This study aims to explore the customer experiences (CXs) of an under-researched luxury client segment, the ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI) in three settings, yacht-made…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the customer experiences (CXs) of an under-researched luxury client segment, the ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI) in three settings, yacht-made clothing services, chartering a yacht and art collection.
Design/methodology/approach
The author conducted 13 interviews with UHNWI, enquiring about their experiences with different services. The author collected and analyzed the data using a recommended three-step approach: in-depth interviews using soft-laddering; coding and purifying data through a systematic approach and hierarchical coding; and using the emerging consensus technique to scrutinize and validate the emerging themes.
Findings
This study revealed UHNWI drivers or purchasing and repurchasing behavior as (mis)managing expectations, personal relationships with personnel and achieving convenience-driven time savings. The corresponding conceptual framework is the UHNWI luxury CX.
Practical implications
This study reveals how über luxury brand managers need to carefully manage the UHNWI clientele expectations, focusing their investment on their brand personnel and the way they can save their clients’ valuable time.
Originality/value
This study is the first to explore UHNWI perceptions of their experience with über luxury providers across multiple contexts. This study highlights that the luxury experience, not the acquisition and owning of luxury goods, drives the UHNWI decision-making and purchase behavior.
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Philipp “Phil” Klaus and Annalisa Tarquini-Poli
This study aims to address the need to empirically investigate the luxury customer service experiences of the ultra-high-net-worth individual (UHNWI) segment by conducting and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to address the need to empirically investigate the luxury customer service experiences of the ultra-high-net-worth individual (UHNWI) segment by conducting and analyzing interviews with 20 clients flying private jets. The results lead to a conceptualization of the UHNW private aviation customer experience.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applied a three-step method to explore the meaning and domain of the UHNWI luxury service experience. First, the perception and corresponding attributes of customers’ experiences using private aviation services were examined through 20 in-depth interviews and by using the soft laddering technique. Second, this study coded and, subsequently, purified the data by means of a systematic comparison approach and hierarchical coding. Third, a panel of judges, using the emerging consensus technique, scrutinized and validated the emerging dimensions.
Findings
The analysis reveals the customer experience (CX) and motivations differ significantly between business and leisure use, moving from a functional toward an experiential value focus. The findings emphasize the lack of social value for the UHNWI CX and introduce time as a new value dimension.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides multiple contributions to the customer experience, luxury and luxury services literature. This study enhances scholarly understandings of the holistic UHNWI CX in the context of an absolute luxury offering, thus providing a needed conceptualization of an underresearched customer segment, namely, the UHNWI. It delivers insights on the different motivations and experience UHNWI are seeking for according to the context. This study proposes a new luxury value dimension: time.
Practical implications
This study highlights multiple opportunities for UHNWI customer experience improvement. The findings reveal that different clients are looking for different experiences in terms of business versus leisure use. The key drivers and expectations shift from functional (price/availability/flexibility) to experiential factors (comfort/onboard experience/relationship with crew and pilot). Communication, marketing and CX management strategies and tactics need to emphasize this important distinction regarding what drives client behavior in the private aviation setting.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, it defines UHNWI characteristics and overall experiences using the unique über-service of private aviation, thus advancing scholarly understanding of both the luxury customer and the luxury customer service experience beyond the proposed traditional drivers of luxury consumption. Second, this study expands the conceptual foundation for the UHNWI “über-luxury” service experience, which, given the importance of the UHNWI segment, is important. Third, this study contributes to theoretical knowledge by extending customer value perception in the luxury context by introducing the luxury value dimension of time. This study concludes with a discussion of its findings’ implications for luxury research and practice, providing a future research agenda with regard to UHNW.
