Event maketing planning

SMK University of Applied Social Sciences

Indre Radaviciene

EVENT MARKETING PLANNING

Course handbook

Klaipeda, 2015

SCIENCE ECONOMY COHESION EUROPEAN UNION

Creating the Future of Lithuania UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Indre Radaviciene

Event marketing planning

Course handbook

Approved by the decision of the Academic Board of SMK University of

Applied Social Sciences, 15th April 2014, No. 4.

The publication is financed within project „Joint Degree Study

programme “International Marketing and Branding “ preparation and

implementation“ No. VP1-2.2-ŠMM-07-K-02-086 funded in accordance

with the means VP1-2.2-SMM-07-K “Improvement of study quality,

development of Internationalization” of priority 2 “Lifelong Learning” of

the Action Programme of Human Relations Development 2007 – 2013.

© Indre Radaviciene, 2015

© SMK University of Applied Social Sciences, 2015

ISBN 978-9955-648-71-0

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 7

Part 1: Environment of event marketing ................................................ 8

Part 2: Strategy of event marketing. Market researching ...................... 25

Part 3: Segmentation of event marketing

and selections of target markets ................................................ 35

Part 4: Strategies of event marketing positioning ................................. 45

Part 5: Event marketing sponsorship .................................................... 54

Part 6: Marketing elements in event marketing .................................... 66

Part 7: Promotion mix in event marketing ............................................ 89

Part 8: Efficiency of event planning ..................................................... 118

TASKS FOR INDIVIDUAL/GROUP WORKS ........................................... 136

REFERENCE OUTLINE .......................................................................... 144

LITERATURE ........................................................................................ 174

7

INTRODUCTION

This course unit aims at expanding and deepening the knowledge on the

theory of sales promoti on and event marketi ng as well as the knowledge

on methods, also developing their skills of a problem based percepti on

and thinking. Students will get acquainted with the environment of an

event marketi ng, the types of the environment, and strategy of event

marketi ng when choosing the right target segment, an eff ecti ve strategy

of positi oning. Students will have an opportunity to get acquainted with

the effi ciency of the processes of event planning, the main methods of

event support.

The aim of course is to provide students with knowledge on marketi ng

while disti nguishing the factors determining its specifi cs, the signifi cance

of concepti on to the success of the enti ti es of business system, to

develop abiliti es to make strategic and tacti cal decisions in the context

of the EU market and global processes; to develop skills and abiliti es to

do signifi cant marketi ng research; assess the results of expression of

marketi ng communicati on, image and organizati onal culture, and the

risk of strategic management of marketi ng; to make decisions on the

funding of marketi ng acti vity when implementi ng business development

in both internati onal and local markets; to provide knowledge on sales

promoti on disti nguishing the factors determining the specifi cs of their

selecti on.

Learning outcomes of a Course Event marketi ng planning:

1. To be able to identi fy the functi ons, concepti ons, strategies of event

marketi ng, the created types of benefi ts and assess the validity of

certain decisions.

2. To be able to correctly select target markets and ways of product

positi oning for market or adverti sing research, to make maps of

competi ti veness.

3. To be able to assess decisions on the necessity, methods and means

of support of event support and assess their effi ciency.

4. To be able to appropriately prepare adverti sing project on the needs

of a customer.

5. To be able to plan independently decisions on the management

of the marketi ng complex of events and other occurrences and its

elements.

6. To be able to correctly choose a suitable set of the means of sales

promoti on.

8

Part 1

ENVIRONMENT OF EVENT MARKETING

Objecti ve outline:

1. To introduce students to the elements of marketi ng analysis:

marketi ng environment analysis, customer analysis, competi tor

analysis, and company analysis;

2. To familiarize students to the generic event marketi ng strategies

and strategic marketi ng decisions for profi table delivery of superior

value to the customers.

3. To enhance their problem-solving and decision-making abiliti es in

strategic areas of marketi ng.

Chapter Key Terms:

Marketi ng

Upstream marketi ng acti viti es

Downstream marketi ng acti viti es

Customer

Marketi ng concept

Without a research orientati on, communicati on practi ti oners cannot

play a part in Issues or Risk Management and therefore in the formulati on

of emergent strategy. There are two types of research in communicati on:

environmental scanning, which provides informati on needed for strategy

formulati on; and evaluati on research, which assesses the achievement

of communicati on objecti ves. In practi ce, the focus is on the latt er.

