Chapter 6: Harnessing Immersive Wellness Experiences to Transform Consumer Brand Perception and Drive Loyalty: A Marketing Perspective

Word of mouth (WOM) is a truly powerful marketing tool. In essence, communications from a friend, a colleague, or some other trusted source account for as much as 75% of many product purchases, excluding impulsive buying. The term consumer experiential marketing is not new in business circles. There has been a recent trend towards businesses and academics attempting to incorporate experiences as an added product ingredient for the final consumer. Experiences are seen as sources of value to be leveraged; ideally, valued experiences keep customers coming back to your products and services. Welcome to the experiential economy. Hence, today’s marketers need to manage experiences and ensure that customers have experiences that live up to their brands. In this sense, wellness is becoming increasingly important in the realm of experience marketing. This research investigates the impact of wellness experiences on brand perception and loyalty. It provides a new consumer perspective and advocates the careful design of immersive experiences for motivating consumers to be powerful agents in product marketing. Conceptually, the research draws on the literature of consumer experiential marketing and wellness experiences, adopting a value co-creation perspective. Data analysis is rooted in the context of wellness tourism. The study provides both theoretical and managerial insight into the complexity of the consumer–brand relationship. By advocating the importance of experiential wellness marketing, this study offers evidence of the new challenges facing marketers.