From the point of view of the consumer of the themed environment, theming offers the opportunity to be entertained and to enjoy novel experiences. It is sometimes suggested that we live in an entertainment economy in which the constant exposure to forms of entertainment – most notably through television, the movies, and computer games – leads us to expect that we will be entertained even when entertainment is not the main focus of the activity. Relatedly, when so much of the consumer’s landscape is made up of homogenized, standardized fare – near identical malls, shops, restaurants – entertainment provides an additional level of enjoyment that adds a layer of charm to, and helps to differentiate, the same and the similar. Ritzer, for example, argues that theming and similar strategies help to enchant sites of consumption in an increasingly McDonaldized and hence standardized world.

As the balance of many people’s consumption has shifted from goods to services, they begin to seek more from those services. However, it is well known that consumers’ enjoyment and dislike of a service is only partly conditioned by the objective quality of the service itself. The servicescape is crucial to the consumer’s response. The servicescape is made up of a host of features in addition to the service itself (though in practical terms, it may be difficult to remove the service from the context within which it is embedded). The servicescape will involve cues to the consumer concerning the enjoyment of the service. The most notable of these components of the servicescape is the physical environment within which the service is delivered and the manner in which it is delivered. Theming forms an important component of a servicescape.

Clearly, services that entertain are more likely to be enjoyed than those which not, particularly among consumers who are well primed with the appropriate cultural capital to produce positive – perhaps even ecstatic – impressions. Services that entertain and that are memorable – that provide fun – are the kinds of experience that are increasingly becoming expected features. Developments like theme parks may bear some responsibility for this inflation in expectations of the provision of services, resulting in services in the form of shopping and eating that take place in themed and thereby entertaining environments. The service-cum-theme principle pervades these locations and generates experiences that are more likely to be memorable to consumers, especially when they return to blander servicescapes. Increasingly, then, we live in an experience economy in which consumers seek out services that will be provided in an entertaining way and will result in a memorable experience.

From the point of view of the service suppliers, they know that many consumers are increasingly bored with the standardized services and settings with which they are typically confronted. Theming helps to differentiate one service or context from another. Thus, providing an entertaining environment that excites the senses may be a mechanism for distinguishing a service from that of its competitors even though the actual services may otherwise be more or less identical. This proposition is an extension of the principle that we have all known for a long time, namely, that people do not consume on the basis of use value alone. As any student of Coca-Cola advertisements will have noticed, the company rarely seeks to sell its well-known beverage on the basis of flavour; instead, it positions itself as a purveyor of identities and lifestyles. The same kind of formula operates in connection with many areas of service provision: the themed environment in affording an engaging location for consumption, becomes a major component of the service and how it is responded to. Indeed, the nature of the themed environment may even connect with the consumer’s identity and lifestyle projects. However, theming presents several problems for service providers. Two points can be usefully noted at this stage, in anticipation of some of the points to be made below. First, it is costly. Theming requires substantial investments without any certainty that the theme and the way it is presented will be sufficiently absorbing to warrant the expenditures involved. The costs are likely to revolve around the expenses associated with supplying the physical embodiment of the theme in terms of visual, auditory and even tactile stimuli and the costs of training staff to behave in ways consonant with the theme and other aspects of desirable service provision. On top of this, no matter how well the theme is physically implemented, it may simply be unappealing to consumers. Second, and relatedly, expectations of themed environments probably operate like a ratchet screwdriver, in that people’s expectations are constantly increasing. For new entrants to themed service provision, this means that costs are constantly likely to increase as the theming stakes grow. For existing providers, they have to face the fact that what is innovative and exciting today may be hackneyed and dull tomorrow as new entrants enter the field with more compelling ideas and ever more engaging ways of implementing them. As we will see, the world of theming is littered with high-profile casualties, alongside some spectacular successes.Excerpted from Pg 16-17, ‘The Disneyization of Society’ by Alan Bryman