Experiential marketing enables consumers to engage and interact with brand names, consumer products, and various services in sensory ways that provide the “last mile” or the proverbial “icing on the cake” in terms of providing information. Personalized experiences help people really connect and associate to a brand name and make intelligent and knowledgeable buying decisions. The term “Experiential Marketing” refers to real customer experiences with the brand name/solution/product/service that drive sales and increase brand identity and awareness. It is really the distinction between telling consumers about features of a product or service and letting them experience the benefits for themselves. When executed correctly, it’s the most powerful means to win brand loyalty and solidify its identity.

As a unique approach to the process of marketing goods and services, experiential marketing is a concept that integrates the aspects of feelings, logic, and general thought processes to link with the customer. The aim of experiential marketing is to set up an emotional link between the consumer and the product in a manner that the consumer responds to the offering based on emotion and rational thought. Here are a few of the essentials of experiential marketing, and how this method can generally realize success when other marketing techniques fall short.

Desirable to a range of senses, experiential marketing seeks to tap into that specific spot inside of individuals that has to do with inspiring thoughts about pleasure and comfort, as well as inspiring a sense of practicality. This basically means that the marketer needs to have a strong sense of the mindset of the target audience he or she wishes to appeal to. By understanding what the buyer is likely to feel and think, it is possible to get a strong idea of how to steer the customer on a path that will relate with the product, and entice them to act on that impulse to actually buy.

In order to execute a successful experiential marketing campaign, it is essential to engage as many of the senses as possible. Striking displays with powerful visuals, such as internet sites, and visual media like traditional print advertising – must not only be appealing visually, but also conjure up thoughts of locales and reminders of sensations that are satisfying to that particular person. When applied to create customer experiences of this nature, a sense of rapport between the customer and product is established that will help make the service or product offered even more desirable with each and every encounter.

Since experiential marketing connects with the cutomser on many different levels, the strategy is ideally suited for new and progressive style marketing campaigns. Attention spans are so short so any ad/marketing campaign has to make a quick and lasting impression, or the possibility to engage the new customer will be lost. Even though 30 second advertisements on radio and tv used to have a lot of “stickiness”, quite a few people today use things like Tivo / DVR’s or commercial free satellite radio to avoid all advertising.

This signifies that advertisements on the net, in traditional print media, and on present day billboards absolutely have to catch the attention of potential consumers and maintain that attention for as long as possible to make a lasting impression. Experiential marketing holds the essential ingredients to allow this to take place. By appealing to as many senses as possible, and generating the connection rapidly and seamlessly, this marketing method makes sure that businesses can still draw in and fulfill the needs and desires of customers.

With the huge growth in social media and mobile marketing, experiential marketing is now crossing into these realms and companies who want to establish their brand in this fast paced digital world need to consider this method of advertising and integrate it into their “customer online experience”.