Brand Experience

Picture 1: Brand Experience

Source from: http://fuelbranding.com/what-we-do/wwd-authentic-brand-experience.html

Brand experience is a marketing terms, which describe the potential consumers towards the feeling and impression of the brand. Brand experience can be the invisible long-term assets for a company because the impression of brand from potential consumer can affect to customer behaviour and the profit of the company. Picture 1 showed that there are six important area which can create the brand experience. Brand experience are mostly related to advertising and marketing. However, in some kind of marketing events or advertising, company should remember not to attempt too much information into the experience as a complex experience can easily confuse the potential consumers and diluted the mainly purpose of the brand in the mind of the customers. Therefore, the company should give a singular and sharp experience through all channel of exposure in order to obtain the awareness from those potential consumers.

Brand experience can directly affect the development of a brand and especially for the hotel industry because nowadays people book the hotel through online and the mostly thing that the customers concern and pay attentions on are the comments from the previous customers. Moreover, in the global market, the outstanding hotel brand should establish their footprint into their potential consumer’s minds and hearts in order to increase the positive image inside their heart. In addition, the more that the hotel brand are trusted and known, the higher loyalty concept will be infused and mixed with the long term customer relations. Therefore, excepting the normal brand experience, hotel marketers need to create some innovative and unforgettable experience for customers in order to make widely known to the public and increase to loyalty from customers.

For instance, in Chicago, a free Google Glass was offered to the guest by Acme Hotel Company which is the first hotel to start these activities. According to Acme Hotel Company (2016), the reason of why Acme Hotel Company has this offer is that Acme Hotel can understand that their overseas guests are all facing to the expensive cost from mobile roaming. Acme Hotel Company makes entrance to the higher technology as a cornerstone of the customer experience. Although the Google glass entrance costs were high and remain limited, this Google glass has taken footsteps to exceed the typical customer’s brand experience. As hotel industry is steadily developing, it brings many different competitions in the hotel industry. Therefore, hotels have to create some more convenient experience for potential consumer in order to reach the top of the global brand and increase the profit of the hotel.

Reference
Acme Hotel Company. (2016). A NEW KIND OF HOTEL. Retrieved from: http://www.acmehotelcompany.com/.

Classical Conditioning Vs Instrumental Conditioning

                               

Learning is relatively permanent change in behaviour caused by experience (Solomon, 2015). It is important to understand how consumers learn about the products and services in marketing. In our daily life, we will always meet with some products, services and experiences through TV commercial or social media which may link to our emotions and feelings to memory. In order to build the brand loyalty, building the connection between products and the memory of consumers is a forceful way to achieve this. Some companies might use the logo, slogan, music and some interesting video to advance the learning of the consumer.  There are two behavioural learning theories which can help consumers learn about products. The followings are:

                                                                                    

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus that elicits a response is paired with another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own (Solomon, 2015). Ivan Pavlov is a Russian physiologist who have put forward his research in animals to prove this theory, one of the example that he have used is dogs (picture above).  Through the unconditional stimulus (food), it can cause the salivation response from the dog. Over the time, the bell will become a conditional stimulus, this do not affect the salivation of the dog but it will make the dog to associate that it is a time to have food. Therefore, sound can make the dog felt that is a dinner time, thereby defining as a conditioned response.

Here is another example which can apply to the marketing concept.

Cadbury Dairy milk chocolate have produced a commercial which shows that with the kids and with the wired eyes. This commercial are using the music and the wired eyes of the kids (conditional stimulus) to promote the Cadbury Dairy milk chocolate (conditional stimulus). Through the music and the wired eyes of the kids, consumers might feel that is an interesting advertisement and attract more kids to buy this chocolate. 

 (YouTube.com, 2016)

Instrumental Conditioning

Instrumental Conditioning (or operant conditioning) occurs when we learn to perform behaviours that produce positive outcomes and avoid those that yield negative outcomes (Solomon, 2015). There is one example from the student which reflects the concept on instrumental conditioning.

