Street Sampling provides an interesting blog, in which they provide a tag line: ”Experiential marketing – sometimes controversial pyschological advertising now embraced by major marketers”. Whenever I see the claim that something is embraced by major companies reputed to be credible, I become curious. Is this a fad? Does it have some real substance? What makes this claim something that I could learn from?
I was just tweeted (If you have not joined Twitter to get Tweeted by some pretty interesting people, you might want to learn about Twitter.) by Experiential Marketing ( I could not find a website for them) in which they provided a link to an interesting blog featuring a video with Street Sampling in downtown New York during the Christmas Holiday shopping period. Here is the link to Controversial Advertising Part 1 video on that blog.
I viewed the video (you can view and listen to it on the blog), and reflected on it. You make up your own mind, once you see the video and the blog content about your perspectives. It would be interesting to hear what your thoughts are. I also posted my own comments and responses to the video and the claim that this was experiential marketing.
I think that it is very important, within the world of experiential tourism, to have a discussion about what is appropriate from a marketing perspective. Retail sales marketing may be a different kind of situation from marketing experiences where travelers are seeking authentic experiences. I am not sure. In my mind, this blog triggered a couple of things for me:
- Consumers are smart. And, when people make travel decisions, they are doubly smart – looking for the value proposition. The value proposition, in my experience, needs to be authentic (real), appeal clearly to the ideal guest, and be honest. Furthermore, the value proposition, in today’s world of mass consumerism and mass production, needs to stand out as being distinctive, differentiated, and leading the potential purchaser to engage because they are seeking the antidote to mass travel. They want niche. They want customized. They want different. So, we need to ask ourselves how we use marketing (in the hand, or online) to promote experiential tourism in ways that honour authenticity, or the desired end product or travel experience.
- If the retail sales marketing world is using “experiential marketing” as their new mantra, how will it affect consumers who are then faced with decisions about what kind of travel experience to purchase? If the retail sales experiential marketing approach conveys one particular approach and set of consumer expectations, will it spill over into travel and cause consumers to then be cynical about your travel products that you are marketing? Or, again, are consumers smart enough to read and discern for themselves as to your story, your authenticity, your tourism experience?
- For me, marketing my travel experiences is not about “the sale”. A sale is a result I want. However, I want some other things as well. I want “the right consumers, coming for the right reasons, for the right experiences”. I want to have them come because I want to offer them an opportunity for personal transformation (a personal Ahah), for a meaningful relationship with our company, to enjoy being here. It has to start with how I communicate with them, right from the very beginning – honestly, clearly, and with providing them with an opportunity to see themselves in “my story, which becomes their story”.
My personal perspective is that good marketing is about truly helping the customer to become informed and to make that step of giving up something that they value in exchange for something else that they value equally or more. Good marketing, in my view, should not be about just selling or developing “brand recognition”. Brand becomes good when the value proposition received is also good.
Marketing is something that all of us, as entrepreneurs, seek to do well. Hopefully, experiential marketing can evolve to help consumers see through the veiled promises of mass purchasing, to actually helping them to purchase something that has more resonance than being just a transaction of money for a good or a service. The pyschology of marketing needs to stay in step with the evolution of discriminating consumers who have become cynical about traditional marketing and sales.
Simply replacing traditional marketing with new-fangled ways of doing the same thing is likely to make me cynical. I am impressed when a company has figured me out and offered marketing that seeks to inform, educate, and,while hitting my emotional buttons, also helps me to articulate the depth of the value proposition. (That is, I like what they are saying and decide that it is valuable to me. Price becomes a secondary consideration.) This may not be what traditional retail sales marketing is about. But, it’s what I want.
Experiential marketing – hoax or real – hmmm
Celes Davar, Earth Rhythms, Inc.
