• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, October 11, 2004

What exactly is experiential marketing?

It's a term I've heard floating around the industry over the last few months and one that is certainly starting to gather more momentum and buzz. Experiential marketing is simply the concept of developing marketing efforts that surround the consumer with a full sensory experience to convey the message and image of a brand. As with any other form of marketing, the goal of experiential marketing is to influence brand perception and drive an increase in sales or market share.

The term is applied to all forms of media, but most applicably to campaigns that go across media. In the message-cluttered world of today, an experiential campaign serves to reach a target consumer through multiple touch-points, effectively "owning" their interaction with media.

The difficult part comes in identifying the course of media interaction and detailing a plan for successive messaging that speaks to the consumer throughout the course of their day. Just because we know that our target uses media does not mean that we know how or when they use this media.

Experiential marketing grows out of a combination of the one-to-one marketing concept and the old stand-by of customer relationship management (CRM). One-to-one and CRM are effective because they segment the audience to a granular level and provide for a targeted message that speaks only to the most relevant needs of the consumer viewing the message at that exact moment.

Experiential marketing is at the core of interactive due to the highly accountable nature of the medium and also because of the personal nature of the Web. The Web is truly a personal publishing medium, so the marketing that is on the Web is also personally targetable. Experiential marketing efforts are aimed at the one or the few, rather than the many or the masses.

Beyond interactive, experiential marketing is most ably applied to event marketing and point of purchase. Owning the entire experience of the interaction between customer and brand is the primary goal of experiential marketing, and these three elements are the best ways to execute.

As a customer enters the front door of a store, a site, or a venue, they immediately enter into a controlled environment. The environment is controlled and managed by the brand, and the goal is to convey and cement the image of the brand that you are striving to achieve. Once you have conveyed the image, you can then use other forms of media such as television, print, and radio to support and extend the message. All in the hopes that you will have another opportunity to bring the consumer back into the experience of the brand. Either through a repeat visit or ongoing customer service, etc.

Experiential marketing is not new, but it's essential. It is the means by which you break through the clutter, because you eliminate the clutter and provide the opportunity for a dialogue. Are you using these methods without understanding them or are you up to date on this buzzword for?