Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: This article explores the lone consumer experience in the context of speciality coffee, resulting in the conceptualisation of the lone consumer servicescape. The lone consumer is conceptualised as a consumption collective, with its own innate characteristics, behaviours and requirements that can be viewed through physical, social and symbolic aspects of servicescape. Through utilising freewriting, the research captures self-reported experiences of lone consumers of speciality coffee. Data derived from 54 respondents is analysed thematically to determine the dimensions of lone consumption. Findings reveal a lone consumption servicescape that combines spatiality, materiality and aesthetic, symbolic discourse and parasocial interactions, mediated by the lone consumer’s self-reflection. Lone consumption, in this context, is acknowledged as a sought after and fulfilling experience but one which requires both a conducive environment and self-awareness to utilise it.
Source: Marketing Theory
Authors: Claire McCamley, Leigh Morland
Institution: University of Huddersfield
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,000
OpenAlex ID: W3164399345