Abstract:
Delivering valuable and unforgettable experience to customers is
critical for an organization with the changing customer
requirements. Experiential marketing can be recognized as an
effective approach to satisfy such customer needs and retain them
loyal to the organization. Although experience play an important
role in restaurant sector, the use of experiential marketing is not
well documented in previous research studies and also yet no
research study has been conducted in Sri Lankan context. The
purpose of this study is to fill that empirical and contextual gap by
examining how experiential marketing affect to the customer
satisfaction in Sri Lankan restaurant sector. To examine the
customer experience researcher has used four experiential
marketing dimensions; sense, feel, think and food quality. Sense,
feel and think has derived from Strategic Experiential Modules
(SEM) introduced by Schmitt. Apart from them, food quality has
added to the theoretical framework based on the proven fact that
food quality is an essential element in creating positive experience
in restaurant customers. Overall results suggested that this study
satisfactorily demonstrate the impact of experiential marketing
towards customer satisfaction, proving the purpose of the study.
Hospitality managers can use the outcome of this study to obtain
insights about customers and to develop effective marketing
strategies.
