Street Sampling Blog

[Experiential Marketing]

Note: This post picks up where the last one left off.

Having an accurately-preconceived notion of what the target will respond like allows the guerrilla marketer to stay a step or two ahead and lead the consumer the desired action – normally making a purchase. The marketer begins and ends the sales process by steering and consistently guiding the prospect to take the action desired. A desire to make an impulse purchase is created within the minds of prospects – that is experiential marketing in a nutshell.

It is important to appeal to as many of the consumer’s senses as possible in a simultaneous fashion. Brand marketers use visual aids, audible aids, memory-stimulating tricks and several other psychologically-tempting strategies to complete each sale. The goal is to make the prospective buyer remember pleasurable events and associate them with the message or product at hand. These customer-unique experiences are then naturally associated with the brand or product being represented and surges in sales are commonly seen. In addition, grass roots word-of-mouth advertising takes off like wildfire and is very difficult to slow. This equals advertising gold.

Time is of the essence in experiential marketing as well. People have become very resistant to traditional advertising approaches. Messages not only have to strike the emotional centers of potential consumers – they have to do so within a few seconds at most. The brand marketer must deliver a blow to the subconscious of the target that instantly compels them to take further notice of the message or product being presented. A rapid and seamless connection with the psyche of the target is essential for success.

[experiential marketing psychology]

Major advertisers like Levi’s, Volkswagen and Harley-Davidson are embracing experiential marketing as their preferred advertising medium. Instead of attempting to appeal to a prospective customer’s rational side alone to inspire a purchase, experiential marketing techniques get deeper inside the head of the prospect. Emotions are tapped, logic is tried and general thought processes are challenged to drive sales and establish instantaneous relationships between consumers and given brands. Connecting with the customer in a memorable and interactive way is the goal of experiential marketing (aka guerrilla marketing).

“Some people distinguish the psychological aspect of a brand from the experiential aspect. The experiential aspect consists of the sum of all points of contact with the brand and is known as the brand experience. The psychological aspect, sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a symbolic construct created within the minds of people and consists of all the information and expectations associated with a product or service.” – Wikipedia.org

---

Here’s an example of one of our experiential marketing campaigns in action (for Lord and Taylor of New York) – enjoy!

---

When potential consumers are temped on both rational and emotional levels, the percentage of sales conversions skyrockets in comparison to simply attempting to appeal to the rational side. When those secret areas of the brain are stimulated that control the ideas for pleasure and comfort, and the consumer’s sense of practicality is aroused, the results are increased sales and instantaneous branding success. For this reason, it is important for the experiential marketer to firmly understand his or her target. The brand representative needs to be “in-touch” with the individuals that are being presented to.

Part 2 …. Coming Tomorrow – Stay Tuned!

---

[guerilla/guerrilla marketing]

Guerilla marketing techniques are sweeping across the nation as the most innovative approach to quickly brand your business. Experiential marketing tactics are used in fresh ways that people appreciate. Their days are enlivened by the unique approaches and it gets them talking about your company in a seriously-enthusiastic manner. Let’s examine the top 5 reasons to utilize a guerilla marketing firm for your next advertising campaign:

1) Guerilla marketing is super-effective. Creative and sometimes mildly-shocking tactics are utilized that are unable for people to ignore. They have their attention spans dominated because guerilla marketers know what they are not expecting to see. Your company will be instantly seen and talked about as a hip and modern entity of coolness.

2) Experiential marketing techniques stimulate grass roots networks. Because you cared enough to provide people on the streets with a unique and exciting message, they will reward you by spreading it around for you. Very quickly, your message will travel far and have an immediate effect on your sales ratios. Branding is everything in business and experiential marketing makes it happen faster than any other way.

3) Guerilla marketing is very cost efficient. For less than the costs of running a singular billboard ad, you can have an experiential marketing campaign custom designed and implemented for you. The value far surpasses the costs associated. People will go on talking positively about your company for a long time after the campaign completes. There’s really no way to measure the effectiveness of a given experiential marketing campaign except to just sit back and witness the staggering results.

4) Experiential marketing managers are professionals that care about excellence. Expert managers are very in touch with exactly what you are trying to do with your company. They know the results that you want and they know how to create them. Their approaches are consistently innovative. There are no rules for these imaginative promoters. They use what they know and what they see to tap into the minds of your targeted audiences.

5) Guerilla marketing brand ambassadors are the key to the quickly-accepted branding for your company. After the management masterminds the process, they place the street work in the hands of trained brand ambassadors. In short, these pros go out and steal the attention of your targets. They captivate them boldly and deliver your messages powerfully and with great effect. These people are the people that set trends wherever they go. People are magnetized to them. They represent your company like nobody else possibly can – and they love their work!

Let yourself learn more about the result-producing techniques of guerilla marketing starting today. Why continue attempting to create stellar results with outdated, boring advertising tactics? They haven’t worked so far, have they? Give your company the branding boost that it is dying for: hire a guerilla marketing firm to get started on your new amazing campaign today.

================================

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Scott Thurston encourages you to explore the diversely-exciting realm of experiential marketing further. Learn how to make your next guerilla marketing advertising campaign the most effective, and economical ever!

---

[experiential marketing]

I’m a subscriber to AdvertisingAge, and while reading the November 3rd issue, I came across an article by Laurel Wentz titled, “Experiential Media No. 1 Way to Influence Latinos.” She’d subtitled it, “Word-of-Mouth, TV Much More Effective Than Print, Survey Finds.”

Wentz targets a lot of her advice at the Latino market, but easily that same advice can be applied over a wide range of demographics (what makes YouTube such a hit with everyone? A redundant question, yes, but proves my point.)

Since Laurel Wentz does such a fine job presenting surveyed details, I’m going to quote her entire writeup here. The only thing I have done is move the graphic to the top. Enjoy!

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Experiential marketing is the medium most likely to persuade Hispanic consumers to buy a product, according to a recent survey commissioned by experiential-marketing company Jack Morton Latino, but respondents had strong opinions about how events should be organized.

Respondents said they shun a hard sell, with people representing the sponsor brand and expect a live event to be complemented by social networking, blogs and mobile-phone activities.

The online survey of 500 respondents focused on acculturated Hispanics, typically U.S.-born and bilingual. Of those surveyed, 39% said they had participated in a live brand experience in the last year. Asked which medium would be mostly likely to drive their purchase of a product, respondents ranked experiential media first (30%); followed by word-of-mouth (24%); TV (23%); and the internet (14%). Print media, direct mail and radio all got responses of 4% or less.

Word-of-mouth is especially important in the Hispanic market; 68% of survey respondents said they interact with between three and 10 family members weekly.

Just 2% of respondents said they preferred hard-sell “active interaction” with people representing the brand; most preferred a softer sell and a more passive message at an event, conveyed through signage or video presentations. The main technologies respondents expected live events to be linked to were social-networking sites and blogs (25%) and mobile phones (18%).

Isabel Villegas, senior Latino-market specialist at Jack Morton Latino, said the live-concert series the agency created for client Alltel in key Hispanic markets in the Southwest also involves Facebook and MySpace pages, as well as pictures taken of attendees at the concerts to be put on “find yourself” screens during the events and posted later.

Whether you call it experiential marketing, guerilla marketing, word of mouth marketing, or just spreading the word through media, this powerful form of marketing and advertising is one you and your company should be exploring – now during the holiday season and into 2009.

---