PART II ‐ PLANNING EXPERIENTIAL BRANDING
13 E XPERIENTIAL COMPOSITION
13.4 Experience types ‐ the five Strategic Experiential Modules
environment, where the staging company is in control of both the consumption situation and the stimuli surrounding it. This control should enable the company to design consumption situations with
“feel elements” relevant to the desired brand image in relation to the event content in order to elicit strong positive emotions in the minds of the consumer hence forming brand feelings in the CBBE model.
Following this, the incorporation of Feel elements pertaining to the consumption situation at events, would be essential for companies with objectives in terms of altering or reinforcing value
associations in the consumption situation of their brand. An example of an event with a strong feel element can be seen in Carlsberg’s staging of barbecue events during the summer of 2007 and 2008.
This enabled Carlsberg to be in control of the stimuli pertaining to a central consumption situation for their Carlsberg Pilsner brand. In relation to the Carlsberg Vores Cup case described in chapter 17 we conducted an interview with a representative from Carlsberg who stated that the venture into barbecue events was in the attempt to maintain this consumption situation, in which wine had become more and more popular over the last couple of years.
13.4.2 Think
According to Schmitt (1999) the objective of “think marketing” is to “encourage customers to engage in elaborative and creative thinking that may result in a reevaluation of the company and products.”
Schmitt(1999) pp. 138 Appealing to customers’ creative thinking by communicating messages that makes the consumer think ensures a mental interaction between brand and consumer. In order to achieve the sought effect Schmitt argues that it is important to keep in mind to whom the
communication is directed, in which context it is done and further, to consider whether to induce convergent – or divergent thinking. (Schmitt 1999)
Convergent thinking is mostly related to well defined and rational problems and is characterized as an operation where e.g. analytical reasoning, a probabilistic approach or simple heuristics is
narrowing the thinking into a solution to the problem. (Schmitt 1999) This approach actively engages the consumer as he/she, based on impressions, is evaluating alternatives to come up with a solution.
As all this should relate to the brand, convergent thinking forces participants to make evaluations of the brand through a process designed by the company.
Schmitt argues that inducing convergent thinking requires a specific list of issues and clear/well established settings (Schmitt 1999).
Contrary, divergent thinking is an “open” way of thinking that increases the width of focus. Schmitt writes that for instance, “Divergent thinking occurs in brainstorming sessions in which participants are instructed to think freely and asked to abstain from any evaluation.” Schmitt(1999) pp. 145.
Stimulating divergent thinking at events allows the consumers to think freely and creatively in relation to the brand allowing them to form their own associations. Further Schmitt states that divergent thinking requires prior knowledge on the subject or brand and hence he recommends not to encourage this unless the consumers possess such knowledge (Schmitt 1999).
When induced, this process likewise forces the consumer to evaluate the brand in relation to the event content, but opposed to convergent thinking, the participant “freely” forms associations thorough an unstructured process.
Schmitt argues that inducing convergent thinking requires more abstract issues and more diffused/free settings (Schmitt 1999).
Including “think‐elements” in experiential branding campaigns initially requires an evaluation of whether to induce convergent or divergent thinking i.e. present a problem with either a structured or unstructured solving process. Convergent thinking could be argued to most efficient in tailoring brand judgments and feelings for brands with a brand image not fully established in the target group, whereas divergent thinking could be most efficient in broadening an already well established brand image with an “brand‐ expert” target group. In either case, the inclusion of think elements relating to an event content, forces the participants to actively couple the brand with the event content world in a problem solving situation which (if properly executed) would build brand equity through the eliciting brand judgments and feelings in the CBBE model.
Including think‐elements in events would be a viable option when the assoc
13.4.3 Act
Where “think” elements in experiential branding campaigns engage the participant through mental interaction, “ act” marketing campaigns should create customer experiences through physical interaction.
