Elizabeth Cooper-Martin is a firm believer that there are two types of products in the consumer world: experiential and non-experiential. Experiential products are products that people buy in order to gain pleasure (i.e. movies, fine arts, and alcoholic beverages). Non-experiential products do not describe consumption at all. Cooper-Martin has discovered that consumers use these two types of information sources to influence their decisions on going to see a particular movie.
In her recent study with 98 college students, Cooper-Martin exposed the students to both experiential (previews and friends’ comments), subjective (serious, good, funny), non-experiential (magazine ads and critics’ reviews), and objective (producer, setting, actors and actresses) information sources and asked them to rate their usefulness and reliability in making a decision to attend a specific movie (Cooper-Martin 758). Her research found that the students rated experiential and subjective sources more credible and useful than non-experiential and objective sources.
Experiential and subjective information sources such as movie previews and comments made by friends have a far greater impact on consumers and moviegoers than do non-experiential and objective sources. This discovery has allowed consumer behavior to become more easily understood by manufacturers.
Works Cited
Cooper-Martin, Elizabeth. “Consumers and Movies: Information Sources for Experiential
Products.” Advances in Consumer Research Volume 19 (1992): 756-761. eds.
John F. Sherry, Jr. and Brian Sternthal, Provo, UT. n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2011.
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