Le marketing expérientiel s’est construit autour d’une promesse : être en capacité de créer et d’offrir à ses clients des expériences extraordinaires. Ce cadre théorique, qui a plus de trente ans, s’inscrit dans une vision traditionnelle du marketing ; l’entreprise doit créer de la valeur pour ses clients et dans le paradigme expérientiel, cette création passe par la mise en place d’un contexte expérientiel visant à ré-enchanter la consommation. Ce constat a soulevé plusieurs interrogations chez l’auteur : d’une part l’entreprise peut-elle créer des expériences ? et d’autre part qu’entendons-nous par « ré-enchantement » ? Ce sont ces interrogations qui ont nourri la réflexion de départ de cette thèse. Cette réflexion a conduit à la formulation d’une problématique et des questions de recherche autour de l’expérience ordinaire vécue par le consommateur.En marketing plusieurs auteurs ont identifié les principaux aspects qui ressortent des expériences ordinaires des consommateurs. Néanmoins, ces recherches ne permettent pas de saisir ce qu’elles représentent du point de vue du consommateur. Pourtant, dans une optique managériale, identifier « l’ordinaire » du point de vue du consommateur permettrait aux entreprises de comprendre où se situe la valeur que celui-ci perçoit de l’expérience qu’il a qualifié d’ordinaire. Ainsi, cela permettrait aux entreprises de mettre en place des dispositifs ciblés pour améliorer l’ordinaire de leurs clients à travers la mise en œuvre d’un marketing du quotidien. Grâce à la mise en œuvre d’une méthodologie qualitative (entretiens compréhensifs et photo-élicitation), cette thèse s’interroge sur la compréhension du vécu des consommateurs dans des expériences qu’ils qualifient aux-même d’ordinaires. C’est à travers l’articulation des travaux scientifiques et de l’apport original de la littérature que cette recherche fournit une analyse de cet univers ordinaire à travers la consommation. S’interroger sur ce qui est constitutif de ce type d’expérience permet de proposer une grille de lecture de celle-ci en donnant des clés de compréhension du sens que les consommateurs lui donne. / Experiential marketing is built around a promise: to be able to create and offer its customers extraordinary experiences. This theoretical framework, which is over thirty years old, is part of a traditional vision of marketing; the company must create value for its customers and in the experiential paradigm, this creation involves the setting up of an experiential context aiming at re-enchanting the consumption.This observation has raised several questions for the author: on the one hand can the company create experiments? and on the other hand what do we mean by "re-enchantment"? These are the questions that nourished the initial reflection of this thesis. This reflection led to the formulation of a problem and research questions around the ordinary experience lived by the consumer.In marketing several authors have identified the main aspects that emerge from the ordinary experiences of consumers. Nevertheless, this research does not capture what they represent from the point of view of the consumer. However, from a managerial perspective, identifying the "ordinary" from the consumer's point of view will enable companies to understand where the value they perceive from the experience they have described as ordinary is. Thus, this would allow companies to set up measures devices to improve the ordinary of their customers through the implementation of a daily marketing. Thanks to a qualitative methodology (interviews and photo-analysis), this research examines the understanding of consumers' experiences through experiences they describe as ordinary. With the help of scientific works and the original contribution of literature that this thesis provides an analysis of this ordinary universe through consumption. Searching what constitutes this type of experience makes it possible to interpretative framework which will help understand the meaning that consumers attach to it.