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Philipp ‘Phil’ Klaus, JungKun Park and Annalisa Tarquini-Poli
Traditionally, international luxury marketing highlights possible disparities of cultural and value perception. The context-specific nature of traditional international luxury…
Abstract
Purpose
Traditionally, international luxury marketing highlights possible disparities of cultural and value perception. The context-specific nature of traditional international luxury marketing, which ranges from educational and cultural to financial and offering-based variations, delivers little guidance to managers in the field regarding how to cater best to their highest target segment. The study aims to exemplify the relevance of global consumer culture (GCC) theory for the ultra-high-net-worth-individual (UHNWI) context. The authors' research on UHNWIs maps the DNA, so to speak, of the UHNWI customer experience (CX) by determining what drives UHNWI purchasing behavior independent of background – in other words, what matters most to this exclusive consumer segment.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviewing 15 UHNWIs using a means-end approach and incorporating the emerging consensus technique (ECT), the authors explored the CX of UHNWIs leading to their purchasing decisions.
Findings
The authors' analysis reveals the three main constituents of the UHNWI CX: the value of time, expectation mismanagement and the utilitarian nature of luxury. The findings highlight that UHNWIs see traditional luxury as a necessity rather than a luxury and value different factors, such as time, much more highly. The findings highlight the UHNWI homogenous nature, connecting GCC to purchasing behavior.
Practical implications
The authors' study delivers empirical evidence of what matters most to the UHNWI segment and drives their purchasing behavior. The authors are questioning existing luxury segmentation strategies and lay out a clear guidance on how to design and deliver effective and efficient marketing, sales and communications strategies for the elusive UHNWI segment. The research highlights that it is the experience and the three main dimensions, namely expectation mismanagement, luxury as a utility and the value of time. Following UHNWI CX DNA framework will allow luxury companies to build their marketing and client acquisition efforts on a solid understanding of what matters most to the UHNWI target segment.
Originality/value
The study highlights the commonalities of UHNWIs in terms of what matters most to them. Based on this, the authors develop a UHNWI CX DNA. The authors propose that traditional context-specific differences upheld by international marketing researchers might not apply to the UHNWI segment. The authors deliver evidence that UHNWI are an excellent example of the applicability of GCC theory. The only difference in perception the authors noticed was between CX evaluations of self-made UHNWIs and those who inherited their wealth in an otherwise homogenous segment.
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Philipp Klaus, Bo Edvardsson, Timothy L. Keiningham and Thorsten Gruber
Despite efforts by researchers and managers to better link marketing activities with business financial outcomes, there is general agreement that by and large chief marketing…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite efforts by researchers and managers to better link marketing activities with business financial outcomes, there is general agreement that by and large chief marketing officers (CMOs) (and marketing in general) have lost strategic decision-making influence within organizations. The purpose of this paper is to understand the causes of this decline and offer recommended solutions to counteract this trend.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth interviews lasting between 40 and 55 minutes were conducted with 25 chief executive officers (CEOs) of service companies located in Western Europe, North America, and Australia. In total, 13 difference countries were represented. Using Emerging Consensus Technique, we identified four main themes, which cause the goals of CEOs and those of CMOs/marketing to diverge.
Findings
The primary cause of the decline of strategic influence of CMOs and marketing overall with CEOs is a function of four key issues: first, the role of the CMO (e.g. task overload, focus on tactical issues, “outdated” skill set); second, lack of financial accountability (e.g. the inability to connect marketing efforts to financial returns); third, digital and social media (e.g. a perceived obsession with new technology); and forth, lack of strategic vision and impact (e.g. lost sight of “core” job, use of irrelevant metrics).
Practical implications
The findings indicate that CMOs must address the four key issues uncovered for marketing to attain/regain a role in strategic decision making. A proposed roadmap for putting marketing back on the CEOs agenda is presented to guide CMOs.
Originality/value
This research provides marketers with a CEO eye view of their role within organizations.
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Philipp ‘Phil' Klaus and Aikaterini Manthiou
This paper’s objective is to raise awareness of how customer experience (CX) research, a key construct of modern-day service research, needs to be revisited in view of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper’s objective is to raise awareness of how customer experience (CX) research, a key construct of modern-day service research, needs to be revisited in view of the pandemic. Particularly, we examine whether CX-related service research constructs, models and frameworks need to be reevaluated during and after the Corona crisis and if so, how and why? Moreover, this paper contributes to CX research by analyzing the customer mindset from three perspectives: emotions, employment and expectations (EEE).
