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TopExperiential Marketing
The concept of experiential marketing was put forward as a new marketing strategy in our modern world where marketing strategies become insufficient because of the developments in knowledge and communication technologies and increasing competitiveness. Experiential marketing approach of companies to offer consumers the products and / or services that they provide is based on experiences and sharing these experiences its surroundings (URL3).
In the studies aiming at consumer behavior value is usually directed to the products or services (food, beverages, automotive etc.) which show utilitarian function based on objective features (calori, litre per km etc.). On the other hand, symbolic meanings of more subjective features (joy, sociability, grace) are handled from the point of experiential approach (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982:134).
Pine and Gilmore (1999) explain the experiential marketing with the following quotation: “when someone buys a service, they also buy a number of abstract activities that come with the product.” It is claimed that consumer does not only buy the product but s/he also buys the utilities the product provides and this situation represents the experiential marketing. (URL4).
As a result of the increase in competitiveness in the market, companies started to develop and alter their marketing strategies. Seen as the innovation of the marketing, experiential marketing reveals the features of the products consumers like. Experiential marketing aims at highlighting the experience provided by the product or the service rather than highlighting the product or the service itself. It also aims at making the brands one of the experiences of daily life by means of certain senses (URL5).
Certain means aiming at these purposes are used in the process of experiential marketing. Sales points where brands directly communicate with the customer, efficiency and marketing elements, social networks grounded on sincerity and transparency through new technological facilities are among these means (URL6).