Essay on Give reasons why organizations should or should not adopt experiential marketing strategies, Debate and give examples.

There are various marketing strategies adopted by different organizations, and it is totally up to their choice and preference. One organization may see great potential in a marketing strategy, and the other may find it useless for them. One of the marketing strategies is called experiential marketing. In experiential marketing, the product or service is marketed through the relevant experiences which a consumer can get. This marketing technique is used to engage consumers in emotional feeling with the product or service so that they are ready to use it. It has been observed that many top companies and brands around the world have been using experiential marketing to market their products. “It was also proved that such a marketing strategy has been successful for many top brands, and many others should consider using it in their marketing campaign. It is the purpose of every business to get as much attention as possible so that they can attract more and more customers. So, it is advised to business organizations that they should use experiential marketing strategy because there are so many reasons to adopt this marketing method” (Goldstein, 2019)

It is important for organizations to understand that experiential marketing strategy can provide so many benefits to an organization, and each advantage can be great for their long term success. The first great reason to adopt experiential marketing is that traditional advertising methods are declining with the passage of time. The technology has changed so many things, and marketing is one of those things, which has been transformed by technological advances. The other great benefit of experiential marketing is that it gives organizations a psychological edge. It has been proved that when customers are engaged with the product, they resonate with it, and their chances of buying such products are increased. It has also been observed that when customers are engaged with a product, their loyalty can be increased. “An experiential marketing strategy is a great tool for branding because it can place your brand pretty nicely in the minds of the customers. If customers remember a certain brand, then they also talk about it with others, which is another great thing for its popularity in the market” (Smerd, 2019)

It has been seen over the years that when customers are engaged through experiential marketing, and when they become loyal, they actually become their brand ambassadors. That’s why they like to share the information and experiences with others, which may convince others to buy the product. McKinsey conducted a research study regarding the recommendations coming from word of mouth, and it was found out that 20-50 percent of purchase decisions made by the customers were based on recommendations through word of mouth. It shows the importance of experiential marketing that how great and beneficial it can be. There are many successful examples of brands that used experiential marketing and had great success. “One good example comes from Dulux, a paint brand. Dulux holds an event in different cities of the world throughout the year named as “Dulux Color Runs,” which engages so many people in a positive branding activity. This activity helps Dulux to get in top trends all around the world” (Goldstein, 2019)

The other great example of experiential marketing comes from the famous brand ‘Red Bull”. “The brand has always associated itself with the sports of extreme nature. One of the great branding activities of experiential nature was Red Bull Stratos. This event was arranged by Red Bull, where a man named Felix Baumgartner has to jump in a freefall style from the space and entering into the earth. This jump from the Felix Baumgartner was around ten minute’s time until he landed on the earth with a parachute. This was one of the activities, which was seen by millions of people all around the world, giving a great boost to the branding of Red Bull. Looking at these examples from the real world, and analyzing different advantages, it can be concluded that experiential marketing is certainly a viable strategy to consider, and it is recommended that organizations should use this strategy to boost their overall marketing strategy as it can help them to succeed in so many ways” (Elsey, 2019)

Our consumer insights really needed in advertising/marketing? Debate and give examples.

It is important for every organization to understand that target or potential customers are their main source of income and profits as they are the ones who buy products and generate sales. If customers are not responding to a company and its products, then there must be something wrong with the marketing strategy or products itself. For instance, if there is a company, which has produced a great product, which is also needed by the customers, but still, the company is not able to grab the attention of customers. There can be several reasons for this, and one reason could be the loopholes in the overall marketing strategy. It means that the company has a great product in hand, but they did not get the customer insights from the market, what kind of product is their requirement, and what kind of features they want to see in the product. A business idea can be wonderful, but if a company is not able to execute it with proper planning and marketing, then even a good idea can get failed. It shows how important marketing activity can be with regards to consumer insights.

It is critical for every organization to understand each and every perspective of consumer insight like what they actually are, and how they can make a considerable impact. A few decades ago, maybe it was easy for an organization to get consumer insights in its target market because things were not in too much variety. The organizations knew that a majority of the audience would watch TV during primetime, or they will read the famous local and national newspapers. But all of this has been changed with the essence of information technology, computer, laptops, the internet, and smartphones. Things have changed so much in the recent decade, and marketing patterns have changed. Now, even the variety in terms of TV channels and newspapers is huge, and almost all of them are also available online. So, it is hard for organizations to determine their potential and target consumers. “The demographics are changing, and decisions are getting difficult for organizations. It is important for the marketing research to conduct a detailed research about the target market and different dynamics of its audience so that they are targeted with the right channel as well as the right message. If consumer insights are not properly researched, then either marketing channel will be wrong, or a proper message may not be selected” (Klepic, 2014)

It is critical for organizations to understand that they can make a great marketing campaign, or they can make a good campaign. The difference between the two is that a good campaign with good enough consumer insights will do the job, but if the marketing campaign is great, and it has all the vital ingredients, then it can really change the whole game for a product, brand or company. The company should realize that knowing about the facts is not good enough for consumer insight. There must be some powerful insights so that a company can get what it wants to get from a certain product and marketing campaign. Consumer insights can easily be taken if a proper method is identified in the beginning. “One good example comes from McDonald’s that customers were demanding a breakfast menu from them for years. Various surveys and opinion polls have suggested that the majority of customers want to see breakfast provided by McDonald’s. It was an obvious consumer insight for McDonald’s that their customers wanted a breakfast menu, and it was obvious for McDonald’s to know that when they launch it, it will be successful. So, embracing this consumer insight, they finally came up with the all-day breakfast option, which grabbed good attention from the market” (LSB, 2019)

