In the current post-pandemic and digitized market, businesses of all sizes and their marketing executives must move away from outdated traditional marketing strategies. Instead, they must adopt a new business mindset focused on experience marketing that prioritizes the human element. This approach involves engaging customers across various physical and digital platforms to drive growth, increase revenue, and create a durable competitive advantage.
Embrace the Human-Centered Marketing Era and Say Goodbye to Product-Centred Marketing.
Because copyright matters. How to cite this article: American Institute of Business Experience Design (2023). What experience (or experiential) marketing is, and what's not? Retrieved [date you accessed the article], from [copy and paste the URL of the article page].
Many marketing professionals, business blogs, and magazines tend to confuse experience marketing with digital and technological aspects, which are certainly a part of it but not the core foundation. In fact, experience marketing is defined by a broader strategic framework that cannot be limited to a "what is digital marketing" definition.
Unfortunately, words like online sales, content marketing, and conversion marketing often lead businesses to believe that acquiring a digital platform or software is the key to enhancing customer engagement and increasing sales, under the assumption that they are improving customer experience. However, this is a narrow vision that only focuses on the operational aspect of digital marketing for sales, preventing businesses from capturing the transformative power of experience marketing as a global strategy that can enhance their brand value and make their offerings stand out. Experience marketing also creates a sustainable competitive advantage that can help businesses thrive in a highly saturated market.
So, what is the key to unlocking the true potential of experience marketing? To answer this question, it is important to first understand what experience (or experiential) marketing entails and what sets it apart from traditional marketing. This includes knowing which terms to use and what the primary focus of an experience marketing strategy should be. Therefore, before delving into how to unlock the true potential of experience marketing, it is essential to have a clear understanding of these foundational elements.
To help you get started, this article will provide:
Which is correct: experience marketing or experiential marketing?
To understand experience marketing, we must first clarify whether we should refer to it as 'experiential' marketing or 'experience' marketing. If you are unsure which term to use, don't worry - both are acceptable. However, you should consider two factors before deciding which one to use: 1) the audiences you are addressing and 2) the regional market you are operating in.
To help you navigate this topic, we conducted a thorough analysis using Google Trends. Our analysis involved comparing the usage of "experience marketing" and "experiential marketing" in the United States and worldwide over the last five years. The results we obtained from this analysis were quite illuminating and can provide you with a comprehensive overview of the experience marketing realm. We generated the Google Trends graphics based on two aspects that we selected, namely the Web Search category and the Region, which included both the U.S. market and worldwide.
Experience Marketing vs. Experiential Marketing - Google Trends Worldwide (Past 5 Years)
Experience Marketing vs. Experiential Marketing - Google Trends in the U.S. (Past 5 Years)
Despite the increase in usage of both "experience marketing" and "experiential marketing," it appears that the former, "experience marketing" is more commonly used. However, it is important to note that the popularity of the term does not necessarily make it the best choice for your specific situation. When deciding between the two, it is important to take into account a variety of factors such as your industry, target audience, cultural norms, and goals. This decision applies to all aspects of experience marketing, including strategy, operations, conferences, consulting, keynotes, lectures, course programs, books, blogs, online and print magazines, business media, and other related projects.
Nevertheless, when deciding between "experiential" and "experience" marketing, it's important to consider various factors beyond Google Trends search results. Although it may be tempting to follow what's trending, real-world business practices and your target audience's interests and behaviors should also be taken into account.
According to Dr. Wided Batat, a global authority in marketing and the founder of Modern Experiential Marketing, it's recommended to use the term experiential marketing instead of experience marketing. In her best-selling book Experiential Marketing, Dr. Batat offers a critical perspective on marketing practice and education and sets up the ground for a new era of experiential marketing for both industry and business academia. Dr. Batat emphasizes the importance of providing a scientifically grounded and practical definition of experiential marketing. She believes that the next big shift in both industry and academia is towards a more experiential perspective on marketing.
For this shift to happen, companies and business academia must embrace the new Experiential Marketing Mix (7Es) strategic framework, which represents the next big step in marketing. But with so many buzzwords and phrases floating around, it can be tough to know which ones to use. That's why we reached out to some of the top marketing academics, including Dr. Batat, the founder of modern experiential marketing, to get their take on the matter.
"Both experiential marketing and experience marketing are correct terms to use, but they may have slightly different connotations depending on the audience. While experience marketing is more commonly used in the industry and among the general public, experiential marketing is the preferred term in academia, particularly in research and teaching activities by most business and marketing academics in business schools." – Dr. Wided Batat, Founder of the Modern Experiential Marketing
So whether you're a marketer looking to appeal to a wider audience or an academic seeking to conduct research on the topic, it's important to understand the nuances of these terms and how they're used in different contexts. By doing so, you can ensure that your message is clear, effective, and resonates with your intended audience.
Here's our advice: If you're engaging with academics or your business operates in an academic setting, consider using the term "experiential marketing." It carries a more familiar and expert tone for academic audiences. Alternatively, if you work as a consultant, practitioner, or interact with diverse businesses, we recommend using "experience marketing" or "experience marketing plan." These options are less formal and more suitable for non-academic audiences.
