The six-foot experiences that will become critical in a six-foot economy
Joseph Pine II would like you to know that the death of experience economy has been greatly exaggerated.
As the author of a book with the same name, as well as Mass Customization and Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want, Pine has a long track record in helping people understand the value of customer experiences. That means he’s in a good position to refute those who suggest that there’s no point in focusing on CX as the world grapples with COVID-19.
“We are experience seekers and gravers — right now we can’t have them in the public, so we have them with our family. We’re not going them out there, we’re doing them in here. We’re not doing them physically, we’re doing them digitally,” Pine said during a virtual summit hosted by Eight Inc. last week. “It’s not dead — it may be on life support — but it must come back.”
The CX revival is critical because, as Pine argued, products and services alone don’t create enough jobs or contribute to GDP the way companies focused around providing an experience do.
Allison Johnson, a marketer who has worked at Apple and more recently as PayPal’s CMO, noted that the worst of the 1918 influenza gave way to the “Roaring” 1920s, where people were eager to have dynamic physical experiences. In the meantime, CX leaders need to grapple with a “six foot economy,” where people enter an environment but remain at a distance.
“That six foot experience is going to be the thing that people figure out how to perfect,” she said.
Ingenious Adaptation
There are signs that some brands are already learning how to work within the new constraints. Pine pointed to 
