Experiential branding and experiential marketing are two very different things and they have different roles in the overall marketing mix. Experiential marketing is a term that is referred to very commonly these days for communication exercises that involve the delivery of some kind of experience.
“Experiential marketing gets brands out of the usual newspaper, online, and above the like marketing exercises and they involve experiences such as people handing out bottles of waters to over the top virtual reality pop up stands at festivals. Experiential marketing is probably the fastest growing form of marketing communications today,” says Greg Martin from Tradeway.
Experiential branding is an approach to the overall branding and positioning of companies and their products that focus on the experience that the consumer is looking for. Experiential branding can differentiate a product or brand from their competition.
It’s very rare these days that you can actually differentiate products based on their features or their attributes. We have historically tried very hard to differentiate products based on benefits of their emotional attributes. Today, differentiating a product is an entirely different ballgame. Due to globalisation and products being important at very low prices, it’s not hard for a company to develop a product that is a little better or a little bit cheaper and thereby overthrow their competition.
What marketing specialists have found is that the only way you can permanently differentiate yourself or maintain the upper hand in today’s competitive marketplace is by understanding the totality of the experience that people have when they are enjoying your product or experiencing your service. This is what we call experiential branding.
“Branding” is one of the most overused and confused terms in business management these days. When we talk about ‘brand’, we are referring to the ultimate way in which consumers evaluate your company. It is how people think about your company and how they respond to your messages, products, and services.
“The business is the brand. Everything that you do contributes to how people are going to respond and react to you. Experiential branding is about understanding the business in terms of how it is experienced by consumers,” comments Michelle Storey from Tradeway.
Need help with your experiential marketing campaign? Then contact Tradeway today.