Consumer experiences of virtual reality: Insights from VR luxury brand fashion shows

Virtual reality (VR) offers a new medium for marketing communications, where consumers are immersed into technologically synthesized 'real-use' experiences of products and services. In this study, we theorize and investigate empirically how consumers derive meanings from VR experiences. Using the ZMET technique, we uncover three themes: VR as democratization, VR as embodied escapism, and VR as actualized anxiety. Our focus on the consumption meanings of VR experiences provides an illuminating entre ' e into the discussion of how this technology is likely to shape marketing communications and consumer behavior in the foreseeable future.