Selling experience and memories

By Tjipto Ramuni

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia watches, every year, the homebound exodus of millions of people during Idul Fitri.

On Friday and Saturday evenings, thousands of Jakartans flock to Puncak, a mountain resort about two hours drive from Jakarta, for the weekend.

Despite the cost and traffic jams which often force the holidaymakers to spend longer hours on the road, people are undaunted.

A "special" experience and exhilaration motivates people to visit hotels, spas or tourist destinations even though service charges at these places are high and they may be located far from home.

Javana Spa, for example, more than 50 kilometers from Jakarta, attracts many Jakartans although it cost some Rp 3 million (US$310) for two per visit.

According to the manager, there are at least 25 reasons why people visit the spa. However, the most important reason, he said, was because the spa always made visitors happy.

Guests will be asked to do 18 exclusively designed activities which include the spa body, relaxing in spa and spa cocktail.

Another popular place for Jakartans is the 3234 Brigade, offering an almost real war scene, at Gunung Putri, Bogor, also in West Java.

Here, visitors are armed with guns loaded with "bullets", and when shot at, it leaves "bloody holes" in the uniforms. The battlefield has, among other things, hilltops and barracks.

Here you learn how to protect your allies. You will also have to endure the pain when you are shot at close range - which is actually forbidden - or if the "bullet" hits your exposed skin because you had not put on your war gear (uniform, trouser, boot or helmet) properly.

The war game only lasts a few minutes but the tension it creates is beyond imagination and the exhilaration indescribable. And that's why visitors keep coming back; for the tension and feeling of sweet victory.

The annual exodus, weekends at Puncak, Javana Spa and Brigade 3234 have something in common: they leave a memory that will last forever.

And its because of the memory that people revisit these places, braving the high cost and exhausting journey. People are actually purchasing such memorable experience.

This is what is called experiential marketing, considered the most sophisticated way of selling a product. In experiential marketing, consumers purchase memories and fantasies.

Experiential marketing has become the newest way for manufacturers to sell their products. Here, cost is something customers do not take very seriously. Thus, the target market is the haves, though this will not always be the case.

Selling experience is the highest form of marketing. In general, the four forms of selling are: i) selling basic commodities (tangible), ii) selling branded goods (tangible), iii) selling services (intangible) and iv) selling experience.

In the first form, selling of basic commodities, the cost of the particular product is determined by the demand.

The higher the demand, the higher the price will be. On the other hand, if the commodity is priced higher than its demand, it will be undersold.

In the second form, when selling branded goods, the price of a product will sky-rocket if it is given a famous brand name. For example, unbranded jeans at Cihampelas, Bandung cost half or less than half the price of branded ones though they might be of the same quality.

The third form is selling service. The price consumers pay for service rendered is usually higher than the production cost of the products. As an illustration, software can sometimes costs millions of rupiahs but the best quality CD only cost a few hundred thousand rupiah. In other words, the actual price of the material and its selling price is very different.

Experiential marketing is applicable in almost all businesses and most entrepreneurs have been doing it without even realizing it. At cafes, customers come not only for the coffee but also the ambience. No wonder a cup of coffee cost more here.

A small cafe called Si Manis at Pondok Indah Mall, Jakarta Selatan, is a good example of experiential marketing. Its food such as pisang goreng, tape bakar, kolak, roti panggang, etc is of the same quality as those sold in markets or roadside stalls.

What makes it stand out is its warm and friendly atmosphere, unlike the sophistication of Pondok Indah Mall. Si Manis has crafts a unique experience for its customers.

Other such cafes in Jakarta are Cafe Roti (Plaza Senayan, Jakarta) which has chess boards on each of its tables, and Waroeng Tempo Doeloe (Pondok Indah Mall) with its natural-colored wooden tables, reminiscent of restaurants in the good old days.

TV commercials often use experiential marketing, which leaves a deep and lasting impression on its viewers. A good example is the Oreo cookie commercial, showing a child twisting, licking and dipping the cookie in milk before eating it. It does not take a genius to create this effect.

Nokia cellular phone shows a five-year-old pushing the buttons to connect to his father in the office. The advert shows how happy the father is to receive the call.

A variety of management training courses use experiential marketing strategies like games to show the importance of a teamwork in a management. The games gives a sense of togetherness, leaving a deep and lasting memory.

The oldest example of experiential marketing is in the selling of motion pictures and songs in the form of records, audio cassettes and CDs. Top box office films like Titanic has the capacity to transfer what is shown on the screen to the moviegoers' memory. Can you imagine that there are people who watched the movie 14 times because of the impression it created?

As for songs, the best sellings ones are those that leaves listeners with sweet memories.

Songs that can bring back memories in its listeners are played over and over again, the reason why some old songs are still selling very well today.

Today, businessmen have the choice of selling their products in the form of commodities (in accordance with how the goods function) or experience, keeping in mind that consumers are willing to spend their money on products that make them feel good. In other words, experiential marketing is marketing of the highest order.

The writer is a Jakarta-based journalist.