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Experiential Marketing
The term is the talk of marketing circles and boardrooms everywhere, but wasn’t it always about the experience when it comes to marketing? Yes and no. In the pre-digital days of the print ad or radio or television spot, clever marketers went about the business of showing or telling people the very best features and benefits about their brands. However, that sort of conversation is very much like watching a play — it’s a one-way dialogue with the audience. Although traditional marketing does build brand awareness, experiential marketing allows companies to truly design their user experience.
When a company really wants people to live and breath their brand — touch it with all five senses — they practice a number of experiential marketing techniques that provide a full, immersive experience. It’s really just next-generation guerrilla marketing if you want to get technical. The end result is giving customers an emotional connection with the brand, one that is meaningful and memorable — a reason to return.
When the Marketing Tide Turned
Traditional marketing looks at the consumer as a rational decision maker who is more concerned with a product’s features and benefits, while experiential marketing thinks of customers more in terms of emotional beings who want to experience something unique and different.
Bernd Schmitt, a professor in the marketing department at Columbia Business School is big on the customer experience and has written many books in the field of experiential marketing. Born in Heidelberg, Germany Schmitt joined Columbia in 1988 and taught courses in consumer behavior and advertising management. His PhD in psychology was the foundation for the psychological concepts described in his writing, which he applies to marketing and business. Using examples from opera to the arts, his case studies build upon concepts from sensory, cognitive and social psychology. He often cites Starbucks as an example of experiential marketing in motion, because they’ve created a place that is comfortable and relaxed, beyond a great cup of coffee (the product). It’s about customers coming together to share experiences.
