How to Know if Your Brand Needs Experiential Marketing

Are you searching for a way to connect with your audience on a deeper level?  On a high level, that’s what experiential marketing is all about.  It’s about creating an experience with someone who will have an emotional connection with your brand/product.  The question lies is how do you know if you need this type of marketing? A bigger question might be, do you have a product or service that can marketed with experiential marketing.

Watch one of the best experiential marketing campaign's by Tim Horton's.

Tim Horton was able to create an experience for his customers that they would never forget.  Walking them through a dark room, giving them a cup of coffee and allowing the customer to drink it before realizing what it was enable the customer to have a lasting connection with the product.  All sorts of emotions are connected with this experience, and that’s when experiential marketing is at it’s best.

So, does your brand need experiential marketing?

I think the question is a little more simple than that. Would you like to connect with your customer base in a way that can affects them for the rest of their lives?  Maybe it’s not so dramatic, but if you’re looking to engage with your customer base in a positive way and leave a lasting impression then experiential marketing may just do the trick.

Not only can your brand have a direct and emotional connection with your customers, but it’s likely your experiment will gather some buzz if done well.  Others searching for that type of connection may come flocking for the experience they’ve heard about.

Now how can you go about planning an experiential campaign?  

How do you know where to start?  It seems so simple to launch a dark roast cup of coffee by making the entire store black, but what about your product? Maybe you can leverage an upcoming tradeshow or event to connect with potential customers, afterall there are many people walking the show floor looking for something to catch their eye.  Here’s another favorite of mine, maybe this can spark some marketing genius.

You can see the look on the winner’s faces after they’ve realized the challenge has been completed.  Now I’m not suggesting to make your potential customer go on a wild good chase as a secret agent, but think about using the space available to you to connect with your customer.  A trade show is just one examples of a location you could leverage for experiential marketing.

Has your company leveraged experiential marketing before?  What are your favorite examples?