PROJECT REPORT ON

Experiential Marketing: Mc Donald’s

SUBJECT:

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

FACULTY GUIDE:

Mrs. RIYA SHARMA

SUBMITTED BY:

(MBA- 2ND SEM)

MANISH GUPTA(17)
KUNAL KUMAR(38)
MANISH CHAUHAN(39)
PRADEEP KUMAR(40)
Acknowledgement:

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our teacher, Mrs. Riya Sharma,
for her invaluable guidance and steadfast support throughout the course.

Special thanks also goes to Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management Studies

for offering this excellent MBA program. We would like to thank the faculty,
administrative and technical staff who has bestowed much help and patience
during the program.

We would also like to express our deepest appreciation to all our friends and
family for their unwavering support and faith in us.

Lastly, we would like to thank everyone else who has helped us in one way or
another in making this research possible.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS PAGE NO.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING 4
CONSUMER PERCEPTION AND RESPONSE 5
WHY ITS BECOMING SO POPULAR 6
A NEW TOOL FOR BRANDS 7
FUTURE IN INDIA 8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 9

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE 12
RESEARCH DESIGN 12
SAMPLE DESIGN 12
SAMPLING METHOD 13
DATA COLLECTION 13

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

KEY FINDINGS 14

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANNEXURE

 Mc Donald’s Feedback Form.

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Chapter 1:
Introduction:
What is Experiential Marketing:

Customers and users of today’s world are more and more immune (and allergic) to
a certain kind of traditional advertising and marketing. Experiential marketing is a
unique approach to the task of marketing goods and services. It is a concept that
integrates elements of emotions, logic, and general thought processes to connect
with the consumer. The goal of experiential marketing is to establish the
connection in such a way that the consumer responds to a product offering based
on both emotional and rational response levels. Here are a few of the basics of
experiential marketing, and how this process can often succeed when other
marketing strategies fail.

Appealing to a variety of senses, experiential marketing seeks to tap into that

special place within consumers that has to do with inspiring thoughts about
comfort and pleasure, as well as inspiring a sense of practicality. This means that
the marketer needs to have a firm grasp on the mindset of the target audience he or
she wishes to attract. By understanding what the consumer is likely to think and
feel, it is possible to get an idea of how to steer the customer in a direction that
will relate with the product, and entice individuals to act on that impulse to
purchase.

In order to engage in experiential marketing, it is necessary to engage as many of

the senses as possible. Striking displays with powerful visual elements, such as
websites, and visual media such as print ads should not only be visually appealing,
but also conjure up daydreams of locales and reminders of sensations that are
enjoyable to the individual. When used to create customer experiences of this
nature, a sense of rapport between the product and the consumer is established that

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helps to make the good or service more desirable with each encounter. Because
experiential marketing connects with the consumer on multiple levels, the strategy
is ideally suited for contemporary sales and marketing campaigns. This means that
ads on the Internet, in print media, and on modern billboards must immediately
catch the attention of prospective clients and hold that attention long enough to
make an impact. Experiential marketing holds the key to making this happen. By
appealing to all the senses, and making the connection quickly and seamlessly, this
approach to the marketing task ensures that businesses can still attract and satisfy
the needs and desires of consumers.

Experiential marketing gives customers in-depth experiences with products in

order to give them enough information to make the purchase decision. Experiential
marketing is the difference between telling people about features or benefits
within the confines of the thirty-second TV spot and letting them experience it and
get their own "a-ha!" event.

"Marketing methods need to be innovative and inventive to keep current with the
new realities of the landscape our clients compete in," says Josh McCall, CEO of
Jack Morton. "Experiential marketing offers a valuable strategy to brands that
need new ways to reach their targets. Experiential marketing is completely
effective at influencing brand perception and purchasing decisions, and yet is still
underutilized in reaching consumers."

Consumer Perception and Response

Consumer perception:

Consumer perception refers to the process by which the consumer receives,

selects, organizes and interprets information to create meaning. Perception is an
individual process and depends on internal factors such as a person’s beliefs,
experiences, needs, moods and expectations It is important to understand
consumers attitudes because they have an impact on consumers exposure,
attention and reaction to marketing messages through a series of cognitive and
affective processes.

