The core concept of marketing lies on market-oriented businesses paying close attention to constantly changing customers’ needs. Forsyth (1993) concludes what marketing concept means to businesses: "seeing the business through the eyes of the customer and producing what they want in the way they want". Businesses build a strategic plan following the marketing concept where customer is seen as part of the organization rather than a separate organ (Fahy and Jobber, 2012). Forsyth (1993) states that belief lies within businesses' ideology that customers are of prime importance. When marketing is done right it allows businesses to operate effectively in attractive markets offering more desirable products and services than their competitors for a specific target audience. Ultimately if a firm's marketing has been successful it has created and delivered customer value at a profit to the company and hopefully created a positive long-term relationship between the parties involved.

Shareen Pathak (2014) defines experiential marketing loosely as “messaging you can touch, feel or view in a physical space”. In other words, experiential marketing is a form of tangible advertisement that aims to create a memorable experience and relationship between people and the brand by involving customers in the event. Experiential marketing is an efficient way of affecting people as Schmitt (1999) describes consumers as being rational but emotionally driven. It is harnessing campaigns as means to develop an emotional connection and to gain possible customer loyalty. Initially it is carrying out corporate strategies with an aim of influencing later purchase decisions. Experiential marketing campaigns provide participants with a blast of entertainment wrapped up in the brand image. Positive and successful brand campaigns generate revenue and create special value to customers.

The Arthur Guinness & Sons Ltd started gaining ground first brewering different ales in the 17^th century. The brewery has been operating since its founding days of 1759 at St. James’ Gate in Dublin (Yenne, 2007). Notably characteristics for Guinness porter is its dark consistency topped with foamy head that is achieved by a unique nitrogenation process (Yenne, 2007 p. 145-150). Today it is a very recognizable iconic global brand that mainly focuses its production on Guinness Original and Guinness Extra Stout. Diageo owned Guinness is now trying to set foot in the door and take advantage of the growing popularity of craft beer by launching new craft variants to the market (Vizard, 2014). Many more variants are constantly being invented in order to reach out to new customers and stay competitive in changing markets while still ‘continuing to exploit nostalgia for the traditional draught’ (Bowcott and Bowers, 2006).

Guinness does not only provide its consumers with a drinking experience but also an insight to the Irish lifestyle as Rory Guinness (2009) states: “That is Ireland and those years of history and those years of scientific expertise that has gone into perfecting the drink”. Guinness is thus undoubtedly an ‘ingrained part of Ireland’s heritage’ in Valentine’s (2013) words. Thus, according to O'Halloran (2016) the Guinness Storehouse is the country’s biggest generator of tourist flow being the most visited tourist attraction in Ireland. Bowcott and Bowers (2006) describe Ireland as ‘the shop window where Diageo promotes Guinness’. Although, most Guinness in the world is consumed in Britain where 200 million litres were sold in 2014 (The Economist, 2015). Surprisingly enough, nearly 40% of Guinness is consumed somewhere in Africa and the country that covers the largest market for Guinness per net sales value is Nigeria (Davidson, 2015), where one of the five breweries is located. Overall, according to Davidson (2015) an average of 4.4 million pints of Guinness is sold daily, making up a total of 2.5 million liters. 

Political/ Economical:

As irresponsible consumption can lead to detrimental outcomes, countries control how alcoholic beverages are advertised, distributed and labelled. For instance, countries in the EU fall under the EU regulations in alcoholic labelling requirements. Health warning requirements on labels might be issued by the state. British Beer & Pub Association in the UK presents guidelines of industry regulations. Guinness has to comply to each individual system and tailor their export products suitable according to specific regulations.

The EU Referendum held in 2016 was resulted in the exit of the UK and is now posing a direct economical impact on businesses operating there (Belke and Gros, 2017). Brexit could possibly mean new border customs and tariffs which would affect Diageo owned Guinness’ in terms of delays in shipping and lost revenue. O’Carroll (2017) predicts “Diageo would either be forced to absorb that cost or pass it on to the consumer by raising the cost of a pint”. In that case consequently Guinness being a premium beer, people would purchase cheaper lager or cider options from supermarkets or off-license (Bowcott & Bowers, 2006). Furthermore, cost of a pint is adapted to inflation according to figures from the British Beer & Pub Association, which reveals the price for a pint has gone up by 40% compering years 2004 to 2014. The degree of inflation poses a direct impact on export sales.

Social:

Daneshku and Ram (2016) state that the younger generations are becoming more health conscious and tend to drink less frequently compared to their parents. They say drinks companies are going to face a significant decline in the number of young people that drink alcohol.

