We Clapped for the Hologram: Authenticity in Experiential Consumption

For experiential marketers or for service providers, holographic technology implies labor cost-savings, standardizing customer interaction, and potential revenue opportunities through simultaneous experiential replication. The novelty of holograms has encouraged businesses to rapidly adopt their use, however, little is known about consumers’ reactions to and interactions with virtually-replicated experiential consumption. In this paper, we propose and test a model of how holographic experiences can still lead consumers to have positive, seemingly-authentic consumption experiences, even though the mode of presentation is inauthentic. The results of an experiment demonstrate few significant differences between control, live performance, and holographic performance groups with respect to various outcomes of experiential consumption. Further, we find no significant differences between groups on consumers’ likelihood to watch again, likelihood to recommend the performance, and willingness-to-pay. These findings suggest that, although holographic technology is currently costly, the ability to replicate experiential consumption could be cost efficient in the long-run. We conclude with insights for extending research on holographic experiential consumption.