Material Goods versus Experiences
Designing to create a specific emotional reaction, frame of mind or series of mental states (i.e. an experience) is a key area for cognitive design. This is how you innovate, by moving your offering “up the value stream” from product to service to experience and ultimately to personal transformation for your customers. But does this make consumers happier?
The PsyBlog reports on some interesting research that sheds light on the issue of material versus experiential purchase. Assuming you have $100 to spend, would you be happier investing it in an experience by say eating chicken at Medieval Times or buying clothing? The research found:
Experiential purchases tend to make us happier than material purchases, unless things go bad. If the purchase goes wrong, we are left a little less happy than if we would have bought something material.
There is a naturally symmetry to this. There is more “happiness value” (other things being equal) in an experience purchase and we feel the gain as well as the loss.
