COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on experiential consumption

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly reshaping consumer behavior: it is changing the way we live and socialize, our attitudes, what we value and is making each of us put everything in our life in perspective. This dissertation aims to test whether the reduction in experiential purchases resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic emergence, increased how much consumers value the consumption of experiences: how much they value their past experiential purchases and their willingness to delay future experiential purchases.Without having a pandemic in mind, people tend to derive more pleasure from delaying the consumption of experiential purchases and immediately consuming material purchases. However, the results reveal that, with the COVID-19 pandemic in mind, this has completely reversed. The studies conducted reveal that now, after the pandemic has emerged, people are searching for a meaning in their lives, which makes consumers prefer experiential purchases and desire to anticipate their consumption, instead of delaying it, since experiential purchases have more perceived existential values. The research's results also reveal that, due to the fact that people now feel a greater scarcity of experiences, they tend to attribute an even greater happiness from the experiences they have consumed in the past.Thus, marketers should understand these changes that are happening in the consumers' minds in order to be able to develop strategies to respond to these new emerging consumer trends and brands should, more than ever, reflect on how they communicate their products/services.

Date of Award	27 Jan 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Niza Braga (Supervisor)