Selective perception can occur at any of the four below stages of perception:

1) Selective exposure – Consumer chooses whether to make themselves available

to information

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2) Selective attention – Consumer chooses to focus attention on certain stimuli
while excluding the rest

3) Selective comprehension – Consumer interprets the information based on his

own attitudes, beliefs, motives and experiences

4) Selective retention – Consumer remembers only part of the information he sees,

hears and reads even after paying attention to and understanding it

Consumer Response :

The receivers set of reactions after seeing, hearing or reading the message is
known as a response. Consumer response can range from non-observable actions
such as storing information in memory to observable actions such as actual
product purchase. The general consumer response process consists of the
following dimensions:

 Decision making – Consumer determines if he needs or wants the product

 Persuasion – Changes consumers attitude and behavior
 Association – Brand takes on symbolic meaning for the consumer
 Affective/emotional response – Feelings that stimulate wants and creates
feelings.
 Cognition – How consumer responds to, learns and understands
information
 Perception – Process of interpretation of stimuli through five senses
 Behavior – Consumer wants to try and buy the product

Why is experiential marketing becoming so popular?

One simple reason - it gets results. Consumers are increasingly alienated and
turned off by traditional forms of advertising. Experiential marketing tries to
change the consumer perception.

Experiential marketing is different in that it allows consumers to interact with

products and make up their own mind, rather than being told how good they are.

Over recent years word of mouth has become the marketing buzz word, and when
it comes to proactively encouraging word of mouth 74% of brands believe that
experiential marketing is the best way to do this.

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In addition, an astoundingly high 87% rate experiential marketing as one of the top
3 most cost-effective marketing activities.

Creative experiential marketing, when applied correctly, will lead to greater

impact for the consumer, increased effectiveness for the advertiser, and even cost
savings relative to traditional advertising or marketing techniques.

Experiential marketing is new tool for brands

With more and more brands climbing on to the retail bandwagon, the FMCG and
durable segment will have to rely increasingly on advertising and ground level
marketing. With the likes of Future Group to Reliance to Tatas mulling category
killer stores, the reach of the brand becomes all the more important. Marketing
gurus feel that experiential marketing will be the next big tool to reach a cross
section of the Indian consumer market.

First there were jingles, then there were punch lines. What will be the next step for
brands to firm up brand recall?

Experiential marketing is the new tool which brands like to follow. Whether
durables, non-durable and FMCG or service sector, everyone wants to give an
experience to their consumers. For e.g. if a consumer wants to buy a motorcycle,
he would like to touch, feel, relate and experience the product, prior to buying the
same. The product or service that a consumer experiences is really important for
the company to create or change the mindset of the consumer.

The number of promotional tools like kiosks, stalls, free sampling etc. has
increased tremendously in the last decade. Even the consumer want to test the
product prior to buying it for e.g. even a pack of biscuits. It’s the experience which
is attracting the consumer towards a brand.

With Indian retail giants expanding and the likes of Wal Mart and Tesco coming
to India, would experiential marketing be of help to them?

Yes, experiential marketing is a great platform for giants like Wal Mart and Tesco
since retail outlets are an experience in itself for the consumer. Experiential
marketing further enhances the promotional activities to reach the consumer’s
doorstep that will result in brand recall. Through experiential marketing,
consumers have immense choice today to experience the product or service
through road shows, events, direct marketing or public relations.

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Wal-mart is one of the brands which is using experiential marketing to capture
audiences overseas. After the release of Star Wars III, Wal Mart, which was the
licensed distributor of star wars products, promoters, tents and a person dressed as
Darth Vader to pull the crowd. More than 2500 people were hired and trained for
the event.

Does the strategy also help smaller chains and stores in expanding?

Yes, this strategy will definitely help the smaller chains and stores to expand as
they need more awareness and attention from the consumers and will also get
more mileage. The target group will directly get the information about these
stores.

How has experiential marketing helped Indian companies, in both large business
and the small and medium business segments?

Whether it’s an automobile manufacturing company or a consumer durable

company, they all want to gauge the consumer with an experience which will
carve a niche for the companies in the market. As the competition gets tougher
amongst the corporates, brands offering the best will make it to the top. Big
companies are able to offer larger than life experience due to huge budgets on their
promotional marketing.

What is the future of experiential marketing in India

Indian markets are getting more complex and demanding, mass media is working
less and less. Currently experiential holds 15% of the total advertising expenditure
which is expected to grow by another 10% in the coming years. Durable fraternity
would spend almost 60% of their advertising budgets on experiential promotions

After economic reforms, marketing has changed the entire consumer behavior, it
has intensified more competition in brands. Now we are in net revolution. We
have left behind traditional marketing concepts. Earlier we were using product,
feature based brands to induce consumers. Now we have new differentiator in
marketing. This is called Experiential Marketing. This new marketing mix is
trying to bring brands to life through experience.

Experiential marketing is to stimulate in active manner, to engage consumer in a

personal life experience, to allow them to be receptive with the brand in a
personalised environment. Experiential marketing is to create and add the value of
life, they are to be involved in the product development process.