However, it is by conducti ng environmental scanning and analysis

that the Communicati on functi on will make its biggest contributi on to

strategy formulati on at the Board and top management level.1

The credibility and impact of the Communicati on functi on in the

strategic management process is increased by conti nuous scanning of

the internal and external environment. This may entail the following:

• Conducti ng advanced media analysis at regular intervals, to

understand the agenda and behavioural patt erns of key decision￾makers (editors and journalists) and publicati ons (electronic and

print) in the mass media.

9

• Engaging in rigorous monitoring of relevant government decision￾makers on all identi fi ed issues.

• Conducti ng opinion audits (formal or informal surveys) amongst

strategic stakeholders, infl uencers and opinion leaders to determine

their opinions on identi fi ed issues. Creati ng channels to track the

opinions of stakeholders on these issues over ti me.

• Identi fying any (all) interest groups or acti vists that campaign for,

or against, or have a vested interest in any of the identi fi ed issues.1

Issue analysis

Resulti ng from environmental scanning, analysis of an issue consists of:

• Showing insight into the main problem and/or opportunity inherent

to the issue (e.g. How does this issue aff ect the organisati on now, or

will it impact on the organizati on in future?).

• Understanding the issue in the context of its life cycle development

in order to indicate its status (the Traffi c Light Status tool may be

used to indicate status).

• An honest assessment of the type of issue/ risk we’re dealing with, as

not all identi fi ed issues can be solved solely through communicati on

interventi ons (the Issue Typology tool of Steyn & Puth, 2000 is oft en

used to manage expectati ons upfront and lay the foundati on for

realisti c goals and objecti ves to follow).2

View an example of Issues Analysis.

Stakeholder assessment

If environmental scanning is a starti ng point for the formulati on of

emergent strategy, then stakeholder assessment is its control focus.

The fi rst step in setti ng communicati on goals and themes is to identi fy

the relevant stakeholders to an issue. Any issue without an aff ected

stakeholder group is really not an issue at all. The moti vati on to constantly

analyse the internal and external environments of an organizati on lies

in tracking stakeholder reacti ons to current issues and detecti ng new

issues.2

10

Intelligence gained from environmental scanning may entail:

• The opinions, knowledge and expectati ons of both internal and

external stakeholders such as employees, communiti es, and

customers.

• The agenda of the media as gatekeepers and advocates of parti cular

viewpoints.

• The agendas of interest groups and acti vists, who directly seek to

infl uence public policy.

• The government’s positi on.2

In linking issues to stakeholders, there are four important elements

to consider:

• The implicati ons of an issue on a stakeholder group and the likely

behaviour of the stakeholder group as a result. (What are the

implicati ons on stakeholder X? What is the likely behaviour of

stakeholder X? Possible acti ons they may take?).

• The degree to which a stakeholder is already aware of the existence

of an issue (usually rated on a 5-point Likert scale).

• The extent to which the organisati on is vulnerable to the likely

stakeholder reacti on (usually rated on a 5-point Likert scale). It is

important to determine the amount of power a stakeholder group

has in relati on to a specifi c issue. The amount of power depends on

the organisati on’s dependency on that stakeholder group as well as

the access that the group has to politi cal processes and to the mass

media.

• The relati ve strategic importance of the stakeholder to the

organisati on. (Is the stakeholder labelled as a primary or secondary

stakeholder?).2

View an example of Stakeholder Interpretati on.

Stakeholder relati onships

There are four approaches in dealing with stakeholders:

