A framework for designing visitor experiences in branded tourist attractions: Insights from a luxury Cognac brand

Abstract

Setting up a tourist attraction provides brands with the opportunity to offer visitors an experience that promotes their brand image. This paper explores how to design such an experience by focusing on the tourist attraction of a famous luxury brand, Hennessy Cognac. Through an in-depth case study, the paper contributes to the tourism literature by developing a framework for experience design in branded tourist attractions. This framework bridges the gap between abstract design principles and corresponding operational actions in practice to support the realization of visitor experiences that improve brand perceptions. Moreover, it suggests a requirement for congruency between the characteristics of the brand and the design of the visitor experience.

Keywords

Tourist attractions experience design brand experience consumer experience brand image luxury

Introduction

The role of branded tourist attractions (BTAs) is growing as a way for brands to strengthen attitudes and attachment to the brand (Mencarelli et al., 2020; Mitchell and Orwig, 2002). Many well-established brands have diversified their activities into the tourism sector by setting up brand museums (e.g. World of Coca Cola), industrial tours (e.g., Harley-Davidson factory tours), amusement parks (e.g. LEGOLAND Parks), hotels and spas (e.g. San Pellegrino Terme), and beer, wine and spirits tours (e.g. Guinness Storehouse). Although factory tours have a long tradition (e.g. the first tour of the Jack Daniels's distillery took place in 1866), the last decade has seen a strong development in the role of such attractions (Chaney et al., 2018; Quadri-Felitti and Fiore, 2013; Xie, 2015). Lee (2016) emphasizes the universal nature of BTAs as entertainment and educational venues attracting domestic and foreign visitors and that are tourism destinations in their own rights.

All BTAs share the intention to offer a rich experience that educates and entertains visitors and improves brand perceptions. Based on this intention, and consistent with previous research (Frew, 2008; Hsu, 2018), we take a broad and integrative perspective to define BTAs as tourism settings entirely dedicated to recognized brands. BTAs provide an opportunity for visitors to experience and learn about the brand with the ultimate goal of creating or strengthening brand loyalty and promoting a brand image. BTAs’ primary focus is on positioning brands within their cultural, historical, and social contexts.¹

Given their growing significance for brands and their role in building strong relationship with visitors, BTAs provide a fruitful context for exploring how visitor experience influences brand perceptions. However, previous research has offered limited insights into the visitor experience and theoretical knowledge with the potential to explain and support experience design in BTAs remains missing. This provides an opportunity to enrich existing knowledge about BTAs. The objective of this research is thus to generate novel insights into experience design for BTAs. Consistent with service management literature (e.g. Zomerdijk and Voss, 2010), as well as with tourism research (e.g. Tussyadiah, 2014), we seek to identify design principles, and associated operational actions, that support the creation of an experience that improves brand perceptions.

The next sections introduce relevant literature and present the research methodology. We then report our key findings and conclude by framing our research contributions and discussing future research opportunities.

Theoretical background

Previous research into BTA

As outlined in Table 1, three main forms of BTAs dominate the literature. First, a brand museum is a “corporate facility with tangible objects and/or exhibits, displayed in a museum-like setting that communicates the history, operations, and/or interests of a company” (Danilov, 1992, p. 4). Its core missions are to inform and educate visitors about the brand (Hollenbeck et al., 2008) and to improve brand image (Burghausen and Balmer, 2014). Contents are framed as cultural artifacts with historical links to connect visitors to the brand. To illustrate, the World of Coca-Cola's mission is to document, study, and interpret the brand over time (Hollenbeck et al., 2008). The brand focus aside, brand museums share many of the characteristics of traditional museums. Second, industrial tourism refers to “the development of touristic activities and industries on man-made sites, buildings and landscapes that originated with industrial processes of earlier periods” (Edwards and i Coit, 1996, p. 342). A strong industrial heritage experience provides high levels of recreation quality coupled with the cultivation of the visitor's industrial knowledge and culture (Gunn and Var, 2002; Fan, 2014). Third, wine tours and visits to wineries, breweries, and distilleries² also emphasizes the prevalence of education and entertainment as two key components of the visitor experience (Quadri-Felitti and Fiore, 2012; Taylor et al., 2020).

Table 1.

Summary of previous empirical research in branded tourist attractions.

Type of BTA	Research setting	Research objective	Key findings	Discipline	Author (year)
Brand museum	National Historic Jeep Museum in the US	To identify key attributes for the development of a brand museum	The attributes are potentials, stakeholders, adaptive reuse, economics, authenticity, and perceptions.	Tourism	Xie (2006)
Industrial heritage	Multiple tours and brands in Taiwan	To determine the criteria influencing the attractiveness of factory tours in Taiwan	On-site attractions, safety and security, and external accessibility are the main attractiveness factors.	Tourism	Lee (2016)
Industrial heritage	LX factory in Lisbon, Portugal	To propose a life cycle model of industrial heritage development	Three phases are demarcated: territorialization, deterritorialization, and reterritorialization.	Tourism	Xie (2015)
Wine tour	Multiple wineries in South Australia	To examine the influence of the wine-tasting experience on brand loyalty	Strong wine-tasting experiences influence purchase intentions and positive word-of-mouth.	Tourism	Bruwer et al. (2013)
Beer tour	Two microbrewery taprooms in the US	To assess if and how the taproom experience helps to build brand attachment and loyalty	Service excellence, product excellence, and esthetics lead to increased brand attachment and brand loyalty.	Tourism	Taylor et al. (2020)
Brand museum	House of the Laughing Cow and Fallot Mustard Mill, France	To investigate how the brand museum experience shapes the visitor-brand relationship	There are two factors: the development of intimacy with the brand and the emergence of supportive behaviors toward the brand.	Marketing	Pulh et al. (2019)
Brand museum	House of the Laughing Cow	To highlight how heritage technologies can support the endorsement of heritage roles	There are two roles: inter-generational memory and community representation.	Marketing	Chaney et al. (2018)
Brand museum	World of Coca Cola, US	To explore the role of the brand museum in influencing and expanding brand meaning	There are seven dimensions: humanization, socialization, localization, globalization, contextualization, theatricization, and characterization.	Marketing	Hollenbeck et al. (2008)
Brand museum	House of the Laughing Cow and Fallot Mustard Mill, France	To investigate why and how visitors accept or reject the brand museum experience	Acceptance is driven by visitor perceptions of scientific, esthetic, and authentic values of the brand.	Marketing	Mencarelli et al. (2020)
Beer tour	Shepherd Neame	To explore the nature and the relevance of corporate heritage identity	Two classes of management responsibilities are corporate heritage management activities and corporate heritage implementation strategies.	Marketing	Burghausen and Balmer (2014)