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We have seen lots of marketers are doing these experiences like Indica, Pepsodent,
NIIT, Pepsi, and Dishnet. Experiential marketing is also about choosing
customers, selling your dreams. Here dreams are not a product it is about
experience. Take the case of PEPSI they are in business of creating experiences
for consumers through events, placement of visicoolers, everything.

Chapter 2:
Literature Review:

Experiential marketing is having mind shift approach in its delivery system it has
creative rules and frame work. It has to be viewed scientifically. Experiential marketing
focuses on customer experiences. Traditional marketing fails to gauge sensory, motional,
cognitive behavioral relationship needs. But in the case of experiential marketing it has
philosophy, neurobiology, psychology and sociological theory of the consumer.

Indian Experiences

1. The launching of SHELL:

The launching of shell brand of two wheeler oil-SHELL 21. The objectives
were to provide certain experience which ad could not provide or deliver.
The USP was purity, colorless, odorless. They carried out these experiences
in 25-30 cities with the oil. Two wheeler driver could see, smell through
experiences, this was done in petrol pumps. Over 16 lacs consumers went
through these experiences. It was measured as parameter of trials and repeat
purchase rate.

2. Hindustan Lever:
Hindustan Lever is one of the best examples of the mind shift that explains
experiential marketing. They targeted children for PEPSODENT in 96.
They decided to take the pepsodent experience through a positive dentist
interaction. They targeted schools all over the country. They did this in the
following manner:

a. They hired dentists who gave personal and audio visual interaction
b. Taught about brushing, good oral habits.

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 c. Check ups, given colorful edutainment booklets.
d. Gave dental forms to kids.
e. Setting up kiosks with touch screen where a kid can have all queries,
experiences.

HLL did these experiences in 25 cities and targeted 2.5 million kids. These
exercises forged a new personalized relationship with kids which made
pepsodent being seen as high brand recall product & identified itself with
oral care. HLL is also doing these experiences with VIM dishwasher brand.

3. Reebok India:
Reebok India did same thing. In May 1999 consumers were encouraged to
try out Reebok’s premium brand DMX shoes. They created related posters
merchandising a site where customers were blind folded to cut out visual
distraction, given a walkman to cut out noise. DMX was placed in one foot.
Then they were asked to take a walk & feel the shoe. Feedback was taken
and was written in a form. They targeted 8793 consumers and from there
they converted 708 consumers as their purchaser.

4. NIIT :
This institute wanted to change its image from career building course
provider to high tech provider. It launched ‘Java Cafes’ in engineering
colleges after sending volunteers to targeted colleges to quiz students on
their topics of interest. They devised one hour workshop with presentation
on these, that could be done on the net. The idea was to create an
association bondage with students, and to gather something which they
have experienced here. NIIT extended 20 colleges and registered 70% of
participants. With this NIIT created an experience in with promise – high
touch.

5. Mahindra:
Mahindra in India, Mahindra Tractors wanted to launch their Hi Tec brand
which was a strong hydraulic tractor aiming to help farmers saw the field.
To show this technology to the farmers they engaged them through a
technique in which sensors were fixed to the hydraulic and a large LCD
monitor was placed for the farmers, which captured the movement of the
cultivator on an ECG graph. This activity was easily understood and
remembered by the farmers and the sales graph was tremendously increased

6. TVS:
Recently, TVS launched a wedding campaign promoting its bikes, to
capture the maximum target audience as the wedding season swept entire
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Wedding theme based mobile vans were used to

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 create awareness and promote the newly launched bikes, namely, Star
sports and Star city (ES spoke variant) across 50 districts. The marketing
tool was a success, generating more than 50,000 enquiries in 1000 days.
This campaign created an instant buzz for TVS in Uttar Pradesh.

7. Whirlpool:
Whirlpool a renowned name in consumer durable market, launched a
campaign for Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The audience
experienced the brand functions via road shows, kiosks and interactive
sessions. This promotion generated over 600 enquires in 75 days.

Experiential Marketing can be easily combined with Word of Mouth Marketing

and affects can be astounding .An experiential approach to launch a brand may be
more effective and relevant than anything that television advertisements can offer.
Experiential marketing, invites change in mindset. It has all sense, feel, thinking
act & relatedness. All the strategic marketing, tools are to be synchronized in a
consistent, holistic, enriching experience.

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Chapter 3:
Research Methodology:
Marketing Research :

Marketing research is defined as the process of designing, gathering, analyzing

and reporting information that may be utilized to solve a particular marketing
problem. The American Marketing Association (AMA) has defined it as the
function that links the consumer, customer and the public to the marketer through
information. This information is used to

 Identify and define marketing opportunities and problems.

