change interpersonaldynamics and transform individual perspectives:"Among peer groups, it really changes around patternsof interaction, urban leader may be pushed onto theback burner . . . it is a learning experience beyondanything I've ever gone through. Day three on the wateris the dram atic changing poin t. . . . This is the fastesttransition period we've found for any outdoor kind of

experience, this day three thin g. Y ou get a lot of leadeamong the adult trips."Quantitative analyses support the relationship btv/een comm union with others and reported satisfactiowith the trip. Communitas was measured by a fouitem scale (alpha = .82; scale items are provided in thAppendix). The correlation of the scale and the sixitem m easure of overall trip satisfaction is .71 (p < .001Long afterward, unguided retrospective reports ogoing river rafting include this theme of communita(1/90): "When you're with friends, very few things cacompare to the bond you create because it's a team sporYou overcome the scary spots together and then laugtogether as the water splashes at you." "You develop team attitude and form close bonds with raft partners."Posttrip survey responses in the second season of research provided even richer articulations of communitas, again stressing the rapid sense of com mu nion witstrangers very different from oneself (6/91-8/91). Foexample, when asked what they had learned, one participant said: "I learned that group success sometimerequires sacrificing of self. I learned that people fromvaried backgrounds are very much the same and caand do have fun together."

Posttrip survey responses also pointed to the incorporation of guides into the community, supporting interpretation of this service encounter as a boundaropen transaction. These responses to guides are typicaof posttrip comments: "Like a true friend after only couple of hours." "Let us in on her personal life, toldgreat stories, well educated on surroundings, the typof person I would like for a sister."Quantitative results from the second season of research again supported the role of communitas in tripsatisfaction. By the end of the first season we had animproved understanding of the nature of feelings ocommunity. Correlation of a significantly revised sixitem scale (alpha = .90) measuring sense of communitywith overall trip satisfaction was .55 (p < .001).

Personal Growth and Renewal of Self First-seasopostt rip responses to the question of the best things thahappened on the trip (6/90-8/90) contain allusions toself-discovery as well as num erou s references to feelingsof adventure, challenge, and excitement! Examples in-clude "discover internal strengths," "proving to myselfI could handle the trip (camping/rapids)," or "survivingoverturned raft." The progressive mastery over novelthings and tools is suggested by this verbatim about"duckies" given as a response to the "best part of thetrip": "The fun of kayaking down rapids like Crystaland Spector and ending up right side up at the end andfeeling like I was somewhat in control!"Focus groups (5/90, 9/90) provided rafters with anopportunity to express more fully feelings of self-dis-covery, awareness, achievement, and personal trans-formation, that is, the impact of a ritual of intensifi-


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RIVER MAGIC 39cation o n sense of self.A river guide trainee sum marizedthe impact of his past few weeks on the river in thefollowing term s (5/90): "Learned bunc h of things. Howtired you can be doing physical work. How selfish andpetty one can be when we're outside of our comfortzones. To find these things out, and reiterate from tim eto time keeps us hum ble. Being able to assess a situationslowly gives you the concrete things. Discover what youlike and don't like."From the client focus group (9/90) we heard thesecomments: "Yeah, I mean in my case it was definitelya skills-building activity. Where you start out and you'rea little bit uncomfortable and you kind of establish abetter comfort zone or a wider comfort zone." "Thething that I enjoyed the m ost was the risk involved, andthe fact that you were able to overcome the risk at theend. . . . It's the fact that, wow, I really did do that.And you feel real positive when you get alldon e. . . . And I guess the next best part, [is] to knowthat you can rely on most people."Comments from the focus group (9/90) substantiatedfield observations about the importance of the guide inorchestrating personal growth and renewal: "And heseemed very confident and built all our confidence uparound him. And I think it really helped near the endof the trip when he let us take turns guiding. And we'dall sit in the back of the boat and try and give com man dsand try to get the boat to go certain directions. And itwas so hard for us, and we'd screw things up so muchthat by the tim e we sat back in our position as paddlers,we had a lot more respect for Doug, because we feltlike, oh, this job is hard."Ouantitative analyses support the relationship be-tween personal growth and renewal of self and reportedsatisfaction with the trip . A six-item scale (alpha = .84)measured personal growth and renewal (scale items areprovided in the Appendix). The correlation betweenthis scale and a seven-item measure of overall satisfac-tion is .65 (/?< .001).Recollections of river rafting (1/90) depicted them escommon to positive experience including absorptionand integration, personal control, joy and valuing, andspontaneous letting-be of the process. In addition tothe themes illustrated below, the theme of "newness ofperception and process" characteristic of extraordinaryexperience was evident. These themes provide an en-vironment for a rite of intensification instrumental inexperiencing personal growth: "G oin g river rafting is anatural high. It is you and the water. . . . all yourproblems are forgotten and o ne can use their body an dfeel all the muscles work in harmony." "The onlysounds you hear are the water splashing and its flowthrough the rapids and a few yells and screams of plea-sure from companions. You feel the water pushing un-derneath and around the raft. And the feel of humidityand wetness all around. Your body is under the controlof the rapids and you ride the raft."

