Event-Marketing in B2B settings - An Experiential Marketing Approach to involve Business Decision Makers

Table of contents

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1.PROBLEM DEFINITION
1.2. GOALS AND SCOPE OF THIS STUDY
1.3. PROCEDURAL METHOD
1.3.1. Structure of Research
1.3.2. Presentation of Findings

2. THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY
2.1 THE PROGRESSION FROM COMMODITIES TO EXPERIENCES
2.2. THE EMERGENCE OF THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY
2.2.1. Change in Society’s Values
2.2.2. Change in Business Environment
2.2.3. Change in Marketing Conditions
2.3. THE CONCEPT OF EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING

3. EVENT-MARKETING PROVIDES THE STAGE FOR EXPERIENCES
3.1.HISTORY OF EVENT-MARKETING
3.2. DEFINITION OF THE TERM “EVENT-MARKETING”
3.2.1. Characteristics of Events
3.3. THE POSITION OF EVENTS WITHIN THE COMMUNICATION MIX
3.3.1.Benefits of the Integration of Event-Marketing into the Communication Mix
3.3.2.Key differentiation to above- the-line communication
3.4. TYPES OF EVENTS
3.5. EVENT OBJECTIVES
3.5.1 Economic Event Objectives
3.5.2 Psychological Event Objectives
3.5.3 The interconnection of Event Objectives
3.5.4 Choosing the right Format to reach the defined Objective
3.6 MEASUREMENT OF THE IMPACT OF EVENTS
3.7 CHALLENGES OF EVENT-MARKETING

4. HOW EVENTS WORK
4.1. EVENT ATTRIBUTES
4.1.1. The Level of Involvement
4.1.2. The role of Emotions
4.1.3. Multi-Sensuality
4.1.4. Personal Relevance
4.2. THE PATH OF AN EVENT-MESSAGE
4.3. THE MODEL OF EMOTIONAL CONDITIONING
4.4. THE ELABORATION-LIKELIHOOD-MODEL
4.4.1. The Central Route
4.4.2. The Peripheral Route
4.4.3. Implication of ELM for Event-Marketing
4.5. THE POWER OF WORD OF MOUTH

5. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH: THE ACCEPTANCE OF EVENTS IN B2B MARKETING
5.1 RESEARCH METHOD
5.1.1 Expert Interviews
5.1.2 Online Survey
5.2 ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH RESULTS
5.3 PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH RESULTS
5.3.1 Frequency of visiting events
5.3.2 Types of events visited
5.3.3 Expectations towards Events
5.3.4 Factors influencing the Attendance of an Event
5.3.5 Factors influencing non-attendance of Events
5.3.6 Influence of Events
5.3.7 Events as subject for Conversations
5.3.8 Invitation & Registration Procedure
5.3.9 Evaluation of Events as a Communication Tool

6. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HOSTING B2B EVENTS
6.1 PRECONDITIONS FOR EVENT PLANNING
6.1.1 Is Event-Marketing the right tool?
6.1.2 Integration
6.1.3 Top Management Commitment
6.2 PRE-EVENT PHASE
6.2.1 BDMs as Target Audience
6.2.2 Topic, Timing and Frequency
6.2.3 Invitation & Registration
6.2.4 Question of Expense-Factor
6.3 EVENT PHASE
6.3.1 Holistic Experience
6.3.2 Presence & Authenticity
6.4 POST EVENT PHASE

7. CONCLUSION

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF GRAPHS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX

1. RESEARCH METHOD
1.1. Expert Interviews
1.2. Online Survey

2. STATISTICAL DATA
2.1. Participants
2.2. Frequency of visiting events
2.3. Kinds of events visited mostly
2.4. Factors influencing the decision to attend an event
2.5. Factors influencing non-attendance of events
2.6. Influence of Events
2.7. Preferences regarding the Invitation and Registration Modality

1. Introduction

„Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.”

Confucius, Chinese philosopher, 551-479 B.C.¹

This statement, made by a Chinese philosopher more than 2500 years ago is, seen from a marketing point of view, ever so true and might have never been so appropriate ever before. Living in a time where marketing messages are overwhelming customers and a general information overflow can be witnessed, the challenge is how to break through the clutter in order to be heard and understood.

