Marketing trends role in influencing the purchase decision making process of consumer

How experiential marketing trends play an imperative role in influencing the purchase decision making process of consumer

1. Background of researchRecent dramatic changes in the field of communication and technology haveundermined the effectiveness of traditional marketing strategies. Moreover, surginglevel of competition at the contemporary marketplace has necessitated the need formore effective marketing paradigm. Experiential marketing as a concept has gainedmomentum during recent years and this marketing paradigm is occupying vital spacein the overall marketing programme of modern enterprises.

Experiential marketing started gaining momentum because the essence of thismarketing paradigm is to improve the consumer’s experience with brand in a holisticmanner (Grundey, 2008). The proposed research endeavours to examine the role ofexperiential marketing in improving overall consumer’s experience with the brand intelecom industry of India.

1.2 Research objectives1) To investigate the role of experiential marketing in generating experientialvalue for the customers of telecom industry of India.2) To evaluate the role of experiential marketing in influencing purchasebehaviour of consumer in telecom industry of India.3) To determine the effectiveness of experiential marketing in promotingcustomer loyalty in telecom industry of India.

1.3 Significance of study;The proposed research would explore diverse aspects of experiential marketingdirected to influencing the experience of consumer with the brand in a holistic

manner. Findings of the proposed research would help the modern marketersspecially firms in the telecom industry to develop and implement more sophisticatedand effective marketing paradigm that can potentially forge deeper connect ofconsumer with the brand.

• There is no description of the research project. What are you investigating?
• There is no justification for looking at the telecom industry of India. Your research questionsare not explained.
• Why is the telecoms industry in India worth investigating? Why is experiential marketingrelevant to this industry?

2. Literature review

2.1 IntroductionExperiential marketing is gaining significance from theoretical as well as practicalperspective. Experiential marketing principally focuses upon enhancing consumer’ssensory experience. The contemporary marketers employ a variety of marketingtools in order to improve a customer’s holistic experience with the brand.

Industry experts also advocate for engaging customer through superior servicedeliver and superior consumption experience. Furthermore, marketing efforts of acompany are considerably dependent upon branding. Improving brand relatedexperience can generate value for the company. Brand experience can be amplifiedthrough feeling, cognition, sensation, and behavioural response. It can also beimproved by fostering emotional connect between brand and consumer.Interestingly, Robertson & Wilson (2008) argue that experiential marketing is in fact abrand strengthening strategy. They further elaborate that experiential marketingparadigm is an idea or a specific marketing tool or a mindset that principallyendeavour to establish deeper connection between brand and consumer. Moreover,it makes effort to generate memorable, relevant and emotional experience amongthe consumers.

2.2 Major factors responsible for enhancing consumer’s holistic experiencewith brandHoffman and Turley (2002) point out the factors that can contribute in impartingsuperior experience to customer. Factors such as light, colour, and music constitute

material environment. Material environment generates some degree of emotionalimpact on the consumer.

2.3 Major vehicles for the experiential marketingExperiential marketing uses some major vehicles for the purpose of generatingsuperior experiences that influence the purchase behaviour of consumer in favour ofproducts of service offered by the company. Such vehicles of experiential marketingare commonly referred as experience provider. Major experience providers used inexperiential marketing paradigm are communication, products, co-branding, spatialenvironment, web site and people. Marketing communication effort such asadvertisement, signage, public relation, logos, colour etc can be effective ingenerating impression on the mind of consumer. Product specific features such aspackaging and design also affect the decision making process of consumer.Moreover, activities related to co-branding such as sponsoring some events can bealso effective in popularising the brands among the consumer. People are also anessential aspect in implementing experiential marketing strategy successfully.

• What is known or unknown?
• What theory will you be using to guide your study?
• There are no details about what makes experiential marketing different from traditionalmarketing.
• Need to develop a framework or set some research questions that will guide the datacollection and analyses. This must be based on the area of investigation, which has not beenarticulated.

3. Research methodology

3.1 Research paradigm

Selection of most suitable research philosophy is most imperative aspect of anyresearch because research philosophy helps in investigating the research topic in aneffective manner. Positivist and interpretist type of research philosophy arefrequently employed by the researcher. Positivist type of research philosophy makeseffort to establish a casual relationship between the variables. On the other hand aninterpretist type of research philosophy considers knowledge relative to the knower.Therefore, intrepretivism research philosophy makes attempt to develop the otherpoint of view about the research question(s) investigated by the researcher. It is alsovery much effective in investigating the research topic or question in acomprehensive manner. Selection of interpretivist type of research philosophy wouldhelp in examining the diverse aspects of experiential marketing affecting orinfluencing the purchase decision of consumer.

3.2 Research approachInductive and deductive research approaches are frequently employed by theresearchers to conduct research relating to the field of social science. Deductiveresearch approach is also referred as top down research approach as this approachinitiate with determination of key theories related with the research topic. Deductiveresearch approach formulates important hypothesis and then test hypothesis bycollecting quantitative data (Burney, 2008).Moreover, inductive research approach is a bottom up research approach and thisresearch approach initiate with observation. Researcher seeks to establish a patternafter careful and through observation of research topic under inductive researchapproach. Researcher finally formulate hypothesis and propounds key theoriesconcerning to the research topic under inductive research approach (Collis andHussey, 2003). Interestingly, experiential marketing is an emerging marketingparadigm. Arguments about the experiential marketing strategy evidently suggestthat key theories concerning to this emerging marketing paradigm is still unknown.Therefore, the proposed research would employ inductive research approach.

