Case Studies: Successful Experiential Marketing for USA Food Brands

Strategic experiential branding is also more than just promotional rhetoric. It's not enough to entice consumers to "Enjoy the Hotel X experience," without being clear what the Hotel X experience should be and confident that Hotel X has aligned the service delivery system the people, processes, and physical evidence (e.g., facilities and amenities) to consistently produce the intended experience. In Chapter 21, LeBel et al. stressed the difficulties 

associated with achieving strategic experiential brand alignment across numerous service locations, thousands of employees, myriad procedures and systems, and varied communications channels. However, it is in the details that firms deliver on brand promises. For example, in the cruise industry, market leader Carnival Cruise Lines has honed the 

brand's promise of a fun-filled vacation aboard "The Fun Ships" for more than 30 years. Everything the company does from the design of new ships with their "entertainment architecture," to training programs for staff is focused on ensuring that Carnival guests have fun from the moment they board the ship (Kwortnik, 2006). Recently, Carnival's rival, Royal Caribbean International (RCI), upped the stakes with an adventure-themed brand promise. 

Using powerful symbolism embedded 

not only in marketing communications but in the actual ship design (e.g., rock climbing walls and deck top water parks), RCI anchored the brand experience on a different kind of fun: active adventure. In contrast, fast-growing competitor Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) broke from tradition with "Freestyle Cruising," highlighted by a resortlike, informal experience, 

especially in terms of onboard dining. Whereas other cruise lines have structured dining times to facilitate the flow of guests in ship restaurants, NCL permits guests to dine when they want, where they want, and with whom they want; such a promise, though, created the need for dramatically different service systems to help manage customer flow. In these examples, a focus on fulfilling the promises associated with the brand experience

or reestyle  enhances brand differentiation along experiential dimensionsWhat is the payoff for the hospitality firm of successful strategic experiential branding? In Chapter 21, LeBel et al. suggested brands that provide customers with desired experiences can strengthen emotional bonds and ultimately customer loyalty. There is a growing stream of research on service loyalty that confirms this proposition and shows that customer loyalty is determined by more 

Than just a rational assessment 

by consumers of costs-benefits in the exchange with service firms, or what scholars call calculative commitment." Research I conducted with scholars Xiaoyun Han and Chunxiao Wang in the context of hotels in China showed that customer loyalty is determined by a complex web of factors: guest perceptions ofservice quality, service fairness, trust in the firm, 

and satisfaction but also perceptions of commercial friendship with hotel employees and affective commitment or emotional attachment to and identification with the hotel (Han, Kwortnik, & Wang, 2008). Similarly, Mattila (2001) conducted a study of restaurant customers, finding that food quality, service, and atmosphere are equally important to customers regardless of their feelings toward certain restaurants. However, customers who exhibit 

affective commitment to preferred restaurants are more motivated to patronize the restaurant because of personal recognition and memorable past experiences; on the other hand, customers exhibiting low affective commitment are more motivated by value for price and location. In other words, it was the experience dimensions of the dining encounter that motivated the emotionally bonded customers. Further, customers with high affective 

Commitment were more likely to possess 

positive brand attitudes toward the restaurant and to engage in loyalty behaviors, such as resistance to switching and word-ofmouth advocacy. Based on these findings, Mattila (2001) proposed that so-called loyalty programs that award points for purchases may (at a cost) encourage repeat purchase behavior but do not engender true loyalty. Rather, Mattila (2001) argued that restaurateurs and other hospitality providers should pursue customer loyalty 

based on emotional commitment that fosters attitudinal loyalty and, in turn, behavioral loyalty. These findings support that idea that customer loyalty reflects more than just repeat purchase behavior, and typical hospitality "loyalty programs," with their focus on rewards for purchase, are unlikely to foster emotional bonding. Rather, affective commitment is determined by cumulative customer satisfaction over the life of a service relationship as well as relational 

factors, such as trust, friendship, rapport, familiarity, and special treatment (Gwinner, Gremler, & Bitner, 1998; Han et al, 2008; Price & Arnould, 1999). Delivering on the latter can be particularly difficult because of the high levels of emotional labor—the behavior and emotional signals that convey genuine understanding of and empathy for guests—required of many 

Conclusion

service employees. Notable in Chapter 24 by Johanson and Woods is that only one in three HR managers they contacted have explicit strategies for managing emotional labor. The ideas presented by Johanson and Woods (in Chapter 24) for employee recruitment and selection, training and support, and empowerment offer direction for enhancing the guest experience through improved employee emotional conduct, which certainly is important for those 

where guests expect and even seek relational benefits like commercial friendships. However, resource constraints, such as low staffing levels, may preclude some firms from providing such benefits to their guests. More importantly, do guests always want to develop friendships with their hospitality service providers The answer to this question is most surely no at least in some contexts (Oliver,In Chapter 21, LeBel et al. argued that experiential brands 

care for consumers' physical and psychological well-being, as well as deliver a memorable experience. Though successful experiential branding may sometimes involve memorable experience, it may also involve the lack of memorable experience. For example, a recent "reinvention" effort for Marriott International's Courtyard brand was based on the idea that Courtyard's core business customers want a lodging experience that is functional, not flashy