How to use experiential marketing in retail industry

And from an international perspective, China has developed into the main battlefield for international retailers in the world. Many large retailers are eyeing the big cake of China. In order to seize a larger market share, major retailers have tried their best to compete for consumers, which has become a silent but smoke-filled war. As we all know, consumers can't feel any satisfaction, let alone get a sense of belonging in their lifestyle. But with the most common retail stores around us? Take department stores as an example, the main ways to attract customers are discounts, gift certificates and gifts. Such marketing methods are becoming more and more homogeneous, and price is still the key factor.

On the one hand, the continuation of price-oriented marketing mode is influenced by consumers' traditional consumption habits, on the other hand, it is caused by vicious competition among retailers and robbing customers. Since the emergence of retail forms such as department stores, the retail industry has represented the guarantee of product source, quality and follow-up service, and the retail price of goods is much higher than that of similar goods in other channels. In modern times with rich material life, people's living standards have improved and their consumption power has gradually increased. Shopping in department stores has become more and more routine and universal, and everyone has more choices. Therefore, under such circumstances, the traditional retailers in China have changed from waiting for customers to visit, to actively giving consumers attractive marketing means and attracting consumers to shop by price means.

During the price war of major businesses, who has considered the real feelings of consumers? I think, for consumers in the retail industry, the higher level they pursue is the unified process of consumption and experience, rather than short-term satisfaction stimulated by price. From a rational point of view, price can indeed stimulate consumers and promote the turnover of shopping malls, but the price factor can not satisfy consumers' emotions and make them sound. Therefore, experiential marketing to meet the psychological needs of consumers will become the future marketing trend of retail industry.

At present, most local retail enterprises and some foreign retail stores in China still remain in the traditional mode. This traditional marketing method pays attention to results and goals, separates the continuity of process and results, and ignores the intrinsic value of process. Its process emphasizes the simplicity and guidance of marketing, ignoring the experience and autonomy of marketing, thus abandoning a large part of customer interests.

With the continuous upgrading of consumers' shopping demand and the increasingly fierce competition among retail peers, all traditional marketing methods will tend to focus on meeting consumers' higher psychological needs, so that consumers' emotions will be echoed and finally self-realization will be realized. This more innovative and interactive marketing method is experiential marketing. Through in-depth communication with consumers, we can understand what consumers want, let consumers know what they want, and then let consumers get self-realization satisfaction in the purchase process.

Experiential marketing refers to let consumers start from life and situation, shape the sensory experience environment of the lifestyle they pursue, create the expression of consumers' emotions, inspire consumers to create inspiration, encourage them to participate in actions to change the status quo, and finally let consumers find a sense of belonging to the same lifestyle group. Consumers get not only product satisfaction, but also lifestyle solutions, and they are even willing to pay a higher price for satisfying their perceptual needs.

Lianzhong Zhida Experience Marketing Research Center believes that the implementation of retail experience marketing can be divided into three steps: mastering consumers' perceptual ideas through research and contact point design, letting consumers know what they want through product promotion and environmental atmosphere, and letting consumers realize themselves through communication with personnel's solutions.

(1) investigation. The content of the survey is the customer's perceptual knowledge. This paper investigates and studies consumers' shopping psychology from five levels of experiential marketing.

For example, investigate feelings: whether this brand store can make me feel special in my senses; Investigate emotions: whether walking into this brand store makes me feel happy; Investigation Action: Does this store intend to guide the interaction with me? Investigation and thinking: whether this brand store intends to stimulate my association with something; Investigation relevance: whether the customers who buy this brand are the same kind of people as me. In addition to the questionnaire survey, please paste slogans in the store to help us improve, or communicate with customers through waiters.

(2) Contact point design. The contact point is to decompose the customer's experience process (feeling → emotion → thinking → action → association) before, during and after sale, and implement marketing strategies with different tools.

Before the sale, customers can use the internet, brochures, etc. to understand the theme of the store; When customers enter the store, they immediately feel the theme atmosphere such as music, lighting and smell; When customers have a desire to buy, they should stimulate creative thinking through product production to understand and solve problems; Feel this lifestyle by participating in activities and show self-awareness and values; Finally, through the communication with other consumers and service personnel in the environment, we can deeply understand the mutual influence from the social and cultural significance and the demand for social status, so as to be willing to become a part of this group or culture.

