The Experience Economy

Rating:
Summary: A tour-de-force of metasocioeconomic conditions
Review: A brilliant tour of the forces shaping social and economic rules in the near future. The authors honestly, methodically, and entertainingly explore the transition from service to experience to transformation motifs as the basis of economic life in the developed world. A must read for anyone interested in what tomorrow brings!

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Summary: A "must read" for carnival and circus producers!
Review: Although not directed specifically at show business, The Experience Economy has broken the code on why carefully staged experiences give today's top circuses, carnivals and similar attractions their public appeal. The authors' look at the future is a practical roadmap to business success for tomorrow's evolving amusement and entertainment industry.

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Summary: Consider the Implications
Review: Are we being programmed?

If you call yourself a Christian, what about the freedom of a Christian?

Is creating an inner demand to this degree something akin to spiritual coercion?

If you are truly committed to the Christian faith or some other faith, what does that faith teach you about the moral aspects of meaning and experience?

Are some Christians equating Christian freedom with the freedom to reel in unimaginable corporate profit even to their own detriment and that of their children? Look at how children are being branded nowadays.

Is a corporation engineering meaning for you so that you give them money the kind of life you want to lead?

If you are a Christian what do you *mean* when you do so? What are the values you hold near and dear?

I speak as a Christian. People from other faith traditions can ask similar questions.

Rating:
Summary: Business as Performance Art. Yes!
Review: As co-author of the cluetrain manifesto .......... I'm often asked by companies how they can implement the ideas we talk about. This book is a great place to start. Unfortunately, the listing here leaves out the subtitle: "Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage." That's what got to me. Acknowledging the role of serious play in serious commerce is long overdue, but The Experience Economy makes up for lost time. While most business books are little more than literary Sominex, this one will stretch your head in new dimensions. Even if you disagree with bits, it'll wake you, shake you, make you think.

At first, I was put off by the notion of the Internet as "the greatest force for commoditization known to man." This is only true when the net is seen as an extension of the broadcast model: think TV. But that's the wrong approach, as the authors later make clear: "Cyberspace is a great place for such experiences, but many businesses still don't get it. They're heading into the commoditization trap, trying to figure out how to better sell their company's goods and services over the World Wide Web, when in fact most individuals surf the Net for the experience itself."

E-commerce as performance art, I love it! So step right up, boys and girls, and get your ticket to the Pine & Gilmore Masque. The show's just about to begin!

Rating:
Summary: Nardelli-led bounce gives book its just due
Review: As I write this review on July 29, 2003, I see 'The Experience Economy' is ranked at #624 in amazon.com's constantly updated sales rankings. Pretty heady for a fairly esoteric business book published in April 1999.

The reason has to do with the latest (August 2003) edition of 'Fast Company' magazine. The editors asked a series of business leaders to pick one "book that matters," noting that "one book can change the direction of a company -- or a career." Bob Nardelli, ex-of GE and now CEO of the Home Depot, chose 'The Experience Economy.'

That's a great thing, because this excellent piece of work really got the short shrift - with its April 1999 publication date, its message of capturing the full potential of face-to-face retail got buried in the tsunami of e-commerce hysteria.

Now that we all recognize the Internet as just another viable sales channel, this fine effort by Pine and Gilmore has a second life. The fact that Nardelli picked it as his one book that matters tells you all you need to know about his vision for the future of Home Depot.

Rating:
Summary: Nardelli-led bounce gives book its just due
Review: As I write this review on July 29, 2003, I see 'The Experience Economy' is ranked at #624 in amazon.com's constantly updated sales rankings. Pretty heady for a fairly esoteric business book published in April 1999.

The reason has to do with the latest (August 2003) edition of 'Fast Company' magazine. The editors asked a series of business leaders to pick one "book that matters," noting that "one book can change the direction of a company -- or a career." Bob Nardelli, ex-of GE and now CEO of the Home Depot, chose 'The Experience Economy.'

That's a great thing, because this excellent piece of work really got the short shrift - with its April 1999 publication date, its message of capturing the full potential of face-to-face retail got buried in the tsunami of e-commerce hysteria.

