Course objectives

In the globalised and increasingly digitised economies of the 21st century, consumers seek not only personalised goods and services but most importantly, seek hybrid experiences which seamlessly transcend and blend the physical and digital worlds. This, combined with the fast spread of technologies like Big Data, social media, AI and X-realities and the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environmental conditions, have changed the marketplace and mandated a re-examination of marketing strategy and techniques.

The purpose of this course is to challenge traditional approaches to marketing and introduce students to the experiential marketing mix strategic framework and the principles and techniques for creating and managing interactive off and online brand experiences and a seamless phygital Customer Experience (CX).

The objectives of the course are to equip students with the knowledge of the neurobiology and psychology of customer experience and their nexus with technological innovations of the 21st century. Also to equip students with the tools for designing and delivering experiences in the phygital age, the seven pillars (7Es) of experiential marketing and the methods for managing them responsibly, effectively and efficiently. The course will provide students the skills that will enable them to plan for effective phygital marketing, while cultivating the moral and leadership attitudes needed for creating sustainable competitive advantage and managing socially responsible organisations.

Learning outcomes

With the successful completion of the course students will be able to:

• Define and describe contemporary marketing challenges and theories for addressing these challenges.
• Compare, contrast, criticise, combine, re-formulate and modify traditional and state-of-the-art theories and technologies of experiential and sensory marketing according to circumstances and in view of resource constraints
• Plan, modify, evaluate and apply theories and tools to achieve strategic organisational objectives.
• Select and implement the appropriate technological tools for achieving meaningful and memorable brand experiences that will lead to customer satisfaction, positive Word of Mouth (WoM), loyalty and, ultimately value cocreation.

Course content

• Introduction to the experiential marketing movement, its principles and philosophical and methodological premises.
• Analysis of the seven pillars (7Es) and presents the tools that organisations can use to design, promote and deliver business experiences in the phygital age.
• Communications aspects of the experiential marketing mix. Criteria and methods for selecting the appropriate channels and technologies for meeting strategic objectives.
• Introduction to the VUCA environment and marketing technology.
• Consumer Behaviour & Customer Experience research methods.
• The traditional and new marketing mix.
• Experiential Marketing strategies and techniques.
• Experiential Marketing applications: the who, what, how, and where with regards to novel domains, companies and scholars, that should be considered when implementing marketing strategies, tools, frameworks, and methodologies.
• Sensory Marketing.
• Phygital retail atmospherics.
• Physical evidence for branding.
• Online branded experiences.
• Interactive brand experiences.
• Telepresence, avatars, bots and digital assistants.
• Content design, creation, curation and management, web, mobile and social media marketing.
• Omnichannel marketing and Customer service.
• Digital Public Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility and Crisis Communications.