Ce travail doctoral par articles apporte des éléments de réponse à la question générale suivante : quel est le vécu induit par la présence d’un handicap sensoriel chez le consommateur ? Nous proposons tout d’abord un état de l’art destiné à rapprocher la recherche en disability studies de la littérature en marketing dédiée au consommateur en situation de handicap. Nous cherchons ensuite à comprendre le processus de transformation identitaire auquel sont exposés les individus présentant une déficience sensorielle acquise, ainsi que la contribution de la consommation à ce processus. Enfin, nous nous concentrons sur l’exclusion vécue, au sein des environnements commerciaux, par les consommateurs atteints de déficiences invisibles, ainsi que sur les stratégies d’adaptation qu’ils emploient pour gérer cette exclusion. Ces différents résultats nous permettent, d’une part, de renforcer la théorisation du consommateur en situation de handicap. Ils offrent un décryptage des dynamiques identitaires associées au handicap et une meilleure compréhension de l’exclusion vécue. Ils mettent aussi en exergue la place du corps dans l’expérience de handicap. D’autre part, nos résultats nous amènent à interroger certains fondements du paradigme expérientiel de la consommation. Ils illustrent la prépondérance de l’hyperstimulation sensorielle dans l’expérience vécue et nous conduisent à discuter du caractère quelque peu immuable des propriétés de l’expérience. Par ailleurs, plusieurs implications managériales émergent de notre recherche doctorale et ont pour objectif d’améliorer l’expérience vécue par ces consommateurs dans la sphère de la consommation. / This paper-based dissertation addresses the following general question: How are consumers’ experiences shaped by sensory disability? First, a state-of-the-art review brings together the disability studies research and the marketing literature on consumers with disabilities. Then we analyze both the self-transformation process that accompanies the onset of a sensory disability and the contribution of consumption to this process. Finally, we both focus on the way people with hidden disabilities experience exclusion in servicescapes and unfold the coping strategies they set up to deal with this exclusion. On the one hand, our findings deepen the overall understanding of consumers with disabilities. They help us decipher disability-related dynamics and exclusion. They also highlight the role of the body in the experience of disability. On the other hand, we question several core components of the experiential paradigm. More specifically, we both reveal the extent to which individuals’ lived experiences are shaped by sensory overload and challenge the somewhat immutable properties of consumption experiences. Furthermore, several managerial implications are raised and aim to improve these consumers’ experiences within the marketplace.

In order to find the variables for measuring customer value, at the first stage, this study adopts hard laddering technique to collect information from fifty purposive samples and conducts content analysis. According to the literature review and those variables found at the first stage, questionnaire for the measurement of customer value has been built at the second stage. This article chooses those customers who buy clothes for their children as our subjects. The results show: 1. By content analysis, the variables to measure the three levels of eight types of customer value have been categorized from qualitative information. 2. Only efficiency and play partially support the hypothesis that first-time customers focus primarily on attribute-level. Ethics confirms the hypothesis that short-term customers emphasize mainly on consequence-level, while excellence and spirituality partially support this hypothesis. Status, esteem and spirituality support the hypothesis that long-term customers focus primarily on goal-level, while efficiency, play and ethics partially confirm this hypothesis. It suggests that there is no one segment of customers could completely receives customer value which he actually needs. 3. Regarding to the analysis of single type of customer value, it shows that customers emphasize on the consequences provided by the attributes and also the goals the consequences reinforce. Furthermore, they seek the goals offered by the attributes when involve in consumption experience. Therefore, the means-end chain of single type of customer value has been constructed. 4. With regard to the analysis of eight types of customer value, it suggests that customers focus on the multiple consequences provided by one attribute or multiple attributes and also the multiple goals the consequences reinforce. Furthermore, they pursue the multiple goals offered by the attributes when involve in consumption experience. Therefore, the means-end chain of eight types of customer value has been built.

abstract: Customers today, are active participants in service experiences. They are more informed about product choices, their preferences and tend to actively influence customer and firm related outcomes. However, differences across customers become a significant challenge for firms trying to ensure that all customers have a `delightful' consumption experience. This dissertation studies customers as active participants in service experiences and considers three dimensions of customer participation -- in-role performance; extra-role performance-citizenship and elective behavior; and information sharing -- as its focal dependent variables. This study is grounded in services marketing, customer co-production and motivation literatures. The theoretical model proposes that customer behaviors are goal-directed and different consumers will have different reactions to the service quality because they have