Within the last years, traditional marketing has lost in power while the concept of Experiential Marketing has arisen. It is a new approach to traditional marketing featuring the fundamental notion of creating connections with the target audience by staging experiences which are relevant and memorable so that customers can emotionally connect to. One tool to provide unique experiences is, in B2C and B2B settings alike, Event-Marketing.

Event-Marketing provides the stage for unique one time experiences, which reach participants in multi-sensual ways on an emotional level. Furthermore, this experience takes place in a point in time when the level of involvement is very high.

Let’s bear in mind Confucius; The participant will understand…

1.1. Problem Definition

It shall be noted that literature mostly provides examples for successful experiential marketing campaigns and events in business to customer settings.² Families, and hereby children and teens in particular, seem to be very responsive to experiences and thus well-chosen target groups.

The question however, which shall be raised, is, in how far events are a suitable communication tool when it comes to business to business marketing. In business, one might think, rationalism and economic indicators form decisions and there is little space for emotional influences. Nevertheless, marketing interactions do take place in order to provide strong stimuli.

If event-marketing is an appropriate tool in business to business communications, in order to address business decision makers, mid level and top level managers, shall be answered this paper.

1.2. Goals and Scope of this study

Currently available literature about experiential marketing is mostly describing the concept of experiential marketing in a very broad and probably even vague way. The answer to the question “what is experiential marketing?” is very difficult to find. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to provide a clear answer to what experiential marketing is and to focus in great detail on one of its tools, event-marketing.

When referring to available literature on event-marketing, the great majority of books covers topics of how to plan and carry out events. This paper shall not explain tasks and activities arising in the course of event organization, nor shall it cover the work or cooperation with event agencies. Much more so, it shall provide an overview about major topics with the basic objective of highlighting this tools uniqueness and the way it works.

Moreover, so far, academic studies focusing on event-marketing were mostly conducted from hosting companies’ viewpoint, while the perspective of visitors has been neglected.³ Therefore, this study shall focus on opinions and behaviours of event guests. Even more specifically, the concept of event-marketing shall be applied to the audience of business decision makers. The paper shall identify in how far and in what ways events are suitable to attract managers in b2b settings.

Finally, this paper shall provide valuable recommendations to companies interested in hosting events for managers.

In summary, the following major research question can be identified:

1. Is event-marketing an appropriate tool to attract business decision makers?
2. In how far do business decision makers value events and perceive them to be influential on given factors (such as image, relationship, etc.)?
3. What factors have significant influence on attendance rates of managers?

1.3. Procedural Method

1.3.1. Structure of Research

This paper is based on careful research which has been carried out over a period of 6 months. First, solid desk research was conducted while in a second stage empirical research was designed and carried out.⁴

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table 1Structure of Research

1.3.2. Presentation of Findings

The first part of the paper serves as an introduction into the subject of experiential marketing, whereby the progression from commodities to experiences, the emergence of the experience economy as well as the concept of experiential marketing are presented. Next, event-marketing will be discussed in detail by addressing the following aspects: its history, definitions, and its position within the communication mix. Furthermore, different types of event marketing, objectives, measurement methods and challenges will be highlighted. Finally it shall be explained how events work, in order to provide a solid theoretical overview of the topic in question.

Thereafter, the question, if BDMs are a suitable target audience or – the other way round – if event-marketing is a suitable way to approach BDMs, will be raised. To this major question, as well as to a variety of sub-questions which are of interest to companies hosting events for BDMs, answers will be given by presenting findings of the research carried out.

The final section will provide clear recommendations to companies involved in event-marketing in B2B settings.

2. The Experience Economy

2.1. The Progression from Commodities to Experiences

Economics, composed of dynamic systems and forces, are constantly changing and the players have to adjust accordingly. On the supply side it is marketing which has to monitor how to meet customer’s needs best. Currently, there seems to be a shift in the way goods and services are perceived, we move into the experience economy.