Previous research into BTAs is fragmented across marketing and tourism disciplines and suffers from several limitations. First, as noted by Otgaar (2012), tourism research focused on BTAs remains in its infancy. Our literature review and current understanding of recent developments in practice (Pulh et al., 2019) suggest an incongruence between research intensity and economic activity. Although it is difficult to ascertain the contribution of a BTA to the economic performance of a brand, a greater intensity of research activity is required to provide a more complete understanding of this phenomenon. Second, a broad consensus appears to emerge concerning the notion that a superior BTA experience plays a central role in creating or strengthening brand image and the brand–visitor relationship. Previous research has established these links using survey methods (e.g. Bruwer et al., 2013) and has developed an understanding of how this process unfolds from the visitor's perspective. Hollenbeck et al. (2008) determine seven facets of the visitor experience that play a role in influencing perceptions of brand meaning within a brand museum. Pulh et al. (2019) propose that BTAs support the development of a feeling of intimacy between the brand and the visitor. However, an understanding of how BTAs can be designed so that visitors have an experience translating into heightened positive brand perceptions remains missing from the literature. Third, previous studies have examined how visitors perceive the BTA experience. Although this information is extremely valuable, we argue that many current visitor-centric studies overlook the opportunity to explore the intentions behind how the BTA was designed. We believe this is an important gap in the current literature, as exploring the perspectives of the provider is relevant when investigating experience design issues (Bonfanti et al., 2021). Recent work on tourism experience design stresses the need to compare the visitors’ and provider's perspectives to appraise whether the design intention is actually realized (Ponsignon et al., 2017). Examining alignment between intention (a provider's perspective) and realization (a visitor's perspective) is crucial to generate meaningful insights into design principles, actions, and their impact on the visitor.

To summarize, little attention has been given to the question of how BTAs can be designed to provide positive experiences that improve brand perceptions. The next section introduces the topic of experience design.

Experience design

The importance of the customer experience has long been recognized by marketing scholars (Holbrook and Hirschman 1982; Pine and Gilmore 1998). The notion of experience design was introduced in the tourism discipline to guide research on organizations that regard the visitor experience as their core offering (Fynes and Lally, 2008). Building on the role of the ‘experienscape’ (see O’Dell and Billing 2005), tourism research emphasizes the importance of a well-designed experience to achieve positive consumer responses (Agapito et al. 2021). Experienscape encapsulates the design elements (i.e. sensory, functional, social, natural, and cultural stimuli) within the attraction that contribute to the visitor experience and result in positive or negative cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions toward products, services, and brands (Mossberg, 2007). This paper adopts the perspective of the holistic experience concept proposed by Tussyadiah (2014) to approach experience design. This concept can be “dissected into different components that capture the nature of tourists’ experiences and at the same time the operationalization of tourism experiences as a business offering” (p. 552). The rationale for adopting this perspective is that BTAs represent well-bounded settings whose design characteristics are organized and controlled by the brand (Zomerdijk and Voss, 2010). According to Tussyadiah (2014), the theoretical foundations of experience design are informed by the service management discipline, where consumer experience research has gained strong momentum (see De Keyser et al., 2020). Such research is predicated on addressing the general question: how can organizations design experiences that generate positive consumer outcomes and drive business success? Accordingly, researchers aim to identify the actions that organizations (should) take to design experiences that consumers judge as superior (McColl-Kennedy et al., 2019).

When considering experience design, it is useful to distinguish the intended experience (i.e. from the provider's perspective) from the realized experience (i.e. from the consumer's perspective) (De Keyser et al., 2020; Ponsignon et al., 2017). Intended experience relates to how firms organize their operations to orchestrate tangible, intangible, and relational elements in the experience environment (Pullman and Gross, 2004). Hence, research seeks to inform the sequencing of the consumer journey (i.e. series of interrelated touchpoints or interactions between the consumer and the environment), as well as the selection of the stimuli and cues at each touchpoint (Yachin, 2018). In tourism, these elements constitute what Tussyadiah (2014) refers to as the “the operational concept of tourism experience” (p. 556). This concept encompasses visitor interactions with physical elements (i.e. interactions with the built environment, ambient conditions, and other tangible attributes), social elements (i.e. interactions with fellow visitors and employees), technology-powered interfaces (i.e. interactive technologies), and the activities the visitor performs (Packer and Ballantyne, 2016). Previous research has explored how tourist attractions design effective experiences. Examples of key insights achieved include structuring the journey to obtain a dramatic effect (Yachin, 2018), providing visitors with autonomy to enable immersion in the experience (Lunardo and Ponsignon, 2020), and ensuring that the experience is perceived as educational, entertaining, esthetical, and allowing a form of escape (Hosany and Witham, 2009; Pine and Gilmore 1998).

