Experiential Marketing in Contemporary Retailing - Coursework Example

Experiential Marketing in Contemporary Retailing 01294 Introduction The essay is based on the discussion about the concept of experiential marketingin contemporary retailing. Experiential marketing is a media mix promotional activity which encourages physical fascination as well as sensual interactions of potential consumers towards the products and services offered by any organisation. This marketing approach assists organisations to connect customers with their products or services through the participation on various personally relevant, memorable and credible events (Yuan and Wu, 2008). Traditional marketing strategies generally focus on the promotion of products and services by highlighting the features and benefits. On the other hand, experiential marketing approach believes in promoting products by allowing consumers to personally experience them. The study has elaborated various theories and models of experiential marketing activity (Yuan and Wu, 2008). The study has also reviewed the utilization of experiential marketing approaches by the multinational retail stores such as Adidas, Nike, Puma, Selfridges, Duffy’s and Nordstrom. Literature Review Over the last few years various international organisations are shifting their interests from providing superior quality and premium price to increase the memorable experience of consumers. Values created from the memorable customer experience provide a significant influence on the performance of any organisation in terms of customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention (Yuan and Wu, 2008). Experiential marketing is a new approach that various organisation is adopting to increase their customer database (Yuan and Wu, 2008). Various researches have conducted to analyze the efficiency and importance of experiential marketing approach. Most of these researches have followed different characteristics of experiential marketing. These characteristics are focused on consumers as rational and emotional animals, general experiences of customer, consumption as a holistic experience and eclectic tools and methods used by experiential marketers (Yuan and Wu, 2008). The theory of experiential marketing was introduced by Bernd Schmitt in the year of 1999. According to Schmitt, the theory of experiential marketing is opposing the strategies of traditional marketing. A number of organisations are turning to the experiential marketing approach by changing their customer communication procedure, sales relations and marketing technique. The goal of this new marketing approach is to generate a holistic experience in customer’s mind (Schmitt, 2000). By evaluating different researches on the theory of experiential marketing, it can be said that the framework of this marketing has two major aspects. The first aspect of this theory was introduced by Schmitt. This theory emphasises on five different types of experiences. These experiences are called the strategic experiential modules (SEMs) (Schmitt, 2000). These modules include different types of experiences such as “think”, “act”, “sense”, “feel” and “relate” (Schmitt, 2000). Another aspect of this theory has described different approaches of the experience providers and the tactical tools used by them (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). Few researchers have opposed the view of Schmitt. According to them the marketing planning tools for experiential marketing need to be tactical rather than strategic. These tools and tactics could be highly analytical or intuitive. These tactics may be focused toward verbal communication with consumers through in-depth interview or it could use visual experiences of consumers through TV, news feeds and real-life campaigns (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). According to Holbrook, organisations need to focus towards different sensations of consumers rather than their rational thoughts. They have also proposed a logical sequence of experiential marketing approach which influences the tendency of consumers towards pleasurable consumption. This sequence can be described as romanticism- experiential consumption – emotional responses of consumers – pleasure (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). International Experiential Marketing Association has supported this view by stating that the experiential marketing strategy utilizes different emotional senses of customers to interact and engage with the brand, services and products of any organisation (Tynan and McKechnie, 2009). Few other researchers have defined the experiential marketing as a procedure of identifying and satisfying customer needs and demands. According to these researches, the procedure needs to be done by engaging the consumers in two-way communication procedure. This communication procedure ensures that the communication initiator is gathering feedback from the message receiver. These feedbacks enable the initiator to modify their messages according to the requirement of the receiver (Schmitt, 1999). This procedure will assist organisations to gain the trust and loyalty of consumers as well as improve their brands as per the current market demand (Schmitt, 1999). Figure of two way communication A number of researchers have also described that various organisations are using customer experience management (CEM) strategies. This strategy emphasises on the roles of feelings, passion, experience, emotions and sentiments on the relationship between consumers and their preferred brands (Yuan and Wu, 2008). As per this theory experiential marketing can be considered as a marketing tactic to design the entire physical, operational and environmental processes of any organisation in such a way so that consumers can experience it and relate it with their senses, feelings and emotions (Smilansky, 2009). Different surveys of Jack Morton, The global brand experience agency, have conveyed that a new approach of experiential marketing is influencing the interaction within