Experiential Marketing Part II
Sept 29, 2008
continued from previous page
We have always contended that you can create inspiring, thrilling and insightful branded experiences in any market category for any age group or psychographic at any time-period. Granted, it's easier to do with brands or categories that bring out or instill emotional connotations and connections. For instance, cars inspire emotional connections and experiences that go way beyond metal and rubber. Music, film, gaming and fashion work on similar planes. Anything that requires hands-on engagement and explanation is also ripe for experiential marketing: electronics, white goods, software/hardware, financial products, services, etc.
It all starts with insights. The success or failure of a concept aimed at any demographic rests on the deep insights that inspire it. In this regard, experiential marketing is one of the best methodologies and one that can bring the insight to life faithfully, in a compelling way. The deeper the insight and the richer the experience achieved, the greater chance of breakthrough communication and engagement between brand and customer.
Experience-based communication is not only how brands connect with their customers but also how they become a part of their everyday lives. Experiential marketing is the methodology that can bridge the disconnect between the increasing demand from customers to engage marketers and brands on their own terms, and the slow-footed reluctance of traditional marketers to move away from mass-media marketing and the one-way, command-and-control techniques of brand building they have been accustomed to for decades.
A strong brand can no longer shield a company from competition, nor can it ensure that customers stay loyal to it. Product differentiation is no longer a viable strategy for creating value in the mind of the consumer. Products are reverse-engineered almost as fast as they can be developed, making product enhancements a short-lived advantage.
For decades, the strength of a brand ensured that its brand extensions would also prove successful-an easy way to grow and respond to consumer fickleness and profit pressures. Since 1991, the number of brands on U.S. grocery store shelves has tripled. Last year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued an incredible 140,000 trademarks- 100,000 more than in 1983. But in a survey of 22,000 cases of brand extensions, Research International found that brand extensions are actually more likely to fail than new products.
Clearly, even strong individual brands are no longer as omnipotent as brand managers and traditional marketers found in the past. In fact, the proliferation of brands and extensions is not a sign of strength but of inherent weakness. The larger the number of brands in a company's portfolio, the greater the overlap on customer segments, positioning, price and distribution channels. Many brands in a portfolio end up competing against each other rather than against those of the competition. Brand extensions also tend to take up a lot of a company's time and energy, as brand managers within the company jockey for ad dollars and resources.
The primacy of the brand in marketing is over. Brand managers are losing control over them to an empowered and proactive customer base. Instead of a consumer economy in which success is determined in large part by name, it's now being determined by performance. The element of product performance is a key component in experiential marketing campaigns today. Just think of the Maytag "try before you buy" stores, or the 24-hour test-drives being offered by car manufacturers around the world. The marketing industry is radically changing from a mass-media landscape to a more individualized, conversational and personalized one in terms of media choices. If brands are to survive, they need to appropriate experiential marketing tenets in order to deal with this market transformation.
The new forces emerging in the marketplace place the clear focus on customer experience as paramount to doing business successfully. There is no such thing as advertising any more; advertising has jumped the shark. Everything is marketing now. And marketing must be based on positive experiences to connect with people and convert them to customers. Pure and simple.
No matter how many new media emerge. No matter how fragmented and saturated the media landscape becomes, and no matter how fast the customers drive the pace car, experiential marketing will be the key to making brands important again.
Erik Hauser is founder of the Experiential Marketing Forum and founder/ecd of San Francisco-based Swivel Media. He can be reached at erik@swivelmedia.com. Max Lenderman is ecd of GMR Marketing. He can be reached at mlenderman@gmrlive.com.
Download the 2008 Experiential Marketing section here (PDF)
For more Experiential Marketing coverage:
Part I
Part II
Download the 2007 Experiential Marketing section here (PDF)