The notion of realized experience refers to how consumers perceive, interpret, and judge the overall experience and each individual touchpoint within it (Ponsignon et al., 2017). Drawing on the idea that experiences are subjective, individual, and context-bound (Sandström et al., 2008), Becker and Jaakkola (2020) suggest that consumers respond and react to stimuli and cues embedded in the experiencescape. Such responses are generally classified as cognitive, affective, and sensorial (Godovykh and Tasci, 2020). Cognitive responses align with an experience quality concept that define how consumers judge their interactions with a provider (Lemke et al., 2011). Affective responses concern how consumers feel and emotionally react to the experience (Kim and Fesenmaier, 2017). Sensorial responses represent reactions to stimuli that engage or challenge one or several senses (Krishna, 2012). All three forms of responses are well accepted in the tourism literature (Godovykh and Tasci, 2020).

Considering intended and realized experiences simultaneously supports the generation of meaningful insights into experience design. As observed by Ponsignon et al. (2017), analyzing the alignment of both notions provides the opportunity to understand how effective the design is in enabling the realization of the experience. It also helps to determine whether important components are absent from the intended experience. This idea is supported by Tussyadiah (2014), who suggests that the goal of experience design is “to generate and develop a holistic concept that bridges experience in the customers’ minds and the strategic directions of organizations” (p. 548).

In summary, BTAs describe edutainment settings in which visitors experience an environment created by a brand. For the provider, the goal of the experience is to strengthen the relationship with the brand. However, previous research has given limited attention to the question of how BTAs can be designed to support the realization of such experiences. This paper thus sets out to address the following research question: how should a BTA design the visitor experience?

Research methodology

Rationale for employing a case-based approach

Our goal is to develop experience design theory for BTAs, focusing on Les Visites Hennessy (LVH), the visitor tour of a leading global luxury brand, Hennessy Cognac, part of the world's leading luxury consortium LVMH. We employ an in-depth case study at LVH to develop a rich and fine-grained understanding of the visitor experience from the tourists’ and the provider's perspectives (Yin, 2003). The 90-min tour intends to show the many sides of the Hennessy brand by staging “a discovery of the history, craft and secrets of Hennessy.”³ It comprises seven distinct sections (see Web Appendix). We employ a single case study for the purpose of developing new ideas and insights into the poorly understood BTA phenomenon (Siggelkow, 2007) and consistent with the method of qualitative inquiry as an approach to conceptualizing experience design (Tussyadiah, 2014).

Justifying the selection of the research setting

LVH is positioned as an edutainment attraction that aims “to reinforce the relationship to the visitor and improve the visitor's attachment to the brand.”⁴ LVH offers a good example of an experienscape through its use of a carefully designed visitor experience centered around the history of Hennessy and the theme of Cognac. The experience at LVH thus reflects the importance of experiencescapes using storytelling (Mei et al., 2020), especially the importance of storytelling in luxury experiences (Ryu et al., 2020) and building the experience around a theme (Agapito et al., 2021; Mossberg and Eide, 2017). With 35,000 paying visitors per annum, LVH is the most visited wine tourism tour in Cognac, third in the southwest of France, and 10th in France. It has recently won two prestigious awards (Trophées Oenotourisme 2019, Traveller's Choice 2020). According to a 2019 survey (N = 320, representative sample), visitor satisfaction amounts to 9.10 out of 10.00 and intended word-of-mouth scored a 9.13 out of 10.00. Statistical evidence shows that the experience contributes positively to improving brand attitude.⁵ Focusing efforts on a BTA regarded as exemplar of good practice increases the likelihood that the empirical insights derived are meaningful and relevant (Mariani, 2016). Moreover, the research team was given access to Hennessy facilities, the management team, employees, and visitors, representing an opportunity to perform an in-depth investigation.

Data collection

A qualitative approach focused on obtaining rich evidence from visitors and provider was employed to produce a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the experience. Data collection took place over five consecutive days during peak summer season, as recommended by the brand as the most suitable period. On-site, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 61 visitors immediately after their visit. Recognizing that visitors to a major tourism attraction could have vastly different levels of expectations and previous knowledge of Cognac, a large interview sample was seen as beneficial to capture the variety of expectations and experiences. Interviews focused on eliciting the visitors’ subjective side of their experience, capturing their perceptions and interpretations of the experience, including all the positive and negative factors influencing their impressions. Complete interview guides are provided in the web appendix. The visitor sample is diversified (see Table 2), which ensures the capture of a range of perceptions. Visitor interviews lasted between 10 and 15 min on average. Moreover, six in-depth, semi-structured interviews with staff members involved in designing, managing, and delivering the experience were conducted. Interviewees included the general manager, his assistant, two tour guides, a receptionist, and a boutique employee. Total staff interview time amounted to approximately 5 h. To complement interview data, we also took part in several visits as participant observers (see web appendix) to witness what visitors and guides did, how they interacted, and how visitors responded to the various aspects of the tour. Relevant internal documentation (i.e. a 30-page presentation of the tour) was also obtained from the general manager. The researchers were also given a personalized tour by the general manager.

Table 2.

Background information on the visitor sample (N = 61).

Feature	Percentage
Age group
18–25	15
26–40	24
41–60	41
Over 61	20
Gender
Male	65
Female	35
Origin
Domestic	50
International	50
Experience with Cognac (as a beverage) ^a
Novice	52
Amateur	29
Connoisseur	19

This was captured by asking the following question using a 1–3 scale: how would you describe your experience with Cognac (the spirit)? (1 = novice, 2 = amateur, 3 = connoisseur).

