An Experience A Day Keeps The E-Commerce Away : Exploring experiential marketing within the body cosmetics retail industry

Abstract: Background - For the retail industry, the increasing adoption of e-commerce solutions have brought opportunities, but also challenges. As physical stores have to varied extent lost their importance, they can no longer solely compete on price or quality but can instead benefit from adopting an experiential marketing strategy. Experiential marketing acknowledges the consumer as rational and emotional, and focuses on how to engage the customer through value adding experiences. Swedish retailers face these challenges right now as an increasing share of all Swedish retail sales are made online. The body cosmetics industry makes up the second largest segment of Swedish e-commerce sales, but also holds some of the most prominent brands in offering store experiences, making it a competitive and interesting industry to explore from an experiential marketing perspective. Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to explore how experiential marketing strategies impact customers’ perception of value within the body cosmetics retail industry in Sweden. The research fills a gap since no previous qualitative study has been made connecting experiential marketing with customer perception of value within this industry. Method - An exploratory study with and inductive research approach has been conducted to answer the research question. A multi-method qualitative research design, where the methodological triangulation builds on company and customer interviews, as well as observations to explore the topic and fill the research gap. The findings were analysed with an thematic analysis, in which the authors identified four themes. Findings and Conclusion - The findings result in four themes essential when using experiential marketing strategies to impact the customer’s perception of value; staff interaction, value co-creation, a unified strategy and a higher purpose. It is concluded that experiential marketing is a way in which companies positively can impact customer perception of value.