Murilo Branco

Commodities are products with low economic value, but when related to experience, they can turn into profitable businesses. In the present work, the authors seek to understand consumer behavior in the coffee industry, guided by the following research question: How can customer experience affect price perception? To answer this question, the researchers conducted an analysis using the four realms of experience from Pine and Gilmore (1999, 2011) – entertainment, education, esthetics, and escapist – and how they behave according to different kinds of customer experience, as well as their relation to price perception. To understand this, the authors conducted qualitative research with 40 consumers in two important coffee companies: Starbucks and Costa Coffee. The coffee shops analyzed are located in the city of Marbella, Spain. The results of this research show that customers are aware of the price discrepancy, but still frequenting coffee shops for different experiences according to their interests. This work is groundbreaking because of the analysis of the four realms of experience and its correlation with the price perception. The authors also introduced to the customer experience field the analysis of the four realms in the coffee shop industry. Finally, from the research results, the authors suggest various managerial practices that can improve customer experience and the perception of prices.

The video game and virtual reality became a new way of doing marketing considering their growing popularity and the advances of new technologies in the past few decades. In this paper is presented a research that investigates the impact of product placement in video games on gamers’ decisions on the purchase of goods from advertised. This research is focused on two of the most played games nowadays: FIFA 19 and Final Fantasy XV. A survey with 465 respondents was conducted to understand the antecedents that impact the purchase decision considering the stimulus originated from the product placement. To conduct the survey, a framework was designed based in the extant literature reviewed and finally considering the constructs of product placement, quality of virtual reality, brand recognition, brand familiarity, emotional response and purchase frequency. The results of the study suggest that gamers generally respond positively towards product placement and that product placement can indirectly impact emotional responses that will impact on consumer’s purchase intention. Hence, advertising in the video game enhances brand recognition and the perception of virtual reality. The framework presented in this paper represents the theoretical contribution of this paper, relating different concepts in the theory of product placement to the purchase intention. Therefore, the findings on this paper can help managers to find the best way to reach customers by improving the product placement strategy in the video games.