Conceptualization of Brand Experience in an Event Marketing Context

ABSTRACT

Despite the growing importance of brand experience and event marketing, research addressing what constitutes brand experience in an event marketing context is scarce. The purpose of this article is to develop a conceptualization of brand experience that is specifically applicable to an event marketing context. Drawing on qualitative data collected from an international motor show, which is an important form of event marketing in the automotive industry, this article develops a conceptualization of brand experience as consumers' multifaceted interaction with brands enabled through four interrelated processes of multisensory stimulation, bodily performance, social interaction, and discovery/learning. In turn, these four interaction processes trigger perceptual, embodied, social, and epistemic brand experience. Drawing on data and the relevant literature, the article elaborates on these dimensions of brand experience and discusses their theoretical and managerial implications.