Paper 83

Impact of experiential marketing on customer purchase intention: A study of the Indian apparel retail industry

The presence of multiple brands in the Indian apparel retail industry is turning out to be beneficial to the customers in terms of the wide variety available, and is also creating immense competition amongst the apparel retailers. The marketers are continuously looking for strategies to attract, retain and make customers loyal to their brand. An apparel customer has traditionally been looked on as one whose purchase decision is based upon functionality and aesthetic appeal of product. But now, the apparel retailers have realised that they aspire for something more. Experiential marketing provides an answer to customer desire for something more in the form of ‘creating an experience’.  According to Pine and Gilmore (1999) the use of experiential marketing as a communication tool is growing within companies as it is believed to provide a competitive advantage in comparison to traditional communication. Experiential marketing has been the focus of several studies in the area of consumer buying behaviour with respect to fast moving consumer goods, consumer durables, luxury goods and services; but in the absence of research on the relationship between experiential marketing and customer purchase intention for apparel retail in the Indian context; there is a gap of knowledge.

This paper is an attempt to fill this knowledge gap, looking at the impact of experiential marketing on customer purchase intention for apparel retail in India. The data of 1224 respondents was analysed in this research. The results from the study concluded that emotional, creative cognitive and physical experience have significant positive impacts on  the customer purchase intention, while the sensory and social experience were not found to have significant positive impacts on the purchase intention of the customer.