from

VoL.10, #2:
SPRING 1999
Experiential Marketing:
A New Framework
for Design and
Communications
By Bernd Schmitt

INTRoDuCTIoN By

DARREL RHEA
Vice chairman of DMI Darrel
Rhea is an outspoken advocate
A tectonic shit in design practice was underway in 1999.
for our community of design Both traditional features and beneits marketing and brand
professionals. He is the founder
of Rhea Insight, a consultancy communications were giving way to customer experience
that facilitates the creation of
strategy for senior executive
design. Our community saw that this was a more powerful
teams around the world. He is platform for integrating design and communications activities,
also chief design oicer of The
Technology Reserve, where he and a whole new set of approaches, methods, and tools were
is helping design a new global
platform to radically transform
beginning to be developed. While several authors, such
the economics of intellectual as Pine and Gilmore, had successfully advocated for this
property and democratize
innovation. With 35 years of new perspective, Bernd Schmitt from Columbia Business
consulting to Fortune 1000
companies, Darrel is the former
School was creating a systematized, practical framework
CEO of the publicly-held for managing experience design.
innovation consulting irm
Cheskin Added Value. He is also
the coauthor of Making Meaning: The core ideas presented are still relevant today. In fact,
How Successful Businesses
Deliver Meaningful Customer
designers are still having to make the same arguments to
Experiences. business 15 years later. Schmitt’s article (in addition to his
many other books and articles) reveals emerging distinctions
that many of us in the design industry have built upon in our
writings. While the concept of experience design has matured
to include more robust models and more comprehensive
frameworks for guiding design development, practitioners will
ind this piece both useful for what they do today and a good
reminder of how we got here.

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 FEATuRE EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGN AND COMMUNICATIONS
Notes
1. The term experiential marketing various forms of communications. Research, September 1982, vol. 9, 3. James Engel, Roger D. Blackwell,
has been used by a variety of firms Moreover, academic researchers pp. 132-140). and Paul W. Miniard, Consumer
(Coca-Cola, Forrester Research, have explored the “experiential Behavior (Ft. Worth, Tex.: Dryden
2. B. Joseph Pine II and James
Gillette, MasterCard, Momentum aspects of consumption” (see Press, 1994).
H. Gilmore, “Welcome to the
of McCann-Erickson, National Mall Morris Holbrook and Elizabeth
Experience Economy,” Harvard 4. David Aaker, Managing Brand
Network) in a variety of contexts, Hirshmann, “The Experiential
Business Review, July/August Equity: Capitalizing on the Value of
including event marketing and Aspects of Consumption:
1998, pp. 97-105. a Brand Name (New York: The Free
sponsorships, shopping-mall Consumer Fantasies, Feelings, and
Press, 1991).
design, online marketing, and Fun,” Journal of Consumer

