THE AGE OF EXPERIENTIAL

When merchants talk about experiential marketing, they're usually referring to stores and how to get customers engaged in the products and the brand once they walk in the door. Can you provide the same “experience” in a print catalog or on a Website? Many creative experts believe that you can or, at the very least, you should try. We talked to four noted catalog consultants to get their take on experiential creative.

BRENT NIEMUTH is creative director and brand evangelist of J. Schmid & Associates, a Mission, KS-based catalog consulting firm.

Experiential creative is all about providing a shopping atmosphere that is relevant to the customer, one that includes them in the process. There was a time when you could distinguish your product from the competitor's based on a unique feature or a special benefit. It was faster. It was smaller. It saved time — whatever. This was enough to make the sale.

But companies are quickly learning that selling products based simply on features and benefits alone is no longer enough. Competition has increased dramatically and it is becoming harder and harder to stand out from the crowd and truly be different.

You can't just rely on selling “stuff” anymore. Consumers today want more from their favorite brands. They want a complete experience. They want to be engaged.

So you must find a way to include them in the process. You need to surround them with a unique creative experience, wrapping them in your brand. You must communicate what makes your brand different and tell that story through the creative execution.

But it's important that you do this from their perspective. You must consider their point-of-view. Their lifestyle. What's important to them? What language do they use? What will they respond to?

Once you have a firm understanding of the customer, you can begin to build this unique creative experience into your catalog, your Website and your retail environments. All of this will help define the color palette, photography style and copy tone you use. You need to go beyond merely describing product features and make the customer feel as if they've entered your special world.

Patagonia is one brand that uses experiential creative masterfully. Not only does it show you “what” you can buy, it also explains “why” you should buy it.

Everything it sells and everything it stands for revolves around the environment. In catalogs and on the Website, Patagonia shows its products in use by adventurous people in extreme settings, accompanied by a real-life story, making you feel as if that could be you.

You can almost feel the rain on your face and smell the campfire burning when you flip through the pages of a Patagonia catalog. You want to be there. You want to buy that jacket! This is experiential creative at its best.

Delivering a meaningful and memorable experience not only cuts through the clutter, it also promotes customer loyalty. Building a relevant experience is critical if your company wants long-term growth. How do you create these experiences?

Again, the answer lies in understanding what is important to your customers. By embracing what makes your brand different and promoting your higher-order benefit — the emotional take-away for the customer — you can create “experiences” rather than merely selling products.

GLENDA SHASHO is president of Shasho Jones Direct, a New York-based consulting practice.

What is experiential marketing? It's really a brand strengthening strategy. How it is presented creatively is critical, since it needs to be immediately understood and relevant to the customer to have impact. When used effectively and across channels, it can be awfully powerful, since experiential marketing can create memorable, relevant and often valuable experiences.

We normally rely heavily on the strength of design on Internet sites, catalog pages, and store decor to build brand and sell products. Engaging a customer through an experience is a way of giving dimension, feel and smell to a brand. It can generate strong feelings that the customer takes away and internalizes for years to come.

Experiential marketing is really a fancy way of saying your catalog, store, Website, and e-mail have developed a method of engaging customers on a higher level — with an “experience” that resonates with them and creates brand perception and action. Doing this also requires an investment of both time and money.

One personal experience I had is with Williams-Sonoma, which for years has been filling its catalogs with recipes that are used by millions. One pre-Thanksgiving week, I downloaded some of the kitchen products cataloger/retailer's recipes for my annual meal. When I did so, the site showed me — giving me the opportunity to buy — all the utensils associated with preparing those dishes.

Getting those recipes got me some great compliments at dinner. And now Williams-Sonoma stores have cooking classes. I'm on the company's e-mail list for class listings and store locations — I know one day I'll get to one! I also know I can usually count on getting a bite to eat or a chance to sample a new oil or vinegar at any one of the stores I visit, no matter which state I'm in.