The Advertising of Experiences: Narrative Processing and the Importance of Consistency

The marketing literature has traditionally differentiated among products, services, and experiences (Nelson 1970, Darby and Karni 1973). Given that these types of goods differ in important dimensions, it is reasonable to believe that there are also differences in the conditions for persuasive advertising. While there is some literature on service advertising (Mittal 1999), the specificities of the advertising of experience goods are less known. In this research we propose that narrative processing is an important component of the evaluation of experience goods (EG), and that – as a consequence – EG advertising can benefit from the key elements of persuasive narratives. Specifically, we examine the importance of consistency among the narrative elements. The two characteristics of a narrative are that (1) they are organized in terms of a temporal dimension, and (2) they consist of goal-directed action-outcome sequences (Escalas 2004). EG (consider a trip or a restaurant meal) include these characteristics. We therefore propose that EG – and information about EG such as advertising – are processed narratively. Because one of the necessary conditions for a narrative to create meaning is consistency among the narrative elements (Cho, Shen, and Wilson 2012; Hall 2003; McKee 1997), we propose that the narrative elements in an EG ad (copy, image) need to be consistent in order for the ad to be persuasive. On the other hand, since search goods (SG) are not processed narratively, lack of consistency in a SG ad will not have a negative effect.