Pine and Gilmore, who were the first to announce the era of the experience economy in 1998, state that the entire history of economic progress can be recapitulated in a four-stage evolution-model. It illustrates the transition of offerings from undifferentiated commodities with market-based pricing to highly differentiated experiences with premium pricing and thereby identify a fourth economic offering in the next stage of economic value.⁵

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graph 1The Progression of Economic Value⁶

A very similar notion is followed by Kiel, who categorizes economic offerings into communication dimensions in the course of time.⁷

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graph 2Historical Development of Communication Dimensions⁸

Both show us that marketing of goods and services has been moving away from the commodity or core product and is currently emphasising emotions and experiences. Tsai calls it even a new philosophy of marketing that prioritizes the experience.⁹

The table below shows how Pine and Gilmore’s fourth economic offering distinguishes itself from the traditional commodities, goods and services: they are staged to guests by an identifiable stager, are memorable and personal, and deliver sensations.¹⁰

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table 2Economic Distinctions¹¹

They also highlight that “while prior economic offerings – commodities, goods, and services – are external to the buyer, experiences are inherently personal, existing only in the mind of an individual who has been engaged on an emotional, physical, intellectual, or even spiritual level”.¹² As a result, they explain, “no two people can have the same experience, because each experience derives from the interaction between the staged event (…) and the individual’s state of mind”.¹³

Therefore, creating and staging the right experiences is a significant challenge to businesses, Pine and Gilmore call it even the “next competitive battleground”.¹⁴ Carbon reinforces this point of view by saying that “the traditional product/service value proposition is no longer adequate for reaching consumers or creating significant differentiation”.¹⁵ Also Schmitt shares this point of view and emphasises that “the degree to which a company is able to deliver a desirable customer experience (…) will largely determine its success in the global marketplace of the new millennium”.¹⁶

2.2. The Emergence of the Experience Economy

There seems to be no doubt that creating experiences gain an important position in marketing. However, what are the underlying reasons for this tendency towards experiences? The following section shall provide some insights.

2.2.1. Change in Society’s Values

During the past 100 years major shifts took place in society’s values across all major economies of the Western world.

As for the great majority of people in these economies basic needs such as housing, food, etc. is no longer a point of concern, people consider themselves as absolute priority, meaning that indulgence and pleasure are of importance. As a result, fulfilment and enjoyment are vital factors in business as well as in private life and people become experience-seeking.¹⁷ However, due to the fact that many people live a busy life including many happenings in a relative short time span, they tend to remember only exceptional things.

To provide unique and memorable experiences is a suitable response to changes within the society’s value.

2.2.2. Change in Business Environment

Due to changes in the marketplace including globalisation, market saturation, high density of substitutable products and heterogeneous market segments it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to differentiate themselves.¹⁸ Creating unique experiences seems to be an attractive opportunity to do so.

2.2.3. Change in Marketing Conditions

It has to be pointed out that customers face a high degree of information overflow and stimulus satiation. Lenderman mentions that an average customer is exposed to 3,000 to 4,000 marketing messages a day.¹⁹ Out of these exposures only a limited amount is processed consciously. Mostly, people even try to avoid these contacts, so marketers have to find new ways how to attract and engage them in order not to get overseen nor forgotten in the clutter.

2.3. The Concept of Experiential Marketing

In response to the above mentioned changes in society’s values as well as to the changes in business and marketing conditions, the concept of Experiential Marketing has been elaborated. Experiential Marketing is not an entirely new methodology letting us forget everything we have heard about marketing before, it is much more a new approach to traditional marketing. Schmitt explains that

“Experiential Marketing enriches the offer and provides a valuable complementary approach to traditional marketing”.²⁰

Stone says “I don't believe that experiential marketing is one specific marketing tool. It's an idea. A mindset. A focus on creating fresh connections between brands and consumers out in the world where things happen. Connections in the form of experiences that are personally relevant, memorable, interactive and emotional.”²¹

Lenderman provides the following definition: “Experiential marketing is a marketing strategy that seeks to intentionally bring to life and animate the brand promise for consumers through staged experiences they have with the brand before they buy, during the buying process and at all touch points they may have with it thereafter. The rise of experiential marketing is a result of the consumer desire to be connected to brand through memorable communication, and the need for marketers to break through the ad clutter and counteract the growing ineffective of mass marketing."²²