The companies should also realize that sometimes, consumer insights are not obvious, and they have to dig deep to get the perspective of their consumers. A good example in this regard is Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It’s a breakfast and cereal company for the kids, but there was an interesting consumer insight that even adults were using the product as they liked its taste and quality. This insight helped the company to know that even people like it at night time, so they focused on this thing to get more and more customers. “This is how the company was considered as the Late Night official cereal. Sometimes, the companies will have to do intense market research by surveys and other methods to get the views and perspectives of their customers, and when they get it, things can be easier for them to target their potential and target customers. So, companies should always look to use consumer insights” (LSB, 2019)

Is brand storytelling really necessary? Debate and give examples

The business organizations have to sell their products and services to humans, so they must keep one vital fact in mind that storytelling is something, which is strongly connected with humans as they like it and relate to other things with the help of storytelling. It is part of the human nature that they hear and tell stories and then relate themselves with those particular stories. That’s why storytelling is also an important thing for the marketing process, and marketing experts should understand this reality. A business can have a strong brand if there is a strong story to tell about the brand, how it was formed, and how it is relevant to people and society. There are various elements that are defined in the brand storytelling, like its inception, how it grew with the passage of time, and why it still exists. If a company can develop a great brand story, it can help them in so many ways. “One good example can be given for a shoe company named TOMS. Blake Mycoskie is the founder of the company, and in 2006, he was on a visit to Argentina. He saw so many children without shoes in the region and also witnessed the hardships of those children. Then he came with an idea to make a new company, which would help these children. So, TOMS was started, and it came with a slogan of “One for One,” which means that every pair of shoes, which would be bought at TOMS, it will mean that a new pair of shoes will be given to deserving children” (Wachtel, 2019)

This kind of story can convince the majority of people to buy shoes from TOMS because they can relate to some good work. They can feel that when they buy shoes from TOMS, they do help deserving children, who don’t have any shoes to wear. Keeping this example in view, it is crucial for a brand to know why brand storytelling is critical for them. The first major reason is that it can grab the attention of potential as well as target customers. If a brand story gets the attention of its customers, and if the story gets in the top trends of social media, then no one can stop such a brand from getting success. It happens like this because stories are better in selling anything, rather than just selling something without any considerable story. “A brand with some interesting story will always force people to purchase the products, especially when a story is related to help others in society. It is a fact that competitive advantage is crucial for every company, so great thing about brand storytelling is that it differentiates one brand from the other, which means that a brand with a great story can stay ahead in the competition. If consumers are part of the story, they can relate to it, which makes them more loyal” (Wachtel, 2019)

There are various other reasons, which prove that brand storytelling is essential. It is a fact that if we talk about one product, we can have hundreds of brands for one product. So, the question is how a brand will stand out, and the answer is if it has a great story to tell its consumers. In a particular market with so much sameness, it is vital for the companies to become unforgettable. “Moreover, storytelling will not only connect a company with its consumers, but it can help to build a considerable tribe, which has people with the same thinking approach, sharing their idea and beliefs. So, it not only profits a company, but it also profits humans, because they can relate to each other with the help of brand storytelling” (Costa, 2019). Keeping these benefits in mind, it is critical for a brand to understand how a story of a brand should be told, and which elements should be included in the story. “A company should integrate a great message about its brand and how it was developed to achieve some purposes. When brand storytelling would be strong, it would certainly produce great results for a brand in so many ways” (Bozeman, 2019)

References of organizations

Bozeman, R., 2019. What Is Brand Storytelling and Why Does it Matter?. [Online]
Available at: https://kapost.com/b/why-does-brand-storytelling-matter/
[Accessed 5 November, 2019].

Costa, C. D., 2019. 3 Reasons Why Brand Storytelling Is The Future Of Marketing. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/celinnedacosta/2019/01/31/3-reasons-why-brand-storytelling-is-the-future-of-marketing/#3a2b4a6e55ff
[Accessed 5 November 2019].

Elsey, W., 2019. Experiential Marketing: Strategies For Beginners. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/2019/09/09/experiential-marketing-strategies-for-beginners/#6783f4257771
[Accessed 5 November 2019].

Goldstein, C., 2019. What Is Experiential Marketing? 5 Examples That Worked. [Online]
Available at: https://www.fundera.com/blog/experiential-marketing
[Accessed 5 November 2019].

Klepac, J., 2014. What Are Consumer Insights and How Do They Impact Marketing Effectiveness?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-are-consumer-insight_b_5906624
[Accessed 5 November, 2019].

LSB, 2019. Consumer Insight: The Key to Unlocking More Awesome in Your Marketing. [Online]
Available at: https://www.lsb.com/blog/consumer-insight/
[Accessed 5 November, 2019].

Smerd, J., 2019. 8 Reasons Why Experiential Marketing Has An Advantage Over Traditional Methods. [Online]
Available at: https://eventeem.co.uk/experiential-rigged-game/
[Accessed 5 November, 2019].

Wachtel, T., 2019. Brand Storytelling Isn’t Just Important; It’s Absolutely Critical. [Online]
Available at: https://elementthree.com/blog/why-brand-storytelling-is-absolutely-critical/
[Accessed 5 November, 2019].