When students are having the exam:

No studies before  ----->   fail the exam

Do read do studies ----->  get the good result

In this example, we can see that if students want to gain the positive outcome in their exam, they have to struggle with reading and studying on the studies to get a good result which can avoid the negative outcomes.

Moreover, there is another example that I found when I had a field trip in Malta. Malta can be seen as a very small island in Europe but it has many attractions for tourist to travel in their country. One of the main factors that attracts the tourist to travel is their local cuisine. As the gastronomy are continuously developing in Malta, it attracts many tourists to visit this country and understand more about their culture and traditional food.  Malta also constantly hold some of the international events, such as Malta International Food Festival and Malta International Fireworks Festival (Malta Tourism Authority, 2016). These kinds of events effectively advance the gastronomic development and tourism development in Malta. Therefore, although Malta is a small island and have a smallest population, it can also succeed on the gastronomic development and tourism development (gaining the positive outcome).

References:

Malta Tourism Authority. (2016). Annual Festivals & Traditions. Retrieved from: http://www.visitmalta.com/en/annual-festivals

Solomon, M. R. (2015). Consumer behavior: buying, having, and being (11th ed.). Boston: Pearson

Culture influences

(Google.com, 2016)

Culture can be defined as “a society’s personality “and “the accumulation of shared meanings, rituals, norms and traditions” It can shaped our identities as individuals (Solomon, 2015). Culture influences can affect the preference, habits, values and thinking of the consumers. For example, people who are living in western countries or eastern countries will also have different lifestyles, cultures, eating and beliefs.

Nowadays, as many brands are trying to build more emotional relationships with their customers, it has become increasingly important to consider how they fit into their target audience’s lifestyles. It is because understanding of consumer behaviour can be beneficial for the brand to define what products and services are suitable for the consumers. Through this research on consumer behaviour, it can effectively to build up the brand equity, such as perceived quality, brand awareness and brand image. However, entertainment and culture is the most logical choice for brands to engage with their customers. Roderick (2015) states that “modern consumers are looking for an enhanced experience, not to be force fed marketing gobbledygook. The smart brands are the ones that understand how they can add value, outside of financial value; to the entertainment and culture platforms they are aligning themselves with,” In order to enhance the consumer experience, offering the culture elements into the festival and some events can contribute to the customer attain a greater understanding of different culture. Brands can also base on those culture elements to attract more international customers, thereby advancing the brand awareness and brand image in the market.

References
Roderick, L. (2015). Could appointing a ‘head of culture’ boost your brand?. Retrieved from: http://www.marketingweek.com/2015/11/09/could-appointing-a-head-of-culture-boost-your-brand/.

Solomon, M. R. (2015). Consumer behavior: buying, having, and being (11th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

The Perceptual Process

Perception is the process by which sensations are selected, organised and interpret (Solomon, 2015).

Sensation refers to the immediate response of our sensory receptors, such as eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fingers and skin to basic stimuli ( e.g.: light, colour, sound, odor and texture) (Solomon, 2015).
In sensory marketing, there are several human senses can help us to dictate what appeals to us, the followings are vision, smell, hearing, touch and taste. Through this sensation, customers will receive different sensory stimuli in their brain. They may see a colourful picture, hear the music, feel a fluffy jumper, taste the spicy Thai curry or smell a perfume. Therefore, understanding the perception can effectively influence the design of a product, service or experience as well as to help people to understand how marketers use symbols to create meaning. Here are some examples of sensory marketing.

Vision

Colour is one the factors that influence the human emotions. Through different colour, it will affect different feelings, reactions, mood and experiences of customers, such as red stimulates appetite and blue relaxes. According to Cherry (2015), some of ancient cultures, such as Egyptians and Chinese will use colour Psychology as therapy to treat the illness. In this treatment:

• Red was used to stimulate the body and mind and to increase circulation.

• Yellow was thought to stimulate the nerves and purify the body.

