As almost every industry is getting increasingly competitive, marketing strategy plays a more vital role in each business. With the advancement in technology, marketing has evolved into so many different forms such as digital marketing, telemarketing and relationship marketing. Nowadays, companies are focusing more on the non-traditional marketing strategies, one of which is experiential marketing.

What is experiential marketing? Drew Mclellan in his blog post “Bring your marketing to life” explains and points out the importance of experiential marketing. Basically, experiential marketing means bringing marketing to life, as suggested by the title. Among the intense competition, traditional marketing is not enough. “Companies need to create tangible memory for consumers.”  Drew gives out a great example of experiential marketing, where Axe astronauts for their new product line appeared live in the street! The whole thing was attention-catching and thus ultimately capture people’s interests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another great example of experiential marketing is a campaign carried out by Amsterdam water supplier, WATERNET, aimed to discourage people from urinating in the city’s canals.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvOh6fvIQPc]

 How they achieve this? They installed 4 urinal stalls in the street and turned peeing into a race. Whoever peed the most and fastest get their water taxes back. This campaign successfully engaged the public in an interactive, fun, educational and memorable manner, which was proved to be more effective and influential than a TV advertisement.

There is always so much going on in one’s life. If a company cannot create a concrete memory to consumers, chances are that there is no way for its products to be competitive in the market.

So, bring your marketing to life!

The reason that I am not buying organic food had always been the fact that organic food is much more expensive than non-organic ones. However, after reading the blog post “About Ethical Marketing for Organic Food” by Miranda Wen, my understanding of organic food has been enriched.

In her blog post, Miranda questioned the “ethics of various marketing strategies of organic food” because food labelled as organic is not necessarily safe, whereas, the advertisements about organic food all convey and reinforce the message that organic food is safer and healthier.

The marketing ethics of organic food is similar to the food labelled as “natural” as discussed in my previous blog post “Natural Misconception”. Whether it is for organic or natural food, the marketers play around with consumers’ misconception on the two words. By harnessing the ambiguity in these words, marketers give the public the false impression that natural or organic food is immune to bacteria and harmful byproducts produced as a result of the cooking process.

Despite the fact that labeling can lead to unethical marketing behaviour, labels are important with regard to characteristics that can’t be seen with the naked eye. “You can’t tell by looking at an apple, for instance, whether it’s been sprayed with pesticides—unless, of course, you see the ‘Certified Organic’ label on it.”As consumers, we rely heavily on labels to get what we are looking for, but it is the reliance that makes us vulnerable to unethical marketing.