Examining the effect of experiential marketing on behavioral intentions in a festival with a specific sport event

Abstract

ABSTRACTResearch question: Participation in sport events is a significant aspect of experience. So far very few analyses exist that shed light on the kind of experiences that satisfy participants within the context of sport events. Using an experiential marketing approach, a behavioral model was tested in which perceived experiences and attitudes were proposed to interact with satisfaction to predict behavioral intentions of participants in festival with a specific sport event.Research methods: The proposed model was tested by path analysis. The sample setting of this study was Dragon Fest, which is held in Turkey’s different cities. Data for the pilot study were collected from 358 Dragon Fest participants in 2013, while a different sample of 490 participants were included in the main study for the path analysis.Results and findings: The current study verified the value of incorporating an experiential approach into sport event modeling. The relative importance of hedonic and utilitarian attitudes on sport event evaluation decisions was also presented. This study is unique in considering the utility of both hedonic and utilitarian attitudes and 4E experiences in a sport event context.Implications: Sport event organizers should design their event programs to facilitate experiencing different types of experiences with regard to senses of feeling (entertainment), learning (education), being (esthetic), and doing (escapist). This may be a convenient tool for sport and leisure-marketing efforts because the more experience dimensions an event incorporates the more individuals become satisfied and repeat attendance behavior in the future.