Design/methodology/approach
We critically review current CX practices and investigate the impact on how customers perceive services in this time of crisis.
Findings
Based on this critical analysis, we discuss implications for research and practice with reference to the example of the luxury industry with its historical emphasis on the CX. This discussion leads to related propositions and research directions through Corona and beyond.
Originality/value
We investigate the current customer mindset in more detail, which we divide into three main themes: emotions, employment and expectations (EEE).
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Philipp Klaus and Bo Edvardsson
Based upon primary research, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the three main sources of frustration about the marketing scholars’ community current status quo. It…
Abstract
Purpose
Based upon primary research, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the three main sources of frustration about the marketing scholars’ community current status quo. It delivers feasible solutions and describes, using the example of the Special Issue, how to overcome these challenges and provide the research environment all desire.
Design/methodology/approach
Editorial paper summarizing the Special Issue's contributions and observations from the marketing scholar community.
Findings
The three main sources of frustration for marketing scholars about the current system are, first, review and publishing processes, second, the dominant epistemological and methodological approach in academe, encouraging an increasing specialization and reliance on generating more and more quantitatively driven knowledge and finally, the lack of acceptance (and outright disdain) for research with a managerial, applied emphasis.
Practical implications
But it surely is not mission impossible to build the research environment that is wanted. To build the research environment the community desires and to be “back where we belong,” to be relevant means the need to do more than just engaging in lip service. Rather than complying with the system causing frustration, the paper asks all to take an active part in the change process. The paper strongly encourages all, as editors, reviewers, colleagues, mentors and supervisors to do so and take some chances. Engage in and support brave research.
Social implications
The authors hope that the paper will stimulate research widely accessible to both managers, and a broader audience. This will eventually lead to a better reputation and public opinion toward marketing scholars and research.
Originality/value
Rather than simply stating the main frustrations of the marketing scholar community, and calling for changes, the authors demonstrate how these challenges can be overcome, and deliver platforms to communicate and lead both the conversation and the actions to achieve the research community most desire.
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Volker G. Kuppelwieser, Philipp Klaus, Aikaterini Manthiou and Linda D. Hollebeek
The customer experience (CX), as revealed in the literature-based debate, has been variously viewed as either a driver or an outcome of customer-perceived value (CPV). However…
Abstract
Purpose
The customer experience (CX), as revealed in the literature-based debate, has been variously viewed as either a driver or an outcome of customer-perceived value (CPV). However, the association of CPV, CX and word-of-mouth (WoM) behavior remains nebulous to date, thereby generating an important research gap. In response and to bridge this gap, this study aims to explore CX’s role in the CPV–WoM behavior relationship, the role of WoM behavior arising from CX and whether CX acts as a core mediator (vs a moderator) in the association of CPV and subsequent consumer-behavior outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
By conducting two studies spanning a broad range of services, this paper explores the relationship between CPV, CX, and WoM behavior through structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings are that CX plays a crucial role in the CPV–WoM relationship, thereby confirming the existence of a direct link between CPV (social/hedonic/utilitarian value), CX and WoM. The results also highlight CX’s mediating role in the relationship between social and utilitarian (but not hedonic) values. Moreover, the results reveal that the EXQ scale, measuring CX, comprises distinct experiences perceived by high and low CX-based customer segments, respectively.
Practical implications
CPV (utilitarian, hedonic, social) not only affects consumers’ behavioral intentions but also, more importantly, their WoM behavior. Therefore, managers need to consider all three values. Moreover, managers should shift their focus from social value perceptions to CX. The results suggest that managers need to devote additional resources to the development of a suitable CX, which will help mitigate consumers’ online and/or offline brand-related WoM. This study indicates the context in which managers must emphasize the construct that produces positive outcomes.