Personally, the American fast food chain giant McDonald's has done a good job in this regard. I believe that people who have been to McDonald's can easily feel its standardized service: whenever they walk into the store, there will be cordial and consistent greetings coming on. When ordering, the waiter will show a friendly smile and take your order patiently. At the same time, if there is a new product, they will ask you if you need to try it out. When the order is completed, they will wait for the order. The waiter will ask you to wait aside and let the customers in the back order. In addition, you can also find some rules through the food placed on the plate, that is, the side with the McDonald's logo is facing the customers. This detail shows that McDonald's waiters are well-trained and the service standards are very standardized. Therefore, when dining at McDonald's, you will feel cordial, convenient, fast, safe and warm. This comfortable shopping experience and consumption environment will attract a large number of target people to patronize again and again.

(1) product promotion. Before consumers think, it is necessary to let consumers feel and feel through product promotion. The product promotion here not only stays at the product function level, but also incorporates the symbolic meaning of the product. This symbolic meaning is broad, that is, it can represent a concept of life, a pursuit of value or a state of mind. Starbucks prints the concept of the third space in every brochure, which is different from the general corporate propaganda. It promotes experience and is the third state of life besides work and family. Starbucks tells its consumers that Starbucks represents this third kind of space, where you have no constraints, no pressure and troubles, and only enjoy the relaxation of coffee and the pleasure of gathering friends. In addition to magazine advertising catalogues, brochures, product introductions, mascots and other methods, the network is also an extremely useful way to experience. Nowadays, many enterprises will also advertise on the Internet, imitate the atmosphere of the scene through stories, and even meet the needs that cannot be realized in reality.

(2) Environmental atmosphere. Environment is the unique advantage of retail industry. As long as all tools such as music, lighting, smell, pictures and layout can create an atmosphere under a unified theme, consumers can integrate into the scene. For example, the whole Starbucks is like a cup of coffee: dark red brown walls, light yellow partitions, dark or light brown tables and chairs, sofas, dim yellow soft lights, full of coffee fragrance all around, a mouthful of mellow and lubricated coffee, and the whole person seems to be dissolved into thick coffee. The jazz music in my ear makes people ecstatic, adding a sense of relaxation and pleasure. The paintings on the wall are colorful and abstract, giving people a sense of fashion and individuality. Everything in the cafe is designed around the coffee culture.

Let consumers realize themselves

(1) solution. Self-realization is the highest level of consumer demand and the most critical part of experiential marketing. Experience in experience marketing is a solution that consumers get through self-thinking and trying. What the merchants need to do is to introduce the culture, functions and matching schemes of the products, and to show them to help them find the most suitable scheme. For example, IKEA has turned the furniture store into a place where consumers look for inspiration and design creativity, and consumers can think about matching methods according to product prices, material sizes and colors. Starbucks allows consumers to choose different flavors such as the amount of espresso, the type of milk, vanilla or almond, or choose a coffee brewing machine to brew their own coffee beans.

(2) Relevance experience. In order to meet customers' thinking, action and contact needs, we must develop sales solutions that highlight the theme lifestyle through interaction with customers. Relevance experience is the highest level experience, which allows consumers to find a sense of belonging to the group and realize their self-worth. Is the result of all empirical strategies. In the retail industry, interpersonal communication has a great role in promoting related experiences.

The content of experiential communication not only includes the product itself and solutions, but more importantly, it is necessary to understand the mood of consumers, exchange lifestyles and promote communication with consumers. Starbucks employees treat customers as if they were their own friends. They will enthusiastically introduce the origin, types, food collocation of different coffees and the ways to try different flavors of coffee. They can say the names of regular customers and chat with customers for half an hour to integrate themselves into this dating environment. Starbucks will integrate everything into the third space and let consumers enjoy it freely. Ikea, on the other hand, adopts different ways of personnel communication, and advocates making the store an ideal place for the whole family to go out to create a comfortable atmosphere and service. Ikea waiters never take the initiative to sell to customers, but when customers need advice, they will enthusiastically provide you with professional solutions immediately.

In short, with the development of market economy, the forms of retail enterprises are of course various, so the corresponding experiential marketing forms should also be rich and diverse, but the essence of various marketing methods is based on fully tapping the needs of consumers and mastering the changes of consumer needs, and experiential marketing puts forward higher requirements for enterprises and their marketing personnel at this point. When designing experiential marketing scheme, we should fully analyze and study consumers' shopping psychology to feel. (Source: Value China Author: Zhang Jian)