EVENT MARKETING: DEVELOPING EXPERIENTIAL AND EMOTIONAL CONSUMER RELATIONSHIPS

Abstract

Trade shows have been seen as the key drivers of the economic and tourism growth. Experiences are the core of any trade show. However, research on trade shows are primarily concerned with trade show performance, leaving experiences as an unexplored subject. The purpose of this study is to understand the essence of experiences and development of a trade show experience scale. Scale development was carried out in three phases: identifying the domain of construct and generation of items, item selection, and scale purification. A 21- item scale comprised of five dimensions associated with experience: affective association, cognitive association, unique association, physical association, and well-being association emerged. Marketers should focus on high-end participant’s experiences. Existing experiential practices in the trade show industry can be improved by using the two new dimensions found in the study (well-being associations and unique associations). This study contributes to the existing literature by exploring new experiential attributes (unique and well-being associations). Findings suggest that participants don’t see trade shows merely as a business event to fulfill their meaningful objectives, but also as a platform that addresses their hedonic well-being. Future research should be done to complement the findings with a heterogeneous population sample. The another objective of this research is to test the applicability of brand personality theory in the perspective of trade show events, and the influence of trade show event personality on participant’s eudaimonic and hedonic happiness and advocacy intentions. The current study provides event marketer a tool for measuring event personality. Event personality is vital to build the event equity and to position the event in the market to gain a competitive advantage over the other events. Happiness as a construct is being studied in various social science studies. This study has attempted to establish a relationship among participant’s happiness, event personality, and advocacy intentions. This research adds a new value to the brand personality literature. And second, the brand personality construct is used for the first time in trade show event context, that will open a new domain in brand personality, and event research. This research has conceptualized and developed a trade show experience scale comprising of five unique dimensions that are yet to be explored in trade show context. The findings of the study provide a measure for the meaningful evaluation of a trade show event experience. Trade show organizers may use the study outcomes to enhance the effectiveness of events. iii This thesis interpolates material from the author’s research paper published in journals of repute such as Event Management and International Journal of Event and Festival Management.