Coffee Shops & Experiential Marketing – The Perfect Blend

Experiential marketing aims to connect consumers with brands through one-to-one interactions, thereby lending a personal touch and creating long-lasting memories. It revolves around the concept of allowing the potential consumer to experience the brand before making a purchase. It uses the senses of touch, hear, taste, smell and sight to evoke an emotional brand connect. This eventually leads to a rational and informed purchase decision. It also lets the consumer be more confident about his purchase as he has experienced it before purchasing it. He then tends to be more easily satisfied with this purchase decision. Many brands have realised the relevance of this sort of advertising and are creating innovative and memorable experiential marketing campaigns.

One of the best avenues to undertake an experiential marketing campaign is coffee shops – an apt avenue to develop a strong connection with the target audience. Nowadays, popular coffee houses are very commonly found at many locations in all the cities. They are one of the preferred destinations for the youth to catch up with friends, enjoy some quality time, or even to spend some ‘me-time’. Coffee shops are also frequented by office goers to hold meetings, interviews and informal discussions. Therefore, coffee shops have a unique advantage of having a target audience who is ready to lap up your communication. They are in a relaxed and unhurried frame of mind. Also, since they spend on an average of at least 45 minutes at the coffee shop, they are very likely to absorb any marketing message around them. In such a scenario, an experiential marketing campaign involving product display, product sampling and live interaction can work like magic. It can have a great positive and long lasting impact on the target consumer’s mind. A two-way interaction or a physical experience can give you a deeper insight into their buying behaviour. Coffee shops are the perfect place to integrate products like biscuits, packaged snacks, chocolates, magazines, clubs, parks, weekend getaways, etc.

Branding across the entire store through L-stands, tent cards, danglers, wobblers, posters, banners, coasters, etc. can add to the overall effect and augment the entire experience for the potential customer. This coupled with a one-on-one interaction will solicit instant feedback and provide a good database for the brand. Such an effort is more likely to raise awareness, generate interest and result into a higher conversion ratio from ‘prospect’ to ‘consumer’.