Beer & Wine Tasting Analysis

For whatever reason, I was resisting the idea that I am part of the experience economy. I suppose this stems from the fact that I try to distance myself from social media and many of those my age who spend all their time glued to their phones. Regardless, the readings convinced me I am most certainly geared toward these experiences, especially considering the two leisure experiences I described last week.

Beer Tasting

Pine and Gilmore (1998) states, “an experience occurs when a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event”. Breweries are an interesting blend of this. The goods are obvious (and they are most certainly good!), as it is their beer. The service provided, however, is not what I’m typically there for. The place I went to does not serve food, so all I received in terms of service was them simply taking my order at the bar I had to approach, and then pouring the beer into a flight of glasses from a tap. That’s it. Not much in terms of service.

Yet if I were to review them on Yelp, or even from the tone of my post last week, what would I say? What an experience! Why? What made it a great experience? The taste and variety of the beer. The circular device the flight was served in. The brewery was in a warehouse. A purple warehouse, filled with other young adults who brought in children and pets with them. It had many different elements which made for an experience I will remember, and certainly one in which I enjoyed.

McLellan (2000) identifies some important experience realms that are adapted from Pine and Gilmore. I want to explore these more for the wine tasting experience, but I feel suffice to say that this brewery was able to hit most of experiential framework, even with little interaction I had with staff. I was even educated through the descriptions of each beer written on their wall in chalk, and am certain I would have received more information on each had I simply asked.

Wine Tasting

I’m happy I chose to write about this location last week, as it fits many of those four experience realms (McLellan, 2000, p. 61-62). The esthetics of the building alone made me want to come in and explore. If I could build my own house, I would build a modern looking concrete one. I love the look of it and it already created anticipation within me. The escapist came from what we were to do, which was taste different wines and try to identify the flavors of each. Of course, one doesn’t have to do this, but it becomes a goal.

This leads most clearly to the educational side of things, and where the winery is more in-depth than most breweries I’ve been to. Prior to each wine being poured, I read a description on each of them in order to anticipate (and activate prior knowledge, anyone?) what it was I was going to taste. When I requested a wine to taste, the person pouring would explain to me what it is I’m tasting, what foods would go well with it, and what flavors or sensations I should be looking for as I’m tasting. This is heavy on the educational side of things, and though I’m not necessarily going to retain all, or even most, of the information I hear, it certainly enhances the experience. Lastly, the entertainment factor sort of creeps up on you as the alcohol slowly takes effect. The purpose of a wine tasting is not to get drunk, by any means, but it does offer a slight buzz as time goes one. Add on the company one is keeping, the entertainment is sort of dependent on the individual and isn’t directly provided by the winery, at least at that time as they do live music when there’s warm weather.

References

McLellan (2000). Experience Design. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, Vol 3, No 1

Pine & Gilmore (1998). Welcome to the Experience Economy. Harvard Business Review, 76(4).