different brands and consumers through various events and campaigns. This interaction procedure is allowing the brand loyal consumers to connect with other people across the globe. Therefore, it is influencing the brand information sharing procedure across the globe (Smilansky, 2009). Experiential marketing in retail marketing mix Now a day’s retailers and store owners are shifting their focuses from the traditional marketing campaign to the experiential marketing procedure. Most of the retailers are using consumer feedback through two way communications as well as analytical and intuitive tools and tactics to attract their consumers (Palmer and Koenig-Lewis, 2009). Retailers are focusing on influencing various sensations of their consumers through innovating marketing campaigns. These procedures enable the retailers to focus on their marketing mix. These campaigns are assisting them to create a long lasting impression on consumer’s mind. The two way communication procedure helps the organisation to gather the consumer feedbacks and preferences (Palmer and Koenig-Lewis, 2009). Therefore, it assists them to design product and services accordingly. This procedure also assist organisation to divide their customers in different categories as per their responses and preferences. Catching customer’s interest in the marketplace is the prime motive of these experiential marketing ventures. The competitive market scenario in retail industry is influencing consumers to undermine the basic features of products and look for exceptional attributes. This demand of consumers is pushing retailers to change their promotional methods. As a part of their promotional activity, forward looking store owners are providing exciting options for their consumers to experience. The experiential marketing strategy also has influences the pricing policies of various organisations. Retailers need to change their pricing strategies to attract the targeted audience (CyberAlert, 2015). The renowned cloth retailer Topshop has transformed itself from a cheap teen top brand to a premium style leader in the fashion retail industry. The organisation has adopted the experiential marketing strategy to provide exclusive brand value to their customers (CyberAlert, 2015). Retailer’s application of the concepts of Experiential Marketing A number of brands are using different procedure of experiential marketing to strengthen their bond with consumers. Various multinational cloth and accessories manufacturing and retail brands such as Adidas, Nike, Selfridges, Puma, Duffy’s and Nordstrom have adopted a number of experiential marketing strategies to increase their customer loyalty (CyberAlert, 2015). Adidas is the leading retailer of sports apparel and shoes in UK. They have more than 2000 retail outlets across the globe (Adidas Group, 2012). In the year of 2013, the organisation has introduced an exclusive store in London which was named “D Rose Jump Store”. Through this store they were promoting Adidas sneakers signed by Derrick Rose. Through these stores Adidas was not only influencing the customers to meet Derrick Rose, they were also giving opportunity to the visitors to win free pairs of signature sneakers. A number of consumers enjoyed the “D Rose Jump Store” game a lot and left the store with a great experience (Cullers, 2013). Through this campaign the organisation had supported Holbrook’s theory of experiential marketing by influencing different sensations of consumers rather than their rational thinking (Palmer and Koenig-Lewis, 2009). Adidas have also allowed customers to run across a treadmill shaped foot scanner. The experts of the stores therefore suggested the consumers the perfect pair of shoes for their foot types. For this unique sales campaign the organisation has hired new staffs that are trained for in-store experiential events. These experts are scanning more than hundred strides every day across all the retail outlets of Adidas in the UK (Turner, 2015). This procedure helped the organisation to drive huge consumer traffic towards different stores of the organisation. To strengthen their position in customer’s minds they have also taken pictures of individual customers during the activity and sent them afterward (Executional ltd., 2015). Nike is the American multinational retail brand for sports clothing and accessories. They possess almost 1600 retail stores in the major cities of developing countries (Nike Inc., 2014). The annual spend of the organisation on traditional advertising has dropped by 40% where their total marketing budget has increased to hit $2.4 billion (Becore, 2013). Nike is applying the theory of two way communication method through these interactive channels (Becore, 2013). The organisation has designed a chalkbot robot which is programmed to travel the roads of Tour De France. Chalkbot is a chalk spaying and tweet-fed hydraulic robot which prints all the messages received through twitter on the road. After printing the message the robot also take a snap of the message and sent it back to the tweeter wall of the sender (Ventura, 2015). This campaign has allowed the consumers to convey their messages to their loved ones as well as to the whole world. This activity got a huge appreciation from the different media houses. It has also assisted the organisation to increase their customer loyalty through this interaction procedure (Deeplocal, 2009). Nike Inc. has organised a campaign of half marathon. This campaign was focused towards the women in Washington D.C. The main objective of the organisation was to promote their newly launched sports shoe range (On Board Experiential Marketing, 2013). This campaign helps them to generate the awareness about fitness within the mind of the female consumers. Therefore, this promotional method assists the organisation to attract the female consumers towards the fitness products of the organisation. This promotional activity of Nike has followed the theory of experiential marketing proposed by Holbrook in the year of 2000. Through this strategy the