Approach 1 - Inacti vity: The fi rst approach, inacti vity, involves ignoring

the opinions and values of stakeholder groups and conti nuing “business

as usual”. For instance, this would be the case when a company starts

receiving complaints from customers about defecti ve tyres that they are

11

manufacturing. The company however decides to ignore the complaints

and conti nues selling the tyres.2

Approach 2 - Reacti vity: The second approach, reacti vity, involves waiti ng

for something to occur (usually sti mulated by a stakeholder group) and

responding to that. Conti nuing the example: Aft er a series of accidents

and the loss of lives the Government (Dept. of Transport) commissions

an inquiry. Only now does the organisati on withdraw its tyres from the

market.2

Approach 3 – Pro-acti vity: The third approach, pro-acti vity, is

anti cipatory. It involves trying to predict the behaviour of stakeholder

groups, the external changes that may occur and positi oning the

organisati on appropriately. In the above example, if the organisati on had

been in touch with its customers or dealers through research, they could

have investi gated the matt er before it became public knowledge. This

could have resulted in fi xing the problem or recalling the tyres. However,

government interventi on led to a loss of credibility and reputati on.2

Approach 4 – Interacti vity: The fourth approach in dealing with

stakeholders is the interacti ve mode that entails acti ve involvement

with the stakeholder groups that can infl uence the future of the

organizati on. If the organizati on had good two-way communicati on with

their stakeholders, they would have identi fi ed the problem in its early

stages. Even more eff ecti ve would have been to follow a partnership

approach with stakeholders. Partnering would have involved the

aff ected customers, dealers or government in the problem-solving and

decision-making processes of the company with regards to the defecti ve

tyres. A partnering approach could have strengthened relati onships with

stakeholders, rather than antagonising them.2

And as if this is not enough for marketers to deal with, consumers have

changed their ways in recent years as well by becoming more and more

fi ckle, unpredictable and increasingly “immune” to common marketi ng

practi ces (Brown 1995).3

Indeed, the growing affl uence in industrialised

societi es is having profound residual eff ects on the societal value

system and its dominant consumpti on ethic. In parti cular, the shift from

maintenance consumpti on (the compulsory shopping for necessiti es)

towards experienti al consumpti on (shopping as a pleasurable end in

itself) is exemplifying the current drift towards a romanti c consumpti on

12

in Western societi es, where the emphasis on living your life right here

and now (Campbell 1987).4

Social trends, such as increasing orientati on

towards leisure and recreati on as well as a desire for individualism, are

leading to signifi cant changes in consumer behaviour (Opaschowski

2000; Schulze 2000; Firat and Shultz 1997; Cova 1997).5;6;7;8 Whether one

agrees or disagrees with the philosophical idea of postmodernism or its

value and implicati ons for marketi ng practi ce (Brown 1999, 1994),9;10

there is no denying that a number of the conditi ons proposed by Firat

(1991)11 determine consumer behaviour and the way of doing business

in today’s affl uent societi es (Brown 2002; Cova and Cova 2002; Patt erson

1998).12;13;14 Those conditi ons, which are briefl y discussed in this paper,

include among others the fragmentati on of mass-markets, the age of the

(self-)image by mixing playfully elements of existi ng styles and blurring

disti ncti ons between high and low culture (Cova 1996),15 the nostalgic

preoccupati on with the past (Brown 2001; Holbrook 1995)16;17 or the

search for hyperreal experiences (Opaschowski 2000; Schulze 2000).18;19

Therefore, as (in the spirit of management guru Tom Peters) crazy

ti mes call for crazy and creati ve measures, marketers need to consider

the design of marketi ng strategies that provide consumers with a

platf orm where they can experience brands in a way that contributes to

their subjecti vely perceived quality of life. In other words, the emphasis

of branding should be placed on sti mulati ng hyperreal experiences

for consumers to meet the changing needs in affl uent (postmodern)