Data analysis

All interviews were transcribed verbatim and imported into NVivo along with observational data and documentary evidence. We followed inductive logic procedures informed by Gioia et al. (2013) to analyze the data. This procedure involved “organizing the data into 1st- and 2nd-order categories to facilitate their later assembly into a more structured form” (p. 20), underpinning a conceptual understanding that is grounded in data. We constructed a comprehensive data structure, illustrated in Figure 1, which provides a clear chain of evidence between findings and data (Yin, 2003). The first phase of the analysis involved examining and organizing the data into first-order categories representing the key components of the experience. This was achieved by comparing and contrasting the provider's perspective and the visitors’ perspective and by systematically reviewing, coding, and classifying provider and visitor data into first-order categories.

Initially, our focus was on the intended experience, the salient tangible and intangible elements, and desired visitor responses. The authors reviewed, coded, and structured the dataset independently. We then compared and contrasted each individual coding and classification decision to achieve a shared understanding of the phenomenon and supports the emergence of reliable findings (Guion et al., 2011). A similar procedure was repeated for the visitor data. We explored how visitors perceived, interpreted, and judged their experience across the entire journey. The main difference was that coded visitor data were sorted into the first-order categories that emerged from the analysis of provider data. Given our research objective and the large sample size for a qualitative study, it was decided to build a consensual view of the perceived visitor experience. As recommended by Goulding (2005), we focused on identifying similarities across a majority of visitors to elicit a shared understanding of the phenomenon rather than emphasizing individual idiosyncrasies pertaining to particular visitors. In some rare cases, where no clear match between visitor and provider data was identified, new categories were created. Several disagreements on the interpretation of visitor data were resolved by discussion (Gioia et al., 2013). We then worked together to reduce the number of categories by examining differences and similarities within and across categories. Overall, this process generated 425 unique pieces of code classified into 26 first-order categories, underpinned by visitor and provider data and pointing to the alignment of intended and realized experiences.

The second phase involved collectively examining the coded data (first-order concepts/categories) and organizing them into second-order themes, representing experience design actions. Whereas first-order categories are data-driven, second-order themes represent a more abstract, theoretical level of analysis. Each action thus encompasses a combination of related experience components (first-order categories). In other words, the implementation of each action (second-order theme) is predicated on translating operationally specific experience components (first-order category).

Finally, we condensed the second-order themes into aggregate dimensions, which represent concepts that describe and explain the phenomena (Gioia et al., 2013). This procedure informed the establishment of design principles that encapsulated experience design components and actions. Emergent categories, themes, and dimensions were then reviewed against the existing literature, a form of abductive research logic (Alvesson and Kärreman, 2007). This involved examining previous research in order to recognize and reconcile key differences and similarities to strengthen our confidence in the validity and reliability of our conclusions (Yin, 2003), as described in the web appendix.

Findings

Our findings reveal three core design principles, as well as corresponding design actions, that enable the operationalization of the visitor experience.

Convey brand authenticity

The principle is “convey brand authenticity,” as expressed by the general manager⁶:

The idea is to transmit information, culture to visitors (…). The people who come to the site mainly come to look for tradition and authenticity.

The analysis reveals two main design actions that are effective in providing an authentic branded experience. The first action involves emphasizing brand heritage and structuring the educational journey on the key processes of the production life cycle. Specifically, the visitor journey follows a natural, logical sequence of activities that starts with the inception and development of the brand, passes through the main steps of the production process, and ends with the tasting and commercialization of the finished product. Such a logical progression of events facilitates the learning experience while emphasizing the heritage, commitment to quality, and artisanship that characterize the Hennessy brand. In addition, the experience exhibits substantial variety in the activities that are proposed to capture visitors’ attention and maintain it throughout the visit. The journey encompasses a mix of active and passive modes of engagement activities, including watching a film, listening to the guide, observing animations on the wall, exploring a cellar, smelling eaux de vie, and so on. This design action is illustrated by this visitor:

It explained the process in detail, so it gave me an understanding of the amount of time and the effort and the expertise that goes into making Hennessy. It works you through from the beginning and through the process, from the pre-history, how it started, and then the making of it and then where we are today; it was all very logical.

The second design action involves leveraging the tangible and intangible characteristics of the product and production facilities to stimulate the senses of visitors. Sensory design is applied in a way that is directly relevant to and aligned with the brand's product and production process. For instance, visitors expressed their pleasure at being able to see, touch, and smell fresh, dried, and heated oak wood, which is traditionally used to make Cognac barrels. To achieve this, technology (e.g. artificial smell diffusor systems) as well as authentic artifacts and infrastructural components (e.g. real Cognac barrels in an aging cellar) are used. Interestingly, the sequencing of the visitor journey involves positioning sensory peak events at the beginning (i.e. a boat ride on the picturesque Charentes River) and at the end (i.e. a Hennessy Cognac tasting workshop) of the tour. These sensorial peak events succeeded in eliciting strong affective visitor responses. The general manager's assistant highlighted this multisensorial perspective prompts greater visitor memorability.

From the start of the boat tour, it's sensorial, you can feel the wind, the water, and you can see the nature and the buildings on the banks. (…) When we say authenticity, we go on matters or evocations of matter that are fundamental for our activity. For example, you have these walls that embody chalk, you have the copper side of the still. The chalk of course is our soil. The copper still and the oak of the barrels . . . these elements are the fundamentals of what makes our Cognac.

The following quotes of visitors show how sensorial elements influence their perceptions of an authentic brand experience:

I think seeing real barrels with real Cognac in them and walking through ones that are stored is perfect because it gives you the real picture. (…) The atmosphere over there. I loved the smell of the cellars. I could live in there.

When you enter, everything is black and then there are the materials, all this wood, the scrap, everything (…). It has remained authentic, for instance, the beams. They really wanted to keep the authentic side.

