The Materialization of Experiences: How Perceived Experience Depth Increases Consumers’ Preference for Unique Objects

While consuming experiences, people often acquire objects associated with those experiences. This investigation identifies an aspect of experiences that reliably predicts the type of experience-related objects consumers prefer to acquire—perceived experience depth. Evidence from five studies and four replications (N=2036) examining past, imagined, and real-time consumption of experiences indicates that, when consumers perceive to have had a deep (vs. basic) experience consumption, they are more prone to purchasing unique (vs. typical) objects related to that experience. Furthermore, we find that the conversational value of the object helps explain this effect. These results add to the experiential consumption literature a novel finding associated with an aspect present in virtually every experience—perceived experience depth—and an outcome of theoretical and practical relevance—consumers’ acquisitions of objects linked to their experiences.