3.3 Primary research

The proposed research employs primary research processes into the research.Obtaining the response of consumers of telecom sector of India is a crucial aspect ofthis research. The proposed research would collect primary data from the customersof telecom sector of India. Moreover, ascertaining the response from the marketingprofessionals working in the telecom sector, in order to develop understanding aboutthe experiential marketing strategies employed in this sector. This research employsthe case of Airtel, a leading telecom service provider in order to develop practicalunderstanding about the experiential marketing strategy.

3.4 Focus groupProposed research aims to examine the role of experiential marketing strategy ininfluencing the behaviour of consumers of telecom industry of India. Therefore, theforemost focus group for this research is consumers of telecom industry of India.Moreover, marketing professionals working in the telecom industry are also animportant focus group.

3.5 SamplingIt is impossible to gather feedback on the research topic from the entire population.Sampling strategy helps in collecting sample from the population. Therefore,adopting suitable sampling strategy is important. Moreover, customers of telecomproducts are scattered across the length and breadth of the country.  Recent telecomsubscriber data suggests that India recorded substantial base of 867.80 millionmobile phone subscriber at the end of March 2013 (Telecom Tiger, 2013).This research would adopt random sampling technique and primary data would becollected from the sample size of 100 respondents which would be drawn from thetwo major metropolitan cities of India i.e. Delhi and Mumbai.

3.6 SurveyThe research would employ survey strategy in order to collect responses from theconsumers of telecom industry of India about the effectiveness of experientialmarketing strategy. Survey strategy is frequently used by the researcher. Surveystrategy is principally considered as quantitative research. The survey would beundertaken by distributing a closed-ended questionnaire to the respondents.Furthermore, responses from the survey would be gathered via telephone andpersonally from the respondents.

3.7 Case studyCase study approach is frequently used because it is capable of investigating theresearch topic in a comprehensive and detailed manner. Case study approach canbe effective in knowing more about a poorly understood situation or phenomenon.Experiential marketing paradigm is an emerging phenomenon. Therefore, it can beeffective in developing in depth understanding about this novice emerging marketingparadigm.This research would use the case study of Airtel, a leading telecom service providerof India. Interviews of marketing mangers, senior marketing executives andmarketing executives would be undertaken in order to develop practicalunderstanding about the application of experiential marketing paradigm in thetelecom sector of India.

3.8 QuestionnaireAdopting a suitable questionnaire design is the most vital aspect of any researchbecause questionnaire is used to gather the primary data from the participants ofresearch. Normally, a closed-structured or unstructured questionnaire is employed tocollect the primary data required by a research. While structured questionnaires help

in collecting data from a large number of participants as it saves a lot of time.Therefore, survey process of the proposed research would use structuredquestionnaire to collect the response from the respondents. While semi-structuredquestionnaire would be employed to collect the response of interviewees as thisapproach would help in generating an in-depth response about the experientialmarketing strategies employed by the telecom service provider in India.

3.9 Methods of data analysisProposed research would collect quantitative as well qualitative nature of primarydata. Therefore, quantitative as well as qualitative method of data analysis would beemployed in analysing the primary data. Statistical tools such as mean, standarddeviation and correlation would be employed to analyse quantitative nature of data.Moreover, qualitative method of data analysis would be employed to analyse ofqualitative data collected by way of interviews of marketing professionals. Thematicanalysis technique is often used to analyse qualitative nature data.

3.10 Ethical considerationThe proposed research would make effort to comply with the ethical standard.Researcher would make effort to collect primary and secondary data in ethicalmanner. Moreover, researcher would take comprehensive measures ensure thatprivacy or interest of participants of this research are adequately protected.

3.11 Time scale

Activities or tasks Expected time tocomplete the

task (in weeks)

1. Introduction and exploring relevant literature concerning to the research topicc

2. Developing befitting research methodology 33. Developing questionnaire, undertaking pilot study and revising questionnaire

4. Collection of primary data through survey and case study

5. Data analysis and discussion 36. Conclusion, recommendations and limitations of research

3.12 Limitations of studyThis research would be principally based upon survey of Indian telecom industryconsumers. Interestingly, India possesses more than 867 millions of mobile phonesubscriber. Considering the size of population, size of sample selected for theproposed study is significantly lower and this can be considered as one the majorlimitation of proposed research.

• Need many more details about the data needed and how it will be collected and analysed.However, before doing this the literature review section must be strengthened.
• Would it be helpful to conduct a focus group to be assured that everything necessary for thesurvey has already been considered? Or, maybe it would be helpful to run a pilot test of thequestionnaire on just 20 people.
• Who do you want in the sample? Why? How will they be recruited?
• Why investigate Airtel? What can you learn from this case?
• Specifically, what can you learn from the managers, etc.?
• Specifically, what do you want to learn from the consumers?
• There is limited explanation of how the data will be analysed
• May need to allocate more time to the literature review in order to develop a betterquestionnaire
• May need to allocate time to a focus group or pilot run of the questionnaire
• Needs a bit more attention to English grammar and sentence structure
• Needs a bit more attention to proofreading