• Orange was used to heal the lungs and to increase energy levels.

• Blue was believed to soothe illnesses and treat pain.

• Indigo shades were thought to alleviate skin problems.

Therefore, colours also have the impact on treatment which can help people to recognise the colours of the treatment.Furthermore, colours also have different meanings in different cultures. For instance, red colours in Chinese culture which means good fortune and joy, especially in the Chinese festivals. Red can be found in everywhere during Chinese New Year, such as red envelope and red couplets which symbolizes good luck. However, red will be banned to use at funerals as it is a traditionally symbolic colour of happiness.

Smell

Smell is one of the powerful stimuli that affect the human’s brain to receive the sensory. It also has a huge evocative power of memories and experiences over the years. For instance, every time when we enter to McDonald’s or KFC in every country, there is a same smell in every McDonald’s and KFC. It is because McDonald’s and KFC have the unique way to make their food which can ensure every consumer can get the same experience and same perception in their shop. Therefore, McDonald’s and KFC are using the smell perception to evoke the customer’s memory or remind them the shop that they visited before in the other country.

Hearing

Music is another factor that affects customers’ feeling and behaviours in hearing. Nowadays, most of the shop or restaurants are using music or other sounds to influence the atmosphere of their shop. This can be the sound symbolism of the shop that affects the customer to come up with brand names pay attention. For instance, Samsung and Apple will have their unique ringtone of an incoming call. These kinds of ringtone can help the customer to evoke the memory of the brand and it can also contribute to a consumption experience. Moreover, vision, smell and hearing are the three main senses that marketing will focus on. Through these three senses, it can help the marketers understand more how these kinds of senses can appeal to customers. Thusly, it can help them to design a suitable product, service or experience to customers. 

References

Cherry, K. (2015). Color Psychology: How Colors Impact Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors. Retrieved from: http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm. 

Solomon, M. R. (2015). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being(Eleventh;Global; ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Experiential Marketing

Jason Ng, marketing communications specialist at MK Electric, explains why pairing light and style to achieve personality in design has increased in importance, and what this means for hotel architects and interior designers.

(Retrieved from: http://www.hospitality-interiors.net/trends/articles/2014/01/36870675-mk-electric-achieving-personality-design)

Experiential marketing is defined as the view of the “consumers as rational and emotional human beings who are concerned with achieving pleasurable experiences” (Schmitt, 1999).

Nowadays, hotel industry tend to be more fashionable and more stylish which reflects the culture and style of the hotel’s location through showcasing local artwork. These kind of design can effectively influence the experience of the hotel guest and can be beneficial to the brand development. According to Ng (2014), comparing to the similar non-branded developments, branded development have attracted a premium of 31% in the finance. He also mentioned that the new luxury design of the hotel can effectively create special feelings, experiences and memories for customers. Therefore, highlighting those special designs in the hotel which can sense the local cultural smell through the experience of the hotel.

                                                                        (Google.uk, 2016)

Experiential marketing includes three main simultaneous developments in the business environment. The followings are the omnipresence of Information Technology, the Supremacy of the Brand and the Ubiquity of Communications and Entertainment (Schmitt, 1999). Through the advancement in information technology, it can create some innovative design in the hotel to cater different customer’s preferences. Moreover, as the technology is steadily developing over the world. Social media became the main factors that has a huge impact on the customer behaviour and customer experiences of the hospitality industry. It provides a platform for customers to share their experiences and give some feedback to the business in any time. Therefore, customers can share their experiences through the social media, such as Facebook and Instagram which can effectively help people to get the awareness of the hotel. Furthermore, brand is the other important terms in the experiential marketing. Brand can represent the consumers’ perceptions and feeling about a product and its performance. It can also directly influence the impression of business. In order to increase to brand awareness, some hotels will try to promote their brand through the social media which can attract more customers to understand their brand.

References

Ng, J. (2014). MK Electric: Achieving personality in design. Retrieved from http://www.hospitality-interiors.net/trends/articles/2014/01/36870675-mk-electric-achieving-personality-design.