E
xPERIENTIAL MARKETING IS marketer, McDonald’s competes against Burger
everywhere. In a variety of industries, King and Wendy’s (and not against Pizza Hut
companies have moved away from or Starbucks). Chanel fragrances compete
traditional features-and-beneits against Dior fragrances and not against
marketing toward creating experiences those of Lancôme or L’Oreal, or any other
for their customers.1 fragrance ofered by a mass-market retailer.
“Welcome to the experience economy,” write B. For a traditional marketer, competition occurs
Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore in their article primarily within narrowly deined product
of the same title. Using a long-term perspective, categories—the battleground of product and
these authors have distinguished four stages in the brand managers.
progression of economic value: commodities, goods, 3. Customers are viewed as rational decision
services, and experiences. They write: “As services, makers. Customer decision-making processes
like goods before them, increasingly become typically are assumed to involve several
commoditized—think of long-distance telephone problem-solving steps: need recognition,
services sold solely on price—experiences have information search, evaluation of alternatives,
emerged as the next step in what we call the purchase, and consumption. As Engel, Blackwell,
progression of economic value. From now on, leading- and Miniard3 explain, problem solving refers to
edge companies—whether they sell to consumers thoughtful, reasoned action undertaken to bring
or businesses— will ind that the next competitive about need satisfaction.
battleield lies in staging experiences.”2 4. Methods and tools are analytical, quantitative,
Unfortunately, traditional marketing and and verbal. These techniques include regression
other business ields ofer hardly any guidance analyses, positioning maps, and conjoint
for capitalizing on the emerging experiential analyses based on Likert scales or that sacred
economy. I use the term traditional marketing cow of qualitative research, the focus group
to refer to a canon of principles, concepts, and (conducted in artiicial environments far
methodologies that marketing academicians, removed from the customers’ natural settings).
practitioners (marketing directors, brand
managers, communication managers), and But how about branding?
consultants have amassed throughout this cen- But, you may ask, didn’t the branding approach
tury and, in particular, during the past 30 years. change all that? Brand strategists certainly do not
Traditional marketing presents an engineering- look at products merely in terms of their functional
driven, rational, analytical view of customers, features and beneits. David Aaker, for instance,
products, and competition. It was developed describes brand equity as consisting of “assets (and
in response to the industrial age. Today’s liabilities) linked to a brand, its name and symbol.”4
information, branding, and communications Unfortunately, most brand theorists have treated
revolution calls for a diferent approach. brands as identiiers and signiiers of abstract
Traditional marketing has the following four attributes such as “quality.” Their equation reads:
key characteristics: Brand = ID. As we will see, this view misses the
1. A focus on functional features and benefits. very essence of a brand as a rich source of sensory,
Traditional marketers—and product designers— afective, and cognitive associations that result in
assume that customers weigh functional features memorable and rewarding brand experiences: Brand
in terms of their importance, trade of features = EX. Today, customers take functional features,
by comparing them, and select the product with beneits, and product quality as a given. What they
the highest overall utility. want is products, communications, and marketing
2. Product categories and competition are campaigns that dazzle their senses, touch their
narrowly defined. In the world of a traditional hearts, and stimulate their minds. They want
20 DMI 40TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE 2015
 FEATuRE EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGN AND COMMUNICATIONS

products, communications, and campaigns they 2. CoNSuMPTIoN AS A HoLISTIC ExPERIENCE.

can relate to and that they can incorporate into their Experiential marketers do not think “shampoo,
lifestyles. They want products, communications, shaving cream, blow dryer, and perfume.”
and marketing campaigns to deliver an experience. Instead, they consider the holistic consumption
experience of “grooming in the bathroom.” They
Experiential marketing: ask what products it into this consumption
Four key characteristics situation, how to design such products, and how
Experiential marketing difers from the packaging and communications can enhance the
traditional approach in four important ways experience of using the products.
(Figure 1) —all aimed at a broader, more holistic Examining the consumption situation and
view of the consumer. sketching the fuzzy boundaries of categories and
competition accordingly amounts to a radical shift
1. CuSToMER ExPERIENCES. in thinking about market opportunities—a shift
In contrast to traditional marketing’s narrow that moves marketing thinking “over” and “up.”
focus on functional features and beneits, This type of thinking, illustrated in Figure 2, page
experiential marketing focuses on customer 22, broadens the concept of a category (moving
experiences, which makes for a much wider view. over) and examines the meaning of the speciic
Experiences occur as a result of encountering, consumption situation in its broader sociocultural
undergoing, or living through certain situations. context (moving up). In sum, we are moving
FIGuRE 1 As I will demonstrate, experiences provide away from thinking about an isolated product
The four characteristics of
experiential marketing.
sensory, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and and, instead, following along a sociocultural
relational values that replace functional values. consumption vector to arrive at a broader space
of meaning for the customer.
The holistic basis of experiential marketing
broadens the concept of a category (moving
over) and examines the meaning of a speciic
EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING consumption situation in its broader
sociocultural context (moving up). For example,
if you are marketing McDonald’s hamburgers,
you consider yourself to be competing against
all other forms of fast food, whether they are
competing hamburger chains or fried-chicken
shops. At the same time, experiential marketing
Customer EXPERIENCE examines the macro picture: How does your
product it into the cultural bias toward healthy
Focus on foods? How should McDonald’s be positioned
Methods are CONSUMPTION and communicate in this world?
ECLECTIC
3. CuSToMER AS RATIoNAL
Customers are AND EMoTIoNAL ANIMAL.
RATIONAL & To an experiential marketer, customers are
EMOTIONAL emotionally, as well as rationally, driven. That
animals
is, although customers may frequently engage in
rational choice, they are just as frequently driven
by emotions because consumption experiences
are often “directed toward the pursuit of fantasies,
DMI 40TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE 2015 21
 FEATuRE EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGN AND COMMUNICATIONS
Notes 6. This framework is presented in
5. Jessica Feldman and John more detail in my book, Experiential
Boult, “Third-Generation Design Marketing: How to Get Customers to
Consultancies: Designing SENSE, FEEL, THINK, ACT and RELATE
Culture for Innovation,” Design to Your Company and Brands
Management Review, vol. 16, no. 1 (New York: The Free Press, 1999).
(2005), pp. 40-47.
7. Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works
(New York: Norton, 1997).