When talking about Experiential Marketing, one focuses on the communication with the customer at every touch point (ie. in the store, while consumption, on the website, etc.) with the brand, meaning that strategic series of events or encounters are designed. The underlying principle is to integrate brand experiences into the consumers life as intensively and as often as possible.²³ In order to do so, Schmitt identifies six key experience drivers:²⁴

- Offering
- Traditional Marketing Communication
- Events
- Brand Communities
- Brand Worlds
- Staff

Boltz identifies four major instruments of experiential marketing:²⁵

- Events
- Staged Spaces (ie. point of sale)
- Staged Products
- Intensified Communication with Target Group

Interestingly, none of the above mentioned instruments are new or unknown. The new strategy however is, the synchronization of all those instruments in order to create intense experiences for customers.²⁶

This paper will focus on one of the above mentioned tools in isolation, namely events. Event-marketing is a marketing tool within the experiential marketing approach which stages experiences in form of one-time events which let guest memorising and connecting emotionally to the brand.

3. Event-Marketing provides the Stage for Experiences

The following chapter is dedicated to event-marketing, one – and probably the most valuable - instrument of Experiential Marketing. A historical overview shall be provided in the beginning. Secondly, some definitions of the term will be presented. Afterwards the position of event-marketing in the overall communication mix of companies shall be understood and insights into the different types of events shall be given. Goals of event-marketing will be discussed next. Finally, the measurement of the impact of event-marketing as well as challenges of the industry will be covered.

3.1. History of Event-Marketing

One tends to believe that events are findings of clever marketing specialists of the 20th century. However, events are not necessarily something new. Henschel highlights that people have always used to organize events in order to assemble people and spread messages²⁷ Polak names cruxifictions and gladiator fights as examples for ancient events.²⁸ Henschel is referring to the Olympic Games in 760 BC.²⁹ However, he admits that back then events served the purpose of sport competitions, cultural presentations or political propagandas whereas today we realise its economic benefit.³⁰ With its commercial meaning, events where first used in the US and were adopted in Europe about two decades ago.³¹ In recent years one could witness an incredible event-boom.

3.2. Definition of the Term “Event-Marketing”

The term “event-marketing” is frequently used in literature and every day life alike, however there is no official definition.

Emba, the Event Marketing Board Austria, cites Lucas and Matys and declares that event-marketing is the planning, organization, and control of staged events in the context of corporate communications. Thanks to experiential events, which are in close relation to the company or its offerings, emotional and physical stimuli are triggered as well as processes of activation evoked.³²

Bruhn explains that events are special occasions, which can be experienced by selected recipients in a multi-sensually way while using them in order to spread messages of corporate communication.³³

Nickel states that events are staged events, which have the central objective to create experiences, evoke emotions and reach corporate marketing goals, such as image-building or brand-building, at the same time.³⁴

Holdi summarizes events as goal-oriented, systemically planned, staged events which have the intend to reach communication objectives of corporations.³⁵

According to Kiel it is important to highlight that events are staged, suggesting that events are artificial man-made creations.³⁶

3.2.1. Characteristics of Events

Drengner provides a list of key characteristics of events, which are as follows:³⁷

- The outcome of event-marketing are created and planned events
- Events are from an organisational point of view independent, however from their content, key message and timing an integrated part of the company’s communication strategy
- Events involve guest actively into the company’s communications
- Events are multi-sensual
- Events convert marketing messages into experiences
- Events are planned and experienced to be unique
- Events create the feeling of an exclusive community among participants
- Events are mostly monothematic
- Events do not serve the purpose of selling
- Events are staged by the hosting companies themselves

Most of this issues will be discussed in greater detail in the following chapters.

3.3. The position of Events within the communication mix

When looking at events from the company’s perspective, they are categorized to be a below-the-line communication tool and belong to non-classical activities.