Why a narrow understanding of experience marketing can hurt businesses?
Experience marketing has become a popular topic in recent times, and with good reason. However, there is a lot of misinformation surrounding the concept, leading many to misunderstand its true nature. Some people believe that experience marketing is solely about digital and technology, or that it is just another term for event marketing. However, this is not the case. Experience marketing is a comprehensive framework that extends beyond online sales, event marketing, content marketing, and conversion marketing. It is a strategy that can help businesses of all sizes and brands across various industries stand out and create a sustainable competitive advantage.
The actual definition of experience marketing is often too narrow, limited to the acquisition of a digital platform or software as the ultimate solution to enhance customer experience and increase sales. This limited vision only focuses on the operational aspect of digital sales and content marketing, failing to capture the transformative power of experience marketing as a global strategy for creating value along with a durable competitive advantage. Experience marketing is not just about digital and technology, but about creating a memorable customer experience that sets your business apart.
Before we dive into what it actually is, it's essential to first understand what it is not. So, let's break it down and clear any misconceptions about this term.
What experience marketing is not
Experience marketing is not easily definable as it has been associated with various concepts and elements by marketing academics and professionals alike. However, it is important to understand what experience marketing is not in order to grasp its true meaning.
Firstly, experience marketing is not operational in nature and does not solely revolve around concepts and elements related to customer retention or digital marketing.
Secondly, experience marketing is not limited to traditional marketing forms such as tourism marketing, which focuses on highly experiential consumption fields like attraction parks.
It is also important to note that experience marketing is not digital marketing or one of the marketing implementation techniques like customer relationship management (CRM). While it may be easier to refer to experience marketing strategy using these marketing forms, tools, and techniques, this approach is narrow and fails to capture the true essence of experience marketing.
It is essential to have a clear understanding of what experience marketing is not in order to avoid confusion and frustration when implementing it as a corporate global business strategy applied to multiple fields, including less experiential and mundane fields as well as digital platforms.
Recent scientific research has shown that even for traditional marketing, most companies both small and large, business media magazines, and even CMOs and marketing executives, do not have a clear definition of what traditional marketing, so how about a new strategic framework for experience marketing? That's why, it is crucial to define experience marketing and its scope before implementing it.
How can a narrow implementation of experience marketing impact a business's success and growth?
As businesses continue to prioritize customer experience, experience marketing has emerged as a critical tool for fostering brand loyalty and driving revenue growth. However, a common pitfall in this area is the narrow understanding of experience marketing, which limits its scope to the operational aspect of business.
This myopic approach can result in companies investing in inadequate digital devices or strategies, leading to high costs and eventual failure. To avoid this, businesses must look beyond events, digital platforms, sales, and operations when it comes to customer experience. Instead, they need to engage in a global business transformation that effectively involves various organizational functions and actors.
By taking this approach, businesses can shift their focus towards an ROI-driven experience marketing strategy that sets their brand apart from the competition while connecting them with their audiences both online and offline. Ultimately, effective experience marketing requires a holistic approach that transcends the operational aspects of business and encompasses the organization as a whole.
Tips to avoid confusion and better understand which experience marketing is being referred to
Many marketing professionals, digital marketers, and companies are still unsure about what experience marketing entails, how it should be implemented effectively, at which level, and what to expect from it. To overcome this confusion and empower yourself, it's essential to have a clear understanding of what experience marketing is and isn't. Here's a valuable tip for you if you're a business owner, marketer, or customer experience professional.
At the American Institute of Business Experience Design, we've developed a practical approach that is creative, grounded in science, and focused on achieving results. Our experience marketing strategic framework has been tested with client, ranging from leading companies and Fortune 500s to startups, institutions, and solopreneurs. By implementing our approach, our clients have been able to develop effective and ROI-driven experience marketing strategies.
We receive numerous requests from leading brands and businesses of all sizes and sectors to assist them in implementing experience marketing strategies for various purposes. These include increasing sales, transforming prospects into customers, improving customer experience, and engaging online users across different digital platforms.
However, when our AIBXD Consulting Division experts ask the clients what they mean by experience marketing strategy and what their expectations are, they often struggle to provide an accurate answer. This makes it challenging for our team to deliver the desired results, and that's why we always start with the question - What is experience marketing for you?
We believe that this simple yet crucial question helps prevent any miscommunication and aligns the client's expectations with our expertise and practice of experience marketing. Since experience marketing can mean different things to different clients. While some of our clients refer to it as event marketing, others see it as a form of digital marketing that includes various tactics such as Internet marketing, search engine marketing, online sales, CRM, content marketing, social media marketing, etc.
Here's our advice: To propose the right experience marketing strategy, you need to understand the client's perception of what experience marketing is. This will help you explore and deeply examine the problem at hand and suggest the best approach, which could be a combination of different marketing implementations. However, what businesses commonly refer to as experience marketing is only the tip of the iceberg. To create a successful experience marketing strategy, you must delve deeper and understand the hidden and invisible components of what we call the Experience Marketing Iceberg.