Schmitt, B. (1999). Experiential Marketing. Journal of Marketing Management, 15(1), 53-67. doi:10.1362/026725799784870496

Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing is the views of consumer as rational decision makers who care about functional features and benefits. According to Experiential marketing (2008), there are four key characteristics in traditional marketing. The following are:

• Focus on functional feature and benefit

Functional feature and benefit are the important factors for the customers when they are selecting the products in the market. Customers will weigh the functional features in terms of their important and compare the advantages of the products. Then, they can base on the overall utility to select their product.

In this part, hotel industry can be the example to explain why traditional marketing will more focus on functional feature and benefit. Nowadays, there are different types of hotel over the world. When the customers were choosing the hotel for travelling, they will not only focus on the size of hotel or the location of hotel. They will also consider of what facilities the hotel provided and the levels of service. Based on those considerations, customers will select the highest overall utility. Therefore, functional feature and benefit will often be our main consideration when we are choosing the products in our daily life.

• Product category and competition are narrowly defined

In the traditional marketing, it will have different competition in the products or in the brand. In Hospitality industry, Hilton Worldwide Hotel will completely against Marriot Hotel because they are offering the similar service and the similar the product category in the market.

• Customers are viewed as rational decision makers

Customers decision making is a process that customer identify their needs, information collecting, product choice and make the purchase decision (Baines, Fill & Page, 2011). These processes are included five stages; need recognition information research, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post-purchase behavior. Through the process of customers decision making, marketers can understand more about the customer behavior that effectively affect the performance of the company. Based on these five stages on hospitality industry, customers need to have recognition of the hotel and think of which types of hotel that they want for their trip through the advertisement or online research. Then, customers will do the research of the hotel, such as previous experiences or consult from their friends and families which can affect them to consideration of hotel. Through all the hotel research, customers can evaluate and choose the most suitable hotel in their trip. Then, they will purchase for their hotel depend on the research and the selection that they made in the previous step. Finally, they will evaluate the hotel satisfaction, such as the quality and the levels of service. They will also evaluate the hotel is suitable of their original needs. Therefore, it will influence their future decision and buying behaviors.

• Methods and tools are analytical, quantitative and verbal

Analytical, quantitative and verbal are the important methodology in the traditional marketing, such as regression models. This method can effectively consist of collecting the verbal ratings in interviews or surveys. However, marketers can base on the amount of predictors to predict the customers’ purchase or choice in the market.

References

Experiential marketing. (2008).Strategic Direction, 24(10), 24-26. doi:10.1108/02580540810907092

Baines, P., Fill, C., & Page, K. (2011).marketing (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

What is Consumer Behaviour ?

Consumer behaviour is “the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or experience to satisfy needs and desires” (Solomon, 2015). In marketing concept, marketers can understand more what the consumer needs and desires through the process of consumer behaviour. Also, organisation can plan their marketing strategy to operate their business. Therefore, people will know more how to attract and serve their customers. According to McDonald & Wilson (2011), consumers have a strong impact on the marketing strategy for the organisation. Therefore, marketers have to understand the consumer behaviour which can satisfy their needs in marketing. 

(Maslow, 1943)

Abraham Maslow is an American psychologist who developed the theory of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in 1943 to motivate different behaviours that can try to fulfil the needs of people. He identified five types of motivating needs in the theory, such as physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs (Knights, Willmott & Brewis, 2012). These five types of need will be easier for the marketers to understand consumer motivation. They can satisfy the consumer needs through the level of hierarchy.

References

Knights, D., Willmott, H., & Brewis, J. (2012). Introducing organizational behaviour and management. Andover: Cengage Learning.1

McDonald, M., & Wilson, H. (2011). Marketing plans: how to prepare them, how to use them (7th ed.).

Solomon, M. R. (2015). Consumer behavior: buying, having, and being (11th ed.). Boston: Pearson.