different assessments of progress towards their goals and (consequently) different levels of participation during the service experience. Customer role clarity and participation behavior will also influence the service experience and firm outcomes. A multi-step process was adopted to test the conceptual model, beginning with qualitative and quantitative pretests; followed by 2 studies (one cross-sectional and other longitudinal in nature). Results prove that customer participation behaviors are influenced by service quality directly and through the mediated path of progress towards goals. Assessment of progress towards goals directly influences customer participation behaviors cross-sectionally. Service quality from one service interaction influences customer in-role performance and information sharing in subsequent service interactions. Information sharing influences service quality in subsequent service interactions. Role-clarity influences in-role and extra-role performance cross-sectionally and influences these behaviors longitudinally only in the early stages of the customer-firm relationship. Due to multi-collinearity, the moderating effect of customer goals on assessment of progress towards goals could not be tested. The study findings contribute to the understanding of customer participation behaviors in service interactions for both academics and managers. It contributes to the literature by examining consumption during the service interaction; considering customers as active participants; explaining differences in customer participation; integrating a forward-looking component (assessment of progress towards goals) and a retrospective component (perceptions of service quality) to explain customer participation behaviors over time; defining and building measures for customer participation behavior. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2011

Submitted by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2011-05-17T19:27:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 1416163.pdf: 3868085 bytes, checksum: 3fd7fd6889a78c4152b638994eda5314 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha(marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2011-05-17T19:27:31Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 1416163.pdf: 3868085 bytes, checksum: 3fd7fd6889a78c4152b638994eda5314 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha(marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2011-05-17T19:27:37Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 1416163.pdf: 3868085 bytes, checksum: 3fd7fd6889a78c4152b638994eda5314 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-17T19:27:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 1416163.pdf: 3868085 bytes, checksum: 3fd7fd6889a78c4152b638994eda5314 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / This work aims to investigate the spectator narratives associated with live football and TV football broadcasting. Long interviews (McCracken, 1988) were conducted with 16 subjects, focusing on their personal history and experienced narratives are related to life and sports practice and consumption. Interviews were focused on subjects experiences with live and TV football watching experiences. The conceptual framework provided by Holbrook (1999) was used to identify consumer behavior; to describe the different forms of fruition and evaluation. Observations points to active participation in message building on the pitch with high leveIs of connotative content, contrasting with high denotative content on the TV messages, which stresses the didactical character of TV broadcastings. As the forms of presentation of the football spectacle can be seen as packets of information, we can bring to this analysis the ideas of Eco (2001). For Eco, the value of information is proportional to the richness of choices and possible meanings. Such approach is consistent with the proposition by Holbrook (1999) that the valuation of consumption experience is derived from interaction with the world. This way, the degree of interactivity is directly related to the volume of associative connotations preceded by the spectator. / A pesquisa procura estudar a forma como o espetáculo futebol é percebido e valorizado por espectadores no estádio e na televisão. O modelo proposto por Holbrook (1999) sustenta a análise de narrativas que relatam comportamentos dos consumidores nos dois ambientes: arquibancada e sofá. Com base na abordagem sugerida por McCracken (1988), os dados foram coletados por entrevistas pessoais, em profundidade, que possibilitaram explorar as experiências dos entrevistados como espectadores regulares de futebol na televisão e no estádio. Foram analisados os tipos de valor do modelo de Holbrook (1999) mais representativos encontrados nos relatos. As narrativas indicaram substantivas diferenças entre os valores percebidos ao longo das experiências na arquibancada e no sofá. Esta dualidade serviu de fio condutor para a emergência de outros duplos conceituais extraídos das entrevistas - que se revelam subsídios para o desenvolvimento de estratégias de marketing. Concluiu-se que a valorização da partida de futebol é influenciada pela forma com a qual o espectador constrói os significados na experiência de consumo. Percebeu-se, desta forma, uma associação entre a abordagem semiológica (Eco, 2001), para a qual o valor (da informação) decorre das possibilidades de significados possíveis; e a proposição de Holbrook, para o qual o valor de consumo se sustenta numa vivência interativa. Impõe-se ao gestor, portanto, a missão de executar a tabelinha sofá-arquibancada. De maneira a potencializar seus respectivos atributos para o consumo - como a riqueza simbólica e a riqueza referencial - e a reforçar os traços complementares apontados nas entrevistas.

