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Producers and consumers – who represent opposing sides of the market – have different frames of reference, which may result in differences in classification of the same products. The authors aim to demonstrate that “classification gaps” have a negative effect on the performance of products and that these effects play a role in different stages of consumers’ decision process.

The data collection consisted of three comprehensive parts covering production and consumption in the music festival market in The Netherlands. The first part focused on festival organizers who were asked to classify their own music festival in terms of musical genres. In total, 70 festival organizers agreed to participate. The second part measured the genre classification of 540 consumers. In the third part, the authors interviewed 1,554 potential visitors of music festivals in The Netherlands about their awareness of the festival and if they considered visiting or actually visited the festival.

This paper provides empirical evidence that a classification gap between the production side and the consumption side of the market has negative effects on music festival performance. In addition, the authors found that this is in part because of lower activation of potential consumers in the marketplace.

An important practical implication of this study is that – in general – producers should be aware that classification gaps can occur – even if they are sure about the classification of their products – and that this can have serious consequences. The category membership of products is often seen as a given, whereas it cannot be assumed that the classification perceived by different economic groups is the same – as demonstrated in this paper.

This paper demonstrates that a fundamental – but understudied – disconnect between the two opposing sides of the market (i.e. producers and consumers) regarding the classification of the same products can have negative effects on performance of these products.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of experiential augmentation on product evaluation by consumers. An important distinction is made between product-related experiential augmentation and experiential augmentation of the environment. Furthermore, the research examines how brand familiarity moderates the effect of experiential augmentation.

In two experiments (N = 210 and N = 70), both product-related and environmental experiential augmentation were varied. Participants tasted and evaluated a new coffee product from either a well-known or a fictitious brand.

The findings of the first experiment indicate that product-related experiential augmentation contributes positively to product evaluation for both an unfamiliar and a familiar brand. Experiential augmentation of the environment influences product evaluation negatively, but only in the absence of product-related experiential augmentation. The second experiment tests some possible explanations for this negative effect and shows that it occurs only in the case of a familiar brand.

The findings offer implications for marketing managers seeking to positively influence consumer product evaluations through experiential augmentation. First, marketing managers are advised to make a distinction between product-related experiential augmentation and experiential augmentation of the evaluation environment, and, second, they should take brand familiarity into account when employing experiential augmentation of the environment.

This research contributes to the literature by showing that product-related experiential augmentation and experiential augmentation of the environment differ in the impact they have on product evaluation and providing insight into the relationship between brand familiarity and experiential augmentation.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the current understanding of organisational conditions that facilitate service design. Specifically, the focus is on organisational capabilities, interactive practices and individual abilities as units of analysis across service system levels. Grounded in design principles, the paper conceptualises and delineates illustrative service design conditions and introduces a respective service design capability-practice-ability (CPA) portfolio. In doing so, an emerging microfoundations perspective in the context of service design is advanced.

Conceptual paper.

This paper identifies and delineates a CPA that contributes to service design and ultimately customer experiences. The service design CPA consists of six illustrative constellations of service design capabilities, practices and abilities, which operate on different organisational levels. The service design CPA builds the foundation for in-depth research implications and future research opportunities.

The CPA framework suggests that if an organisation seeks to optimise service design and subsequent customer experiences, then individual- and organisational-level (cap)abilities and interactive practices should be optimised and synchronised across specific CPA constellations.

This paper provides the first microfoundations perspective for service design. It advances marketing theory through multilevel theorising around service design capabilities, practices and abilities and overcomes extant limitations of insular theorising in this context.