Is experiential marketing future of brand building?

Asanga Ranasinghe

In today's market more and more companies are realising that providing memorable experiences is good business. Consumers expect value to be delivered through experiences, and they are willing to pay for it. This is why the term experiential marketing is fast gaining popularity; and a lot of articles and books are being written about it; and agencies are promoting it as an area of expertise.

The reasons given for this growing interest in experiential marketing are: The capabilities of face to face communication to improve sales and create an emotional experience.

Consumers' avoidance of the 'noise' from traditional media, such as advertising, direct mail. It is not quite so easy to ignore someone in person.

The need for companies to stand out from the crowd and be noticed in commodity markets - people remember and talk about experiences to others.

Increasingly, virtual companies needing to create a physical presence. The requirement to create relationships and engage with customers in order to build advocacy - a valuable intangible asset.

To demonstrate more targeted value to customers as competition increases - experiences go a step beyond product and service.

The 'hype' around customer experience and a vague understanding that customers/consumers want experiences.

At the same time there are some marketers who dismiss or misunderstand experiential marketing by labeling it as another form of product promotion with entertainment thrown on top.

What marketers need to understand is that experiential marketing is not a specific marketing tool. It's an idea. A mindset. A focus on creating fresh connections between brands and consumers out in the world where things happen: connections in the form of experiences; those that are personally relevant, memorable, interactive and emotional.

Connections that lead to increased sales and brand loyalty. As a marketing methodology, experiential marketing aims to move beyond the traditional "features-and-benefits" marketing cast to a wide audience that includes not only those who may benefit from a brand or product, but also those who would not benefit at all. (As a result of traditional marketing, people avoid messages whenever possible and by any means).

In contrast, experiential marketing presents an experience that people choose to attend to and participate in, after identifying the relevance of a brand or product to their needs. Experiential marketing is the difference between telling people about features or benefits within the confines of the thirty-second TV spot and letting them experience it and get their own "a-ha!" event.

Marketers should not assume that sending instant messages to cell phones is experiential marketing. Even a TV or print ad, no matter how sensory, is not experiential marketing either. Similarly, although hard to accept, even great websites are not truly experiential - not that interactive marketing, advertising and other forms of communicating with consumers aren't valuable in the marketing mix.

Of course they are! However, experiential marketing is to bring the brand 'face to face' with the consumer; to demonstrate brand values and build consumer expectation - it is this face to face demonstration that makes it so impact-FULL. Experiential marketing strives to forge deeper emotional connection with the target consumer by using relevant multi-sensory stimulation.

A great example of experiential marketing is what Dove body products has in its long running campaign for real beauty - challenging the stereotypical model of female beauty. This has included building an online sharing community, emotive photography, brand space road shows, in store sampling and using real women in its advertising. Tom Peters says it well in his new book Re-Imagine!: Despite the fact that experiences will be the essence of life in the New Economy, "... most companies trying to pull this 'experience thing' off will fail miserably.

They won't get it ... This 'experience thing' is ... extremist. Not a dab of 'delight' here. Nor a pinch of 'amusement' there. However ... An Entirely Different Way of Life." Experiential marketing is a developing 'scientific art' growing out of the mature field of the marketing industry to meet new consumer needs in consumer engagement.

There is, as yet, no such thing as 'best practice theory' - instead it's a case of learning from 'best practice examples'. At the CIM Annual Conference 2008, Sri Lankan marketers will be able to get into the den of experiential marketing through great case studies that will enable them to get up to speed with what is happing in this evolving, and exciting hour of brand building. .....there is a lot to learn!! Faster the better!!

The conference will comprise four conceptual presentations and eight case study presentations ranging from modern trade, fashion retailing to telecommunications, services retailing and to hospitality trade and entertainment, catering to a wide range of industry interests. The writer, Asanga Ranasinghe is a Chartered Marketer by profession and is the Head of Corporate Integration of The Chartered Institute of Marketing Sri Lanka Region. He is also the Customer Development Director of Unilever Sri Lanka Ltd.