A strategic framework
THE SOCIO-CULTURAL CONSUMPTION VECTOR for managing experiences
This research builds on earlier work done with
SCCV Alex Simonson that culminated in our book
Marketing Aesthetics: The Strategic Management
(e.g., eating a hamburger as of Brands, Identity and Image (New York: The
part of a casual meal, given your
HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
Free Press, 1997). Marketing Aesthetics, however,
healthy diet)
focused on sensory experiences only. The current
framework is much more comprehensive and
incorporates all types of customer experiences.6 It
SCCV Socio-cultural context is marked by two key strategic concepts: strategic
(e.g., low-fat, healthy-
diet environment) experiential modules (SEMS) and experience
providers (ExPros).

STRATEGIC ExPERIENTIAL MoDuLES (SEMS)

SEMs (Figure 3) are strategic experiential modules
HAMBURGER CASUAL MEAL that managers can use to create diferent types
of customer experiences for their customers.
The term module has been borrowed from recent
FIGuRE 2 feelings, and fun.”5 Moreover, it is useful to research in cognitive science and the philosophy
For an experiential marketer, think of customers as animals whose physical of mind to refer to circumscribed functional
McDonald’s competes against and mental apparatus for generating sensations, domains of the mind. Modules have distinct
any other form of fast food,
thoughts, and feelings evolved by natural structures and functions.7 The experiential
whether it is a quick bite or a
hang-out. Moreover, experiential selection to solve the problems faced by their modules to be managed in experiential marketing
marketing examines the macro evolutionary ancestors. include sensory experiences (SENSE), afective
picture: What does it mean to experiences (FEEL), creative cognitive experiences
eat a hamburger in a time when
4. METHoDS AND TooLS ARE ECLECTIC. (THINK), physical experiences, behaviors, and
nutrition facts are screaming in
your face in the supermarkets In contrast to the analytical, quantitative, and lifestyles (ACT), and social-identity experiences
and when Martha Stewart verbal methodologies of traditional marketing, that result from relating to a reference group
urges you to live a homey, the methods and tools of an experiential or culture (RELATE). Each SEM has its own
healthy lifestyle? How should
marketer are diverse and multifaceted. In a word, objectives, internal structure, and principles.
McDonald’s be positioned and
communicate in this world? For experiential marketing is not bound to one SENSE: The SENSE module—or SENSE
example, if you are marketing methodological ideology; it is eclectic. Some marketing— appeals to the senses, with the
McDonald’s hamburgers, you methods and tools may be highly analytical objective of creating sensory experiences through
consider yourself to be competing
and quantitative (such as eye-movement sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. SENSE
against all other forms of fast
food, whether they are competing methodologies for measuring the sensory impact marketing may be used to diferentiate companies
hamburger chains or fried of communications). Or they may be more and products, to motivate customers, and to add
chicken shops. At the same intuitive and qualitative (for example, brain- value to products through, for example, aesthetics
time, experiential marketing
focusing techniques used for understanding or excitement. One of the key principles of SENSE
examines the “macro” picture:
How does your product it creative thinking). They may be verbal, taking is “cognitive consistency/sensory variety”: that is,
into the cultural bias toward the traditional format of a focus group, in- the ideal SENSE approach provides an underlying
“healthy” foods? How should depth interview, or questionnaire. Or they may concept that is consistent but always fresh and
McDonald’s be positioned and
be visual. They may occur in an artiicial lab new. The long-lasting campaign for Absolut
communicate in this world?
environment or in a bar, where consumers watch vodka is a good example of SENSE marketing.
TV and drink beer. The bottle design provides the resting point and

