An event is a live multimedia package with a preconceived concept, customized or modified to achieve the clients objective of reaching out and suitably influencing the sharply defined, specially gathered target audience by providing a complete sensual experience and an avenue for two-way interaction.
Event marketing involves canvassing for clients and arranging feedback for the creative concepts during and after the concept initiation so as to arrive at a customized package for the client, keeping the brand values and target audience in mind. Marketing plays an important role in pricing and negotiation as well as identifying opportunities to define and retain event properties by gathering marketing intelligence with regard to pricing, timing, etc.
Event marketing has been defined as a state of focused event strategy managed consistently over a period of time to reinforce aspects of brand character. There are further definitions wherein the focus has been more on the reasons why events are being used as a marketing tool. For instance, according to Richard R. Alford, International Vice President and General Manager(India) of International Management Group (IMG) event marketing is a rifle shot approach to one’s audience where there is very little wastage. In fact, ideally, event marketing involves simultaneous canvassing and studying the brand prints; understanding what the brand stands for, it’s positioning and values, identifying the target audience and liaison with the creative conceptualizes to create an event for a perfect mesh with the brand’s personality.
In fact, ideally event marketing involves simultaneous canvassing and studying the brand prints; understanding what the brand stands for, its positioning and values, identifying the target audience and liaison with the creative conceptualizes to create an event for a prefect mesh with the brand’s personality.
If one knows how to organize an event he should also know how to market it. If there is something very peculiar or special about the event then that main point has to be highlighted. A product launch for example requires a sales promotion campaign either before or after the launch. In that case the product is advertised through banners and media and even door to door canvassing. Effort is taken to ensure that people sit up and take notice of the event. Sometimes it could be an event like an award ceremony, which is to be shown on television and different companies make a beeline for sponsoring their respective products in the due course of the programme. This is the way publicity and promotions work.
5 C’s of Event Marketing
The activities required marketing and managing events require certain steps to be followed that can be called the five C’s of events. The first is Conceptualization of the creative idea/ambiance followed by Costing i.e. calculation of cost of production and margins on the event. Canvassing, for clients/sponsors, customers/ audience and networking is the next step.depending on the customers’ needs and marketing objectives, Customization of the concept is required. Finally, the most important part event management is the execution of the event as planned. This activity is termed as Carrying- out the event.
Right Marketing Mix for Event Marketing
The five Ps of marketing: product, place, people, price and promotion play an essential role in Event Marketing. To successfully use Event Marketing the marketer must understand how Event Marketing fits together with the other parts of the marketing strategy. Kotler describes the organization’s marketing mix as controllable variables that are mixed so that the organization gets the response that they are asking for from the target market. Event Marketing fits under promotion in the marketing mix. Other marketing tools that goes under this section are advertising, sales promotion, personal sales, direct sales, public relations, and sponsoring. Event Marketing is not a substitute for any of the other components- it is a complement. It takes an imaginative mix of all the communication tools available to extend the impact of the event.
If an organization uses Event Marketing, they still need to use the other parts of the promotion mix before, during, and after the event. An example of this could be how a car producer can have advertisements to inform about a new car launch, and then use events to get people to test drive the new car, and then follow up with direct marketing with a discount coupon. One of the main advantages with Event Marketing compared to the other channels is that the objective can both be direct sales, and image building, depending on how it is used.