The Factory Experience - Experience Marketing to the End Consumer -

Abstract

There has been a shift of consumption from product, to service and finally to experiences in western societies. Moreover, changes in the business environment and speeded up by technology, have pushed companies to seek new strategies to cope with the ever growing difficulty of reaching consumers and differentiating themselves from competitors. Hence, traditional marketing is not enough anymore.

It has been recognized that experience marketing gives companies the opportunity to present themselves and their products through stimulation of senses. One possibility is to provide customers with experiences in a production environment. The experience environment can become a successful tourist attraction and at the same time act as a marketing arena for the company. Factory experience can thereby function as a multi-dimensional brochure for the product and the brand.

Based on personal interviews with marketing executives and managers responsible for visitor centres of eight different companies in northern Europe, this paper describes the phenomenon of factory experience and investigates the benefits of providing factory experiences. The study also presents an overview regarding the strategies of experience marketing, especially in a manufacturing context. The study demonstrates how the right sensory engagement can create an experience and that, in an optimal situation, the experience factory could become a self-sustaining marketing tool.