On the Experience and Engineering of Consumer Pride, Consumer Excitement, and Consumer Relaxation in the Marketplace

This article presents new conceptual and managerial insights about consumer experiences of positive emotions in the marketplace and how to engineer these emotional experiences for business purposes. Specifically, we provide an in-depth conceptual analysis of three positive emotions that are of high relevance for marketers: (1) consumer pride, (2) consumer excitement, and (3) consumer relaxation. Through a systematic deconstruction of numerous consumer accounts of emotional experiences, combined with a careful theoretical analysis, we (a) codify how these emotions typically arise in consumption contexts, (b) identify their primary drivers and moderators in marketplace settings, including retail environments, and (c) explain how these theoretical insights can be used to engineer pride, excitement, and relaxation in consumption journeys