Building brand equity through experiential marketing. Case study: brand X

Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to examine how brand equity can be built through experiential marketing efforts. The focus was on various brand equity dimensions and how experiences, as means of marketing, influence them. The brand equity dimensions were first defined; along with ways brand’s value can be strengthened and maintained. After that, experiential marketing as a method of modern marketing was introduced together with the ways it can efficiently affect brand’s equity. The possibilities and requirements of experiential campaigns were also presented and examined. The study used a combination of secondary and primary data. For secondary data, literature, articles and journals from the field of marketing and brand management were collected and critically analyzed. The secondary research was done in order to gain a comprehensive understanding on the prevailing theories and concepts of the studied topic. Primary data was gathered using qualitative research method of case study. The descriptive case study studied an experiential campaign, constituting of two events, conducted by the case brand during the summer of 2018. Additionally, the case study used observations, to gain insight from the event exe-cutions. Case brand’s usage of experiential marketing as a form of building the brand’s value was examined and evaluated in the light of secondary research findings. The results show that brand X’s experiential execution included many brand equity building activities. The brand targeted audiences with brand-related, engaging activations, sampling as well as visually appealing content. Additionally, brand X involved social media in the campaign to integrate the message also through other channels and to reach even higher amount of consumers. The experiential campaign was to create a positive engram that will last long and guide consumers towards purchasing in later circumstances. The campaign conducted by brand X, and the observations and analyses grounded on it, are to motivate brands to adopt experiences as major part of their brand building activities. To deepen the results even further, the changes in brand X’s value prior and after the event execution could be evaluated.