Technological:

Continuously developing biotechnology and genetic engineering enable selection of favorable characteristics in barley, yeast and hops (Hanson, 2017). Research on molecular understanding has expanded our strategies to prevent the contamination of yeast in production and to control disease epidemics and to eventually work towards complete disease resistance in crops (Oliva and Quibod, 2017).

Fahy and Jobber (2012) emphasize the importance of market segmentation as it allows identified groups of individuals and organizations with common attributes to be served more efficiently. When talking about market segmentation, it is usually split into four main categories as done by Zirram (2010):

Behavioural: ‘classified by purchase decisions’

Psychographic: ‘classified on the basis of psychological factors’

Demographic: ‘by population characteristics’

Geographic: ‘by geographical area’

According to Fahy and Jobber (2012) market segmentation could be seen as a vital part of strategic marketing as it is a commercially viable method to differentiate a brand from competition. Knowing that Guinness is an international brand, it has to comply with different ethnic demographics and geographic factors. For Guinness to successfully position itself in global markets, engagement with local cultural sensibilities and relevant subjectivity need to be brought into close attention (Yenne, 2007; Lawrence and Jackson, 2009). Guinness uses differentiated marketing in terms of international distribution and age segments. For instance, people in the African demographic favor Guinness Foreign Extra Stout and in Japan only Guinness Draught is sold (Yenne, 2007 p. 208). In Nigeria, Guinness invented a cheaper option of its stout, called Orijin, that connects with the target market's identity (Okafor, 2017). In addition, people of younger generations ‘have grown up with a sweeter palate’ so they tend to prefer Draught for its less bitter taste unlike the older generations (Yenne, 2007 p. 209). Therefore, as campaign’s target market is the millennials, considering Guinness Draught as the product for the campaign is relevant.

Grönroos (2015) argues that because of intense service competition and more mature markets, it is important that firms use marketing strategies to differentiate themselves amongst competitors. He states that when exploiting marketing mix as a tool most benefit can be gained. Use of marketing mix will allow organizations to find the right combination of factors to be able to ‘gain an advantage over their competitors’ (Lumen Learning, 2017). Traditionally it consist of four standardized elements of marketing variables, in other words the 4Ps model. The use of marketing mix is essential for many firms as it gives guidance in identifying means to accomplish their marketing plan.

Product Choice of product offers a solution to particular target customers’ needs and wants. It is aimed at giving the company a differentiated advantage over competitors.

Promotion All promotional activity that forms a promotional mix. It is the communication between the customer and company aimed at potential purchase and the delivery of value to customer.

Place Refers to the distribution of the product and decision on what channels to use.

Price is influenced by competitors’ activity and consumer demand. Assessment of products’ value done by the firm is essential.

Regarding Guinness’ experiential campaign, one can conclude it is part of the promotional element of the marketing mix. Using the marketing mix when carrying out the campaign, Guinness ensures that customers obtain a customized experience through direct marketing. Other factors of the mix, product, price and place are also used in the campaign as prices are discounted and specific place and Guinness product are chosen.  

The experiential campaign designed for Guinness has been branded with the slogan Take Your Top Off. Purpose of the campaign is to design an engaging and interactive experience to appeal to millennial drinkers, focus on making women familiar with the brand. In addition, other objectives are to revitalize Guinness as a brand and to stimulate loyalty and positive equity. The campaign, Take Your Top Off, will be held during the Wireless festival from 6^th – 8^th of July 2018 and it creates a unique opportunity for participants to engage in a memorable experience with Guinness. ­

• The campaign proposition includes four electric can opener and prize selecting machines that have been designed specifically for this campaign. Everyone who purchases a can of Guinness will have the chance to participate and possibly win a prize. A can of Guinness purchased at the bar is placed in the middle of the screen in a hole matched perfectly to the size of a can. The machine mechanically removes the can opener tab and ‘transfers’ it over to a display screen which inturn shows a video of a pull tab off a can dropping down different slots and eventually to the bottom to one of the correlating slots which identifies weather the patron is a winner of a prize or not. Each screen is programmed to specific odds of particular winning prize.
• Winning prizes would include discount cards and drink vouchers, product give-aways, Airbnb stays at Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, airfares to Ireland and spa weekends. Drink vouchers can be redeemed at the bar.
• Guinness product, Guinness Draught has been chosen for the campaign for, according to Yenne (2007) the younger generation has grown up with a sweeter palate, so this product would serve them the best. Guinness draught will be served in a can, hence the attempt to increase supermarket sales over venue purchasing. As stated by Bowcott and Bowers (2006) more often people are buying their beverages from supermarkets to be indulged at homes. This has affected Guinness severely as 2006 90% of Guinness in Ireland was consumed as draught (Bowcott and Bowers, 2006). Campaign aims to influence consumers’ purchase decisions post-event and introduce Guinness as an option for stay-in drinking.
• As suggested by Sheridan, the head of sponsorship for Diageo, the key to obtaining a broader segment appeal is to resonate the brand with female drinkers (Hobbs, 2017b). This is what Guinness aims to achieve with the campaign. To make the brand more appealing to female consumers at the event, a variety of Guinness beer cocktails will be available upon purchase or with vouchers won from the prize machine. Beer cocktails are made appealing with slices of berries and fruits and are served from disposable plastic cups.