Originality/value
By identifying a direct relationship between CPV, CX and the ensuing consumer-behavior outcomes, the study offers important theoretical insight into CX’s nomological network.
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Volker Kuppelwieser and Philipp Klaus
In aging societies all over the world, an increased understanding of age and age-related insights is critical to theory development, generalizations, model adaptations and…
Abstract
Purpose
In aging societies all over the world, an increased understanding of age and age-related insights is critical to theory development, generalizations, model adaptations and managerial insights. Researchers and managers mostly rely on chronological age for adapting their approaches; they assume chronological age as a customers’ characteristic and neglect differing behaviors between individuals of the same age. When motivations enter the fray, chronological age as an individual’s attribute becomes indiscriminate. Consequently, findings adopting this age concept differ widely.
Design/methodology/approach
This special issue of the Journal of Services Marketing consists of ten articles that focus on different aspects of aging.
Findings
The articles change perspectives on age when describing ageing from an individual’s perspective. The articles also comment on social needs and discuss well-being in later life stages.
Originality/value
The authors offer a broad view on age and ageing to promote age-related research.
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This paper aims to propose opportunities on how service research scholars can overcome the challenge of designing, delivering and disseminating managerial relevant studies. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose opportunities on how service research scholars can overcome the challenge of designing, delivering and disseminating managerial relevant studies. The proposed tactics will assist researchers and the community in general to resolve the pressing issues of both, the disconnection between theory formulation and verification and the divide between pursuing theoretical advances versus managerial usefulness.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on insights deriving from academic research, managerial publications and managerial feedback, the paper explores how to turn the challenges of developing managerial relevant research into opportunities.
Findings
Using communication research insights, the paper submits that, contrary to common belief, conducting managerial relevant research is not necessarily the main challenge for service researchers. The author identifies the main communications challenges according to three stages, designing, delivering and disseminating research with managerial relevance to the business community, leading to the phenomenon labeled as “lost before, and in translation.”
Research limitations/implications
This paper highlights the developments leading to service research’s lack of managerial relevance perception. Using these insights, the author develops detailed chronological strategies and tactics how to change these perceptions into more favorable ones by designing, delivering and communicating research’s benefits of the research in a better, more efficient and impactful fashion, catered to the managerial audience.
Practical implications
The strategies and tactics outline build a practical “how-to” foundation for researcher to develop managerial relevant research, increase their publication chances and tap into new networks, data collection and funding opportunities.
Originality/value
This is the, to the author’s knowledge, first study to shed new light on the challenge of conducting managerial relevant research by not challenging the notion of relevance, but the way relevance is communicated, disseminated and originated.
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Rodoula H. Tsiotsou and Philipp Klaus
The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual framework of beautification/modification services, to introduce the special issue on the topic “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual framework of beautification/modification services, to introduce the special issue on the topic “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall! Examining the Bright and Dark Side of Face and Body Beautification/Modification Services” and to provide a future research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on the available literature, the authors developed the “Nip and Tuck” service framework of beautification/modification services depicting the motives, benefits and outcomes while it identifies current industry trends.
Findings
The authors explore the antecedents and consequences (positive and negative) of consuming face and body beautification/modification services and integrate these in the “Nip and Tuck” service framework. In the framework, the authors acknowledge the critical role of new technologies such as augmented reality apps and the internet in enabling and transforming beautification/modification services into commodities. The framework also identifies the benefits consumers seek and derive from these services while it recognizes current trends that shape the industry. The authors conclude with a set of future research directions that arise from the framework and the papers in the special issue.
Practical implications
The attained insights are useful to managers of beautification and modification services seeking to understand and satisfy their customers’ needs while securing their well-being.
Social implications
Understanding the role of beautification and modification services in consumers’ well-being is essential for business managers and policymakers.
Originality/value
The authors propose a novel, “Nip and Tuck” framework of face and body beautification/modification services and its key antecedents and consequences while considering both their bright and dark sides.