Schmitt (1999) describes “act” marketing strategies as a way to create customer experiences that are related to the physical body, patterns of behavior or are occurring as results of interaction with other people. Schmitt (1999) underlines how the body is an important source for the act experience since it
“produces” sensations and perceptions from the surroundings. His arguments are related to
advertisements in traditional media and how these should present “act” situations with the purpose of inducing associations to the “act” experience in the minds of the consumers. As an example, Schmitt presents the Gillette Mach 3 commercial where a fighter jet is accelerating from mach one through mach 2 and at mach 3 it transforms into a razor flying into the hand of a man standing in his bathroom about to shave and provides him with an easy, fast and smooth shave. The stimuli from
the high tech presentation along with the high speed smooth razor and the man shaving with it should form association to this high speed and power in the minds of the consumers so that when they shop for a new razor or when they “act” themselves they get some of the experience presented in the commercial (Schmitt 1999). Again, our argumentation for the decreasing effectiveness of traditional advertisement weakens the argument in terms of the execution.
The properties of “act” experiences can like the other SEMs be enhanced through the multi‐sensory active engagement of real lived experiences. Instead of merely showing the target group a
representation of the experience (e.g. that of high‐tech and speed for Mach‐3), the company can place participants physically in it, whereby they can internalize the “act” directly.
Schmitt (1999) presents a curious aspect of “act” experiences relating to motor action and body signals. In this regards, Schmitt describes motor actions as non verbal behavior that infers attitudes without a person being consciously aware of it. An example of this is nodding of the head. Schmitt (1999) reports of studies showing that if people nod while they are exposed to stimuli their
evaluation of these stimuli is more positive compared to the situation where they shake their heads while processing the stimuli.
Schmitt argues that these techniques not only work if people themselves are doing the acting but that they also work if they see them performed in a social interaction like sales situations or TV commercials hence enabling the use of nonverbal cues to affect the attitude of the consumer (Schmitt 1999). Until empirically proven we question the validity of the last statement, however, inducing participants at real lived experiences to show positively related motor actions or body signals (e.g. head nodding, smiling, clapping etc) could raise the level of positive evaluation of the experience. Naturally we do not argue that events should be centered on rendering motor actions and body signals with participants, the tactics should merely be seen as a supplement or curiosity.
13.4.4 Relate marketing
The last of the strategic experience modules presented by Schmitt (1999) is “Relate”. “Relate marketing expands beyond the individual’s private sensations, feelings, cognitions, and actions by relating the individual self to the broader social and cultural context” Schmitt (1999) pp.171. Relate marketing is about utilizing marketing as a means for connecting people or groups of people to induce social experiences that make the individual relate to other individuals, groups, and cultures through the brand. This will often be induced using sense, feel, think, and act marketing. (Schmitt 1999)
Schmitt categorizes three states of social influence related to marketing experiences “actual presence”, “imagined presence”, and “implicit presence”.
Actual presence occurs in face‐to‐face and other personal encounters such as phone and email which creates the most direct relation.
Through imagined presence consumers seek to induce or change their relation to a group by purchasing a certain brand and through implicit presence the customer relates more routinely and often subconsciously – more indirect forms of social influence that will result in less direct relations.
The fact that people relate to others (or groups) is motivated by a need for categorization and a search of meaning which forms the basis for an approval/confirmation of the actions of people.
(Schmitt 1999)
Schmitt suggests celebrity endorsements as a strong way for brands to induce relations between their brand and the individuals of target group. This is useful for relating to certain groups of
individuals since companies through the use of celebrity endorsers are able to target individuals with specific “relate” needs. This is the case as the values associated to the endorser are transferred to the brand and hence attracts the consumers to the brand because of positive associations to the endorser(Belch and Belch 2007; Schmitt 1999). Apart from celebrity endorsements Schmitt (1999) describes how brand communities are excellent examples of social relations between a brand and consumers.
In relation to experiential branding, “relate” elements will be a natural part of campaigns, as individuals at any event will be relating to the other individuals who are present. These natural existing elements could be complemented by Schmitt’s proposals of celebrity endorsement and community creation.
Having a celebrity endorser present at events, for participants to experience him/her up close in real life could be an option. In this case the staging company should again ensure an authentic fit
between the endorser and the event content world in the minds of the target group, since the values associated with the endorser must match those of the event to “make sense” (c.f. the discussion of authenticity in chapter 10).
Creating online communities relating to the event content, through which participants can be part of a larger group of likeminded individuals could present an opportunity for the company to make a long term tie between the brand and the event content, while also presenting an opportunity for promoting future events. In the case that online communities already exist, the company may choose to engage in the debate within these communities or sponsor these.
Figure 14.1 – The framework for event content