Recollections of going river rafting (1/90) containme ntion s of renewed self-awareness, rejuv enation, skillenhancement, testing limits, and personal achievement:"[Y ou] develop a personal enric hm ent especially if youencounter a situation in which you become frightenedand overcome the obstacle of the situation. And finally,long after its done, even years later, you'll find yourmind escaping/returning back to the journey and reliv-ing the thrill and when you en coun ter a situation in lifewhere you're afraid or unsure th e river experience oftenenables you to overcome it because you are inevitablymore self-assured."Posttrip survey responses in the second season in-cluded a prompt on what clients felt they learned fromtheir rafting experience. In contrast to pretrip expec-tations, which were primarily skill acquisition related,only a few p osttrip responses could be so characterized.Even in those cases, the use of exclam ation ma rks sug-gests some greater accomplishment. For example, oneclient who expected to learn "how to live in the out-doors," reported after his trip that he learned "I can'captain' a raft!" In general, what clients reportedlearning was very different from what they initially re-ported wanting to learn. Obviously, if we had askedinstead "Did you learn boat skills as you expected?"they would probably have responded yes. However,what stuck in their minds was other things, and theverbatims read like a compendium of life wisdoms: "Itis better to try and fail, rather than to not try at all";"So much worry over stupid things in tbe world"; or"Patience, understanding."

Ouantitative analyses from second-season posttripresponses again supported the importance of personalgrowth and renewal in overall trip satisfaction. Basedon our first-season research experiences, the same six-item scale (alpha = .91) measured personal growth andrenewal (items are included in the Appendix). The cor-relation of this measure with overall trip satisfactionwas.62( /7< .001) .Links between Themes

Evident in both research seasons and across differentresearch methods was the close linking of the themes.The link with nature and the separation from "civili-zation" plays a role in the creation of communitas:"What you really do is just for the sheer enjoyment ofbeing together. And this is a way of insuring that, be-cause we don't get together very often in that kind ofan experience without taking the time to do som ethingaway from the helter skelter activity of daily living. Soit [rafting] forces you to do it mo re than anythin g else."Several other focus group comments substantiate therelationship between isolation in a natural environmentand the creation of communitas: "We were removedfrom all those other peripheral things and so we wereable to focus on our friendship and c once ntrate on each


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40 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCother and o ur interaction with each other was much betterthan we would've been able to do in ano ther setting."Similarly, verbatims about learning to trust, to lead,to get along with others, an d to be part of a team suggesta close connection between a sense of communitas andpersonal growth. The close interplay between self, na -ture, and others is evidenced in verbatims again andagain. Many verbatims already provided play on howthe rediscovered self emerges in the natural setting andthrough interactions with others.Quantitative analyses in the firstseason suggested tha tthe three experiential themes are highly correlated,ranging from .64 to .71 (p < .001). Because of the smallsample size for posttrip survey responses in the firstseason (n = 43), it was not appro priate to factor analyzethe items for the three experiential themes to establishunidimensionality. Ordinary least squares (OLS)regression w ith the three experiential them es as predic-tor variables and overall trip satisfaction as the depen-dent variable yields an adjusted R^ of .57 {F = 16.57,p < .001). Because of potential m ulticollinearity amongthe three predictor variables, interpreting th e individualbetas and r-values may be problematic. However, OLSresults are fairly robust for these levels of correlationbetween the predictor variables and for the level of i?^reported (Mason and Perreault 1991).With the larger sample size available in season 2posttrip survey responses, we confirmed that the threethemes are related but separate components of raftingsatisfaction. Because of our experience during season1, the revised item pool generated for season 2 datacollection seemed effective in captu ring the c onstructs.Very little adjustment to the hypothesized scales wasrequired in season 2. On the basis of initial reliabilityanalyses two items were dropped from the personalgrowth scale (from eight back to six) and two itemswere dropped from the communitas scale (from eightto six). Next, an unconstrained principal componentsfactor analysis yielded three factors with eigenvaluesgreater than one. Together, these three factors explain 66percent of the variance. All items loaded on the expectedfactor and no cross-loadings exceeded .40. The rotatedfactor solution is included in the Appendix. Of course,the themes are related, with correlations ranging between.52 and .57. The OLS solution with overall satisfactionas the dependent variable and the three experientialthemes as predicted variables results in an adjusted/?^ of.46 (F = 34.05, all ^-values are significant at p < .05).The Narrative of a Rafting Experience

