Events as a Marketing Tool

Events as a Marketing Tool Name Course Date Events as a Marketing Tool Introduction Events have emerged as a vital marketing tool for organizations. This follows a realization that, having a direct contact and interaction with the clients and potential clients have a major influence on the success of marketing. While advertisements through various channels create awareness of the existence of a brand and its usage, event marketing serves to bring such brands to life, through allowing for a direct and face-to-face interaction between the brands and the target groups (Allen, 2004). The organization of conventions, events or galas can act as powerful marketing tools for an organization`s brand. Events do vary in their organization and management, ranging from the very big events such as the world cup, Olympics and major music concerts, to the smaller ones such a breakfast meeting. Notwithstanding the size of the event, they can have a lasting impact on the participants and the audience involved, if well executed. Discussion Events can be used as strategic marketing tools, to market an organization and its products, establish business relationships and even reward customers for their continued support in purchasing their products (McKinney, 2003). The bottom line of an event is the creation of a scenario where people will converge, thus creating a good platform for an organization to create awareness or evoke interests on their products from the people who have converged. This can act as a better tool to market their products, in that the organization reaches to the people or other interested entities directly, as opposed to marketing through advertisements (Raj,Walters& Tahir, 2008). The application of events as a marketing tool is not only beneficial to the organization in terms of marketing their products, but also through getting direct and immediate feedback from the participants, as opposed to marketing through advertising (Esposito, 1998). Event as a marketing tool can occur in various forms. They can be classified into two broad categories; internal and external events. Internal Events This refers to those promotional events that are undertaken in-house, for the purpose of promoting an organization`s brand. They include: Conferences and Meetings These are some internal forms of events that can be used by an organization to market its brands. They may involve an organization of a breakfast meeting, lunch or a dinner by an organization, where it invites some business partners and clients, as well as the corporate and the business world to attend and learn more about the organization as a brand and what it offers (Allen, 2004). Alternatively, an organization can organize a conference, where it invites attendants based on their relationship to what the organization has to offer. In such conferences, the organization show cases its products to the attendants, while giving them an opportunity to evaluate their brands and experiment with them, as they give feedback regarding the brands. Through such close interactions of the organization with its partners and clients as well as the business community, it is possible to educate and clarify any information regarding the brands, while getting feedback on the clients` perceptions regarding the products features and use (Garber, 1994). This enables an organization to improve its products, while incorporating the suggestions from the clients and business partners, who include the distributors and retailers, since they get first hand information regarding the brands from the consumers. This goes a long way in marketing the organizational products, while at the same time helping the organization improve on its brands. External Events These are events other than in-house events, which are undertaken to promote the brands and products of an organization, through moving out to meet the target groups in their respective areas. External events include: Product launch event This refers to an event where an organization plans to launch a new product. The main object of a product launch event is to create awareness of the existence of such a product in the market, while at the same time communicating to the potential buyers on the features, need and usage of the newly developed product (Goldblatt, 2005). Through a product launch event, an organization does not only create awareness and inform the potential buyers about the product, but also allows them an opportunity to touch, feel and experiment with the product, while obtaining immediate feedback from the participants. This way, an organization can be in a position to understand the likely reception of the product in the market, and thus make necessary adjustment based on the participant`s feedback, so as to match the potential market requirements (Allen, 2004). Promotional and road shows This is another form of event held, where an organization can either invite people to a certain location where they showcase their products and brands, or hold a road show where they move to different localities, informing people about their products, while at the same time entertaining them and obtaining feedback (Holland & Rich, 1999). Through such events, an organization is in a good position to communicate with its clients and those ones who are potential buyers, through reaching out to them on the ground. Since organizations have recently understood the need to reach out to the right audience, they can therefore target the localities which they have tailor made their brands for, at the expense of advertising, which is not targeted to particular localities (Raj,Walters& Tahir, 2008). Through holding promotional events and road shows in certain areas, the residents feel valued and appreciated by the organization, and thus are easily persuaded to engage in its business (Esposito, 1998). In addition, since such promotional events are coupled with entertainment and fun, it serves as a strategy to invite big crowds, who would like to get entertained, but in addition go home with information regarding the organization, its brands and products. This serves a powerful marketing strategy in that, people like experiences and will remember more on an experience they got, as opposed to information disbursed (Raj,Walters& Tahir, 2008). Therefore, through creating an experience, promotional events makes a lasting impact on the minds of the audience, whi...