Demonstrate brand currency

This principle involves convincing visitors that the Hennessy brand is current, modern, and in tune with its time. It is operationalized through the deployment of modern digital technologies to enable visitor immersion into the experience. Elaborating on the role of immersive technology in engaging visitors, the managing director asserted that technology is relied on whenever an authentic experience cannot be offered (e.g. observing the distillation process). Here, achieving a balance between technology-powered activities and technology-free activities is seen as crucial to avoid conflicting with the authenticity dimension of the experience. Consistent with the design intention, many visitors emphasized that the site was modern and full of life. Visitors found that technology was effective in getting the tour's key messages across, in eliciting “wow effects,” and in highlighting the dynamism of the brand. Such positive perceptions can be linked to the contrast in what people usually regard as an old, traditional product, organization, and industry, and the modern approach adopted to tell its history and display its key features. Technology is used to support an informative, entertaining, and memorable visitor experience. One of the tour guides said:

We’re not taking visitors to a distillery or a vineyard and we can't go back in time. Hennessy has re-created these universes using digital technologies that are intended to be very immersive to create a very memorable experience. People experience things not as if they were there but at least [somewhere] like it (…). For me, immersion is having the impression of being in the history, in the place, in what we want to share as an experience. It works; people really get on board!

In addition to modern technologies, brand currency is also demonstrated by emphasizing the brand's constant striving for innovation. A range of innovative products and practices are pushed to the fore, including green production, artistic collaborations to design and shape bottles, as well as highlighting the importance and role of Hennessy Cognac within the hip-hop culture and community. The most striking illustration of this design action can be found in the tasting session inviting visitors to try a Cognac-based cocktail, which was a first-time discovery for all visitors interviewed. Interestingly, the cocktail was successful in providing an enjoyable but completely new experience for regular Cognac drinkers as well as in converting non-drinkers into Cognac enthusiasts. Reflecting on this pioneering side and this ability to constantly reinvent itself as a key indicator of the brand, visitors said:

For it to be a modern brand, not so much something from 1700 and so on it really goes into that direction, (…) especially in the tasting, that you had it in the cocktail and with ice, not just to stick to the actual traditional way.

That was really nice to hear how they had thought about the future throughout the ages. First, it was about spreading out. Then, “we have to do something about the brand here.” So, they created something exclusive so that people pick them. (…) You modify the design of the bottle so that's stylish, then go out with advertising, all these aspects. Thinking ahead, quite simply.

Personify the brand

The third principle underlying this BTA reflects a reliance on human resources for representing and telling the story of the brand as well as an emphasis on the unique set of skills and knowledge of employees who participate in making and selling the brand's flagship products, and thus their central role in the evolution and success of the brand. First, the analysis revealed the key role played by frontline employees to support the realization of the experience. Having a “human touch” throughout the tour (e.g. receptionist, tour guide, tasting expert, boutique sales advisor) is important to facilitate and enhance the visitor experience through direct interpersonal interactions. The organization made the conscious design decision to offer a human-centric visitor experience by encouraging direct interactions between visitors and employees at each stage of the journey (from reception to boutique), despite the significant impact on operating costs, as explained by the general manager:

There is this intention to have something human, and there were debates at the time on whether to do self-guided or semi-guided, semi-self-guided or guided tours. In the end we stuck with this last solution, saying to ourselves, “There you have to put the spotlight on speaking out even though economically it's a disaster that's clear.”

Of note is that all tour guides hold a Master's degree (or recognized equivalent) and join the company as permanent employees. Before commencing their activity, they take part in a week-long training course delivered by a theater company to ensure they are equipped with the right type of presentation skills. Although the content of the guide's speech is scripted to ensure consistency and homogeneity across different tours, their actual role is significantly richer than simply telling the same story repeatedly. Specifically, it involves representing the brand and building a rapport with visitors. Such proximity and intimacy are made possible by the size of visitor groups. Although groups are capped at 12 and 20 visitors for the two most popular tours, analysis of attendance data shows that most of the time groups usually do not exceed 10 visitors, with an average group size of 7.6 in peak season (July–August). Reflecting on his role, a tour guide explained:

I am not your average tour guide doing this to make some money in the summer you know. I am a Hennessy employee. I am an ambassador of the brand, I represent the brand, I stand for it. It is true that my job is to follow a script, but that's only a part of it. I am in this role because I have the ability to quickly and effortlessly develop trust, friendship, and affinity with the visitors, which many truly enjoy.

From the visitors’ perspectives, the data clearly support the efficacy of this design decision. Interestingly, several visitors commented that they would have relished the opportunity for even more interactions, proximity, and intimacy with tour employees in order to increase their understanding of the brand.

I prefer to have a good guide and let myself be transported by his explanations on the brand, the products, and everything related to Hennessy. I really liked that there was a mediator with us; the human side is very important.

The second design action involves making brand employees, their role, and their expertise readily visible and accessible to visitors. This action takes its root in the notion that, before being a company, Hennessy is defined by the men and women who have created, developed, and continue to move it forward. Such practices have the potential to connect visitors to the brand by making it human, approachable, and relatable to visitors, as the general manager made clear.

Visitors must feel that the tasting committee are men and women. It is not a word or an abstraction. There are coopers that make our barrels! That's that sort of thing. It also goes through Richard Hennessy, who speaks in the first person in the film. It's not tipping over to the institutional side too much because that's the risk with a big brand. So this is to show that Hennessy, before being an institution, is people.