Götz points out that events should be seen as an individual marketing tool, however it is of great importance to integrate them with any other activity, as it is integration which ensures a strong corporate impact.³⁸ Kinnebrock shares this point of view and stresses that events can not be practised detached from a company’s overall communication concept.³⁹

Nufer builds the link to the above mentioned notion of experiential marketing. He says that companies should develop a marketing strategy with an integrated event concept, whereby events form the central component within an experiential marketing approach.⁴⁰ Klein reinforces this point of view by saying that events shall be understood as a specific technique of experiential marketing.⁴¹

In order to visualize this notion, Nufer builds a communication house with corporate identity as its foundation. The eight major marketing tools are pillars holding the roof which shows the overall objective: to create a message and an experience.⁴²

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graph 3Integrated Event-concept⁴³

3.3.1. Benefits of the Integration of Event-Marketing into the Communication Mix

If one doesn’t see events as stand-alone happenings but as an integrated tool within a company’s overall marketing strategy, one realises a variety of advantages.

Berndt mentions the following key benefits:⁴⁴

- value of synergy effects
- strong overall brand message
- reduction of overall costs
- no irritation among target audience due to controversial messages
- stronger differentiation to competitors
- proactive encountering of challenge of information overload of target audience

3.3.2. Key differentiation to above- the-line communication

As the objective of this paper is to highlight the way event-marketing works, it is useful to give a brief comparison between classical communication and event- marketing in order to be able to highlight this tools uniquness.

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graph 4Key Differences between Classical Communication and Event Marketing⁴⁵

The above graph demonstrates the key differentiators between classical communication and event-marketing. While classical communication requires a passive behaviour of the target group only, events foster interaction. Moreover, Kinnebrock explains that integrated event-marketing contains actions that lead from passive marketing experiences to much more active experiences and transforms one-way-monologs into two-way-dialogs.⁴⁶ While the target audience of advertising is an anonym group consisting of demographic, behavioural and psychological variables, with events distinct individuals can be targeted. When it comes to the nature of the tool, classical communication is a media performance, which can be listen or viewed, events however are a live experience. And last but not least, as far as classical communication is concerned information is the major content to be transferred while in the case of events emotions play a central role.

3.4. Types of Events

Events arise in many different formats and can be grouped in a variety of ways. Bruhn predefines five major categories: cultural evens, sport events, commercial events, society events and natural events.⁴⁷

The following listing shall provide an overview of commercial event formats:

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table 3Listing of different Event Formats⁴⁸

According to Kiel, who quotes a study carried out in 2005, the most frequently organised events are conferences, exhibitions, evening galas and product presentations.⁴⁹

Moreover, events can be categorised into a three by three matrix, according to the target audience, the dominant psychological process, and the communication objective.⁵⁰ The below graph shall represent this typing:

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table 43x3 Typing of Events⁵¹

3.5. Event Objectives

Predefining the desired outcome or goal of the event is crucial. When considering which objectives can be reached with events, a distinction into different types of objectives is helpful.

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graph 5Event-Marketing Objectives⁵²

3.5.1. Economic Event Objectives

Hereby, the goal is to measure the success of events in economic terms. The following economic objectives appear to be set by companies:

table 5List of Economic Event Objectives

3.5.2. Psychological Event Objectives

As mentioned above, a significant goal of events is to influence people on a psychological level.

3.5.2.1. Cognitive Objectives

When considering cognitive objectives of event-marketing, one should distinguish internal and external effects, which can arise at the very same time. Internal effects have an impact on employees of the company hosting the event while external effects influence the audience of the event. Nevertheless, major attention is placed on external objectives.

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table 6Cognitive Objectives of Event-Marketing⁵³

3.5.2.2.Affective Objectives

Affective objectives aim to reach goals on an emotional level. Moreover, it is interesting to outline that affective experiences are to a great extend unconscious and thus not influenced by thinking.

As seen with cognitive objectives, also affective objectives can be categorized into internal and external objectives, whereby again, external objectives are prioritized in importance.

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table 7Cognitive Objectives of Event-Marketing⁵⁴⁵⁵

3.5.3. The interconnection of Event Objectives

As explained above, a number of different objectives can be met with events. It is interesting to point out that many of the major goals are interrelated and interdependent, as represented in the below graph.

