VIRTUAL EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING AT MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC.:

AN EXAMINATION OF EFFECTS ON CONSUMER PURCHASE INTENTIONS

Heather Nicole Thomson

A Thesis Submitted to the

University of North Carolina Wilmington in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Business Administration

Cameron School of Business

University of North Carolina Wilmington

2010

Approved by

Advisory Committee

Luisa Andreu Martina G. Gallarza

Maria Jose Miquel Vince Howe

Chair

Accepted by

_____________________________

Dean, Graduate School

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. iv

LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................... v

LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................... vi

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1

I.1. Justification of the Selected Topic .................................................................................. 1

I.1.1. Academic Justification .............................................................................................. 1

I.1.2. Managerial and Socioeconomic Justification ............................................................. 2

I.2. General Objective and Specific Objectives ...................................................................... 3

I.3. Methodology .................................................................................................................. 3

I.4. Framework ..................................................................................................................... 4

CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................... 7

II.1. Experiential Marketing: A Postmodern Approach ......................................................... 7

II.1.1. Definition ................................................................................................................ 9

II.1.2. Physical Brand Environments ................................................................................ 12

II.1.3. Experiential Event Marketing ................................................................................ 12

II.1.4. Experiential Retailing ............................................................................................ 14

II.1.5. Virtual Brand Environments ................................................................................... 16

II.2. The Customer Experience Creation Process ................................................................. 17

II.2.1. The Goal: Deliver Experiential Value ..................................................................... 18

II.2.2. Pre-Consumption and Purchase Intentions .............................................................. 19

II.2.3. Moment of Truth, Quality of Experience, and Satisfaction ..................................... 20

II.2.4. Post-Consumption and Brand Loyalty .................................................................... 21

II.3. Tourism Marketing: Marketing Experiences vs. Experiential Marketing ...................... 23

II.3.1. Marketing a Total Experience ................................................................................ 23

II.3.2. Offering Experiences.............................................................................................. 24

II.3.3. Creating Hotel Experiences to Build Brand Value ................................................. 26

CHAPTER III. APPLICATION TO MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC. ........................... 28

III.1. General Description of Marriott International, Inc. ..................................................... 28

III.1.1. SWOT Analysis .................................................................................................... 29

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III.2. Experiential Marketing in Marriott: Incorporating Exp. Mktg. into Tourism Mktg. ..... 36

III.2.1. Experiential Offerings ........................................................................................... 38

III.2.2. Experiential Marketing Campaigns ....................................................................... 39

III.2.3. Virtual Experiential Platforms ............................................................................... 40

III.3. Proposal for Improvement in Marriott ......................................................................... 41

CHAPTER IV. PROPOSAL ..................................................................................................... 44

IV.1. Objectives of Specific Proposal in Marriott................................................................. 44

IV.2. Basis for Empirical Research ...................................................................................... 44

IV.2.1. Schmitt‟s Strategic Experiential Models ............................................................... 45

IV.2.2. Experiential Value ................................................................................................ 48

IV.3. Hypotheses ................................................................................................................. 48

IV.3.1. Experiential Marketing and Experiential Value ..................................................... 48

IV.3.2. Experiential Value and Purchase Intentions .......................................................... 50

IV.4. Methodology .............................................................................................................. 51

IV.4.1. Survey Development ............................................................................................ 51

IV.4.2. Data Collection ..................................................................................................... 53

IV.4.3. Statistical Analysis ............................................................................................... 54

IV.4.4. Results .................................................................................................................. 56

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 67

V.1. Discussion of Results ................................................................................................... 67

V.2. Managerial Implications .............................................................................................. 69

V.3. Limitations .................................................................................................................. 72

V.4. Areas for Further Research .......................................................................................... 72

REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 75

APPENDIX .............................................................................................................................. 80

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ABSTRACT

The following Master Thesis explores the effects of experiential marketing on consumer

purchase intentions through perceived experiential value. The research application focuses on the

hospitality and lodging company, Marriott International, Inc. The Master Thesis is divided into 5

main sections. Firstly, we highlight in the introduction the interest to study this topic, as well as

general and specific objectives of the study. Section 2 focuses on a review of the literature

related to experiential marketing, highlighting the customer experience creation process and

experiential marketing as it relates to tourism marketing. Section 3 is an application of the

literature to an international lodging company, Marriott International, Inc. It is proposed that

based on the literature review and analysis of the company, virtual experiential marketing can

provide benefits such as providing added value and enticing positive purchase decisions. Section

4 consists of the survey-based methodology of the study to test this proposal to be able to

provide recommendations to business managers. This section includes the data analysis and

results of the applied empirical research exploring the relationship among virtual experiential

marketing, experiential value, and purchase intentions. The concluding section provides a

discussion of the results as well as managerial implications for Marriott International, Inc. and

other lodging companies. On the basis of the previous work it can be concluded that virtual

experiential mar