Brand worlds: Introducing experiential marketing to B2B branding

Abstract

Experiential marketing instruments and the extraordinary experiences they provide are one of the strongest means of branding in B2C. Inter alia as brand worlds, they also exist in B2B marketing practice, but have only received limited attention from the B2B branding perspective. Differences between B2C and B2B branding raise questions regarding why B2B companies operate brand worlds, what they consist of, what their nature is, and how they are experienced. We build on a rich, comprehensive sample of 37 expert interviews, comprising the perspectives of operating companies, business visitors, and exhibition designers. We find that B2B brand worlds differ substantially from their B2C equivalents in several aspects, but they apply similar experiential techniques. Operating companies' motives focus on providing live product experiences to explain complex products and create product awareness. B2B visitors expect more functional than hedonic benefits, and the visit has to support them in their own business activities. Affordances of the experiencescape and the action-perception between visitor, brand employees, and the physical environment are at the core of how the B2B brand world experiences are co-created. Our research highlights the important role and nature of B2B brand worlds as three-dimensional "business cards", where relationships are initiated and built.

The Relationships among Experiential Marketing, Service Innovation, and Customer Satisfaction—A Case Study of Tourism Factories in Taiwan

“…Schmitt [10] indicated that experience is a response of the consumer to the occurrence of a certain stimulating event, usually induced by direct observation or involvement of the event rather than caused spontaneously. To reinforce customer experience is to strengthen the rights and values of the brand [23].…”

Management of loyalty in developing a company’s brand on the Russian oil and gas B2B market

“…Main question for most of the organizations, especially on the B2B market, is maintaining efficiency of activity of the company and retention of a brand's position. It should be noted that there are differences between brand creation on a B2C market and on a B2B market [2]; however, preservation of the current clients of the organization and ensuring their loyalty is a crucial component of any company's success [3].…”

Brand Worlds in Industrial Marketing

“…B2C brand world visitors mainly seek for autotelic, hedonic, and emotional experiences based on entertainment, information, flow, relaxation, diversity, escapism, community and a general sense of well-being and appreciation by the operating company. Their visit is often unrelated to a specific buying situation and motivated mostly by the visitors themselves (Kirchgeorg et al, 2012;Opaschowski, 2000;Österle et al, 2018a, 2018bZentes et al, 2014). Business visitors to B2B brand worlds, on the other hand, have more utilitarian expectations.…”

“…Like experiences in tourism or B2C brand worlds, visitor experiences in such B2B brand worlds are co-created on-site (Campos, Mendes, Valle, & Scott, 2015;Carù & Cova, 2007;Dolbec & Chebat, 2013;Kozinets et al, 2004;Österle et al, 2018a). Two things are at the core of this experience co-creation in B2B brand worlds: the B2B brand world experiencescape, which reflects the operating company's contribution, and the embodied cognition of the B2B brand world, reflecting the visitors' contribution to how they experience the B2B brand world (Österle et al, 2018a).…”

“…'Brand worlds' are such environments. The term brand world is an umbrella term for permanent, physical, branded spaces such as flagship stores, brand stores, brand lands, brand museums, or customer experience centers (Gilmore & Pine, 2002;Österle, Kuhn, & Henseler, 2018a). In essence, they are branding instruments in which experiential marketing techniques are applied (Österle et al, 2018a).…”