Modeling the consumer's perception of experiential marketing in the Romanian private ophthalmologic services

Introduction. The importance of experience in marketing grew, as the concept itself is very personal and difficult to measure. Experience turns out to be complicated but once placed in a context it gets significant features. As the health care competitive environment increases, marketers are looking for new and effective methods of engaging consumers by using experiential marketing strategies. Moreover, little is known about the consumers' perceptions related to ophthalmologic services. Aim. The objective of this paper was to measure the consumer's perception of experiential marketing in the Romanian private ophthalmologic services by using structural equation modeling. Materials and Methods. The Experiential Marketing model consisted of the following components: Sense Experience, Feel Experience, Think Experience, Act Experience and Relate Experience as well as the consequences of applying Experiential Marketing in the form of willingness to purchase a service, generating word-of-mouth communication and building consumer loyalty. The sampling method was non-probabilistic, using the snowball technique and the sample was made up of 190 people who wore eyeglasses for more than 3 years. The instrument for data collection was a self-administered questionnaire, which consisted of 2 parts: the first section contained several demographic questions and the second section encompassed closed end questions related to the perception of private ophthalmologic services from an experiential marketing perspective. All the second section questions were measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 with Strongly Disagree to 5 to Strongly Agree. The data analysis was conducted in SPSS and the structural equation modeling was performed in WarpPLS version 6.0. Findings. There were 71.05% respondents, who appreciated the application of experiential marketing in private ophthalmologic services, followed by 18.95%, who were confused. The demographic profile of respondents encompassed the following features: females with the ages between 36 and 45, from the rural area and with a middle level of education, their private ophthalmologic consultation frequency was at every 3 months and they also declared having a stable physician. Going further with the analysis, 89.63% of the respondents admitted they were willing to buy a private ophthalmologic service based on the experiential marketing application strategies. The design of a model containing both the constituent elements of the experimental marketing and its consequences in ophthalmologic services was conducted by modeling with structural equations in WarpPLS version 6.0 software. Thus, the validity of the model was assessed with the Cronbach's alpha coefficients, Composite reliability values, as well as with the Average Variance Extracted coefficients, and the fitness of the model was determined by using the ARS, APC, and AVIF values, respectively. According to the beta coefficients and levels of statistical significance (p<0.05), some hypotheses have been rejected or negative relationships have been established between dependent and independent variables. Conclusions. Sense experience had a negative impact on WOM and consumer loyalty, Think Experience had a negative influence on the WOM, Relate Experience had a negative impact on consumer Loyalty, as well as Relate Experience had a negative impact on willingness to purchase an ophthalmologic service. In contrast, the following positive relationships were established: Feel Experience established a positive relationship with WOM and consumer loyalty, Think Experience presented a positive impact both on consumer loyalty and on willingness to purchase an ophthalmologic service, Act Experience presented a positive impact on WOM and willingness to purchase and last, willingness to purchase an ophthalmologic service presented a positive influence on consumer loyalty and WOM. However, managers in Ophthalmology can successfully use experimental marketing strategies if they promote a story, meaning a life experience.