Understanding the psychographic segment the experiential campaign is aiming to influence, the target market’s personality is that of a prime importance for it relates closely to the event and destination choice (Getz and Page, 2016). Therefore, as target audience of the campaign is young adults it would make sense executing ‘Take Your Top Off’ –campaign at a specific festival venue to connect with as many within the target market as possible. Wireless Festival in Finsbury park in London provides a great opportunity for Guinness to engage with the target audience as event goers tend to become more carefree and alter their behaviour (Hopkins and Reicher, 2015) and therefore, be more open to new experiments. Also, a festival venue encourages impulse buying as purchase decisions are that of a low involvement. Targeting audience at Wireless Festival would be justified by Pine and Gilmore (2007, p.4) who believe that the segment ‘Cultural creatives’ are the ones attending festivals as they drive the demand for more memorable and participatory experiences. Hence the festival location is ideal for Guinness’ experiential campaign to be able to raise brand awareness and trigger motivation for future purchases. Placed conveniently at the heart of London, Wireless Festival received 15,000 – 20,000 attendees per day in 2017 and was placed 8^th of 10 largest festivals in the UK according to Consultancy.uk (2017). Wireless festival is different from Guinness’ usual campaign locations but is used as means to put in place a gradual strategic repositioning to raise brand awareness within the younger generations. Diageo’s head of sponsorship Rory Sheridan justifies the radical changes so brand could shift away from traditional and become ‘relevant and ageless’ again (Hobbs, 2017b).

According to Gummerus (2007) the use of social media enables and encourages content sharing which can cause a ripple effect, meaning that content spreads fast to a wide audience. To raise brand awareness amongst the target market, Guinness campaign attendees are encouraged to generate and share content on several different social media platforms using the campaign hashtag #takeyourtopoff. They will create earned media which means event-goers are posting their experiences online during the event promoting Guinness’ brand.

• Campaign will be promoted pre-event on Guinness' social media channels, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. A few months before the campaign Guinness products are promoted in retail packaging as Wireless Festival ticket prizes can be won by lodging a product code online, obtained from purchased products. This encourages supermarket sales which is crucial as Guinness is most consumed on licensed venues (Bowcott and Bowers 2006).

• Campaign themed picture wall is created with the hashtag and customers can have their photo taken in front of it. Creative Guinness side products are provided for a more personalised experience.

• A photographer is hired to take photos of consumers who will easily be able to access pictures on Guinness campaign’s Facebook page by liking the page first. According to Rose (2017) the biggest demographic segment of Facebook users in the UK is those aged 20-29 years which means that Facebook remains as an important media platform for the target market of the campaign.

• Visible QR codes are placed nearby the bar which by scanning them direct you to a webpage and reveals recipes for the delicious beer cocktails. This will assumingly generate post-campaign off-trade purchasing of Guinness as consumers can create these drinks at the convenience of their own homes.

According to Schmitt (1999, p.31-32) marketers are increasingly learning to understand that consumers are no longer ‘feature- and benefit-driven’ but have experiential needs: demand for sensory, affective, cognitive experiences, actions, and relations. Experiential marketing is used more and more commonly as brands want to connect and play more relevant and active parts in consumers’ lives. Thus, the emergence of the Experience Economy that was initially introduced by Pine and Gilmore (2011). Based on Schmitt’s work, I have provided 10 reasons why my brand event will likely to be successful:

•  Campaign provides a sensory experience which engages with all five senses; sight, sound, scent, taste and touch.
• The incorporation of content marketing to sell Guinness lifestyle rather than necessarily the product, in order to reach out to new segments and to stimulate brand loyalty.
• The experiential campaign has a Unique Selling Point (USP) which is the use of Irish culture.
• Consumer experience has been prioritised over corporate goals.
• Campaign attendees will leave the event with tangible and intangible memorabilia which will arouse post-event discussion around the brand.
• Campaign offers a ‘holistic experience’ that engages with consumers’ senses.
• Provides customers with a participatory experience where they are physically, mentally and emotionally involved.
• Campaign will offer attendees with a change in knowledge and perception toward the brand.
• The use of multiple marketing strategies such as experiential and social media marketing.
• Campaign revolved around the can opener gaming slot –machine, which is the ‘duck’ (Schmitt, 2011) of the campaign; something that allows event consumers to remember the campaign.

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