Experiential marketing
Experiential marketing is a strategy that focuses on engaging consumers through emotional and sensory experiences, rather than solely through traditional advertising methods. It recognizes that people are not just rational decision-makers but also emotional beings who respond to stimuli that evoke feelings. This approach includes various types of experiences such as sensory (sight, sound, smell, touch), cognitive (thought-provoking), affective (emotional appeal), physical (direct interaction), and social-identity experiences (interaction with others).
The aim of experiential marketing is to create an immersive and holistic experience that resonates with consumers on a deeper level. As technology progresses, some brands have begun to utilize advanced methods like virtual reality to enhance these experiences. However, many brands still rely on simpler strategies, such as creating inviting atmospheres in stores through appealing scents and product sampling. Authenticity plays a significant role in consumer perception, as individuals seek experiences that feel genuine to them. Successful experiential marketing requires careful research to understand what consumers value, while also being cautious of creativity that may not align with consumer preferences.
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Subject Terms
Experiential marketing
There have been several attempts to improve the basis of marketing from its roots in the rational choice theories of microeconomics. One of the more influential of those from the consumer goods market perspective has been experiential marketing. As the name suggests, experiential marketing recognizes that human beings are emotional creatures in addition to their rational aspect. As a result, people will respond to marketing stimuli that are designed to appeal to the emotions. Like many other important ideas, this one seems so obvious that it hardly needs to be stated. However, once the idea was expressed and discussed, it gave rise to a burst of creativity and innovation.
Overview
Emotions are generated in people through undergoing an experience. An experience is an event bounded in space and time in which consumers feel emotions caused by one or more stimuli. The ways in which these emotions can be conveyed include sensory experiences (sight, sound, smell, touch), cognitive experiences (causing people to think about different things), affective experiences (inducing emotions through arousing interest or desire, evoking memories or invoking synesthesia), physical experiences (by placing the individual in direct proximity to the relevant stimulus), and social-identity experiences (providing emotion through the interaction between the individual and another person or group of people). It is apparent that these areas can overlap with each other and will often work better in combination with each other.
The goal for all experiential marketers is to provide a totally immersive, holistic experience. As technology advances, some companies are attempting to achieve this experience through the provision of extended realities such as holograms, which many fashion companies have used, and virtual tours, which have been used to view real estate properties. However, most industries provide more basic marketing strategies. People walking into a supermarket, for example, are first customarily treated to the smells of freshly baked bread and then funneled into the fruits and vegetables section so as to get into the mood of picking up and examining individual items. In the same vein, people wishing to sell their houses are encouraged to brew ground coffee before showing potential buyers around so that the place appears more homey and, hence, attractive.
The varying philosophies of existentialism and postmodernism have—largely but not exclusively in Western, developed countries—posed something of a challenge to individuals as to whether they are living a genuine life and whether they are being true to themselves and their various beliefs. This is expressed in their response to marketing campaigns. In particular, people wish to receive experiences they believe to be authentic. The definition of authenticity will vary on a case-by-case basis and, most of the time, will lack rationality, since an authentic Star Wars or Twilight experience is a contradiction in terms. Marketers need to identify the critical service encounters important in an experience and then ensure these are provided as required. This, in turn, requires careful marketing research. Certain companies throughout the late-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have conducted such research and provided such experiences for consumers. Grocery warehouse club Costco has excelled at providing experiential marketing by offering customers free samples of grocery products throughout the store. Often the products are new or on sale. Beauty and personal care product stores Sephora and Ulta also provide customers with prime experiences by allowing product testing throughout the store. Both retail chains also provide sales associates and customer service representatives to help customers find and test products.
There is, however, a danger with practitioners of experiential marketing that they will permit their imaginations and creativity to run wild and to provide aspects of the experience that are not highly valued by customers. An example of this occurred in 2006 when, to introduce the premiere of the film Mission Impossible III (2006), Paramount Pictures placed small red wired devices inside LA Times newspaper stands throughout the city, which caused people to call in bomb reports to the police. This type of marketing is the equivalent of permitting engineers to determine what is manufactured based on what works or looks good, rather than first determining what customers want.
Bibliography
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