Advent Blog

During a recent reconnaissance expedition into the field of experiential marketing, I found an occasionally rich and often impoverished cyber world of information.  My quest to map out the unfamiliar terrain and pin down a definition for the term “experiential marketing” was fraught with varied definitions, diverse notions, and seemingly unfounded assumptions.  It is my lofty ambition to help shed some light on this rapidly growing branch of marketing and add some clarity to an often vague and undefined term.

At first I struggled mightily and in vain to obtain information on what EM is.  I could only find what it does.  A general consensus seemed to be that EM attempts to connect with consumers’ emotions and to create a memorable and relevant impression.  It creates a strong relationship with the consumer and is stimulating and engaging.  These statements are all valid and true but they left me feeling incomplete and a little lost.  I am reminded of the time I attempted to describe a pencil to a friend visiting from the faraway galaxy of Neptebula.  I told him that a pencil is a tool that creates lines on paper and is used for writing and drawing.  And it was not a bad definition insofar as a thing is, to a certain extent, what it does.  But my dear Neptebulonian friend proceeded to pick up a dirty stick and start smearing lines and drawing muddy symbols all over the paper to prove that he had comprehended my definition.  I needed to revise my definition.  I dug for a pencil in my jeans pocket and handed it to him.  It was yellow, about 6 inches long, made of wood, and had a lead point on one end and a small piece of rubber attached to the other.  Not every pencil in the world looks exactly like it but the example gave him a much clearer idea and showed him the “is” rather than just the “does.”

Obviously, experiential marketing is a much broader and more encompassing term than “pencil” and it is more difficult to define.  Trade show booths, mobile marketing, live events, branded lobbies, and exhibits are all generally accepted as concrete examples.  In each of these examples a client is engulfed in a planned and designed environment meant to force interaction with the product or idea and evoke a positive and memorable sensory and emotional response.

As I meandered and strolled through the dark and hazy world of web pages, blogs, and podcasts I grew more comfortable and confident about the unfamiliar ground upon which I was treading when suddenly, from the blackness, a terrible beast flew at me. He was a greedy, mean, and philosophically terrifying monster who had a forked tongue that oozed with honey.  The expert I had come across explained EM as follows:

"Lets say we want to sell some coffee.  Everybody’s coffee is pretty much the same.  It’s all hot, it’s all made from beans, and it all gives you a swift kick to the pants to get you going in the morning.  The only problem is that our coffee costs two dollars more per cup than our competitor’s.  How can we make them pay that?  We cannot appeal to them rationally because nobody would logically pay more for the same cup of coffee.  We must appeal to their emotions.  We don’t sell coffee.  We use experiential marketing to make them associate the emotions of a nice car, a big house, and a high-flying lifestyle and tell them that that goes along with drinking our expensive coffee.  We sell the pretty girl that will be instantly attracted to you when you are sophisticated enough to buy our coffee."

If this was the honey of marketing fame and fortune it had a foul smell. The gruesome and frightening beast made my knees go to jelly, my morals quiver and my ethics quake. To promise the pleasure of fame, fortune and beauty to someone for spending a couple extra bucks is dishonest to say the least. In dread fear of this philosophy, I fled.

Luckily the next animal I came across was clothed in white, flowing robes and offered me a palatable definition of marketing that did not make me fear for the eternal destination of my soul.  This author explained that traditional marketing offered specs, data, and information about a product.  Experiential Marketing breaks from this tradition in that it actually lets the consumer experience the product.  For example: you could tell someone that the Suzuki Hayabusa sport bike has a 1300cc, 4-stroke, 4-cylinder, liquid-cooled, DOHC, 16-valve, TSCC engine OR you could let them ride the bike and hear the engine scream like a banshee while the G-forces shove their stomach against the back of their spinal cord as they tear down the track with cheeks flapping happily in the wind. The specs of the bike are certainly important, but which consumer more fully understands the product? Which one truly understands the roaring power and ungodly speed? And, furthermore, which exposure to the product is more likely to make a lasting and memorable impression? Experiential Marketing is simply another way to inform the consumer. It is a hands on and interactive education that breaks away from a left-brain bias.

The difference between the two beasts is relevance and authenticity.  Let’s say both the coffee maker and the bike manufacturer go to a trade show.  The coffee maker sets up his booth with pictures of rich men and pretty women.  He tries to convince consumers that drinking his coffee will make him rich and successful when in fact the coffee has nothing to do with either and is not even a superior product.  The bike manufacturer puts up a picture of a fighter jet next to the picture of the Hayabusa.  In fact, the Hayabusa is not as fast as a fighter jet but the feeling of riding one must be quite similar.  The feeling of acceleration and the emotions associated with it would be quite relevant.  Another difference is that the Hayabusa is the fastest produced bike on the market and consumers are justified in spending extra cash for a superior product.

I hope that our wanderings have brought us to a place of solid ground where we can lay a sturdy foundation and begin to build a sound understanding of experiential marketing. One of the keys to marketing is differentiation. And one of the keys to defining a word is to differentiate it from other words.  And though I loathe to use the word in its definition I have found that the most useful definition is this: the difference between traditional marketing and experiential marketing is the difference between telling someone about your product versus letting them experience it.  Ernest Hemingway, one of the greatest American writers may be able to give us some idea of what it is like to see the sun set over the scorching fiery red plains of the Serengeti, but you can never truly know until you have experienced it.  Experiential marketing offers a dynamic and effective way to educate your potential customers and communicate the ways in which your brand is superior to the competition.  Through the use of designed environments, events, and exhibits you will be able to create memorable and relevant interactions for consumers.