Co-creating Luxury Customer Experiences: Exploring the Superyacht Market
摘要
Luxury yachting (aka superyachting) represents a very visible part of the luxury travel market. The chapter sets out two mechanisms that help provide an understanding of this luxury phenomenon. Firstly, it sets out the means by which the industry is categorised, namely construction material, yacht size, yacht type and region. Secondly, it discusses the determinants of this luxury value proposition. In doing so, the chapter details both the product/material-logic-related dimension and the symbolic-related dimension. More significantly, the chapter also sets out its experience dimension, noting the importance of co-creation in the luxury value phenomenon. Specifically, the chapter notes how co-creating these luxury experiences involves the use of ‘mechanics’ (the experiencescape) as well as ‘humanics’ (people interactions). Following the 4E framework of Pine and Gilmore (Harvard Business Review 76:97–105, 1998; The experience economy. Harvard Business School Press, 1999), a typology of luxury superyacht experiences is set out, a key part of which is understanding the role of the consumer (guest) alongside the provider and, additionally, understanding of the importance of authenticity.