BRAND EXPERIENCE AND BRAND EQUITY

Today’s consumers are confronted with countless choices and a multitude of information to consider when
they buy products or services. Traditional promotional methods like advertising in magazines or on TV are
no longer as effective as before. How can a company help their brand to stand out? What will make their
brand communication effective? In light of these questions and many others, brand experience has emerged
as an innovative and compelling way to build a brand in the minds of consumers.

Brand experience can be thought of as sensations, feelings, perceptions, and behavioural responses evoked
by brand-related stimuli. It consists of sensory, affective, cognitive, behavioural and relational stimuli that
provide consumers with a pleasurable and memorable experience. This adds an emotional element to
marketing. It is therefore assumed to have a positive impact on creating brand equity. The more powerful the
experience is, the stronger the brand impression. Brand experience also affects consumer satisfaction and
loyalty; it allows the brand to sell products at a premium and to create competitive entry barriers.

Experiential branding is a process by which brands create and drive sensory interactions with consumers in
all aspects of the brand experience to emotionally influence their preferences and to actively shape their
perceptions of the brand. Interactions involve communication, brand space, and product and service
elements. These elements work together to affect brand equity. The combination of all interactions with
communication, brand space, and product and service elements, make up a customer’s brand experience.
The customer will then form a brand evaluation and perception based on these interactions. This is what
builds brand equity in the consumer’s mind, and it is composed of four key dimensions: differentiation,
relevance, esteem and knowledge. Various experiential branding methods impact different dimensions of
brand equity, which must be carefully considered by marketers or brand managers when utilizing these
methods.Esteem measures the degree to which the target audiences regard and respect a brand—in short,
how well it is liked. When companies grow larger and become more mature, brand esteem becomes more
and more important. Today, companies often use indirect experiential branding methods to build brand
esteem. One way to do this is through the Internet and social networking websites.Through interactive
technologies, innovative retail spaces, and indirect online brand communication methods, consumers can
now see, touch, hear, taste, and smell brands in ways they never could before. Flashy advertising and price-
slashing product promotions are often not sustainable methods for brand building. Experiential branding,
with the objective of building brand equity, has emerged as a promising and viable alternative.

The purpose of this study is to understand the direct and indirect relationship between brand experience,
brand equity and brand loyalty. The author proposes the theoretical model that delineates the relationship
between brand experience and brand equity and loyalty. The study extends the understanding of the brand
experience construct by studying its influence on brand equity and loyalty.