Experiential Marketing on a Budget: Tips for Food and Beverage Brands

through intense and focused activity, and absorption or immersion in those activities, thereby raising an experience to extraordinary levels. While Csikszentmihalyi largely describes flow as an internal process, peak experiences are more likely to originate from the outside. Overwhelmed by nature, or an unexpected emotional gesture, individuals feel connected with a “larger-than-life” phenomenon. In moments of epiphanies, an experience leads individuals 

to redefine themselves. Transcendent customer experiences provoke radical re-definitions of the self, resulting from major upheavals, crisis situations, or an intense memory and relived moment. The distinction between extraordinary versus ordinary experiences is reminiscent of the distinction between the “sacred” and the “profane” in consumer culture theory (Belk et al., 

The sacred in consumption is the opposite of the ordinary routine of everyday life. The sacred is beyond analytics and rationalization and can only be understood through devotion. Similar to the sacred, extraordinary experiences can be devotional and momentarily ecstatic. Detailed analyses of extraordinary experiences have been conducted through interpretive research  among river rafters (Arnould and Price, 1993), sky divers (Loeffler, 2004), and Harley 

Davidson motorcyclists Extraordinary experiences

may also be aesthetic experiences which may occur during a classical music concert, in art or by viewing landscapes. Extraordinary experiences include extreme emotions, are often communal in nature, and transformational for consumers. For example, Schouten et al. (2007) have characterized “transcendent customer experiences” (TCE) as including feelings such as selftransformation, separation from the ordinary and mundane, and connectedness to larger 

phenomena outside one’s self. “TCEs are marked by emotional intensity, epiphany, singularity, and newness of experience, extreme enjoyment, oneness, ineffability, extreme focus of attention, and the testing of personal limits” (p. 358). They have developed a TCE scale and shown that TCEs are critical for the integration of a brand community and for building brand loyalty among brand community members. Arnould and Price (1993) studied 

the extraordinary experience of multi-day river rafting trips in the Colorado River basin,a growing component of the Colorado leisure services industry. Using multiple methods, they showed that extraordinary experiences such as river rafting provide personal growth and self-renewal, create a sense of “communitas” (a “sacred” sense of community and camaraderie), and a strong feeling of harmony with nature. In Loeffler’s (2004) study of high-risk leisure 

Consumption such as skydiving climbing 

and he found similar motivations and themes and laid out the evolution of various motives (from thrill to achievement to personal identity, flow and communitas). In this set of extraordinary experiences, even death is seen as part of life. As one of the skydivers interviewed put it, “We do not have a death wish, we have a life wish! A wish to live life to the fullest, and if by chance we do die skydiving, then at least we died doing what we loved” (Loeffler, 2004, p. 19). Caru and Cova (2003) have argued that the obsession with 

extraordinary experiences constitutes an American ideology and has become a “cult of strong emotions” (p. 279). They suggest that researchers focus as well on simpler and more contemplative consumption experiences such as walking and having time with oneself, instead of expecting consumers to fill each moment of life with ordinary or extraordinary product and service experiences. Rather than planning experiences for consumers, this 

alternative view calls for letting consumers construct their own experiences.Regarding packaging and product designs, Orth and Malkewitz (2008) have studied packaging for wines and fragrances, and provided examples for many other categories (cereal, detergents, soft drinks, soups, and tea). They identified five design types: Massive, contrasting, natural, delicate, and nondescript designs. These types are related to brand personalities. They find 

That sincere brands should have natural

packaging design, exciting brands should have contrasting designs, competent brands should have delicate designs, sophisticated brands should have natural or delicate designs, and rugged brands should have contrasting or massive designs” (Orth and Malkewitz, 2008, p. Experience touchpoints may be further broken down into constituent stimuli that evoke 

experiences (names, logos, designs, store elements, etc.). They are often referred to as experiential stimuli. Apple Computers has prominently used experiential attributes as part of its product design and environments and in its communications for many years. In the early days, its logo featured the colors of a rainbow. Nowadays the logo is usually monochrome but 

much brighter. Early on, for the Macintosh computer, Apple used a smiley face that appeared on the screen of computers when they were powered up. More recently, the company used translucent colors to differentiate, for example, its iMac and iPod lines from competitive products. Screensavers, too, have become increasingly colorful and aesthetically appealing. 

Conclusion

In addition, Apple has integrated the logos, colors, and shapes of its product design with the design of its web sites and its so-called AppleStores. Similar approaches focusing on colors, shapes or other experiential stimuli have been used by many other global and local brands in all sorts of product categories. Each experiential stimulus can be quite complex with respect to its structure and experiential impact. Take a simple element like typeface, which appears at 

many touchpoints. Henderson et al. (2004) have shown that typeface design has six underlying design dimensions: elaborate, harmony, natural, flourish, weight, and compressed. Also, studying 195 logos, Henderson and Cote (1998) found that multiple dimensions determine the impact of logos: high-recognition logos should be very natural, very 

harmonious, and moderately elaborate whereas high-image logos should be moderately elaborate and natural.negative experience but to keep a positive experience intact. But you are fooling yourself because, Nelson and Meyvis (2008) also found that inserting a break into a negative experience makes it worse, and taking a break in a positive experience makes it 

better. Why is that so Nelson and Meyvis (2008) propose that breaks disrupt adaptation and intensify the experience following the break. That’s great for positive experiences but not good for negative experiences. Why, however, Nelson and Meyvis (2008) ask, do people never adapt to life near a highway Perhaps because people who live close to a highway experience the permanent change from loud to quiet as a never-ending sequence of breaksInvestigating