The Role of Experiential Marketing in Building Beverage Brand Loyalty

without lyrics or with natural sounds more favorable to the relaxation while a fashion shop will use more loud and rhythmic music to attract young people. We can say that music is an integrant part of the atmosphere in any selling points or restaurants. Tactile marketing: Touch is very important in marketing. Indeed often the clients need to touch the product in order to test its texture, its quality et that is why marketers try to take in considerations these elements 

during the conception of the product choosing appropriated materials but also during the commercialization by the selection of the packaging For instance restaurants take into account the weight of the cutleries or the softness of the napkins because these factors can have a repercussion on the customer’s perception. In selling points, sampling are always at 

the disposition of customers in order to they experience the products. It is the case in Apple stores where the audience is free to test all the products. Olfactory marketing: Firms use smell as a key component of the experiential marketing by the use of natural or artificial smells. Indeed, we can notice that smell is connected with emotions but also according to the Proust 

Effect smell  autobiographical memories

This technique is mostly used in the food industry by the use of artificial smells to attract customers. For instance, even if Starbucks use the major techniques of experiential marketing such as music, decoration, and lightings, Starbucks focus especially its strategy on the smell. Indeed, when we enter in a Starbucks outlet we are directly appeal by the coffeearoma which 

dominates all the setting8 . We can notice the same fact in supermarkets where rotisseries or bakeries increased their sales thanks to the use of artificial aromas that fills the surroundings of the store. Gustative marketing: This technique is mostly used in the alimentary market. Companies often use gustative marketing to convince customers to purchase by making 

blind‐tests or directly with sampling. Indeed customers are more enthusiastic to buy a product they already tasted in the past. Nowadays because of the globalization and the emergence of news tastes, food industry have to adapt constantly its offer to meet customer’s expectations that is why most firms have their own gustative laboratories to test new trends and create new savors9 . To conclude we can say that in order to have a successful implementation of 

Experiential Marketing companies have

to understand the importance of the “total product experience” by the use of customers’ senses. C. Measure the impact of experiential marketing We have previously seen that companies make strategies and use different tools to implement experiential marketing. Above all, to be able to measure the efficiency of this concept is a main concern. Measures of marketing experiential could be the same measures as traditional marketing as Web 

analytics, social media metrics, and media opinions. According to Craig Wilde, an experiential marketing expert, we could usethe « ART » approach to measurement10. First of all, it consists in “A” like Activity, meaning that the company overviews all its marketing efforts and sees how it is engaged and whether it reaches its objectives or not. Then, the “R” remains the degree of Relevance of all the efforts, if experiential marketing strategy build by the company 

is well planned, executed. Finally, the “T” (like Target) is linked to the audience target, which corresponds to the initial and final target the company aimed at. This approach is efficient if the company knows exactly its goals by using experiential marketing. The impact have to be measurable, we can considered in term of human aspect, that is to say by the company’s 

Feedbacks towards experiential marketing 

(we mean, how the tools are perceived from employees point of view), in term of business, by monitoring the sales (increase, decrease of sales before and after using experiential marketing) and through financial aspect, by emphasizing return on investment (if the budget and the investment worth the final result the company reached). Staff feedbacks. Employees’ point of view on the use of experiential marketing could be a useful tool to know the degree in 

which they are comfortable with the different tools. Then, they could give suggestions to their managers. A research and a survey leads by Brandweek in 200611, shows that one third of the employees surveyed, consider “experiential marketing as the lifeblood and the core of the organization”. That means that this kind of marketing is relatively well accepted by employees. However, it could not really measure the impact of this strategy because it is more linked with 

perception and feeling of the employees. Monitoring sales. It is a real tangible parameter. We have the example of Panasonic,in 2007 the company wanted to launch its new product HD plasma TVs, as it considered that advertizing only through televisions adds would not be as efficient as with an implementation of experiential marketing strategy. Next Marketing, a consulting agency proposed a tractor‐trailer tour through the USA12, which is composed by 

Conclusion

three trucks that contained a full HD 3D home theater and could welcome 25 to 35 customers to experience. Plus, in its media strategy, Next Marketing planned the tractor tour in conjunction with sport games periods like NBA basketball games or baseball games… According to Next Marketing study in 2007, 60% of visitors purchased Panasonic HD plasma within 30 days after participating to the tour. Consequently, experiential marketing could be 

measured by monitoring sales. Return On Investment. According to Investopedia, the Return On Investment (ROI) can be calculated by divided the gain of investment minus the cost of investment by the cost of investment. An example of monitoring experiential marketing with ROI, is to test the new marketing approach on a targeting market and compare the results to a segment of the market which the company did not use the experimental approach. Then we 

could understand if this technique was more or less efficient that traditional marketing. Different software and material are developed to help company managing and monitoring their performance. For example, we have Kneebone13, which is a company that offers services that help companies to find parameters to analyze their performance in their marketing strategies; then provides customized solutions and developed tools. Companies