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“Marketing isn’t everything but everything is marketing” – Paul Schrage (Former CMO – McDonalds)

You may have noticed this quote on our website and we happen to agree with it a lot.

Experiential Marketing

Marketing can be present even without you noticing, ever wondered why Ikea have a children’s play centre at the front of the store and a cafe in the middle? It is all part of creating an ‘experience’, and we all know that visiting Ikea can be like a day out!

In marketing we call this ‘experiential marketing’ and it is used to make brands memorable. It is based on the five senses; taste, smell, touch, sight and hearing. Using the example of Ikea, you experience smell, touch and sight as you wander through the room sets and the cafe and food hall cater for your taste buds too!

By providing customers with an experience alongside your normal service or product, you are creating a memory for that person. Hopefully that memory is a positive one and they will then start to associate that happy memory with your business.

Certain brands work on the five senses within their stores for example if you have ever visited the popular retailer Hollister, they offer an engaging store environment different to most retailers on the high street. Firstly, the store environment is dark and dimly lit with surf boards and thatched umbrellas, then they provide the smell of Hollister where every store smells the same as they use their own fragrance. They play music that fits the beach theme. All of this is designed to stimulate your senses providing you with a memorable experience.

The best way for a brand to be remembered is to be associated with a key event in peoples’ minds. Let’s use the example of Wimbledon – picture yourself as an ice cream retailer handing out samples of your ice cream on a hot day at Wimbledon when people are relaxed and happy. Next time those people that tasted your ice cream taste it again, hopefully they will be transported back to that day at Wimbledon and will be in a ‘happy place’ every time they taste your product! Even better if it was day that Andy Murray won!

Think about which senses your business currently taps into. If you can engage all five then you are creating a stronger memory and relationship to your brand. If your brand was a smell what would it be? Similarly, if it was a taste would it be sweet or sour?

Using the example of Hollister again, their clothes revolve around beach and surf wear therefore the smell reflects that of salty, fruity, slightly woody smell – all the things that remind you of the beach, along with the visual prompts of surfboards and thatched roofs for you to touch. It provides you with the experience of being at the beach, and that is pretty much a universally positive experience!

If you need assistance tapping into the senses that your brand can evoke, then contact Bare Bones Marketing and we can help you create a positive association.

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