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graph 6Interconnection of Strategic Event-Marketing Goals⁵⁶

3.5.4. Choosing the right Format to reach the defined Objective

The choice of the type of event is heavily depended on the predefined communication goal. The below graph provides an overview of three major communication goals and through which event formats those can be reached best.

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table 8Harmonization of Event Objective and Event Format⁵⁷

3.6. Measurement of the Impact of Events

The measurement of the success of events is mixed blessing. One the one hand, it is important to know how well the event worked and in how far predefined objectives could be met, on the other hand it should be highlighted that this is quite a problematic issue as often major effects are simply impossible to measure.

As far as purely economic effects are concerned, they are of course measurable. The difficulty is however, that events and their outcomes can not be monitored in isolation. They should be seen as an integrated tool within a marketing strategy. Thus, in most cases economic figures represent the success of an entire campaign and can hardly be assigned to the outcome of a single event.⁵⁸ The same is true for goals of psychological nature. It is again hardly possible to track in how far the event influenced a person in the short-run.

This explains why experts⁵⁹ generally tend to advise their clients against the strict measurement of effects according to mathematical formulas. They recommend to

observe at the event itself how people feel and to talk to selected persons afterwards to see how they liked it. An honest personal opinion, they say, can give much deeper insights then any number.

A method frequently used in practise are questionnaires. Many hosts ask guest after the event to fill in some questions in order to receive some feedback straight away. Hodi believes that this method can be useful, however only as long as certain components of an event, the hotel or the venue for instance, are checked. To let people rate the entire event is useless. Both, Müllner and Polak, question the use of questionnaires as they see high potential for bias. Guest, even if they had a bad time, seldom admit and prefer to be polite.⁶⁰ So in the end, not even a fully anonymous questionnaire is mirroring real opinions.

Nevertheless, events are not completely incapable for measurement. Christen provides some very interesting criteria event hosts should have a close look at. On this account he divides the event into three major phases: the winning phase, the experience phase and the memory phase. In the first phase general interest, in the second phase the degree of enthusiasm, and in the last phase the level of memorization can be observed.⁶¹

The below table shows Christen’s criteria in detail:

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table 9Measurement of Criteria in Specific Event Phases⁶²

In conclusion it shall be noted that regardless the existence of highly advanced formulas the measurement of the impact of events is very difficult and in many cases useless. Nevertheless, it can be recommended to look at certain criteria, which are mentioned in the above table, as they can provide valuable insights at given phases of the event.

3.7. Challenges of Event-Marketing

This section shall point out which challenges hosting companies have to overcome when planning an event.

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Christen, who has carried out a research among 134 Swiss companies in 2001, found that companies see seven major challenges when it comes to event- marketing:

graph 7The seven major Challenges of Event-Marketing⁶³

These findings shall now be opposed to the opinion of experts⁶⁴ which have been asked to comment on these challenges and rank them into the following categories: no problem, slight problem, significant problem.

The target audiences increasing lack of time is the major concern of hosting companies which is to a great extend confirmed by the experts interviewed. Lack of time makes people think twofold what to spend time on which results in the fact that it is getting increasingly difficult to reach them.

[...]

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¹ Confucius quoted in Max Lenderman, Experience the Message, (New York, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006) p.129

² Shu-pei Tsai, “ Integrated marketing as management of holistic consumer experience”, Business Horizons (48, 2005); B.Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, “Welcome to the Experience Economy”, Harvard Business Review (July/August 1998); Bernd Schmitt, Experiential Marketing, (New York, The free press, 1999); Max Lenderman, Experience the Message, (New York, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006)

³ recommendation for further study on the aspect of event guests by Thomas Christen, „Kundenevents im Marketing für komplexe Leistungen“, (diss., Universität St. Gallen, 2002) p. 184

⁴ for details concerning research methodology, please see chapter 5

⁵ B.Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, “Welcome to the Experience Economy”, Harvard Business Review (July/August 1998), p.97.

⁶ B.Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, “Welcome to the Experience Economy”, Harvard Business Review (July/August 1998), p.98.

