Pro Motion's Experiential Marketing Blog

Advantages of Experiential Marketing

  

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by Mary Jo Schweitzer

A critical factor that is often overlooked in marketing campaigns is how to keep existing customers talking about your brand after the initial purchase. A one time purchase may meet the immediate marketing goal, but does not guarantee brand loyalty.

Today, it is more important than ever to give customers a valuable experience beyond the purchase. Engaging a new or loyal customer in post-purchase marketing will generate good feelings and prompt her to buy again. With the emergence of social media, the overall opinion of a company can be made or broken with one message spread throughout social networks. A good way to keep these feelings and messages genuine is to continuously engage the customer with face-to-face interactions via experiential marketing.  

This is where event management companies have an advantage.  The marketing events that an event based agency hosts provide one-on-one experiences and interactions with the customer. Whether it is distributing samples, activating a sponsorship, or managing a mobile vehicle tour, these companies know how to translate the value of the product or service into an engaging brand experience for the individual customer. Whether it is pre-purchase or post-purchase this interaction is more memorable than other forms of marketing. With quality trained brand ambassadors and street teams the brand’s core values are represented.

Now how does this type of marketing hold an advantage over other types? It’s simple, research shows; a customer is much more likely to buy a product if their experience with the product is memorable and meaningful. Interacting with a brand ambassador who provides an experience and a sample provides a more memorable experience than traditional advertising mediums because of the one-on-one interaction.

Another way to create a memorable brand experience and to convert a one-time buyer into a brand loyal buyer is to sponsor an event. Assume that a customer is a ‘switcher,’ he or she has bought the product and was satisfied but intends on buying the off-brand in the future based on the lower price. Once again, experiential marketing to the rescue!  Event management companies can identify events that the target market is likely to attend and provide sponsorship activation through a face-to-face engagement with the brand’s target customer at the event.  This provides positive and memorable experiences with the brand likely leading to repeat purchases and creating loyal brand consumers.