Looking across the pretrip planning process to theculmination of the trip in a series of affectively chargedrecollections, we are struck by the importance of the entirenarrative in understanding the experience. Consequently,the disconfirmation paradigm is not a particularly usefulmetap hor for interpreting satisfaction with this experience.

Significant deviations from even vaguely articulated expectations are common, and the link between confirmation of expectations and satisfaction is weak.Deviations from Fxpectations. In advance of thtrip, it is difficult for clients to grasp the taken-forgranted world of river rafting aficionados and the romance they experience in their outdoor life. Similarlyoutfitters do not always anticipate the gap between thassum ptions of clients and th e realities of river trips. Ishort, outcomes differ from expectations. Unanticipaterealities are commonly expressed in posttrip comment(6/90 -8/90 ). Examples include "I didn't expect to havwet feet for six days," "I was disappointed at the flawater on a three day trip. I was hoping for more whitewater" (long stretches of flat water between rapids), "thnecessity of washing in muddy river water, the lack oprivacy," "sleeping on the hard ground," and so on.Guides and outfitters are frequently indifferent to aspects of the trip that subsequently surprise clients. Foexample, a wealthy client and his family were disappointed to discover that the water in the Green Rivewas not, in fact, green, but rather a muddy brown, andthat th e scenery was desert rathe r than lush forest. Theydemanded the outfitter arrange for helicopter transporout of the wilderness area. Dissuaded, the family wa"ecstatic" at the end of their trip, and later wrote to theoutfitter to explain that the trip had brought them together (field notes; 2/90).Weak Link between Fxpectations and Satisfac-tion. Satisfaction may have little if anyth ing to do withconfirmation of expectations. The client focus group(9/90) hints at a weak link between expectations andsatisfaction. At one point a client explains that "therapids were a little better than I'd imagined they wouldbe." As the conversation develops, it turns out this isan understatement. The whole raft turned over on arapid; he was first trapped u nderneath , and then "wentalmost a mile through two other major rapids on hisown." This event provoked the couple to unusual ac-tion, "We came home and made some arrangements.With our lives and affairs." Their concluding remarkssuggest, "But in any event, it was a, it was a very excitingtrip ," and " It was wonderful. O n the way home wewerealready thinking of what one [i.e., river] next." Thus,satisfaction may derive from having survived an un-expected challenge.

Weak links between expectations and satisfactionmay be due to the complexity of satisfaction with ex-traordinary experience. One participant's descriptionof her reactions to the experience captures the com-plexity particularly well (1/90):For m e, river rafting is a horrible th ing. I am scared todea th of wa te r . . . . I have to admi t i t was the mostexciting thing I 've done in a long time. I never felt safe,but I did start to feel l ike I wasn't in complete danger.For the f irst 15 to 20 min utes it was pure terror . . . . By


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RIVER MAGIC 41the end of the dayI'd been thrown all over the raft, Iwas soaking wet, I was very drained because I'd beentense all day long, but I felt very invigorated. . . . it ischallenging, exciting, thrilling, exhausting, and I'd rec-ommend it highly.

