Why "Experiential marketing" Offer new opportunities
The world of marketing is constantly changing, especially with new definitions and approaches. The last one is “experiential marketing”, which is basically about interacting with your customer. In light of the widespread suspicion of traditional advertising (eg, television, print and radio) these days, consumers prefer to experience a product or service in the context of how they would use it in their everyday lives.
While the concept of engaging your customer to try or use a product / service more often is not new, there are two driving forces that make experiential marketing more relevant today as an essential tool for building the value of the brand:
• EMOTIONAL BRAND: the development of the brand has evolved from a functional brand to an emotional one. The key to a successful brand is creating and nurturing a relationship with your customer. It starts with customer-centric branding that includes distinctive personality traits and emotional benefits that are important to the target customer. Once established, this should be used as a compass to guide all marketing initiatives, especially in experiential marketing. Communicating emotions like trust, comfort, and brand credibility is critical to making any type of customer experience more meaningful and memorable, and it’s certainly worth sharing with friends online. Related to this, “experiential branding” is about creating and driving sensory interactions with the customer that involve these feelings, which will emotionally influence their preferences, shape their perception of the brand, and affect their satisfaction and loyalty.
• DIGITAL MARKETING: The other factor that makes experiential marketing more effective in developing this connection with customers is the interactive capabilities of social media and other forms of digital marketing. Today we can segment more efficiently, learn more about our customers’ desires and passions, and as a result, develop more relevant and engaging content to engage them. While traditional marketing may have advantages (for example, especially television) in communicating emotions, the interaction of digital marketing allows customers to feel empowered and more likely to want to experience a product or service, especially on their own terms. Most of today’s consumers do their research online before buying, including advice from friends who have experienced the product / service, which is why more and more websites and apps are designed to provide a different type of experience.
Traditionalists may claim that experiential marketing is simply a form of event sampling, sponsorship, or marketing. While still important, these two drivers make this experiential marketing practice that much more effective in building customer loyalty and brand equity today. Constantly focusing on the core emotional benefits of the brand’s value proposition is essential when using all traditional and interactive forms of communication. By actually experiencing a product or service, the customer can better determine if they are delivering on rational and emotional promises, which is critical to judging the value of a product. Car dealerships like Lexus, who loan cars to customers when they are repaired, are a good example of how they offer the opportunity to “experience” life in a new car in their own lifestyle and environment. This type of experience will also improve the “brand trust” of customers.
Experiential marketing reflects the growing importance of emphasizing emotions in building successful brands and the expanding opportunities of digital media. It represents a refreshing improvement for all marketers, so it is definitely worth considering.