Now that we all recognize the Internet as just another viable sales channel, this fine effort by Pine and Gilmore has a second life. The fact that Nardelli picked it as his one book that matters tells you all you need to know about his vision for the future of Home Depot.

Rating:
Summary: A must-read for anyone serious about business!
Review: As someone who reads over 100 books annually, and skims even more, I can say that this is one of those landmark books that clearly defines a major shift in business and culture. Stan Davis accomplished a similar feat in Future Perfect. Anyone who reads this well-reseached and yet entertaining book will have their thinking stimulated in major new ways. I save my raves for the best books that I read, and this is one business book that is deserving of high praise. Read it or get left behind.

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Summary: A must-read for CEO's of premium internet portals
Review: Effective implementation of "experience" ideas discussed in this book has the power to transform a company from a mediocore to the best performer. Afterall businesses exists to serve its guests and value is created when guests are given the kind of unique and total experience discussed by Pine & Gilmore. A business strategy of "Creating Experience" will create a very strong brand and differentiate a company from thousands of others. Well done Mr. Pine and Mr. Gilmore! We are certain to use these concepts as we build our own internet portal business into a premium brand synonomous with great guest experiences.

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Summary: Show Time!
Review: First of all, I urge anyone thinking about buying this brilliant book also to consider (or to re-read) Schmitt's Experiential Marketing and Wolf's The Entertainment Economy. Although the three books differ significantly in terms of thrust and content, together they help us to understand a New Economy which is perhaps best exemplified by Las Vegas. According to Pine & Gilmore, "Virtually everything [italics] about Las Vegas is a designed experience, from the slot machines at the airport to the gambling casinos that line the Strip, from the themed hotels and restaurants to the singing, circus, and magic shows; and from the Forum Shops mall that recreates ancient Rome to the amusement parks, thrill rides, video arcades, and carnival-style games that attract the twentysomethings and give older parents a reason to bring their kids in tow."

Pine & Gilmore explain The Experience Economy; Wolf calls it The Entertainment Economy. Schmitt suggests that Experiential Marketing creates or sustains demand for this New Economy, however it is named. For all of these authors, "work" should be viewed as "theatre" and every business should be viewed as a "stage." If they are correct (and I believe they are), the quality of sensory experience is critically important. That is to say, it is no longer sufficient to offer high-quality goods or services for sale at competitive prices. Most (if not all) goods and services have become commodities. Competing on price alone seldom succeeds...especially against those which have superior purchasing power. Competing on quality alone succeeds only for those who offer what no one else has. The challenge is to achieve differentiation. According to Pine & Gilmore, this challenge is best met by understanding what the Experience Economy is (and isn't) as well as how it works; only then, thus informed, can an organization (almost literally) function as a theatre company: formulating a script which has both an exciting story line and interesting characters; assigning roles to those who have the appropriate talents; and then conducting rigorous rehearsals. Finally, it's "show time"!

Pine & Gilmore observe, "Since all commerce is moral choice, every business is a stage for glorifying something. Who or what does your business glorify? Your answer may not help you accept what is next, but it will certainly help guide what you do today." At its best, live theatre can delight, amuse, excite, inform and even inspire those who experience it. Why cannot it also be true of business relationships? Of course it can. It is certainly true of those organizations which prosper. Southwest Airlines is but one example. Its CEO once observed:

"I keep telling [those interested in Southwest Airlines] that the intangibles are far more important than the tangibles in the competitive world because, obviously, you can replicate the tangibles. You can get the same airplanes. You can get the same ticket counters. You can get the same computers. But the hardest thing for a competitor to match is your culture and the spirit of your people and their focus on customer service because that isn't something you can do overnight and it isn't something you can do without a great deal of attention every day in a thousand different ways. That is why I say that our employees are our competitive protection."

Kelleher's comments are relevant to virtually all organizations which now struggle to succeed in the New Economy (however it is named). To understand this economy, to understand what it requires of your own organization, I urge you to read The Experience Economy...as well as The Entertainment Economy and Experiential Marketing.

Rating:
Summary: block that metaphor
Review: I found the book very difficult to absorb. It could be that I am just slow to get it. But I found that the theater metaphor often made it more difficult for me to pick up what they were trying to say. It certainly did not make it easier.