Da ta from season 2 al low an explici t com par isonbetween pre t r ip expecta t ions and post t r ip responseson several features of the trip including setting, guides,people, feelings, safety, and learning. In each category,deviations from expectations were common, and manyhave been detailed in previous sections. Th e rivers andsetting were majestic, but "brown." and "desolate," not"green" and "lush." The guides were more than infor-mative and skilled, they were friends and members of ateam. The people were not just friendly, but bonded to-gether in a rite of intensification. People did n ot just learnhow to oar the raft, bu t learned about themselves and life.Some additional illustrations of the complexity of thenarrative come from comparing feelings people expectedwith feelings they reported having. Typical pretrip andposttrip responses are illustrative:Expected: Satisfaction.Actual: Big mood swings. Bad mo od to being in awe.Expected: Exhilaration, peacefulness.Actual: Some frustration, exhilaration, and mostlyratification. I felt a sense of accomplishmentthat I finished something which was verychallenging. The experiences I had will lastforever; going under the waterfall, the rockclimbing, leading my boat through the rap-

ids, just everything.DISCUSSION AND IMPLICA TIONS

Experiences, like tales, fetes, potteries, rites,dramas, images, memoirs, ethnographies,and allegorical machineries, are made; andit is such made things that make them.[GE ERT Z 1986, p. 380]

White water river rafting provides a dramatic illus-tration of complex features of delivering "extraordinaryexperience." Because of the complexity of the domainand the difficulty of acquiring rich and representativedata, mu ltiple m ethods were employed to articulate thelived meaning of this experience from both the guides'and the consumers' perspectives. No data set stands onits own as sufficient evidence of the narrative . Each dataset can be criticized on one or more criteria (Arnouldand Wallendorf 1993). Together, however, they con-verge to tell a story about "river magic."River rafting is a unique recreational form, but itspower lies in the romantic cultural scripts that evolveover the course of the experiencethe opportunity toparticipate in rites of intensification and integration andto return to an everyday world "transfo rmed." Althoughthe form is unique, the cultural script is exceedingly

common and increasingly sought (Cohen 1989; Krip-pendorf 1987; MacC annell 1989). Wh ite water riverrafting is viewed in individuals' narratives as an unfor-gettable, affectively charged experience. Consistent withresearch on extraordinary experiences, river raftingprovides absorption and integration, personal control,joy and valuing, a spontaneous letting-be of the process,and a newness of perception and process. Dimensionsof extraordinary experience manifest themselves in thethemes of harmony with n ature, comm unitas, and per-sonal growth and renewal. These experiential themesare evidenced across all the data; they evolve and arewoven together over the course of the trip. Together,the three themes are significant in explaining overallsatisfaction. Both qualitative and quantitative resultssuppo rt the value of viewing the them es as an interactivegestalt instead of trying to separate the contributionsof the three themes.

In the current historical and cultural context, it canbe argued tha t these three them es are deeply frustratedvalues that American consumers seek and prize. Formany consumers intense, positive experiences crys-tallize selfhood, provide life meaning and perspective,confer awareness of one's own mortality, reduce anx-iety, and improve fear coping (Abrahams 1986; Celsiet al. 1993 ; Do noh ue 1991; Ewert 1988; Ewert andHollenho rst 1989; Solomon 1988). Some authors thinkthe value placed on intense, positive experiences is areaction against the comm ercialization of meaning andsegmentation and specialization of roles in the work-place (Csikszentm ihalyi 1990; Cu shm an 1990; Ewen1988; Gid den s 1991, p. 9). In services ranging fromfast food to birthing classes, providers could, andsometimes d o, stress one or mo re of these three them es.Although it may seem a stretch to promise a renewedsense of self from stopping at McDonald's for breakfast,several award-winning advertisements do just that. In-corporation of these themes in service provision may beboth unexpected and highly satisfying for consumers.The subtle role of the guide in orchestrating deliveryof an extraordinary experience is revealed in field notes,photos, and focus groups. Emotional outcomes asso-ciated with extraordinary experience are embedded inrelationships between customer and service provider.Previous research has discussed neither the interactivedimension of extraordinary experiences nor the asso-ciation between extraordinary experience and com-mercial service encounters. Our findings suggest thatguides, partly at their own invitation, are inducted intothe com mu nity as friends and team players. The rite ofintensification into which the guide is bound by theexperience of clients changes the nature of interactionin fundamental way

Extraordinary Experience and the Extended Service Encounter

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