Experiential marketing at MakeIT!24: feel the brand!

Experiential, emotional, sensory marketing…

Since experiential marketing aims to establish a deep connection by creating unique moments, the question becomes “how do you create a memorable experience?” The answer is not unequivocal, in fact there are different types of experience that can generate a particular impact on those who experience it, not to mention that we are not only talking about experiences to be lived in presence, but also through digital components.

Under experiential marketing then, according to Bernd H. Schmitt who theorised it in 1999, we find 5 different modes of experience that engage the person:

• Sense (sense): these are experiences that involve the senses
• Feel (sentiment): an experience involving feelings and emotions
• Think (thought): cognitive experience, which addresses the intellect and problem solving skills
• Act ( action): experiences that require physicality on the part of the user
• Relate: experiences generated by interactions and relationships with others

A Coca Cola campaign that focuses on ‘Relate’, inviting the public to share the drink in a moment of relaxation.

Why focus on an experiential marketing strategy

Short answer: because it is effective.

Long answer: because the needs that lead the consumer to choose a product, and the product of one brand over another, are not only on a rational level, but also – and above all – on an emotional level. And because marketing strategies that focus on the experience, whatever the mode of involvement, make the consumer an active subject in the customer journey, a subject who, at the moment he interacts, has already begun to invest more or less consciously in the brand.

The role of the senses in experiential marketing

Now, if you are wondering how the five senses also play a key role in consumer buying behaviour, it is quickly said. Even if the sensory experience does not imply a particular effort in terms of investment by people, it is undeniable how a visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory and olfactory ‘sense experience’ can awaken deep emotions and dormant memories. A shining literary example of this is Proust’s madeleines, while in more recent times (and with less lyricism) this is confirmed by the scent of bread ‘shot’ in and out of some supermarket chains, at all hours (and they do not churn out loaves of bread 24 hours a day).

Will it be true?

MakeIT!24 – Feel the Brand

How the senses are a gateway to get into people’s innermost pockets and bring them closer to their brand was also the theme at MakeIT!24 – Feel the Brand, theMARKETERs Club‘s annual event that invites brands to reveal the secrets behind a company’s success.

This edition featured names of the calibre of Tonino Lamborghini, Barilla and Pavesi and their successful experiential marketing strategies: here they are!

Barilla and the in-store experience

In the FMCG sector, most products have a very short lifecycle and consumers are often not brand loyal. This is confirmed by the fact that alarge part of the decisions on what to buy are made in-store. Pierpaolo Susani, Global Vice President Shopper & Customer Marketing at Barilla group, unveiled some of the strategies implemented by the group’s brands: from the positioning of products on shelves to stimulatesight, tofree tastingexperiences to stimulate taste, to in-store sound announcements, these are all experiential marketing strategies that engage consumers’ senses at the point of choice.

The packaging you don’t expect: Gocciole

What about Gocciole? Gaia Bergamasco, Digital Marketing Specialist at Pavesi, told about the multi-channel campaign #SvoltaConGocciole, designed to involve customers not only on a virtual level but also on a ‘physical’ one, with a spot and packaging literally turned upside down (the limited edition pack has all the graphic elements of the package upside down) to unequivocally communicate how the taste of the famous biscuit can turn the day around… for the better, of course.

Brand extension for diversified experiences

At Tonino Lamborghini, experiential marketing also involvesbrand extension: at MakeIT24! Marco Lorenzo, Marketing & Communication Manager at the company, described how this strategy – which has led to the creation of lines of luxury beverages, lifestyle essentials (accessories such as watches, glasses, etc.) and total living (furnishings and interior finishes) – allows the brand not only to reach new segments of the public, but also to effectively convey the concept of ‘luxury as an attitude’.