⁷ Hermann-Josef Kiel, Handbuch Eventmanagement, (München: Kopaed, 2005), p.43

⁸ freely adapted from Hermann-Josef Kiel, Handbuch Eventmanagement, (München: Kopaed, 2005), p.43

⁹ Shu-pei Tsai, “Integrated marketing as management of holistic consumer experience”, Business Horizons (48, 2005) p.432

¹⁰ B.Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, “Welcome to the Experience Economy”, Harvard Business Review (July/August 1998), p. 98

¹¹ B.Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, “Welcome to the Experience Economy”, Harvard Business Review (July/August 1998), p. 98

¹² B.Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, “Welcome to the Experience Economy”, Harvard Business Review (July/August 1998), p. 99

¹³ B.Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, “Welcome to the Experience Economy”, Harvard Business Review (July/August 1998), p. 99

¹⁴ B.Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, “Welcome to the Experience Economy”, Harvard Business Review (July/August 1998), p. 98

¹⁵ L.P. Carbone, „Total customer experience drives value“, Management Review, (87 (7)), p. 62 quoted in Shu-pei Tsai, “Integrated Marketing as Management of Holistic Consumer Experience”, Business Horizons, (48, 2005), p. 432

¹⁶ Bernd Schmitt, Experiential Marketing, (New York, The free press, 1999) p. 24

¹⁷ Hermann-Josef Kiel, Handbuch Eventmanagement, (München: Kopaed, 2005), p.49

¹⁸ Gerd Nufer, Event-Marketing, (Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2006) p. 10

¹⁹ Max Lenderman, Experience the Message, (New York, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006) p. 19

²⁰ Bernd Schmitt, Experiential Marketing, (New York, The free press, 1999) p. 34

²¹ Katherine Stone, “What is experiential marketing”, Decent Marketing Weblog, http://decentmarketing.typepad.com/weblog/experiential_marketing/index.html, accessed November 2006

²² Max Lendermann, Experience the Message, (New York, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006) p. 10

²³ Thomas Klein, „Projekt- und Programmmanagement im Experience- und Event-Marketing“ (Dr, diss., Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, 2004) p.148

²⁴ Bernd Schmitt, Kundenerlebnis als Wettbewerbsvorteil, (Wiesbaden, Gabler, 2004) p. 29

²⁵ D.-M. Boltz, Marketing by Worldmarketing, (Frankfurt, 1999) p. 46 quoted in Thomas Klein „Projekt- und Programmmanagement im Experience- und Event-Marketing“ (Doktorat, diss., Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, 2004) p.84

²⁶ Thomas Klein, „Projekt- und Programmmanagement im Experience- und Event-Marketing“ (Doktorat, diss., Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, 2004) p.148

²⁷ Oliver Henschel, Lexikon Eventmanagement, (Berlin, Benth Verlag, 2004) p. 1

²⁸ Gerhard Polak, interview by Christine Dunai, November 2006

²⁹ Oliver Henschel, Lexikon Eventmanagement, (Berlin, Benth Verlag, 2004) p. 1

³⁰ Oliver Henschel, Lexikon Eventmanagement, (Berlin, Benth Verlag, 2004) p. 1

³¹ Hermann-Josef Kiel, Handbuch Eventmanagement, (München: Kopaed, 2005), p. 49

³² Event Marketing Board Austria, www.emba.co.at/eventmarketing.html, (accessed January 12,2007)

³³ Manfred Bruhn, „Die Nicht-Klassiker in der integrierten Unternehmenskommunikation“, p.778 quoted in Gerd Nufer, Event-Marketing, (Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2006) p. 16

³⁴ Oliver Nickel, ed., „Event – ein neues Zauberwort des Marketing?“, Eventmarketing – Grundlagen und Erfolgsbeispiele, (München: Vahlen, 1998) p. 6

³⁵ Martin Hodi, interview by Christine Dunai, November 2006

³⁶ Hermann-Josef Kiel, Handbuch Eventmanagement, (München: Kopaed, 2005), p. 39

³⁷ Jan Drengner, Imagewirkungen von Eventmarketing, (Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2006) p.31-39