Submitted by Irene Nascimento (irene.kessia@ufpe.br) on 2017-04-11T17:06:03Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Experiência de Consumo de um Grupo Urbano em um Espaço Natural Ambientado na Praia..pdf: 1956269 bytes, checksum: 902dea2422a03eb1f30bd7d07f61c064 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-11T17:06:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Experiência de Consumo de um Grupo Urbano em um Espaço Natural Ambientado na Praia..pdf: 1956269 bytes, checksum: 902dea2422a03eb1f30bd7d07f61c064 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-30 / Capes / A presente dissertação teve como objetivo explorar a relação existente entre um espaço natural ambientado para a oferta de experiências de consumo e a identificação de uma tribo urbana formada em função desta relação. A pesquisa foi realizada em uma barraca da praia de Boa Viagem na cidade do Recife, Pernambuco escolhida pela sua diferenciação física e social das demais barracas dispostas na faixa de areia da mesma praia. Foi feita uma revisão de literatura na qual foram abordados conceitos que iam além daqueles tratados na bibliografia tradicional do Marketing, incluindo teorias advindas das Ciências Sociais e da Arquitetura e Urbanismo, como no caso das noções de Tribos Urbanas e Ambiência respectivamente. O outro construto exposto foi o de Experiências de Consumo. A metodologia utilizada foi a etnografia visto que esta é a abordagem adequada ao estudo de um grupo e à compreensão de suas concepções, práticas, experiências e comportamentos. Por meio de observação participante, entrevistas não estruturadas e uso de fotografias foram exploradas as experiências de consumo de um grupo formado em função de um espaço natural ambientado. A discussão dos dados possibilitou a conclusão de que a barraca estudada se transformou em uma ambiência socioespacial que possibilitou a identificação de pessoas com estilos de vida e objetivos de consumo em comum e que, este agrupamento, acabou por formar uma tribo urbana reunida em torno de valores de ligação sociais que se destacou dentro de uma subcultura de consumo mais ampla, a de praia. / The aim of this dissertation was to explore the relationship between a natural space acclimated to the supply of consumer experiences and the identification of an urban tribe formed as a result of this relationship. The survey was conducted in a tent at Boa Viagem beach in Recife, Pernambuco chosen for their physical and social differentiation from other tents arranged in the same stretch of sand beach. A literature review was made in which were addressed concepts that went beyond those treated in the traditional bibliography of Marketing, including theories arising from the Social Sciences and Architecture and Urbanism, as in the case of Urban Tribes notions and Ambience respectively. The other construct approached was that of consumption experiences. The methodology used was ethnography as this is the appropriate approach to the study of a group and understanding of their views, practices, experiences and behaviors of consumption. Through participant observation, unstructured interviews and use of photographs were explored the consumer experience of the urban tribe in that natural space acclimated. A discussion of the data led to the conclusion that the site studied formed a socio-spatial environment that enabled the identification of people with lifestyles and consumption objectives in common and that this grouping, eventually formed an urban tribe around social binding values that are highlighted within a subculture broader intake, beach.

Cette thèse s’intéresse à la compréhension des mécanismes de partage d’émotions et de vécu affectif collectif en situation de consommation d’événement récréatif comme les festivals. L’émotion est étudiée d’un point de vue collectif et l’attention est focalisée sur les émotions positives, ce qui confère une double originalité à ce travail. Notre démarche relève d’un processus abductif articulé autour de phases successives d’immersions ethnographiques dans les rassemblements festifs des communautés glisse et psytrance et d’un recours à une littérature multidisciplinaire, significatif de notre inscription dans le courant de recherche de la théorie culturelle de la consommation (CCT).Il ressort que les transferts d’émotion sont centraux dans l’expérience de consommation événementielle. Les processus de partage d’émotion et de contagion émotionnelle sont omniprésents et contribuent à la création d’émotions collectives dont le vécu est recherché par le festivalier ou le spectateur. Ces dynamiques émotionnelles, qui sont en lien étroit avec la notion d’appartenance à la communauté, façonnent les logiques de consommation des festivaliers et influent sur leur rapport à l’expérience. L’ancrage socioculturel des dynamiques émotionnelles est aussi validé par nos résultats.Appréhender l’expérience par la dimension émotionnelle collective nous a permis de proposer une approche singulière de l’expérience et des cadres d’analyse spécifiques au contexte des festivals et des