The importance of recognizing the skills, knowledge, dedication, and hard work that goes into making Hennessy Cognac was consistently noted by visitors. The tour provides an important place for employees who work behind the scenes and are instrumental in ensuring the quality of the products being consumed. This observation relates to the notion of craftsmanship that characterizes the Hennessy brand. Interestingly, data analysis revealed some discrepancy between intended and realized experience. The possibility to observe real employees at work in live conditions and to walk around an operating production site was widely perceived as the missing element in the current experience. This limitation is illustrated by the following quote:

I haven’t seen enough through the screen. I’d like to see the hard-working employees, like the guys who make barrels (…). What is a little lacking is the interaction with the practice, with the people. Show us the workshop where people are in the process and do their daily work! To see the cooper doing his barrel in a video is very interesting, but to see the actual tools, how he does it, and maybe talk to him would be better.

Discussion

Theoretical implications

The findings of this paper contribute to the existing literature by extending the understanding of an effective experience design to show how it drives visitor satisfaction with the experience and visitor attitude toward the brand (Tussyadiah, 2014). Our research further adds to the extant literature by postulating that achieving congruence between experience design and brand characteristics is a key requirement for BTAs in order to support the realization of an experience that improves overall brand perception. Our conceptual framework encapsulates core experience design principles and corresponding operational actions (Figure 2), bridging the gap between abstract concepts and their application in practice. It posits that the implementation of these principles and actions has a positive influence on the overall quality of the visitor experience, which, in turn, has a positive impact on brand attitude.

Central to experience design are the notions of brand authenticity, currency, and personification. First, the importance of demonstrating authenticity is largely shared throughout previous research on BTAs (Mencarelli et al., 2020; Xie, 2015) and tourism destinations in general (Wang, 1999). This design principle is thus not unique to BTAs, yet our study adds to existing knowledge by articulating the actions to be taken in order to evoke this feeling in the mind of visitors. Specifically, authenticity involves structuring the educational journey on brand history and heritage, and relying on the tangible and intangible elements of the product and production facilities to stimulate the senses of visitors. We extend previous research on brand authenticity for luxury wines and spirits (Beverland, 2005) by showing how the role of heritage and authenticity of Cognac combine with recent research on the importance of authenticity in luxury service settings (Wirtz et al., 2020) and the role of authenticity for consumers’ luxury experiences (Holmqvist et al., 2020a; 2020b). Our findings show how structuring the tangible and intangible parts of the experience (Holmqvist, 2020b) helps to convey brand authenticity through the use of carefully scripted storytelling (see Beverland, 2005), further strengthening the consumers’ engagement with the experiencescape (see Mei et al., 2020).

Second, emphasizing the currency and modernity of the brand resonates with previous research in BTAs, which found that positioning the brand as an innovator involves “featuring the brand's leadership, innovativeness and technical prowess” (Hollenbeck et al., 2008 p. 350). We contribute to extending existing literature (e.g. Chaney et al., 2018) by highlighting how brands can achieve this design principle. Specifically, new product designs, novel production and commercialization practices, and modern digital technologies are effective at increasing the perceptions that the brand is current and modern.

Third, human resources play a key role in personifying the brand, which supports the development of more personal and intimate relationships between the brand and visitors, as well as of a more exclusive understanding of what goes on behind the scenes. While there is extensive literature on the role of tour guides in influencing the visitor experience (e.g. Weiler and Black, 2014), this finding supports and enriches previous research in BTAs that found limited evidence for the existence of this principle. Brand personification goes beyond Hollenbeck et al.’s (2008) observation that brand museum employees act as sociable and approachable brand experts. Indeed, Hennessy employees play a significant role, directly and indirectly, in ensuring that brand image permeates all aspects of the experience. In particular, the role of the tour guide in conveying the values and reputation of the brand is regarded as crucial. Moreover, making back-office employees, and their roles in creating and commercializing products and in developing the brand, visible to visitors is crucial. In short, a positive experience involves demonstrating that the Hennessy brand is made by and for people.

Finally, we introduce the notion of brand–experience congruency to explain these findings. The key characteristics of the Hennessy brand (i.e. excellence, tradition, and innovation) are largely reflected in the design of the visitor experience. This relationship between experience design and brand characteristics resonates with existing marketing theory asserting the need to align the customer experience to the values and promises of the brand (De Keyser et al., 2020). Specifically, Sirianni et al. (2013) demonstrate the role played by the congruence between the behavior of service employees and brand positioning in influencing overall brand evaluations. Building on the notion that employee–brand alignment increases positive brand perceptions, we propose that it is because the Hennessy brand and the experience are positioned as authentic, modern, and human that the visitor experience translates into heightened brand perceptions. Achieving congruence between experience design and brand characteristics is a thus key requirement for BTAs, which provides an important extension to previous BTA research (Chaney et al., 2018; Pulh et al., 2019; Xie, 2006).

Practical implications

From an applied perspective, our research provides tangible strategies that BTAs can implement. Specifically, the framework is useful in informing decisions about how to organize and orchestrate the design elements that support the realization of a superior visitor experience and the improvement of brand perceptions. It outlines the key issues to consider for managers seeking to design new branded experiences or improve existing ones.

Moreover, our findings carry several important implications for managers related to brand building in a more general sense and to BTAs in particular. It is important for the brand to demonstrate brand currency to involve and engage visitors, and our findings show that a careful combination of both traditional tangible elements (the boat ride, the tasting) and digital experiences (the films, the globe) can contribute to make the BTA appealing to a large and diverse public. For example, we often found older visitors more accustomed to Cognac and Hennessy appreciate the more tangible elements, whereas younger family members who accompanied them tended to be more positive about the digital experiences. Because the overall visitor experience alternated between these different elements, our observations show that almost all visitors remained interested throughout.

