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ABSTRACT
The fashion industry in China faces fierce competition and variability in fashion trends. Customer experience plays a vital role for companies to remain competitive; however, traditional marketing has been unable to fully consider customers needs and to provide an immersive experience, which can be addressed by experiential marketing. This kind of customer engagement contributes to creating value and increasing recognition for businesses, enhancing brand loyalty, and contributes to long-term and continuous business success. This study explores the relationship between experiential marketing, customer engagement and brand loyalty. Survey responses of 200 participants in the experiential marketing activity of Shanghais Chanel pop-up store were collected. Drawing on Schmitts five different types of experiences, we find the importance of experiential marketing in spurring customer engagement and brand loyalty. Our study enhances the understanding of experimental marketing in the fashion industry. Theoretical and practical implications are provided.
Keywords: Experiential Marketing, Customer Engagement, Brand Loyalty, Fashion Industry.
1 INTRODUCTION
Fashion companies are confronted with fierce competition and the winners-take-all effect (McKinsey & Company, 2021), while there is huge variability in fashion trends. The customer group ranging from 18-35 years pays great attention to feelings for the brands to which they subscribe, which may be influenced by a variety of factors (Gudiel et al., 2021). For companies to avoid falling behind, customer experience has demonstrated its vital role (Pine and Gilmore, 1998, Bhattacharya and Raghuvanshi, 2019). Traditional marketing has been unable to satisfy the needs of all stakeholders (Susilowati and Sugandini, 2018), therefore, innovative methods have been necessary (Abalos, 2020) including experiential marketing. Companies can provide customers with an immersive experience which stands out compared to competitors, helps build a stronger brand and increases customer repurchase intention (Tresna et al., 2021). Customer engagement, which is the process of enhancing the interactive relationship between the brand and customers through a series of channels, creates value through increased recognition of the businesses by potential and existing customers (Pansari and Kumar, 2017, Hollebeek, 2011). Customer engagement and brand loyalty, an indicator of intangible brand value, simultaneously bring long-term and continuous business success (Nam et al., 2011, Dick and Basu, 1994) by enhancing the brand-customer relationship through higher customer retention and higher satisfaction with products.
Experiential marketing creates specific scenes to allow customers...