How Food Festivals Boost Experiential Marketing Efforts

Companies across the globe are increasingly faced with challenges concerning effective marketing communications. This has led to an increased need for companies to stand out from the crowd. Having a strong brand as perceived by the customers is therefore of utmost importance. One way to achieve this is by staging experiential marketing events. However, 

while many scholars have created frameworks for staging events the current models fail at seeing the theory in a broader perspective by adding the criteria of achieving success. The aim of this thesis was therefore to present a framework for staging successful experiential marketing events. Through the use of literature in the fields of experiential marketing, brand 

management theory and transformation theory it was possible to create such a model. Additionally, the collection of empirical data aided in testing the proposed framework and make modifications in order to create the most comprehensive model possible. A combined framework for achieving successful experiential marketing events was thus presented. The framework proposes that creating involvement with the brand should be a top priority when 

Designing the event Involvement

aids in gaining and keeping the attention of the consumers making it easier to get across marketing messages.The design elements included five characteristics: Personal Relevance, Active Participation, Physical and Visual aids as well as Innovation and Memorabilia. The first three were found to be of utmost importance while the latter two needed more testing it order to validate their importance. However, they could not be dismissed either. Synergy was the 

definition used to explain a natural link between the brand and the experience. In this sense brand association, brand attachment and brand resonance should be present in order to achieve increased involvement and added brand equity. Additionally, the values of the company should be communicated in a clear way. Coherence between the event and the company creates lasting associations and loyal customers. While this area was originally 

proposed to be of great importance it proved difficult to measure the exact the effect hereof as people are mostly unaware of the links as they are made subconsciously. Finally, violation of expectations was proposed as a mean to achieve success and increase involvement. This was found to be affected by curiosity, virtuosity and sensory stimuli. Violation of expectations proved to be the most important aspect of the framework as it does not only lead to success 

In the event of positive violations 

but could ultimately be the cause of failure and decreased involvement if expectations are violated in a negative way.There has been an interesting development in the marketing turnover over the last 10 years. The market was most likely shocked by the 9/11 terror attack in 2001 resulting in revenues plummeting in 2001 and 2002 (Madsen 2012) . Then in 2003  

market picked up again resulting in the highest revenues in a decade coming 2007. However, since then the marketing turnover seem to be on another decline. This can largely be attributed to the financial crisis; however, it does not look as though it is turning any time soon. The only areas that have seen a continued increase in revenues are those of Cinema and Internet (see appendix 1). Especially the Internet has gained dramatic attention over the last 

Secade and does now account for 36% of all marketing revenues (year of 2012). This can largely be attributed to an increase in the use of new advertising opportunities such as Google adwords and social media sites such as Facebook, which has given marketers new ways to use their marketing budgets. However, the overall downward trend in printed advertising 

Shows that marketers are increasingly

turning away from this „old fashioned‟ look on advertising and are looking for new ways to catch the attention of the consumers. Over the last couple of decades the world has seen “a transformation in media – from print to voice, from sight to sound” (Schmitt 1999). Marketing tools such as print and television are no longer as effective as they used to be. According to a 

report made by McKinsey & Co. the effect of TV advertising in 2010 would be one third of what it was in 1990 (McKinsey & Co 2006). The world has simply started to experience an information overload. This means that advertisements often go unnoticed by consumers or they are actively avoided (i.e. ad block online, changing channel on the television etc.). In 1997 Speck and Elliot found that only 7% of users actually pay full attention to television 

commercials while the rest change channel, leave the room or make small talk (Elliott, Speck 1998). This is no surprise considering Mittal‟s numbers from 1994 estimating that more than 3000 marketing messages per week were exposed to the average American consumer (Mittal 1994). Add the internet and social media and that number could easily be much higher today. 

Conclusion

This advertising overload is an additional factor as to why marketers are now looking elsewhere to find alternative ways to gain the attention of the consumers. According to Tynan and McKechnie (2010) the idea of consumer behaviour having an experiential dimension was first introduced by Holbrook and Hirchman in their research from 1982. However, they also noted that up until 2004 no systematic attempts had been made todefine marketing terms for 

what constitutes an experience. This shows how new the notion of experiential marketing as a marketing discipline really is. Although it has been an important concept in consumer behaviour as well as marketing management and service marketing for the last twenty-five years, experiential marketing as a distinct discipline or area within marketing is still relatively 

new and is perhaps one of the most contemporary marketing orientations (Williams 2006, Schmitt 1999, Tynan, McKechnie 2010, Close et al. 2006). According to a report made by the MPI Foundation in 2005, event marketing is used in promotional strategies in more than 96% of U.S. corporations (Close et al. 2006). Similarly, the popularity of event marketing has risen in Continental Europe with companies in countries such as Germany, spending 22% of the 

total marketing communication budget on event marketing in the year 2000 (Wohlfeil, Whelan 2006). The increase in its popularity may stem from consumers increasingly taking products and their features for granted thereby expecting more of the marketing efforts in order to get their attention. Schmitt (1999) explains: “What they want is products, communications, and marketing campaigns that dazzle their senses, touch their hearts, and stimulate their minds