Question

Topic: Student Questions

Dissertation: Experiential Marketing

Posted by Anonymous on 1/31/2009 at 3:57 PM ET 250 Points
Dear Profs

I am a fourth year BBA student and currently starting to work on my dissertation. I have done some preliminary research and narrowed down what I'm most interested in, and having read some very useful tips in this forum would like to ask for your advice / comments on my chosen topics. Any help is much appreciated.

I'm planning on talking about how mass marketing and very sales-focused approach has developed / changed into a more personal approach, companies have begun to understand the value of loyal customers, so the focus has sort of shifted from just selling to actually customising the product and the whole experience to something the customers would be looking for. I thought out of all ways of companies doing this I would focus on experiential marketing. How brand experience is created for customers to feel engaged with the brand and sort of change their attitude without them maybe even realising it. I'm thinking of focusing mostly on events, but I need to be careful not to mix it up with sponsorship.

I would like to use some real-life cases in my dissertation to show both good and bad examples of experiential marketing. All cases should be from the same field - any suggestions which one? Preferably something previously regarded 'uncool', and after successful brand experience turning into cool. I would also emphasise the power of word of mouth in such cases, as usually the number of people involved in the actual 'experience' is quite limited. Also failed cases would be good as I want to discuss various points of view, but ideally all should be from the same field of business and thus comparable. For example snack food (regarded unhealthy but attracted customers through positive brand experience?) or wash detergents (quite low brand loyalty, but good brand experience led to stronger recognition and loyalty?).

How does this sound to you? Any suggestions / comments?

Thanks in advance for your help!

KR,
anna
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 1/31/2009 at 9:46 PM Accepted
    It's not immediately clear what you plan to do with the topic, or what primary research will be required (if any). Let me comment instead on the two specific categories you've identified, though, because I have direct experience marketing both.

    Snack food brands are very personal. They are ingested and offer a direct sensory experience every time you interact with the brands. Heavy users (of potato chips, corn chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, etc.) are very sensitive to differences among brands and are generally quite loyal to their favorites. They can detect differences in salt level, frying temperature, and any other recipe variations.

    Laundry detergent consumers, on the other hand, don't see the product until they've already purchased it, they don't touch it or ingest it in use, and they don't really perceive differences among brands unless it's a function of the scent/color ... and even then it's not a conscious awareness. Except in rare cases they can't perceive differences in product performance either. If the clothes pass the "looks clean to me" test, the detergent did its job.

    So now you want to look into the customer experience, branding process, and the various touchpoints for key brands in one of the categories.

    Maybe you should start with a hypothesis you want to test, or an outline of what you're trying to examine. Once you have that, it will be easier to decide which categories/brands will make the most sense to prove out (or disprove) your hypothesis. Starting with the selection of a category/segment seems like putting the cart before the horse.

    Good luck. Hope this is helpful.
  • Posted on 2/1/2009 at 2:28 AM Author
    Thanks for your prompt reply M! I see your point about the snack food example and why it probably wouldn't work very well. At a company I used to work we worked with a client (an artificial sweetener) whose product was regarded lame and nothing special. They changed the brand image and threw a very luxurious party where they invited their main target group (women of a certain age group). After having that totally different brand experience, a large amount of the participants turned to buying the particular sweetener, and also spread the word. This is the kind of cases I am looking for - does anything come to mind?

    Regarding the topic - I thought my main topic would be the switch from mass marketing to more like relationship-oriented marketing, I would go through the trends in attitudes and approaches. The subtopic would then be experiantial marketing and in the literature review I would explain about that. Then after the literature review I would like to speak about the cases, and conclude with some do's and dont's based on those cases and their outcomes. Does this sound any more clear / feasible?

    Many thanks,
    anna

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