Introduction. Consumers are getting more empowered, the process of empowerment transforming them into the partners of organizations or co-producers of services. Health care services, as well as ophthalmology services, have been a sensitive topic and raised several debates that focused on the principles of Experiential Marketing and hedonic experiences. Aim. The aim of this paper was to investigate the experiences of patients in a public ophthalmology organization by using the components of Experiential Marketing: sense, feel, think, act, and relate. Materials and methods. The case study was cross-sectional, and the sampling method was non-probabilistic, following a snowball technique. The sample was made up of 100 patients of the Clinical Emergency Eye Hospital in Bucharest. The instrument for data collection was a self-administered questionnaire. The statistical analysis was conducted in SPSS version 20 and frequencies or percentages were used for describing the qualitative data. Findings. Experiential Marketing principles may successfully be applied in public ophthalmology services if a special attention is given to the Feel and Relate components.
Keywords: experiential marketing; hedonic experience; marketing strategy; ophthalmological services.
© The Authors.Romanian Society of Ophthalmology.