What exactly is experience marketing?
Universal Marketing Dictionary defines experience marketing as, "a marketing approach that directly engages consumers and invites and encourages them to participate in a branded experience."
This definition is different from traditional or digital marketing, as it focuses on creating branded experiences that are themed and designed to attract customers. The Starbucks experience is a good example of this approach. However, the current definition of experience marketing is too vague and generic. It fails to capture the different levels, types, systems, and dimensions of its strategic, corporate, and operational implementation. As a result, there is a need for a more comprehensive definition that considers experience marketing as a global business strategy, rather than just a mere manifestation of it.
Experience marketing an "octopus concept," with each of its arms representing a different branch, reaching and engaging the audience from every angle.
Experience marketing is a complex and multi-faceted concept that can be likened to an octopus, with each of its arms representing a different branch. This integrative ecosystem features various levels, layers, dimensions, and market players, both direct and indirect, as depicted in the experience marketing iceberg.
At the heart of experience marketing is the people-first approach, which prioritizes the needs of all stakeholders, including online users, consumers, employees, partners, suppliers, etc. Adopting such a mindset can help businesses solve complex problems, drive innovation, disrupt their industry, and create a positive impact. To achieve this, companies must place the human element at the center of their global corporate strategy, anticipate and capture future trends, and share their values with their audiences.
It is crucial to understand that experience marketing goes beyond operations such as digital marketing or sales. Instead, it is a comprehensive strategy that involves rethinking and defining a company's uniqueness while disrupting the actual reality of their market. By embracing experience marketing, businesses can generate positive change, enhance innovation, and create a unique value proposition for their customers.
After thorough consideration of both scientific and business perspectives, we have formulated a comprehensive definition for experience marketing as:
"A holistic corporate operating system comprises of four critical systems that cover multiple layers ranging from analytics experience marketing and strategic experience marketing to creative experience marketing and operation experience marketing. Together, these systems help companies embrace a human-centered business mindset that puts people first, be it customers, employees, suppliers, or stakeholders. Experience marketing helps create outstanding experiences, engage audiences across physical and digital channels, improve productivity, drive revenue, enhance innovation, and generate a positive impact, thereby creating a sustainable competitive advantage." – © American Institute of Business Experience Design, 2023.
Here's our advice: If you hear someone discussing experience or experiential marketing and they refer to digital marketing, sales, branding, or event marketing, know that experience marketing is much more than that. It encompasses the company's corporate operating system and its four levels of analytics, strategy, creativity, and operation. For more information on this topic, please read our related post on the Experience Marketing Corporate Strategy.
Getting started with experience marketing
Undoubtedly, research has shown that experience marketing is the next big thing that all businesses should embrace. By acquiring knowledge and skills for effective decision-making, companies can drive growth and implement a human-centered business model that allows for an effective and ROI-driven corporate strategy at all levels. This approach delivers engaging experiences that customers want, helps your brand stand out, connects with audiences across physical and digital platforms, and creates a sustainable competitive advantage while also making a positive impact on society and the environment.
Experience marketing is a powerful approach that places the human element at the center of a company's strategic framework. It covers all aspects and functions of a business, including HR, R&D, design, finance, management, and more, while also accounting for the various actors involved in the business experience, such as B2B customers, end consumers, employees, suppliers, and partners. This flexibility allows experience marketing to adapt and evolve over time to meet the changing needs of companies and marketers, making it an essential strategic framework for the future..
To ensure the success of your upcoming experience marketing campaign, it's important to have a clear understanding of what experience marketing entails. This will allow you and your team to define your offer, brand, digital service, platform, or product from every perspective and level. Once you have a clear definition, you can use the 7Es of the experiential marketing mix to create a comprehensive corporate experience marketing strategy that will help you achieve your goals. For more insights into business experience strategy, design, marketing, and management, be sure to sign up for AIBXD Strawberry Experience Blog. With daily updates, you'll get all the juicy insights you need to succeed.
Whenever you're ready to get started, we invite you to explore our range of exclusive, certified course programs. Our programs are designed by top-tier experts from industry and academia to equip you with all the necessary tools and strategies to implement successful and cost-effective experience strategies that drive ROI and business growth. Join our elite global community of business experience experts and start your journey towards transforming your business today.
AIBXD offers comprehensive course programs on business experience design, strategy, and management that cater to all levels and profiles. Our portfolio includes our flagship executive education programs for CMO, CXO, creative designers, and all C-level executives. We also offer diploma programs for entrepreneurs and project/product managers, as well as online course certificates. If you are unsure which program would be the best fit for you, try our fun and easy-to-use AIBXD Course Recommender™. By answering just five quick questions, you can get a personalized course recommendation immediately.
If you're tired of wasting money, resources, and energy on traditional marketing techniques, we can help. Our AIBXD consulting and market research services can assist businesses in starting the experience and phygital transformation. Feel free to check them out and see how we can help you optimize your marketing strategy.
Cite this article as: American Institute of Business Experience Design (2023). What experience (or experiential) marketing is, and what's not? Retrieved [date you accessed the article], from [copy and paste the URL of the article page].