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 FEATuRE EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGN AND COMMUNICATIONS

cognitive consistency, yet it can be executed in cognitive, problem-solving experiences that

continually new designs with sensory appeal. engage customers creatively. THINK appeals
FEEL: FEEL marketing appeals to customers’ engage customers’ convergent and divergent
inner feelings, with the objective of creating thinking through surprise, intrigue, and
afective experiences that range from mildly provocation. THINK campaigns are common for
positive moods linked to a brand (for example, for a new-technology products. A good example is
noninvolving, nondurable grocery brand or service Microsoft’s “Where Do You Want to Go Today?”
or industrial product) to strong emotions of joy campaign. But THINK marketing is not restricted
and pride (for example, for a consumer durable, to high-tech. THINK marketing has also been used
technology, or social marketing campaign). What in product design, retailing, and communications
is needed to make FEEL marketing work is a close in many other industries.
understanding of stimuli that can trigger certain ACT: ACT marketing enriches customers’ lives
emotions. Standard emotional communications by targeting their physical experiences, showing
lack both because they do not target feelings during them alternate ways of doing things (for example,
consumption. It is diicult to create successful in business-to-business and industrial markets),
FEEL campaigns on an international scale because as well as alternate lifestyles and interactions.
both the emotion-inducing stimuli and the Rational approaches to behavior change (that is,
willingness to empathize in a given situation often theories of reasoned actions) are only one of many
difer from culture to culture. behavioral change options. Changes in lifestyles
An example of a FEEL marketer is Hallmark. and behaviors are often motivational, inspirational,
FIGuRE 3 From the design of its greeting cards and the and emotional in nature and frequently involve role
Strategic experiential various sections in its Creations stores to its models (such as movie stars or athletes). Nike’s
modules (SEMs) can be used website, Hallmark is all FEEL. Just Do It has become a classic of ACT marketing.
to create diferent types of
customer experiences.
THINK: THINK marketing appeals to RELATE: RELATE marketing contains aspects
the intellect, with the objective of creating of SENSE, FEEL, THINK, and ACT marketing.
However, RELATE marketing expands beyond
the individual’s personal, private feelings, thus
relating the individual to something outside his
EXPRO
or her private state.
RELATE campaigns appeal to the individual’s
Communications

desire for self-improvement (a future ideal self

Environment
Co-branding

that he or she wants to relate to). They appeal

Identities

Products

Websites

People

to the need to be perceived positively by other

individuals (peers, girl- or boyfriends, spouses,
ENRICHING vs SIMPLIFYING or colleagues). They relate the person to a broader
SENSE social system (a subculture, a country).
BROADENING vs SHRINKING

CONNECTING INTENSIFYING America’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle is a

FEEL vs DIFFUSING RELATE brand par excellence. Harley is a way
SEM

of life. From the bikes themselves to Harley-

THINK
related merchandise to Harley-Davidson tattoos
on the bodies of enthusiasts (who come from all
RELATE SEPARATING social groups), consumers see Harley as a part
ACT of their identity. Not surprisingly, Harley-
Davidson users form strong bonds in the form
of brand communities.

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 FEATuRE EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGN AND COMMUNICATIONS

Should the organization broaden its experiential

appeal from individual experiences to experiential
hybrids and holistic experiences, or should it stick
to—or focus on—one single experience?