organisation has influenced the sportsman experience within the female consumers (Gametiime, 2014). Selfridges, a well-known clothing store in London, is focused on the promotion of their products through the celebrity activities within the stores. They also provide the visual effect to their customers through the collection of contemporary culture, arts and designs from different parts of the world (Branding Insider, 2013). In 2013, the organisation had launched an exceptional campaign with the assistance of 18 Feet and Rising agency. They had named the campaign as “power of quiet”. The main motto of this campaign is to provide a place of peace and silence to the customer to enjoy relaxed time away from the shopping storm. They had also designed a silence room for the consumers where they have withdrawn all the loud logos and music. They have termed their retail outlets as “The quiet shop”. This experiential marketing campaign was focused toward utilizing the customer experience management strategies by influencing consumers to explore something new in their retail outlets (Branding Insider, 2013). Puma is one of the major competitors of Adidas and Nike. They have their apparel retail stores in almost all the major cities across the world (Elation Digital, 2014). The retail stores of Puma have introduced a new Kinect motion controlled game with the help of consumer engagement expert marketing Werks. This campaign was mainly focused towards promoting its newly launched Pumagility shoe. This game has been designed to provide an exceptional experience to their consumers. This game is incorporated with various interactive elements such as Pumagility wearing game avatar, kinetic driver and multiple city senses. Participant of this game have used their body motion to instruct a running avatar through different city streets (Elation Digital, 2014). Puma has also organised a football match in the Grand Central Station of New York. They have appointed the players of Arsenal FC to host a sports activity in the busy station area. This activity has invited the participants from local football teams. It has also enabled the organisation to attract sports lovers to try their brands and participate in the event (Marketing Society, 2013). This promotional activity has certainly followed the experiential marketing theory of Holbrook by motivating the sportsman feeling of the general population (Gametiime, 2014). Duffy’s, the popular clothing and accessories chain of America, has created an outstanding experiential marketing event during their participation in the Fashion Night Out Celebration in New York. This retail organisation had featured live models in their store windows. Those models were showcasing different fashion outfits in response to the demand of the passer-by. The outlets had allowed visitors to demand a showcase of their preferred outfits. The management had also posted all the comments of the visitors in a giant digital board outside the stores. This event attracted more than 2000 visitor in a single evening. This activity had assisted the organisation to drive most of the crowd towards their retail outlet (PR Newswire Association, 2015). This experiential marketing campaign helped the organisation to engage their consumers in a two-way communication procedure (Schmitt, 1999). The New York fashion retail brand Nordstrom has utilized the interactive window display procedure to promote their products in the stores of Seattle (Bazzell, 2011). This display procedure assisted them to attract customers towards their spring 2011 collection. They had wired up their display windows with infrared kinetic technology. This technology had enabled the passer-by consumers to use the motion of their hand to write their suggestions and messages on the lighting display window. Through this procedure the organisation has adopted two way communication methods which assisted them to attract a huge number of consumers by fulfilling their demands (Bazzell, 2011). Conclusion The study has given an in-depth view about the different experiential marketing strategies of various leading apparel retailers such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, Nordstrom, Duffy’s and Selfridges. All these retailers are highly focused towards different experiential marketing approaches rather than traditional marketing procedures. The “D Rose Jump Store” and foot print scanning campaign of Adidas have influenced different sensations of consumers to create a long lasting effect on their memory. These campaigns assisted the organisation to target the emotional sensations of the consumers. On the other hand, Nike has promoted their brand and products through different social interaction procedure. This organisation has utilized different social media and social networking site to strengthen their relationship with the consumers. The interactive display window of Nordstrom and Duffy’s has also enabled the organisations to engage the consumers in a two way communication procedure. On the contrary, Selfridge had provided a unique in-store experience to their consumers to influence their quarterly sales. These entire organisations have targeted to boost the different sensations of consumers through various events and campaigns. Reference List Adidas Group, 2012. Pushing Boundaries. [pdf] Adidas Group. Available at [Accessed 9 February 2015]. Bazzell, B., 2011. Nordstrom Installs Kinect Interactive Window Display. [online] Available at [Accessed 9 February 2015]. Becore, 2013. Nike: Experiential Marketing. [online] Available at [Accessed 9 February 2015]. Branding Insider, 2013. An unlikely combination of shopping and serenity in Selfridges. [online] Available at [Accessed 9 February 2015]. Cullers, R., 2013. Adidas Lets Fans Jump for Derrick Rose Sneakers in London Pop-Up Store. [online] Available at [Accessed 9 February 2015]. CyberAlert, 2015. Experiential Marketing: Where PR and marketing meet. [online] Available at [Accessed 9 February 2015]. Deeplocal, 2009. 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