Facilitating engagement by aligning branded marketing events with consumer experiential needs

Branded Marketing Events (BMEs) require consumers to participate and interact with the brand, and therefore are an effective tool to drive customer engagement. This paper provides a theoretical framework that examines the relationship between various experiential aspects of a BME and the cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions of customer engagement. An experiential involvement (EI) typology is introduced that considers the consumer’s experiential needs of cognitive-stimulation and/or sensory-stimulation. Expected customer engagement outcomes for each consumer EI type and their alignment with particular types of BMEs are presented, using the theoretical justification of the Elaboration Likelihood Model and ‘Matching Hypothesis’. Brand managers would benefit from this knowledge by investigating their brand’s consumers and organising BMEs that will optimise engagement outcomes.