The experience of flying with Hello Kitty Livery Featured Theme Jet: moderating effects of destination image

Abstract

One main purpose of adopting a celebrity-themed aircraft campaign is to differentiate an airline from its competitors through delivering and/or reforming consumers' flying experience. This practice has become a popular tactic of airlines' experiential marketing efforts. Based on the data collected from Taiwan, this study investigates the influences of five antecedents – customer return on investment (CROI), playfulness, aesthetics, service excellence, and destination image – on purchase intention. The results reveal significant positive relationships among all five antecedents and purchase intention. Meanwhile, destination image moderates the relationships between CROI, and service excellence and intention. Furthermore, this study proposed a more integrated strategic experiential modules with the combination of destination image.