Operatic flash mob: Consumer arousal, connectedness and emotion

Abstract

This study examines the influence of an operatic flash mob on consumer behaviour and consumer experience in a public market. A field experiment was conducted to assess the impact of operatic music on consumers' emotions and connectedness in three conditions: spontaneous live music (flash mob), recorded music, and no music. We analyse audience responses to the shopping experience in all three conditions, with particular focus on temporary group formation and felt emotion. Results show that the flash mob enhanced consumer arousal, connectedness and positive emotions, as well as consumer-to-consumer interaction.

Capturing emotions: experience sampling at live music events

“…Goulding, Shankar and Elliott (2002) in their phenomenological study of raves suggest that the experience is closely linked to identity, the emergence of new communities, escape, engagement and prolonged hedonism. These resonate with Grant et al's (2012) findings and similarly suggest it is the experience of music in a group setting that creates these feelings. A common bond is created in the 'love of the music' and this in turn creates a groupthink state of being where ideas, identities and potentially attitudes and beliefs are reaffirmed, altered or created to fit with the shared view.…”

“…The trial results show that experience stimulated emotions relating to Schmitt's (2012) object-centred, self-centred and social engagement can all be explored through this relatively simple method. The use of focus groups extends the 'social' element of the live event experience giving social context (Gupta and Vajic, 2000) and allowing for the emergence of any 'groupthink' element (Grant et al, 2012). The inclusion of photos and other memory recall stimuli also helps to identify those elements of event design and programming that are affecting emotions (Pullman and Gross, 2004).…”

“…Here the method for eliciting emotional response fits well with the experience itself in that both involve sharing experiences and emotions with other like-minded people. Clearly, methods such as focus groups provide an ideal platform for providing insights into phenomena such as group identity, peer pressure, conformance and the increased pleasure of an experience shared (Grant et al, 2012). …”

“…The focus group style interview session was a particularly insightful approach as this allowed the participants to respond to other people's feelings, phrases and descriptions which may have gone unstated in a more formal one-to-one arranged interview. At times this allowed 'group think' to emerge (Grant et al, 2012) and enabled the researcher to explore feelings of identity and community within the emotional response (Goulding, Shankar and Elliott, 2002 It could be argued that it was the conversational style of the focus group that helped produce the vocalization of the participants' deeper emotions. Using the notebooks, photographs and phones as prompts was an effective method in helping to counter any memory bias or degradation (Kahneman et al, 2004).…”

The probabilistic innovation theoretical framework

“…A flash mob is formed by groups of people that semi-spontaneously form in public space, typically for the purposes of performance or as part of a guerrilla marketing strategy, a process that is made possible by social media (Grant, Bal & Parent 2012). The literature related to flash mobs and the development and management of 'flash teams' offers further insight into how the PI field might integrate useful insights from these phenomena.…”