Another managerial implication concerns the role of building on brand history to add a further element of authenticity to the BTA. Our findings show that the long history of the Hennessy brand plays an important role in how LVH positions the visitor experience and also in how visitors perceive it. For prestigious brands such as Hennessy, our findings lead us to posit that brand managers need to incorporate the brand history and, crucially, make sure the brand personnel personify the brand in order to facilitate the visitor experience. By interviewing brand representatives and visitors, we found that this use of the long brand history was carefully orchestrated by the brand and was also one of the elements visitors remembered most vividly in their post-visit interviews. Extending these findings to managerially actionable practices, we recommend that BTA managers consider what the brand core is and to structure the storytelling on this core in order to facilitate the emergence of a coherent and engaging storyline to strengthen the visitor experience.

Limitations and future research

This study's main limitation is an inability to generalize the conclusions to other BTA contexts. We made the conscious decision to concentrate our efforts on a single case to maximize the depth of observation. Since there is significant diversity among BTAs, future research could seek to provide a robust conceptualization of BTAs, such as a taxonomy, for instance, as a first step. Then, researchers could set out to examine if different BTAs employ different experience designs. A multiple case study approach or survey-based research could be used. Moreover, case studies are often criticized for being susceptible to researcher bias and lacking trustworthiness. To guard against this, we implemented three types of triangulation: data (i.e. employing different sources of information), investigator (i.e. having several researchers collect and analyze the data), and methodological (i.e. using different collection techniques) (Guion et al., 2011). Third, the requirement of congruency between brand characteristics and experience design needs to be studied further. The brand personality framework (Aaker, 1997) provides a relevant theoretical basis to examine (1) whether different types of brands require different experience designs and (2) whether greater congruency between brand and experience is associated with better visitor outcomes. Finally, BTAs seek to build connections between the brand and its geographical origin by ensuring that visitors learn about the place where the brand is located and the actions of the brand in the region. Exploring differences in realized experience and brand attitude between local, national and international visitors represents an interesting research opportunity.

Supplemental Material

sj-docx-1-jvm-10.1177_13567667231186558 - Supplemental material for A framework for designing visitor experiences in branded tourist attractions: Insights from a luxury Cognac brand

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-jvm-10.1177_13567667231186558 for A framework for designing visitor experiences in branded tourist attractions: Insights from a luxury Cognac brand by Frédéric Ponsignon and Jonas Holmqvist in Journal of Vacation Marketing

Footnotes

Authors’ contributions

Frédéric Ponsignon: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing the original draft, Project administration.

Jonas Holmqvist: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing the original draft.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Frédéric Ponsignon

Supplemental material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Notes

References

Aaker

(1997) Dimensions of brand personality. Journal of Marketing Research 34(3): 347–356.

Agapito

Pinto

Ascenção

, et al. (2021) Designing compelling accommodationscapes: testing a framework in a rural context. Tourism and Hospitality Research 21(3): 259–274.

Alvesson

Kärreman

(2007) Constructing mystery: empirical matters in theory development. Academy of Management Review 32(4): 1265–1281.

Becker

Jaakkola

(2020) Customer experience: fundamental premises and implications for research. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 48: 630–648.

Beverland

(2005) Crafting brand authenticity: the case of luxury wines. Journal of Management Studies 42(5): 1003–1029.

Bonfanti

Vigolo

Yfantidou

(2021) The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on customer experience design: the hotel managers’ perspective. International Journal of Hospitality Management 94: 102871.

Bruwer

Coode

Saliba

, et al. (2013) Wine tourism experience effects of the tasting room on consumer brand loyalty. Tourism Analysis 18(4): 399–414.

Burghausen

Balmer

(2014) Corporate heritage identity management and the multi-modal implementation of a corporate heritage identity. Journal of Business Research 67(11): 2311–2323.

Chaney

Pulh

Mencarelli

(2018) When the arts inspire businesses: museums as a heritage redefinition tool of brands. Journal of Business Research 85: 452–458.

10.

Danilov

(1992) A planning guide for corporate museums, galleries, and visitor center. Greenwood Publishing Group.

11.

De Keyser

Verleye

Lemon

, et al. (2020) Moving the customer experience field forward: introducing the touchpoints, context, qualities (TCQ) nomenclature. Journal of Service Research 23(4): 433–455.

12.

Edwards

i Coit

JCL

(1996) Mines and quarries: industrial heritage tourism. Annals of Tourism Research 23(2): 341–363.

13.

Fan

(2014) International influence and local response: understanding community involvement in urban heritage conservation in China. International Journal of Heritage Studies 20(6): 651–662.

14.

Frew

(2008) Industrial tourism theory and implemented strategies. In: Advances in Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research. Emerald Group Publishing, 27–42.

15.

Fynes

Lally

(2008) Innovation in services: From service concepts to service experiences. In: Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century. Boston, MA: Springer, 329–333.

16.

Gioia

Corley

Hamilton

(2013) Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: notes on the Gioia methodology. Organizational Research Methods 16(1): 15–31.

17.

Godovykh

Tasci

(2020) Customer experience in tourism: a review of definitions, components, and measurements. Tourism Management Perspectives 35: 100694.

18.

Goulding

(2005) Grounded theory, ethnography and phenomenology: a comparative analysis of three qualitative strategies for marketing research. European Journal of Marketing 39: 294–308.

19.

Guion

Diehl

McDonald

(2011) Triangulation: establishing the validity of qualitative studies. EDIS 2011(8): 3–3.

20.

Gunn

Var

(2002) Tourism Planning: Basics, Concepts, Cases. Psychology Press.

21.

Holbrook

Hirschman

(1982) The experiential aspects of consumption: consumer fantasies, feelings, and fun. Journal of Consumer Research 9(2): 132–140.

22.

Hollenbeck

Peters

Zinkhan

(2008) Retail spectacles and brand meaning: insights from a brand museum case study. Journal of Retailing 84(3): 334–353.

23.