spectacles vivants. En outre, ce travail ouvre de nombreuses perspectives de recherche sur de nouvelles notions que notre analyse a permis de mettre à jour, comme celle de leader d’émotion, de style émotionnel et de densité émotionnelle. / This thesis focuses on the understanding of sharing emotions mechanisms and collective emotional experiences in recreational event consumption situation like festivals. The emotion is studied from a collective point of view and the attention is focused on positive emotions, giving this work a double originality. We adopted an abductive process that is articulated around successive phases of ethnographic immersions in festive gatherings of the action sport and the psytrance communities, and a use of multidisciplinary literature significant to to our registration in the Consumption Cultural Theory (CCT) research stream.Our results show that transfers of emotion are central in the event consumer experience. The process of emotional sharing and emotional contagion are ubiquitous and contribute to the creation of collective emotions that the experience is sought by the festival consumer or the event spectator. These emotional dynamics that are closely linked with the notion of belonging to the community, are shaping the consumption logics of the festival visitors, and are influencing their relation to the experience. The socio-cultural anchor of emotional dynamics is also confirmed by our results.Understanding the experience with the collective emotional dimension has allowed us to offer a unique approach to the experience and specific analytical frameworks to the context of festivals and live performances. In addition, this work opens many research perspectives on new concepts that our analysis was to update, such as emotional leader, emotional style and emotional density

O churrasco gaúcho, para muitos, poderia ser caracterizado apenas como “carne assada sobre brasas”. Todavia, diversos achados dão conta de que, na verdade, este prato típico é constituído por diversos outros elementos e símbolos, que o tornam uma atividade repleta de significados especiais. Desta forma, esta dissertação, através da óptica da experiência de consumo, objetiva explorar, de forma qualitativa, os elementos e dimensões que compõem a experiência de consumo do churrasco para os habitantes da cidade de Porto Alegre. Recomendada por diversos autores para ocasiões nas quais estão presentes aspectos experienciais, a Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) é aqui utilizada como inspiração para a confecção dos roteiros utilizados nas entrevistas em profundidade para a coleta de dados. Uma vez que o alimento objeto deste estudo pode ser degustado em uma ampla gama de ambientes e situações, é adotado aqui, tão somente, aquele churrasco consumido em casa ou na casa de amigos e/ou familiares, excluindo, portanto, locais de churrascos em churrascarias, restaurantes e quaisquer estabelecimentos comerciais. Os resultados obtidos apontam as principais características desta experiência de consumo, relativas aos seus contextos, estímulos sensoriais, processos cognitivos, respostas afetivas, atividades e avaliações, além de metáforas que os participantes apresentaram, mesmo que inconscientemente, através das imagens que trouxeram para as entrevistas. Dentre as principais características da experiência, ressaltam-se a importância da presença de amigos, a capacidade de aproximar o consumidor da tradição e cultura gaúchas, e o sentimento de alegria propiciado por ela. / Rio Grande do Sul‟s barbecue, for most, could be characterized just as “meat toasted over cinder”. However, many findings point that, in truth, this typical meal is composed by many other elements and symbols, that make it an activity filled with special meanings. That said, this dissertation, through the experiential consumption optic, intends to explore, in a qualitative approach, the elements and dimensions that compose the barbecue‟s consumption experience for the habitants of the city of Porto Alegre. Recommended by many authors for occasions in which experiential aspects are present, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) is here used as an inspiration for the elaboration of the depth-interviews scripts used in the gathering of data. Once the food object for this study can be tasted in many different fashions, only the situations where the barbecue is consumed at home or by friend‟s or family are here adopted, excluding, therefore, barbecue places such as “churrascarias”, restaurants and any other commercial establishments. The obtained results point the main characteristics for this consumption experience, concerning its contexts, sensorial stimuli, cognitive processes, affective answers, activities and evaluation, besides metaphors elucidated by the interviewees, even unconsciously, through the images they brought to the interviews. Among the experience‟s properties, stand out the importance of friends presence, the hability to bring the consumer near to the local tradition and culture, and the sensation of joy propitiated by it.

