Experiential marketing is a growing trend which involves marketing a product or a service through experiences that engage the customers and create an emotional attachment to the product/service. Physical and interactive experiences are used to reinforce the offer of a product and make customers feel as if they are part of them. Experiences are positively related to customer's attitudes, mood and behaviours. They also represent a means through which a company can gain a competitive advantage by differentiating itself from competitors. To achieve success, the experience should be engaging, compelling and able to touch the customer's senses and capture his/her loyalty.

There are many aspects which differentiate traditional marketing from the experiential one. First, experiential marketing focuses on providing sensory, emotional, cognitive and rational values to the consumers. Second, experiential marketing aims to create synergies among meaning, perception, consumption and brand loyalty. Furthermore, experiential marketing requires a more diverse range of research methods in order to understand consumers.

In 3e60events we have developed a five-step process to develop an effective experiential branding strategy. The first step includes carrying out a customer experience audit in order to analyse the current experience of the brand. The second step is to create a brand platform and develop a touchpoint with customers. The following step includes designing the brand experience; coordinating the brand's people, products and processes against the brand proposition. The next steps involve communicating the brand proposition internally and externally. The last step consists of monitoring performance in order to ensure that the brand is meeting its objectives.