Holmqvist

Diaz Ruiz

Peñaloza

(2020a) Moments of luxury: hedonic escapism as a luxury experience. Journal of Business Research 116: 503–513.

24.

Holmqvist

Visconti

Grönroos

, et al. (2020b) Understanding the value process: value creation in a luxury service context. Journal of Business Research 120: 114–126.

25.

Hosany

Witham

(2009) Dimensions of cruisers’ experiences, satisfaction, and intention to recommend. Journal of Travel Research 49(3): 351–364.

26.

Hsu

(2018) Tourism education on and beyond the horizon. Tourism Management Perspectives 25: 181–183.

27.

Kim

Fesenmaier

(2017) Tourism experience and tourism design. In: Design Science in Tourism. Springer, 17–29.

28.

Krishna

(2012) An integrative review of sensory marketing: engaging the senses to affect perception, judgment and behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology 22(3): 332–351.

29.

Lee

C-F

(2016) An investigation of factors determining industrial tourism attractiveness. Tourism and Hospitality Research 16(2): 184–197.

30.

Lemke

Clark

Wilson

(2011) Customer experience quality: an exploration in business and consumer contexts using repertory grid technique. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 39(6): 846–869.

31.

Lunardo

Ponsignon

(2020) Achieving immersion in the tourism experience: the role of autonomy, temporal dissociation, and reactance. Journal of Travel Research 59(7): 1151–1167.

32.

Mariani

(2016) Coordination in inter-network co-opetition: evidence from the tourism sector. Industrial Marketing Management 53: 103–123.

33.

McColl-Kennedy

Zaki

Lemon

, et al. (2019) Gaining customer experience insights that matter. Journal of Service Research 22(1): 8–26.

34.

Mei

Hågensen

AMS

Kristiansen

(2020) Storytelling through experiencescape: creating unique stories and extraordinary experiences in farm tourism. Tourism and Hospitality Research 20(1): 93–104.

35.

Mencarelli

Chaney

Pulh

(2020) Consumers’ brand heritage experience: between acceptance and resistance. Journal of Marketing Management 36(1–2): 30–50.

36.

Mitchell

Orwig

(2002) Consumer experience tourism and brand bonding. Journal of Product & Brand Management 11(1): 30–41.

37.

Mossberg

(2007) A marketing approach to the tourist experience. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism 7(1): 59–74.

38.

Mossberg

Eide

(2017) Storytelling and meal experience concepts. European Planning Studies 25(7): 1184–1199.

39.

O'Dell

Billing

(Eds.). (2005) Experiencescapes: Tourism, Culture and Economy. Copenhagen Business School Press DK.

40.

Otgaar

(2012) Towards a common agenda for the development of industrial tourism. Tourism Management Perspectives 4: 86–91.

41.

Packer

Ballantyne

(2016) Conceptualizing the visitor experience: a review of literature and development of a multifaceted model. Visitor Studies 19(2): 128–143.

42.

Pine

Gilmore

(1998) Welcome to the experience economy. Harvard Business Review 76(4): 97–105.

43.

Ponsignon

Durrieu

Bouzdine-Chameeva

(2017) Customer experience design: a case study in the cultural sector. Journal of Service Management 28(4): 763–787.

44.

Pulh

Mencarelli

Chaney

(2019) The consequences of the heritage experience in brand museums on the consumer–brand relationship. European Journal of Marketing 53(10): 2193–2212.

45.

Pullman

Gross

(2004) Ability of experience design elements to elicit emotions and loyalty behaviors. Decision Sciences 35(3): 551–578.

46.

Quadri-Felitti

Fiore

(2012) Experience economy constructs as a framework for understanding wine tourism. Journal of Vacation Marketing 18(1): 3–15.

47.

Quadri-Felitti

Fiore

(2013) Destination loyalty: effects of wine tourists’ experiences, memories, and satisfaction on intentions. Tourism and Hospitality Research 13(1): 47–62.

48.

Ryu

Lehto

Gordon

, et al. (2018) Compelling brand storytelling for luxury hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management 74: 22–29.

49.

Sandström

Edvardsson

Kristensson

, et al. (2008) Value in use through service experience. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal 18(2): 112–126.

50.

Siggelkow

(2007) Persuasion with case studies. Academy of Management Journal 50(1): 20–24.

51.

Sirianni

Bitner

Brown

, et al. (2013) Branded service encounters: strategically aligning employee behavior with the brand positioning. Journal of Marketing 77(6): 108–123.

52.

Taylor

Jr. DiPietro

KKF

, et al. (2020) Building consumer brand loyalty: an assessment of the microbrewery taproom experience. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration 22: −23.

53.

Tussyadiah

(2014) Toward a theoretical foundation for experience design in tourism. Journal of Travel Research 53(5): 543–564.

54.

Wang

(1999) Rethinking authenticity in tourism experience. Annals of Tourism Research 26(2): 349–370.

55.

Weiler

Black

(2014) Tour Guiding Research. Bristol: Channel View Publications.

56.

Wirtz

Holmqvist

Fritze

(2020) Luxury services. Journal of Service Management 31(4): 665–691.

57.

Xie

(2006) Developing industrial heritage tourism: a case study of the proposed Jeep museum in Toledo, Ohio. Tourism Management 27(6): 1321–1330.

58.

Xie

(2015) A life cycle model of industrial heritage development. Annals of Tourism Research 55: 141–154.

59.

Yachin

(2018) The ‘customer journey’: learning from customers in tourism experience encounters. Tourism Management Perspectives 28: 201–210.

60.

Yin

(2003) Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Sage Publications.

61.

Zomerdijk

L. G.

Voss

C. A.

(2010). Service design for experience-centric services. Journal of Service Research, 13(1), 67–82.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.05 MB