Experiential Marketing Behavior

DISCUSS THE IMPACT OF EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING ON THE PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMERS

Introduction

The consistent increase in competition in the global market has necessitated companies to unearth new strategies whose fundamental focus is on customers which would attract competitive advantage (Aronne & Lobo de Vasconcelos, 2009). It is deemed recently that, market differentiation based on the traditional elements (e.g. product, price, and promotion) would not yield the needed competitive edge thus, the exploration of experiential marketing. Experiential marketing, amongst others, engages consumers to be an integral part of the evolution, launch, or hype of a particular brand. It brings brand personalities to life, creating sensory experiences

Consumer engagement is the definitive point in which a consumer and a brand link up in order to offer a real experience which is related to the core values of the brand. It is a long term network that needs to be improved over time(Jain & Lohia, 2014). Mention could be made of benefits of experiential marketing to include the following.

Firstly, experiential marketing is a tremendous stance for bringing a brand personality to life. When a consumer is engaged with the brand he has an impressive understanding of intricate brand values and will affiliate the product with that personality, also he would connect with the lifestyle and aspiration aims of the consumer resulting in strengthening the relationship and genuine connection between the consumer and the brand.

Secondly, it helps in creating brand advocacy as experiential marketing focuses on increasing customer loyalty and strengthen brand relationships through personal recommendations that are the result of consumers’ sentiments and emotions that the brand experience supplemented value and associated with them through pertinent

One major problem associated with experiential marketing is getting people to talk about your product which you may have no control over what they say. If the experience has a negative side, the company stands the chance of immediately losing customers (who had such experience) as well as getting negative word-of-mouth publicity leading to a mass loss of customers and customer loyalty.

Consumer behaviour and Experiential Marketing

A consumer in this regard is a person or an organization that uses the product/commodity or service. Consumers could be termed as end-users of products or services provided by various companies. Rational consumers always expect to acquire quality products at a relatively affordable price subject to their specific tastes and preferences.

Marketers and organizations have a keen interest in consumer behaviour. Having an idea of consumer behaviour essentially improves marketers understanding on the thought, taste feeling of consumers as well as their choice of alternatives in respect of products, brands and services(Brosekhan & Velayutham, 2013). It is deemed that a consumer’s buying behaviour is normally influenced among others by cultural, social, personal and psychological factors(Brosekhan & Velayutham, 2013), former experience, family, media(Stávková, Stejskal, Toufarová, & others, 2008) and so