Curating the Crowd: How Firms Manage Social Fit to Stage Social Atmospheres

In sectors across the experience economy—from live sports to festivals, nightlife entertainment, private members’ clubs, and invite-only events—firms compete by staging social atmospheres. When firms successfully stage social atmospheres, they benefit from enhanced customer experiences, loyalty, and place attachment. However, social atmospheres often fail when firms struggle to bring together the “optimal” mix of customers. Yet marketing research offers limited insight into how firms can attract and select heterogeneous customers who fit together productively to create meaningful shared experiences of place. Accordingly, this article draws on aesthetic work literature to conceptualize social atmosphere curation— the process through which firms manage customer heterogeneity to achieve social fit as a means to stage social atmospheres. Through an ethnographic study of Berlin's iconic electronic music club scene, this article reveals a three-stage social atmosphere curation model, comprising curation mechanisms of cultivation, selection, and mystification. This research advances marketing scholarship's understanding of social atmospheres, customer heterogeneity, and marketplace inclusion and exclusion. By outlining the managerial tasks associated with each curation mechanism, this research provides actionable guidance for managers across various service contexts on how to curate the right crowd to deliberately stage social atmospheres.