EVENT MARKETING AND ITS CUSTOMERS

EVENT MARKETING AND ITS CUSTOMERS

By

Miss. P. PIRAKATHEESWARI, Lecturer in Commerce, Sri Sarada College for Women (Autonomous), Salem – 16.

E-Mail: prabhasivam_salem@yahoo.co.in

Mobile No: 9952836250

Event

            An event is a live-multimedia package carried out with a preconceived concept, customized or modified to achieve the client’s objectives of reaching out and suitably influencing the sharply defined specially gathered target audience by providing a complete sensual experience and an avenue for two-way interaction.

Event Marketing

            Event marketing involves canvassing for clients and arranging feedback for the creative concepts during and after the concept initiation so as to arrive at a customized package for the client, keeping the brand values and target audience in mind. 

 Definition

            Nippun Gupta, Vice president, Exhibit, has defined event marketing as a state of focused event strategy managed consistently over a period of time to reinforce aspects of brand character.

Concept of Market in Events

            According to Prof. Philip Kotler of Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University – “A market consists of all the potential customers sharing a particular need or want who might be willing and able to engage in exchange to satisfy that need or want”.

 Types of Customers

             In events, there are two distinct types of customers – customers from whom there is revenue generated for the event organizer and nonrevenue generating customers.

 1. Revenue Generated Customers

            The event organizer receives money for organizing an event from these customers.  Revenue generating customers are classified primarily into two categories, viz., clients and target audience.

 ü      Clients

Clients need events for marketing communication whereas target audience need events to satisfy the need for entertainment, recreation, knowledge, etc.,   the clients include institutions, Corporate Houses, Media houses, etc.

Institutions: Institutions involved or participating in the leisure industry such as Clubs, Motels and tourism promotion agencies need events that attract attention and therefore more customers for the activities and services that they offer. Institutions involved or participating in sports and other competitive events have the most organized and well-structures governing mechanisms amongst all event categories.

Corporate houses and other institutions: Corporate have a need for organizing both external as well as internal events.  External events for consumer restricted products given the legal angle imply that such corporates use large events to fulfill their communication agenda.  Internal events also sometimes require event orgnisers for professional execution.  An internal event such as an Annual General Meeting is essentially a low budget affair executed in house.  Associations/Industry forums related to promotion of trade, culture such as CII, FICCI etc, are institutions that require and actively organize events for a multitude of purposes.

Media Houses: Press, television and the radio media owners also require events for generic purposes such as software creation.  Large media houses although a part of the industry, also need events for specific communication campaigns for their services and products and hence are a part of the customer group for event organizers.

 ü      Target Audience

The target audience is the ultimate customer for the event who actually participates in the event.  If the event is ticked one, then the participant might be the purchaser of the ticket.  The target audience could also be comprised of invitees and / or the public.  These are the most important lot of revenue generating customers for the event marketers as well as their clients.

 2. Non Revenue Generating Customers

            Impresarios (Influencers) - Businesspersons, ambassadors, foreign embassy officials, etc. are a set of customers who need to be cultivated for their potential to influence prospective clients in favour of a particular event agency.

            Advertising Agencies - These may need events to be organized for their clients in tandem with a particular media campaign.  Ad agencies are also involved with events in that they are invariably required to design and execute the publicity campaign for their clients who are using the services of an event agency for any event.

            Regulatory Bodies – Regulatory   bodies such as Tax a Police authorities, Cultural Affairs Ministry, etc, imply nonrevenue customers or stakeholders since they have to be serviced with equal importance to any paying customer.  Regulatory bodies play a role as customers in that they have a say in the success of the event and need to be serviced with utmost patience and care.  Revenue is generated from these customers in different forms such as sponsorships, charity and sales of tickets.

 Conclusion

            There are several other entities that need to be services or treated like a customer in the changed business scenario that requires one to be market oriented whether there is direct monetary benefit or not.  Indirect customers who mostly are the most active carriers of word-of-mouth publicity and do not necessarily generate a monetary gain for the event organizers should also be taken care of properly.  Thus, any entity that requires expending time and effort and which contributes to the successful execution of an event should also be treated as a customer in this business.