초록
Active exploitation of experiential marketing is now practiced in diverse range of apparel brands such as luxury, sports and casual brands. Under such a market environments, this study attempts to verify the effects of consumer's experiential marketing perception by analyzing the formation process of brand attitude. The path from experiential marketing strategic modules (sense, feel, think, act, and relate) to brand loyalty is mediated by brand affect and brand trust. Two sports brands were selected as stimuli brands, and a survey was conducted on 286 consumers in their 20s and 30s. The study validates the importance of sense/feel marketing for apparel brands as it had extensive effects on brand affect which is highly significant in the formation of brand loyalty. As a result of comparative analysis of brand attitude and the path model of its formation for two brands which were different in consumers' perception of experiential marketing brand activities, the study realized that the higher the level of perceived experiential marketing, the higher the levels of brand affect, brand trust and brand loyalty. In particular, for brands perceived as actively engaged in experiential marketing, the path from the perception of experiential marketing activity to brand loyalty was clearly segmented between sensibility and rationality as sense/feel marketing had significant effects only on brand affect, and act/relate marketing only on brand trust. This study verifies the positive effects of perceived experiential marketing activities of apparel brands on brand equity, and proposes the strategic appropriateness of experiential marketing that embeds sensibility and feeling appeals.
