Abstract
Experiential marketing is increasingly getting companies’ attention as a strategy to interact with consumers and engage them to better convey their brand image and positioning. However, its effects are still unclear both at the aggregate and individual levels. This paper addresses this topic and presents a field experiment investigating the effects of experiential marketing on brand image in retailing. Two similar consumer electronics stores with different strategies – traditional vs. experiential – constitute the setting in which a field experiment has been run. Two similar samples of consumers took part in our study by visiting one of these two stores, and answering a questionnaire before and after the visit with the primary goal to investigate the brand image and its changes due to the shopping visit. Brand image was measured as the overall brand attitude – via four items – and five specific desired brand claims that the company wanted to convey to consumers. Findings show that engaged consumers through the multisensory and interactive event arranged in the experiential store register higher levels of both brand attitude and all brand claims than those visiting the traditional store, and that the increase in both the dependent variables after the visit of the experiential store is higher than the increase in the traditional store. Thus, experiential stores are not only able to entertain consumers, but they are also able to educate them, by conveying them a set of brand claims more effectively than the traditional store. Key words: Events, experiential marketing, field experiment, brand management, brand image, multisensoriality.
Highlights
All over the world firms are devoting much of their budgets on experiential marketing in an effort to build strong, engaging and long-lasting relationships with their customer bases
Findings show that engaged consumers through the multisensory and interactive event arranged in the experiential store register higher levels of both brand attitude and all brand claims than those visiting the traditional store, and that the increase in both the dependent variables after the visit of the experiential store is higher than the increase in the traditional store
The primary goal of this manuscript is to explore how multisensory and interactive events contribute in building brand positioning (Close et al, 2006; Morin et al, 2007; Sneath et al, 2005)
Summary
All over the world firms are devoting much of their budgets on experiential marketing in an effort to build strong, engaging and long-lasting relationships with their customer bases. Experiential marketing aims at attracting consumers‟ attention where traditional communication is largely ignored by the demand: According to Agency EA as reported by Adweek (Coffee and Monllos, 2017). 89% of ad content is ignored by consumers stimulating firms to increase experiential spent at a double-digit rate in an effort to develop new appealing relationships. Many recent studies reveal that a large majority of marketers believe live events are critical to their company‟s success, so that their budget is expected to increase in the future (Agency EA, 2018; Bizzabo, 2017)
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