societi es (Whelan and Wohlfeil 2005).20 In light of these demands,

event-marketi ng has already become an increasingly popular alternati ve

for marketers in Conti nental Europe. Event-marketi ng is defi ned in the

context of this paper as the staging of interacti ve marketi ng-events as

3-dimensional hyperreal brand experiences for consumers, which would

result in an emoti onal att achment to the brand. Thus, consumers are

acti vely involved on a behavioural level as parti cipants and encouraged

to experience the brand values multi -sensually in a 3-dimensional hyper

reality. Furthermore, as a pull strategy within marketi ng communicati ons,

the parti cipati on of consumers is voluntarily and subsequently not

perceived as an invasion of privacy as it is the case with classic marketi ng

communicati ons. In fact, the irony is that consumers parti cipate on

their own free will in those brand hyper realiti es, even though they are

specifi cally designed to communicate the same commercial messages

they usually tend to avoid (Whelan and Wohlfeil 2005).20

13

This, however, leads inevitably to the questi on: Is event-marketi ng just

another postmodern craze or is it an exciti ng new way for marketers to

reach their target audiences in the changing marketi ng communicati on

landscape of affl uent societi es? Why should marketi ng managers should

stretch their creati ve imaginati on to the limits to create and stage unique

brand hyper realiti es for consumers, when it would be much easier,

convenient and “less risky” to exploit the commercial propriety of an

existi ng external event (event sponsorship)? And, anyway, why should

marketers care about making a contributi on to consumers subjecti vely

experienced quality of life, when their primary concern and sole purpose

should be to sell products and to make profi ts for their shareholders

(Friedman 1970/2001).21 Thus, the objecti ve of this paper is to introduce

the concept of event-marketi ng fi rst to a broader audience and then to

discuss its role within marketi ng communicati ons as well as its impact

on consumers in the changing (postmodern) marketi ng communicati ons

landscape. As a consequence, the research obviously raises some key

academic and managerial implicati ons. By presenti ng empirical evidence

from a qualitati ve fi eld experiment conducted at the Guinness Storehouse

in Dublin, the paper will outline how brands can be communicated to

both external and internal target audiences as 3-dimensional real-lived

experiences, which would strengthen the emoti onal att achment to

the brand, and how marketers can build mutually benefi cial customer￾brand relati onships by using their imaginati on in the development and

implementati on of creati ve event-marketi ng strategies. The fi ndings will

not only narrow the identi fi ed informati on gap, but also demonstrate

how the staged brand hyper reality could contribute to consumers’

subjecti ve quality of life as an enchantment of experienti al consumpti on.

When explaining the concept of event-marketi ng as an innovati ve

marketi ng communicati on strategy, the authors always encounter

immediately a variety of disbelief and confusion. One of most utt ered

arguments, the authors are on a regular basis confronted with, is the idea

that event-marketi ng is not new and the marketers have always managed

a seminar, a sales stand in the shopping mall, a competi ti on or a product

testi ng of some kind. These points are then either complemented

or contradicted by the argument that event-marketi ng de facto is the

sponsorship of a concert, the World Cup or a street festi val. Given the

general generosity and liberty by which the term event marketi ng has

been used to describe all kinds of phenomena in marketi ng practi ce and

literature (Cornwell and Maignan 1998)22 ranging from the marketi ng of

14

events within the framework of event management (Goldblatt 1997)23

to event sponsorships (Cunningham et al. 1993)24 and even sales

promoti ons (Andersson and Weslau 2000)25, those responses should

come as no surprise. However, to make it quite clear from the start, the

concept of event-marketi ng that is discussed by the authors in this paper

has nothing to do with the sponsorship of any events nor with running

sales promoti ons in the shopping mall or the professional marketi ng

of an event – although to be fair, the management of the marketi ng￾event obviously plays a certain role in the operati onal implementati on

of the event-marketi ng strategy. Instead, event-marketi ng is defi ned as

the staging of interacti ve marketi ng-events as 3-dimensional hyper real

brand experiences for consumers, which would result in an emoti onal

att achment to the brand.

3

As an experienti al marketi ng communicati on strategy in the context

of this defi niti on, event-marketi ng fi rst emerged in the late 1980s in

response to the signifi cant changes in both the marketi ng environment

and consumer behaviour in Germany (Wohlfeil and Whelan 2005a).26

By communicati ng brand values as “real-lived” experiences, event￾marketi ng strategies are designed to take in parti cular advantage of

the shift from maintenance to experienti al consumpti on in the societal

value system of affl uent societi es (Weinberg and Gröppel 1989)27 and

the consumers’ desire for idealised simulati ons of reality (Firat 1991).28

Experienti al consumpti on refers to obtaining enriching experiences

through emoti onal benefi ts, by which consumers att empt to improve the

subjecti vely experienced quality of their lives right here and now (Wohlfeil

2005; Weinberg and Gröppel 1989).29;27 This romanti c consumpti on

ethic has not only led to an increasing orientati on towards and acti ve

parti cipati on in leisure, recreati on, entertainment and subcultural neo￾tribes (Cova and Cova 2002; Opaschowski 2000; Campbell 1987),13;5;4

but has also demonstrated the urgent need for experienti al brand

communicati ons to gain consumers’ att enti on.

