An experience is worth much more than an advertising spot. This is the philosophy behind experiential marketing , the marketing technique that creates experiences between brands and consumers.
An almost obligatory commercial approach for brands in the digital age, where communication is fast and full of voices, especially on social networks. Brands run the risk of losing relevance and contact with an audience that seeks a consumer experience that is not necessarily linked to the product.
Experiential marketing offers the opportunity to intrigue and engage the consumer directly, appealing to their sensory experience and emotional sphere. Shows, games, invitation-only events and augmented reality immersions are just some of the forms of experiential marketing.
The goal is to motivate, provoke, inspire and put the consumer back at the center, finding what is truly useful, fun and exciting for the public. The person is at the heart of experiential marketing campaigns .
How experiential marketing works
Experiential marketing allows the consumer to “experience” the brand telegram data through an event that connects them with the brand and its products. Consumers are not always guided by rationality in their purchasing choices, but also or, above all, by emotional factors: they seek attractive, pleasurable and personalized purchasing and consumption experiences . Experiential marketing puts them at the center of the scene.
This evolved customer experience creates one-to-one connections between brand and customer and improves engagement through personalised offerings and emotionally stimulated reactions. The impact is potentially much more incisive than classic advertising communication. Therefore, Just as there is potentially infinite room for brand creativity in interpreting the meaningful and desirable experience for its audience .
What is an experience?
One of the theories of experiential marketing is provided what are broken links by the essay The Experience Economy (1999) by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, who classified experiences into entertainment, aesthetics, education and escape.
In the first two cases, the consumer’s participation is passive . Therefore, (attending a concert, show or art exhibition), in the second two it is active (learning to cook, playing games), but the total immersion of the target customer is always there.
Even better known is the analysis of experiential marketing by Bernd H. Schmitt, a professor at Columbia University in New York and one of the leading experts on customer experience , in the book Experiential Marketing: How to Get Customers to SENSE, FEEL, THINK, ACT, and RELATE to Your Company and Brands (1999).
The most successful experiences seek to stimulate reactions on multiple levels . For example, a fitness brand could create events such as outdoor exercise classes. Therefore, to bring the public closer to sport by creating an experience that combines training with sharing with other people, the encouragement to make lifestyle changes and alignment. Therefore, with the vision of sporting activity as psychophysical well-being and sociability.
Consumer rationality and emotional factors
Nowadays there are many products and many are equivalent fax lead in quality or functionality. Hence the need for the brand to focus its marketing and communication. Therefore, strategy on the affective and emotional component of the consumption processes .
The consumer has expectations linked to the brand (value expectation) and with experiential marketing the brand responds by incorporating this value into a live experience that positively realizes or improves the perception of that value (value realization).
Schmitt suggests that companies adopt a new approach to managing customer relationships, called Customer Experience Management (CEM) , which is based on monitoring and analyzing the customer experience aimed at acting on the Perceive, Feel, Think, Act and Relate factors to improve the customer experience and the perceived value of the brand and its offer. A value that the consumer can identify with and incorporate into their lifestyle.
Advantages of experiential marketing and increasing perceived value
Experiential marketing gets those who use it to talk about the brand in a positive and documented way: the user has participated in an event promoted by the brand and tells their friends about it, in person and on social networks.
Experiential marketing enhances brand affinity (the consumer feels close to the brand and its philosophy) and allows for building a longer-lasting relationship with the