Daily Times

A new day comprises of a new invention or an idea which has made the upcoming unpredictable. As life has evolved over the years, so has marketing. Basically, marketing is a process of generating or identifying a need and then fulfilling it, but the problem is that every business does marketing, from a local vendor on the street of Raja Bazar who sells corn, to a Giant brand in a big mall who sells premium watches but still most of the businesses fail because they are not able to attract the consumers to buy what they are offering.

Lots of businesses have waved the white flag because of the intense competition that they face in market. With increased competitors, Businesses have to evolve to compete, and one way to do that is by experiential marketing. Talking in the context of Pakistan, we have seen few brands which include experiential marketing but it is definitely not common. Experiential marketing is not just about showing the audience what the company is offering but what it stands for by interacting or engaging with them and creating a real-life experience which can be remembered. Because in contemporary world, it is tough to attract the consumers just by advertising, but having an emotional connection or interaction with the target audience is necessary so that you can know about their needs or you can engage with them in real world.

Now the real question is about the application of experiential marketing; how can you engage with the consumers or create synergy with them, which can be done through setting a small stage in a big event, or by doing some activity in the public so you can attract more market and giving them experience which can be remembered.

A real example of experiential marketing in the context of Pakistan is the launch of CAMEL cigarettes, As we know that it is not allowed to advertise tobacco products in Pakistan, They started using experiential marketing to attract more customers. The company started surveying individuals to see how many of the people do smoke and afterwards gave the potential customers experience of virtual reality in which the potential customers experienced the images of Egypt, the sight of Burj Khalifa so that they could remember it, later on the product failed in Pakistan but the experiential marketing strategy they used at that time is still considered pretty amazing.

Secondly a new product has been launched in Pakistan named VELO, which sells nicotine patches. As they survey around and select their potential customers, VELO gives the potential customers a chance to go to VELO Sound Station as an audience to create a memory so that they can never forget this experience, so it is very much feasible to say that Experiential marketing is the path to create a long-term relationship with the customers. Coca-Cola did some experiential marketing as well in the previous cricket world cup, in which they installed some screens in Lahore and Delhi through which Indians and Pakistanis could talk to each other on a video call and share their memories of previous world cups or predict the winner of the upcoming matches.

Successful brands do experiential marketing as well to retain their customers so that if tomorrow a new competitor enters into the market, it would be impossible for him to compete with the existing brand.

Experiential marketing has always proven to be giving a competitive edge to a brand or a product.

Experiential marketing is way more important than some brands consider it to be, as we know the number of savvy customers are increasing day by day or we can say that most of the customers study a product before purchasing it and recognize its pros and cons, so as time goes by, it would be or it still is difficult for brands to create new customers or retain the existing customers because of the number of choices available to them, no matter how big your brand is, how much competitive edge you have over your competitors, every product you offer consists of some weaknesses that another product wouldn’t have, so marketing is necessary to always keep your brand in the mind of customers, advertising might be one way of doing that but a very few number of individuals might remember your most attractive advertisement, but giving them some sort of experience related to your brand or product will increase the certainty of the customer remembering it in the long-term.

Experiential marketing can be done on a small scale as well for the new businesses that have low marketing budget, you can target your efforts to small number of people or give them some sort of experience to remember you by and hope that they will spread the message to a greater number of audience, Which will be cost effective and attract more customers through word of mouth. The reason why experiential marketing would be a perfect fit by Brands to apply is because it comprises of a gap which is yet to be fulfilled in the Pakistani Market, as very small number of brands have applied it. What we know is that businesses in Pakistan have the capability to apply it through which they can create a huge competitive edge over their competitors and we hope to see more of the application of experiential marketing in Pakistan.