This week's lecture gave me some insight into experiential marketing. Unlike traditional marketing which focuses on the functional features and benefits of a product, the crux of experiential marketing lies in swaying consumers' emotions using creative and compelling methods.
Experiential marketing involves one-on-one interaction the marketer and the consumer. The marketing strategies go beyond grabbing consumers' attention. Instead, these strategies engage and impact consumers using methods that are memorable and relevant to them.
As consumers are allowed to sample the products, they can immediately judge if the products are of an acceptable quality and if they need the products. This advocates transparency and product authenticity, deterring organisations from committing fraud and reducing the possibility of consumer complaints and disputes.
However, experiential marketing also has its disadvantages. Word-of-mouth advertising is a large part of experiential marketing. This means that if a consumer has used a product and is satisfied with it, he or she markets that product to friends and relatives by telling them about it and influences others to buy the same product. As a result, it is difficult for the organisation to measure how effective its advertising strategies are.
An example of experiential advertising, as discussed during the lecture, is the Sony Ericsson T68i mobile phone advertising campaign. In this campaign, product ambassadors pose as travellers and ask strangers to take a photo of them as a memento, using the mobile phone. In this way, the consumers are able to see if the mobile phone is of a good quality and if it suits their needs.
However, I feel that these advertising campaigns may not be as effective in Singapore. Many Singaporeans have a "mind-your-own-business" mindset and are more wary of strangers. Hence, if a similar ad campaign was done in Singapore, many people are likely to ignore the product ambassadors. This would defeat the purpose of experiential marketing as the consumers do not get to sample the products at all.
I agree with your stance that it is not effective in Singapore. Often than not, Singaporeans like us tend to avoid the promoters of the respective products and thus, these companies are unable to communicate their product benefit to us. Hence, with the inability to communicate with the consumers, it is likely that these companies are unable to tap onto the consumers' emotions as well.
ReplyDeleteHowever, since we agreed that experiential marketing is not effective in Singapore. Perhaps there could be a way where one could try to induce consumers to approach these brands instead of the other way round. For instance, during my shopping trip at one of the departmental stores, I chanced upon a company giving out free samples of their product. Singaporeans have definitely lived up to their name as one who is "afraid of losing" and were attracted to that particular brand because of the samples that its giving out. This enabled the promoters to speak to the consumers and encouraged them to purchase the products for the goodwill for their family health benefits. Thus, such an approach allows promoters to remind the consumers of their loved ones which means tapping onto their emotions.
Therefore, experiential marketing requires skill and not necessarily has to be effective on its own. Promoters have to learn how to include other strategies to complement such an approach. What do you think?