Experiential Marketing, connect with your customers! –

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Given the current saturation of advertising to which users are exposed, Experiential Marketing is presented as a different way of connecting with them.

The inputs that consumers receive every day is such that many times we fail to capture their attention. And, if we want our business to work, we have to give them something that catches their attention and also differentiates us from the competition.

In this post we are going to see how experiencing experiences is a tool for bringing brands closer to their potential customers.

What is Experiential Marketing?

The digitization of companies has brought with it more demanding customers who are no longer satisfied with conventional strategies. And this situation forces us to change our way of communicating with them.

Experiential Marketing is a strategy to get closer to customers, based on the generation of emotions and the experience of an experience that causes the user to identify with the brand.

So that you do not get confused with this definition, we are going to see each of the keys that make it up.

Keys of Experiential Marketing

The biggest difference of Experiential Marketing with other approaches in the sector is to make living a pleasant experience.

Of course, he is at the base of it because without emotions, there are no strategies. Let’s see, then, the keys that advanced you in the definition.

It is a brand strategy and philosophy.

As such, it is important that we integrate it into the company’s general Marketing Plan. Experiential Marketing does not have to be the only way to get closer to the customer.

We can create ads or street actions, on the one hand, and create ads in Google Ads, on the other.

What is important is that generating emotions among our clients or potential clients is something that the company must have internalized as a philosophy.

The customer is in the center.

From the definition that I have given you of Experiential Marketing it is easy to deduce that the customer is at the center of the strategy.

And it must be so because, if not, how are we going to be able to arouse their emotions?

We offer experiences, not products.

If we seek customer identification with our brand, we have to get to the bottom of their hearts.

Surely you have read, at some point, that most purchase decisions we make are impulsive. That’s why we talk about emotions and the heart.

When you fall in love with a product in front of you, it is easier for you to buy it. And yes, it’s from a brand you love, much more.

We seek customer identification with our brand.

With Experiential Marketing We are looking for Brand Lovers. Every brand needs them because they are going to help us raise our reputation. They will stand up for us in the face of negative comments from other users and will recommend us to their acquaintances.

Advantages of Experiential Marketing for our business

I already commented at the beginning of the post that companies that want to continue existing as such must be renewed.

We used to say “we have to adapt to the sector”.
(Underlying the idea of organization in the center).

Now we say “we have to adapt to the user”.
(The client is in the center).

So, if you want to be a current company and that your business adapts and grows with today’s society, I recommend that you start talking emotionally to your potential and current customers.

These are the advantages that you will achieve with an Experiential Marketing strategy.

1. Differentiate yourself from the competition.

Most of the Experiential Marketing strategies that we know of have been implemented by large companies, such as Coca-Cola or Red Bull.

But the truth is that you, as an SME, can also develop actions, if you are creative. Then I will tell you an example of a small restaurant in my neighborhood.

Most of your competitors (and here you really have to look at what is being done in your sector), do not trace these experiential strategies.

Think about your core business, about your know-how. What would you do so that your customers have a real experience with your product or service?

Example-Idea:

If you are a Logistics Operator, why don’t you take your client to your warehouses and take them on a tour of the processes and locations where their merchandise would be? Afterward, take him out to lunch with his assigned contact person.

Tell me, does this action really seem expensive to you? Could you seriously not assume it as business expenses?

2. Attract and retain customers.

Experiential Marketing is a technique of minimally invasive customer attraction. All you need is to know your target audience well.

From there, it is easier to reach him, since you know his motivations, his interests, his fears, his habits… And this is achieved, as you may already suppose, through the mobilization of his emotions.

Once they are customers, a more or less difficult race begins (you tell me what): loyalty.

3. They keep customers satisfied and surprised.

When we talk about business, saying that the customer is satisfied is normal. But it is not so much to say that it is a success if they are “surprised”. TRUE?

This is one of the differential points of Experiential Marketing that clearly set it apart from other more conventional techniques.

But, of course, remember that with this technique we talk about emotions, so it is logical that this happens.

And when you maintain a strategy like this, customers remain identified with you. Because, surely, you seem original. Again you differentiate yourself from your competitors.

What if you divert part of your Marketing budget to this type of action?

4. Grow your business.

This is the logical consequence of what we are discussing.

If you naturally attract your customer, make them loyal by keeping their emotions active and achieve their identification with your brand, obviously, your business grows.

Types of Experiential Marketing

In this section I want to focus on the channels or ways through which you can develop your Experiential Marketing strategy.

Through the product or service

There is a phrase in marketing that I love:

The products satisfy needs. Experiences satisfy desires.

Which do you prefer?

But this idea should not make us fall into the temptation of putting our product or service in the center. Do not forget that this privileged place belongs solely and exclusively to your client.

What you can do is use your product so that that consumer feels emotions and goes through that

Make your client feel exclusive in the experience they are living.

An easy example is what Bodegas Sumarroca do, with visits to their vineyards.

Through the point of sale

Packaging, physical stores, online stores or customer service are points that reinforce the rewarding experience that a customer can feel with a brand.

Take care of all of them because people like to deal with people. That is, humanize your brand when the customer wants to talk to you. Personalize the conversation.

How to make an Experiential Marketing strategy?

Creating an Experiential Marketing strategy involves developing the same steps that we take for a Digital Marketing strategy.

But I think it is very important to highlight two points that you should emphasize and that differentiate this from any other more general one.

1: Know your Buyer Persona

It is essential to know what your client is like. I am not referring to your target, which has a very broad meaning. But just so you know, exactly:

the routines of your ideal client,
Your habits,
your aspirations,
their fears,
their family and social environment,
your internet connection hours,
the social networks you use the most.

Dig beyond the typical of age, gender and purchasing power.

When you know those details, it is easier for you to mobilize their emotions. So, invest a lot of time in this section and work on it well.

Knowing your Buyer Persona well is the key to the success of an Experiential Marketing strategy.

2: Make your client live an experience

At any time there comes a time when we talk about implementation. It is common to all.

But if you are thinking about Experiential Marketing, this start-up has to be different from the usual ones.

During the post I have alluded to some key aspects of your company, such as your knw-how. Now the time has come to prove it.

How are you going to get your customer to emotionally experience your product or service?

The examples that I have given you before about the Logistics Operator tasting seem clear to me.

But if you are thinking of doing a 2×1 or giving away the second purchase, I do not recommend it. Simply because your client is not going to experience it as an emotion, but rather as taking advantage of an offer. You are not going to arouse their loyalty or their attention for your brand.

Do something different that the person who decides to buy has not experienced beforewhich has not been offered before by any other company.

Examples of brands that develop an Experiential Marketing strategy

When dealing with a subject that has not been developed in practice, such as Experiential Marketing, giving examples is essential to understand its value.

That’s what I’m going to do in this chapter.

Some of them you probably know, but others I’m sure you don’t. Go for it.

Bolivian restaurant in Barcelona

Maura is a Bolivian resident in Spain for many years. Her husband is Javi, a professional cook and the son of a friend of mine from many years ago.

When they opened their Bolivian restaurant in Barcelona I was delighted to meet him, of course.

Before lunch, Javi showed me some of the innumerable types of potatoes that they grow in Bolivia. He surprised me because they were small and dehydrated. He explained to me that this form of treatment was common in the country because, due to their poverty, they could keep them edible for 40 years.

He taught me how to tell the difference between scents and gave me a sample of 3-4 of them to take home.

It was time to eat and, obviously, I wanted to know how what he had told me tasted on the palate…