To achieve this objecti ve, the communicati ve innovati on of event￾marketi ng derives from its four consti tuti ve features:

• Experience-orientati on:

As personal lived experiences tend to be stronger than “second￾hand” media experiences in determining consumers’ noti on of reality,

consumers are encouraged to experience the brand reality as acti ve

parti cipants rather than being passive recipients and, subsequently, are

off ered a contributi on to their subjecti ve quality of life (Weinberg and

Nickel 1998).30

15

• Interacti vity:

In diff erence to the monological provision of informati on in classic

marketi ng communicati ons, event-marketi ng off ers a platf orm for

interacti ve and personal dialogues between parti cipants, spectators and

brand representati ves (Zanger and Sistenich 1996).31

• Self-initi ati on:

Because event-marketi ng is aimed at infl uencing consumers

emoti onally by staging self-initi ated marketi ng-events, the marketer is in

full control of the way in which sensual brand experiences are anchored

in the world of consumer feelings and experiences (Wohlfeil and Whelan

2005b; Weinberg and Nickel 1998).32;33

• Dramaturgy:

In order for consumers to emoti onally experience the lived brand￾reality, it requires a unique and creati ve dramaturgy that, similar to a

theatre play, brings the brand image to life and captures the imaginati on

of the target audience. Therefore, the more the event-marketi ng

strategy diff ers from consumers’ everyday life experiences, the higher is

the degree of acti vati on among consumers (Sistenich 1999; Zanger and

Sistenich 1996).34;35

Thus, in contrast to event sponsorship, event-marketi ng is aimed

at positi vely infl uencing customers’ familiarity, image, atti tude and

emoti onal att achment to the brand by staging self-initi ated marketi ng￾events as a 3-dimensional, interacti ve brand-related hyper reality for

consumers. Because personally “lived” experiences tend to be stronger

in determining people’s noti on of reality than the “second-hand”

experiences as traditi onally communicated by adverti sing (Weinberg

and Nickel 1998)33, marketi ng-events are bett er equipped to anchor

multi -sensual brand experiences in the world of customer feelings and

experiences (Weinberg and Gröppel 1989)27. Furthermore, in comparison

to classic marketi ng communicati on strategies, where customers

generally remain passive and distant recipients of brand messages, the

major peculiarity of event-marketi ng is the fact that target audiences

are encouraged to experience the brand values acti vely by becoming

part of its hyper reality (Wohlfeil and Whelan 2004)36. For instance, at

the Red Bull Flugtag consumers are invited to “sti mulate their body and

mind” and “give themselves wings” by building their own home-made

fl ying machines and then leaping off a 6-metre high ramp to get as far

as possible over a river. And while in adverti sing or sales promoti ons a

contact remains rather accidental, consumers acti vely seek to engage

with various event-marketi ng strategy. However, in order to uti lise its

full potenti al, any event-marketi ng strategy must be designed in a way

16

that consumers do not want to miss taking part in a brand’s experienti al

hyper reality. Thus, marketers must have a thorough understanding of

what needs consumers seek to sati sfy by parti cipati ng in marketi ng￾events. By meeti ng the growing need for romanti c simulati ons of

reality and experienti al consumpti on, marketi ng managers not only

make a contributi on to consumers’ subjecti vely perceived quality of

life, but also succeed in establishing brand values through a unique

communicati on propositi on and building mutually benefi cial customer￾brand relati onships, as outlined in the following example of the Guinness

Storehouse in Dublin.

DISCUSSION

Study case: Guinness storehouse, Dublin

Guinness is probably the most famous Irish brand in the world. In

fact, such is the global fame of the Guinness brand that it is already

recognised as an essenti al element of the Irish heritage and culture.

In parti cular, the infamous Irish pub culture is unimaginable without

a pint of Guinness. At least, that is the image the many tourists have

in their mind and that is displayed in nearly every available tourist

guidebook. Unfortunately, people at Diageo, the parent company that

owns the Guinness brand, had to learn the hard way that having one

of the best-known brands in the world does not necessarily translate

in people’s consumpti on of that brand. Although the Guinness brand

has historically always been all about community, where people come

together and share their stories, it was increasingly perceived in Ireland

as a brand choice of the older, rural generati ons. In fact, the younger

generati ons in Ireland and abroad increasingly opted increasingly for

the more fashionable lagers or alcopops rather than the traditi onal Irish

stouts and ales. Therefore, in order to reconnect Guinness with younger

Irish drinkers, who were switching more oft en to lagers and alcopops,

the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin was opened to the public as a brand

land in December 2000. Within the concept of event-marketi ng, brand

lands are immobile corporate theme parks that provide an interacti ve

mixture of entertainment and informati on around brand-related themes

to consumers (Wohlfeil and Whelan 2005a; 2004). Located in a former

fermentati on building, the dull industrial brick exterior leads into a foyer

with a modern glass-and-steel interior symbolising a bridge between the

heritage of the past and the demands of the future.