 Generate, refine and evaluate marketing actions.
 Monitor marketing performance.
 Improve understanding of marketing as a process.

Primary Objectives:

The primary objective of our study was to identify the potential of experiential
marketing in India and the effect of such marketing strategy on the customers by
researching on the experience provided by the Mc Donald’s.

Research Design:

Research was both primary and secondary in nature.

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As for the secondary research various websites and articles were thoroughly
studied and a clear image of the market demand was framed. What customers
need apart from the product was studied.

The primary research was carried out in the form of feedback forms which were
filled by customers of Mc Donald’s and then on the basis of these the hypothesis
was tested and a clear picture of the customer was revealed.

Sample Design:

Sample size:

 Customers – 50
 Shops- 5

Sampling method:

Random & Judgmental sampling

Data Collection:

Type of Data:

 Primary data:

Feedback forms filled up by Customers.

 Secondary data:

Internet, Books from the College Library, Business articles, television,

Other Journals and research projects available on experiential marketing in
the college library.

Data Collection Method:

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The information on these aspects was collected through primary and secondary
means. The study was descriptive and was conducted using Feedback form, which
formed the Primary source information, while literature provided from internet,
some books, and articles constituted the secondary source of information.

Sampling Frame:

The shops were randomly selected and the customers were selected from those
who were coming out of Mc Donald’s shops and existing customers who were
known to us.

Limitations of Research Methodology:

General limitations

1) Sample size limitation

Due to time and resource constraint, the small size of the sample used in the
structured form limits the extent to which we can apply the results as a general
theory. Moreover, random sampling instead of convenience sampling might have
helped in generating a more valid data analysis and improve the accuracy of our
results.

2) Time issue

In our research, the questions posed to consumers were generally based on the
past, such as whether they had purchased a product, are a regular visitor etc. Thus,
this implied that no real time data has been collected. Our data and subsequent
conclusions will be based on the consumer response in the form.

3) Geographical constraints

We have limited our target respondents for the form to consumers living in New
Delhi(North) due to resource and time consideration. This will limit the
applicability of our research data on general consumers as a whole.

Limitations of Forms

1) Non response error

As mentioned in the previous section, we experienced cases in which the form was
returned to us in an incomplete manner. This can be deemed as non response error
on the part of the respondent. Non response is defined as a failure on the part of

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prospective respondent to take part in the survey or to answer specific questions in
the questionnaire. On our part, we tried to keep this error to a minimal by ensuring
anonymity and confidentiality and informing the respondents that their answers
will remain private and we will not associate their names with their answers.

2) Respondent misunderstanding

Respondent misunderstanding is defined as situations in which a respondent gives

an answer without comprehending the question and/or the accompanying
instructions. Potential respondent misunderstandings exist in all surveys.

Chapter 4:
Key Findings:

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Bibliography:

 http://www.marketingminefield.co.uk/unusual-ideas/experiential-
marketing.html
 http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-experiential-marketing.htm
 http://climbtothestars.org/focus/experiential-marketing/
 http://www.mcs-india.net/article-experimental-marketing.htm
 http://ideasmarkit.blogspot.com/2007/07/experiential-marketing-some-
examples.html
 Experiential Marketing: How to Get Customers to Sense, Feel, Think, Act,
Relate by -Bernd H. Schmitt
 http://www.mcs-india.net/article-experimental-marketing.htm
 http://www.etstrategicmarketing.com/smJune-July2/art6_2.htm

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Annexure:

FEEDBACK FORM
Please tell us what you liked and what you didn’t about your visit. Help
us improve so that every visit to McDonald’s will have you say, “I’m
lovin’ it”!

How often do you visit McDonald’s? First visit Daily

Weekly
Monthly
Occasionally

Please let us know of your experience today:

Excellent Good Average

Poor Very Poor

Food
Taste :
Presentation :

Service

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Speed :
Staff Friendliness :
Staff Presentability :
Value For Money :
Ambience :

Cleanliness
Indoor :
Outdoor :
Toilets :

Any Other Suggestions:

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Things you like the most at McDonald’s:

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Things you don’t like at McDonald’s:

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Are you likely to recommend Mc Donald’s to your friends and

family?
Yes No

Let us get to know you better:

Name :
………………………………………………………………….
Gender : Male Female
DOB :
………………………………………………………………….
Age :
………………………………………………………………….

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Mobile No. :
………………………………………………………………….
E-mail ID :
………………………………………………………………….

Share your overall experience and suggestions:

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