CHAPTER 4

PHILIPPINE POP CULTURE AND EXPERIENCE ECONOMY

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
The student must be able to:

 Demonstrate a better understanding on the Philippine Pop Culture

and Experience Economy.
 Apply these concepts in Philippines context.
 Assess its implications in society’s situation.

Economic development normally carries with its cultural development. Economic and
scientific advancement transforms the culture of the nation. The First Wave civilization has the
agricultural feudal culture; the Second Wave civilization has the industrial modern culture, while
the Third Wave civilization has the postindustrial postmodern culture. The Philippines right now
is basically a First Wave (agricultural) country that experiences elements of a Third Wave
civilization. That is why it appears logical for this country to shift or “pole-vault” from the First
Wave to the Third Wave civilization.

Figure 4.1 Economic Societies.

4.1 Experience
as Product

Increasing competition in the market means that “goods and services are no longer
enough” and that producers must differentiate their products by transforming them into
“experiences” which engage the consumer. An experience can be considered a product since it
must be produced or staged to be made available. Experiences represent an existing but
previously unarticulated genre of economic output that have the potential to distinguish business
offerings. Elements that make up an experience including those elements that render an
experience meaningful.

Table 4.1 Elements of Experience.

4.2 Experience Sector

Experiences are even more immaterial and intangible than services since the users must
be more engaged than in services because the experience takes place in their minds, being the
customer a co-producer. The aim of services is to solve the customers’ problems, the
experience industry seeks to give the customers what can be defined as a mental journey
(people may experience the same performance in different ways).

Pine and Gilmore (1999) take “the experience” beyond the provision of goods and
services to the recognition of experience as a distinct economic offering. As an economic
offering, experiences can add value to a business’s goods and services and are distinct from
both. Economic actors gain an advantage in the market by staging and selling memorable
experiences that are enjoyable and personally engaging the customer.

The customer who buys a service buys a set of intangible activities carried out on his/her
behalf. The purchase of an experience, on the other hand, buys time enjoying a series of
memorable events that engage the consumer in a personal way. Examples of experience are
sport, art, and culture (the theatre, film, music, TV, etc.), museums, tourism, gastronomy, design
and architecture, computer games, entertainment on mobile phones, and advertising.

4.3 EXPERIENCE ECONOMY

Experience economy is a notion that intends to conceptualize a new trend in economic

development, in which the driver is people’s search for identity and involvement in an
increasingly rich society. In this context, the experience economy does not refer to a particular
industry or a specific segment of the economy since the experience component of a product or
service is increasingly becoming the basis for profit and because an experience component in
theory can be added to all products and services. The experience economy can be conceived
as the next step in the development of new economically dynamic sectors. Economy and
society had developed “from the ancient agrarian economy, to the industrial economy, to the
latter service economy and that the current economy is shifting to the experience economy”.

The “cultural sector” is non-reproducible and aimed at being consumed on the spot (a
concert, an art fair, an exhibition) and mass-dissemination and export (a book, a film, a sound
recording). The “creative sector” may also enter into the production process of other economic
sectors and become a “creative” input in the production of non-cultural goods.

Bille and Lorenzen (2008) reached a tentative demarcation of the experience economy
by defining 3 areas:

1. Creative experience areas (areas that have experience as the primary goal
and where artistic creativity is essential to its production). For example, theatre, music,
visual arts, literature, film, computer games.

2. Experience areas (areas that have experience as the primary goal, but where
artistic creativity is not essential). For example, museums, libraries, cultural heritage
sites, natural and green areas, restaurants, the pornography industry, spectator sports.

3. Creative areas (areas where artistic creativity is essential but which do not
have experience as a primary goal: they are not intended directly for the consumer
market but instead provide services to business (B2B), which are built into or around
mixed products). For example, design, architecture, advertising.

Much of the experience economy is composed of mixed products that combine

experience and functionality and of companies that attempt, through the use of experience
design, experience marketing, events, storytelling and branding, to invest their products and
services with a range of experiences, histories and values which can differentiate them from
those of their competitors. The question of how art and culture is to be defined is an issue that
has been under debate for centuries. The discussion will not be continued here, but it is enough
to state that obvious parallels may be drawn between the discussion of the definition of art and
culture, and to the discussion of the definition of experiences and the experience economy.
Where culture can be defined as either art, cultural areas or as an aspect, experience can be
defined as good (subjective) experiences, as experience areas or as a "mega trend".

Table 4.2 Definitions of art and culture versus experiences

Culture Experiences

Quality evaluation Culture as Arts The good experience

Quality evaluated by: Quality evaluated by:

 Primarily professionals (peer The consumer
review)
Subjective
Partially objective

Sector Cultural areas Experience areas

Societal trend Aspect Megatrend

Linked to the market,
Linked to societal values and norms consumption,
and commercial exploitation

From the merger between culture and business, a new kind of economy is growing. An
economy that is based on an increasing demand for experiences and that builds upon the
added value that creativity lends to both new and traditional products and services (Danish
government report, 2003). At the same time, it expresses a general expectation that the
experience economy will grow: that the culture and experience economy has come into focus,
both at home and abroad, correlates closely with the fact that it is a field that is increasingly
expanding within the economy. (Government, 2003).

KEYWORDS

Communication Competition Creative Area Creative

Experience
Cultural Cultural Area Economic Education
Development Development
Experience Experience Area Experience Economy Experience
Sector

REFERENCES:
Bill, Trine (2010). The Nordic approach to the Experience Economy – does it make sense?.
Copenhagen Business School. Retrieved from
<https://research.cbs.dk/files/58952160/44_TB_The_Nordic_Approach_to_Experience_Ec
onomy_Does_it_make_Sense_Final.pdf>
Pine, B.J. and J.H. Gilmore (1999). The Experience Economy – Work is Theatre & Every
Business a Stage, Harvard Business School Press, Boston Mass.
Ramos, Luis Moura (n.d.). The Experience Economy and Local Development. University of
Coimbra. Retrieved from
<http://www.creative-heritage.eu/creative-heritage.eu/Luis_Moura_Ramos_The_experienc
e_economy_and_local_developmentf38e.pdf?eID=tx_nawsecuredl&u=0&file=uploads/
secure/mit_download/
Luis_Moura_Ramos_The_experience_economy_and_local_development.pdf&t=1438425
615&hash=89b76a07c7ebf1feee68f381b6d634eb>