SEM oVERLAP attention to detail and using each ExPro to its

As mentioned earlier, the ive types of SEMs all fullest potential for creating the experience.
have their own inherent structures and principles.
SENSE design is aesthetically appealing or STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ISSuES
exciting; FEEL design uses emotional symbolism; oF ExPERIENTIAL MARKETING
THINK design is unusual and surprising; ACT Figure 4 illustrates the critical strategic issues—
design is dynamic and action inducing; RELATE intensity, breadth, depth, and linkage—of what I
design uses cultural and ethnic associations. call the experiential grid.
Or consider SEMs in advertising. A SENSE TV Intensity: Intensifying Versus Difusing. The
ad campaign typically dazzles viewers’ senses intensity issue involves individual grid cells.
with fast-paced, fast-cut images and music. It is Should the speciic experience provided in a given
dynamic and attention-getting and may leave a ExPro be experientially enhanced or difused?
strong impression after just 15 seconds. FEEL TV Let’s say you are Hallmark Cards, and you are
ads, in contrast, are often slice-of-life ads that creating a FEEL experience in your commercial
take time to draw the viewer in, building emotion (you know—those slice-of-apple-pie, two-
gradually. THINK campaigns are often sedate. minute commercials showing the brother coming
They begin with a voiceover, then move to text home almost late for Christmas dinner, just in
on the screen. ACT campaigns show behavioral time to sing a Christmas carol with his younger
outcomes or lifestyles. RELATE campaigns brother). The question is: What is the perfect
typically feature the person or group to which the level of intensity to get viewers to dab their eyes
customer is supposed to relate. and feel good about Hallmark—the level that
However, experiential appeals rarely result avoids overdoing it and coming across as tacky?
in only one type of experience. Modules are This is not an easy balance to strike. Without
circumscribed, but they are not self-contained the right kind of testing, you can overshoot your
structures; instead, they are connected and mark or fall far short.
interact. Many successful corporations employ Breadth: Enriching Versus Simplifying. The
experiential hybrids that combine two or more breadth issue concerns the management across
SEMS in order to broaden experiential appeal. ExPros. Should the organization enrich a given
Ideally, marketers should strive strategically for experience by adding additional ExPros that
creating holistically integrated experiences that provide the same experience, or simplify the
possess, at the same time, SENSE, FEEL, THINK, experience by concentrating it into certain ExPros?
ACT, and RELATE qualities. Imagine again that you are Hallmark.
Should your retail stores be experiential FEEL
The implementation tools of environments in order to enrich the experience,
experiential marketing: ExPros or should they be more functional selling spaces?
The SENSE, FEEL, THINK, ACT, and RELATE Or conversely, should you even drop the FEEL
modules are implemented through what I call advertising and use a more simpliied approach
experience providers (or ExPros), which include by relying solely on the messages and imagery of
communications, visual and verbal identity and the cards themselves? Hallmark has obviously
signage, product presence, co-branding, spatial chosen the former; it has made its Creation shops
environments, electronic media, and people. To the epitome of FEEL by emphasizing a warm and
create the appropriate marketing experience, welcoming atmosphere. There are quiet spaces
ExPros must be managed in three ways: (1) for selecting cards (rather than rows and rows of
coherently (that is, in an integrated fashion); card displays), comfortable writing surfaces with
(2) consistently over time; and (3) by paying child-size tables and chairs and boxes of crayons

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 FEATuRE EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGN AND COMMUNICATIONS

available, and themed displays (Kids’ Party, for

example, or Adult Birthday). Shoppers are welcome
to sit down and have a cup of cofee while they plan HOLISTIC EXPERIENCES
a party or select a Mother’s Day gift.
Depth: Broadening Versus Focusing. The depth SENSE
question is one of management across SEMs: FEEL
Should the organization broaden its experiential
THINK
appeal from individual experiences to experiential
hybrids and holistic experiences, or should it stick ACT
to—or focus on—one single experience? RELATE
For example, as part of its strategic planning,
Hallmark may ask, “What is the function and
meaning of greeting cards in the electronic
age? Does it still make sense to send greetings
via mail? And what if greeting cards are sent
by email, or personally created and stored on
websites?” As these questions illustrate, in the
electronic age Hallmark may consider broadening
its experiential approach from FEEL to THINK multiple, yet unconnected, ones. For them, the FIGuRE 4.
and perhaps even explore RELATE and ACT. strategic task clearly requires intensifying and Intensity, breadth, depth, and
linkage are critical strategic
In fact, the company has capitalized on these enriching current experiences, adding new types
issues that must be considered
opportunities by inaugurating one of the most of experiences, and connecting them with each for each SEM.
exciting and thought-provoking sites on the web other gradually. As a result, major investments
(www.hallmark.com). in experiential marketing are needed, because
Linkage: Connecting Versus Separating. This the strategy approach often calls for a stepwise
issue involves the interrelations among SEMs, as review and revision of all ExPros and the addition
well as ExPros. It is often not enough merely to of experiential elements into communications
add SEMs. SEMs need to be connected with one hitherto used for features-and-beneits
another. In some cases, however, it may be beneicial marketing. It also requires the presence of certain
to separate experiences that have become too broad organizational structures and processes, which we
and thus run the risk of being meaningless. will discuss next.
Should Hallmark create linkages and Intensity, breadth, depth, and linkage are
connections between its traditional FEEL approach critical strategic issues that must be considered
and its new THINK approach by, for example, for each SEM.
adding multimedia to its physical greeting cards?
Or should electronic greeting cards and printed Corporate branding
ones be run as separate businesses? and sub-branding
Successfully managing these issues requires Here we consider corporate/brand architecture as
making a commitment to an experiential it is projected to customers (suppliers, business
approach to marketing. Most companies, having customers, or consumers). Typically, a company
practiced features-and-beneits marketing for that has very high corporate visibility (for example,
many years, initially generate impoverished Ford or Sony) should create an experiential identity
experiential marketing strategies. They use an for itself. But it must also create experiential
approach that is too difused and simpliied, identities for its brands and products, and these
focusing on one type of experience only or using should not clash with the corporate identity. A