³⁸ Nicole Götz, „Event sein oder nicht sein“, (diss., Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, 2004), p. 14

³⁹ Wolfgang Kinnebrock, Integriertes Eventmarketing: Vom Marketing-Erleben zum Erlebnismarketing, 1993, quoted in Christopf Graf, Event Marketing, (Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitätsverlag, 1998) p. 35

⁴⁰ Gerd Nufer, Event-Marketing, (Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2006) p. 95

⁴¹ Thomas Klein, „Projekt- und Programmmanagement im Experience- und Event-Marketing“ (Doktorat, diss., Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, 2004) p.150

⁴² Gerd Nufer, Event-Marketing, (Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2006) p. 95

⁴³ freely adapted from Gerd Nufer, Event-Marketing, (Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2006) p. 95

⁴⁴ Ralph Berndt, Marketing 2. Marketing-Politik, 1995 quoted in Gerd Nufer, Event-Marketing, (Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2006) p. 84

⁴⁵ Stephan Schäfer, Das professionelle 1x1 Event-Marketing, (Berlin: Cornelsen Verlag, 2002), p. 28

⁴⁶ Wolfgan Kinnebrock, Integriertes Eventmarketing: Vom Marketing-Erleben zum Erlebnismarketing, 1993, quoted in Christopf Graf, Event Marketing, (Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitätsverlag, 1998) p. 35

⁴⁷ Manfred Bruhn, Kommunikationspolitik, 1997 qouted in Sigrun Erber, Eventmarketing, (Landsberg am Lech: mi- Fachverlag, 2005) p. 24

⁴⁸ Thomas Inden, Alles Event? Erfolg durch Erlebnismarketing, (Landsberg/Lech: Moderne Industrie, 1993) quoted in Wolfgang Gruber, „Event-Marketing – Erlebnisorientierte Kommunikation als Erfolgsfaktor zur Kundengewinnung und Kundenbindung“ (Diplomarbeit, Fachhochschule Wiener Neustadt, 2002) p. 45

⁴⁹ Hermann-Josef Kiel, Handbuch Eventmanagement, (München: Kopaed, 2005), p. 49

⁵⁰ Ingo Lasslop, Effektivität und Effizienz von Marketing-Events, (Wiesbaden: Gabler, 2003), p. 23

⁵¹ Ingo Lasslop, Effektivität und Effizienz von Marketing-Events, (Wiesbaden: Gabler, 2003), p. 23

⁵² freely adapted from Sigrun Erber, Eventmarketing, (Landesberg am Lech: mi-Fachverlag, 2005), p. 69, Thomas Christen, „Kundenevents im Marketing für komplexe Leistungen“, (diss., Universität St. Gallen, 2002) p. 49, Gerd Nufer, Event- Marketing, (Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2006) p. 57

⁵³ Gerd Nufer, Event-Marketing, (Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2006) p. 57

⁵⁴ Michael Müllner, interview by Christine Dunai, Wien, November 2006

⁵⁵ Gerd Nufer, Event-Marketing, (Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2006) p. 57

⁵⁶ Thomas Christen, „Kundenevents im Marketing für komplexe Leistungen“, (diss., Universität St. Gallen, 2002) p. 50

⁵⁷ Stephan Schäfer, Das professionelle 1x1 Event-Marketing, (Berlin: Cornelsen Verlag, 2002), p. 40

⁵⁸ Gerhard Polak, interview by Christine Dunai, November 2006

⁵⁹ Ivo Franschitz, Martin Hodi, Michael Müllner, interview by Christine Dunai, November 2006

⁶⁰ Gerhard Polak and Michael Müllner, interview by Christine Dunai, November 2006

⁶¹ Thomas Christen, „Kundenevents im Marketing für komplexe Leistungen“, (diss., Universität St. Gallen, 2002) p. 96

⁶² freely adapted from Thomas Christen, „Kundenevents im Marketing für komplexe Leistungen“, (diss., Universität St. Gallen, 2002) p. 96

⁶³ Thomas Christen, „Kundenevents im Marketing für komplexe Leistungen“, (diss., Universität St. Gallen, 2002) p. 42