O churrasco gaúcho, para muitos, poderia ser caracterizado apenas como “carne assada sobre brasas”. Todavia, diversos achados dão conta de que, na verdade, este prato típico é constituído por diversos outros elementos e símbolos, que o tornam uma atividade repleta de significados especiais. Desta forma, esta dissertação, através da óptica da experiência de consumo, objetiva explorar, de forma qualitativa, os elementos e dimensões que compõem a experiência de consumo do churrasco para os habitantes da cidade de Porto Alegre. Recomendada por diversos autores para ocasiões nas quais estão presentes aspectos experienciais, a Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) é aqui utilizada como inspiração para a confecção dos roteiros utilizados nas entrevistas em profundidade para a coleta de dados. Uma vez que o alimento objeto deste estudo pode ser degustado em uma ampla gama de ambientes e situações, é adotado aqui, tão somente, aquele churrasco consumido em casa ou na casa de amigos e/ou familiares, excluindo, portanto, locais de churrascos em churrascarias, restaurantes e quaisquer estabelecimentos comerciais. Os resultados obtidos apontam as principais características desta experiência de consumo, relativas aos seus contextos, estímulos sensoriais, processos cognitivos, respostas afetivas, atividades e avaliações, além de metáforas que os participantes apresentaram, mesmo que inconscientemente, através das imagens que trouxeram para as entrevistas. Dentre as principais características da experiência, ressaltam-se a importância da presença de amigos, a capacidade de aproximar o consumidor da tradição e cultura gaúchas, e o sentimento de alegria propiciado por ela. / Rio Grande do Sul‟s barbecue, for most, could be characterized just as “meat toasted over cinder”. However, many findings point that, in truth, this typical meal is composed by many other elements and symbols, that make it an activity filled with special meanings. That said, this dissertation, through the experiential consumption optic, intends to explore, in a qualitative approach, the elements and dimensions that compose the barbecue‟s consumption experience for the habitants of the city of Porto Alegre. Recommended by many authors for occasions in which experiential aspects are present, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) is here used as an inspiration for the elaboration of the depth-interviews scripts used in the gathering of data. Once the food object for this study can be tasted in many different fashions, only the situations where the barbecue is consumed at home or by friend‟s or family are here adopted, excluding, therefore, barbecue places such as “churrascarias”, restaurants and any other commercial establishments. The obtained results point the main characteristics for this consumption experience, concerning its contexts, sensorial stimuli, cognitive processes, affective answers, activities and evaluation, besides metaphors elucidated by the interviewees, even unconsciously, through the images they brought to the interviews. Among the experience‟s properties, stand out the importance of friends presence, the hability to bring the consumer near to the local tradition and culture, and the sensation of joy propitiated by it.

O churrasco gaúcho, para muitos, poderia ser caracterizado apenas como “carne assada sobre brasas”. Todavia, diversos achados dão conta de que, na verdade, este prato típico é constituído por diversos outros elementos e símbolos, que o tornam uma atividade repleta de significados especiais. Desta forma, esta dissertação, através da óptica da experiência de consumo, objetiva explorar, de forma qualitativa, os elementos e dimensões que compõem a experiência de consumo do churrasco para os habitantes da cidade de Porto Alegre. Recomendada por diversos autores para ocasiões nas quais estão presentes aspectos experienciais, a Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) é aqui utilizada como inspiração para a confecção dos roteiros utilizados nas entrevistas em profundidade para a coleta de dados. Uma vez que o alimento objeto deste estudo pode ser degustado em uma ampla gama de ambientes e situações, é adotado aqui, tão somente, aquele churrasco consumido em casa ou na casa de amigos e/ou familiares, excluindo, portanto, locais de churrascos em churrascarias, restaurantes e quaisquer estabelecimentos comerciais. Os resultados obtidos apontam as principais características desta experiência de consumo, relativas aos seus contextos, estímulos sensoriais, processos cognitivos, respostas afetivas, atividades e avaliações, além de metáforas que os participantes apresentaram, mesmo que inconscientemente, através das imagens que trouxeram para as entrevistas. Dentre as principais características da experiência, ressaltam-se a importância da presença de amigos, a capacidade de aproximar o consumidor da tradição e cultura gaúchas, e o sentimento de alegria propiciado por ela. / Rio Grande do Sul‟s barbecue, for most, could be characterized just as “meat toasted over cinder”. However, many findings point that, in truth, this typical meal is composed by many other elements and symbols, that make it an activity filled with special meanings. That said, this dissertation, through the experiential consumption optic, intends to explore, in a qualitative approach, the elements and dimensions that compose the barbecue‟s consumption experience for the habitants of the city of Porto Alegre. Recommended by many authors for occasions in which experiential aspects are present, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) is here used as an inspiration for the elaboration of the depth-interviews scripts used in the gathering of data. Once the food object for this study can be tasted in many different fashions, only the situations where the barbecue is consumed at home or by friend‟s or family are here adopted, excluding, therefore, barbecue places such as “churrascarias”, restaurants and any other commercial establishments. The obtained results point the main characteristics for this consumption experience, concerning its contexts, sensorial stimuli, cognitive processes, affective answers, activities and evaluation, besides metaphors elucidated by the interviewees, even unconsciously, through the images they brought to the interviews. Among the experience‟s properties, stand out the importance of friends presence, the hability to bring the consumer near to the local tradition and culture, and the sensation of joy propitiated by it.