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 FEATuRE EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGN AND COMMUNICATIONS

Traditional marketing has provided a valuable

set of strategies, implementation tools, and
methodologies for the industrial age.

corporation that has created strong stand-alone rigorous safety tests implemented by Daimler-
brand identities (such as General Motors or Benz. The Smart is also fun. Its distinctive look—
Procter & Gamble) may forgo experiential branding tiny, somewhat triangular, and modern—sets it
because it has less visibility as a corporation. But it apart from all others; this car looks like nothing
still needs to manage the experiential identities of so much as a sneaker! Its distinctive two-tone
its products and brands very closely. color scheme is customizable to consumer
speciications, and its interior design is marked by
NEW PRoDuCTS, BRAND ExTENSIoNS, modular parts, which make it possible to stylize
AND PARTNERSHIP STRATEGIES the car quickly and cheaply. In fact, the Smart
In traditional marketing, the goal of new product represents the realization of a car as a safe and
development is often the addition of new features well-designed fashion accessory.
and beneits that will improve old products or old
technologies. Traditional marketing models view GLoBAL ExPERIENTIAL BRANDING
brand extensions in terms of the it between product Experiential branding extended into the global
categories and the transfer of positive equity from arena raises a range of complex issues. Are there
the current brand to the extension product. cultural diferences in preferences for types of
In contrast, the experiential marketing SEMs? For example, do customers in one nation
approach views new product and brand extension prefer FEEL, in a second nation THINK, and in a
decisions as driven by three factors: (1) the degree third one RELATE?
to which the new product and extension category How about speciic experiences? For example,
enhances the experiential image of the company or are certain nations more attuned to aesthetics in
brand; (2) the degree to which new products and SENSE, while others love excitement? Or do some
brand extensions add new experiences that can be like nationalistic RELATE appeals, but others
leveraged in additional new products and further global appeals?
brand extensions; and (3) the degree to which they Do diferent ExPro executions appeal to
help in the creation of holistic experiences. customers in diferent countries?
Similar considerations will also drive the
selection of other companies for strategic Conclusion
partnerships. Such experiential considerations Traditional marketing has provided a valuable
may have been behind the decision of Swatch set of strategies, implementation tools, and
Suggested Readings and Daimler-Benz to form a joint venture to methodologies for the industrial age. Now that
Elliott, Stuart. “Clinique Is
manufacture a new car—a decision that puzzled we have entered a new era, it is necessary to move
Introducing Scent in Bid for
Share of Premium Market.” many industry experts. And the resulting from the features-and-beneits approach toward
The New York Times, September product—the Smart car—is an automotive marketing to customer experiences. Managers
30, 1997, Section D, p. 6.
ofering that is experiential from beginning to end. need to consider new concepts, new approaches,
Kotler, Philip. Marketing
Management (eighth ed.).
The Smart relects the best of both of its parents’ and new structures and processes within their
Englewood Clifs, N.J.: worlds. Its appeal derives from its design, which organizations to capitalize on the opportunities
Prentice-Hall, 1994. couples attention to safety with a customizable ofered by experiential marketing.
Peters, Tom. The Circle of fashion look. The Smart car is a mini, designed to
Innovation: You Can’t Shrink Bernd Schmitt (PhD, Cornell university) is professor of
Your Way to Greatness. New
it in any parking space in any city in the world; international business in the marketing department of
York: Knopf, 1999. its thought-provoking slogan is “reduce to the Columbia Business School at New York’s Columbia University.

Porter, Michael. Competitive max.” The Smart is conceived as a completely new

Strategy: Techniques for product—an innovative solution to the problems
Analyzing Industries and
Competitors. New York: of city driving. Despite its size, safety is a central
The Free Press, 1985. design concern for the Smart, and it is passing

26 DMI 40TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE 2015

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