ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 40 (Number 6) Year 2019. Page 16

Experiential marketing as a basis for modern communications with consumers

Marketing experiencial como base para las comunicaciones modernas con los consumidores

BUDOVICH, Lidia S. 1

Received: 11/09/2018 • Approved: 15/01/2019 • Published 18/02/2019

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

4. Conclusions

Bibliographic references

1. Introduction

The Feel SEM is a consumer’s emotionally coloured state that occurs as a response to the impact of marketing tools both before and after a purchase, and that manifests itself in the formation of the consumer’s emotional attitude to the advertised product or to the company as a whole. Let us discuss each SEM in detail.

Sensation is the primary cognitive process in the course of which the cortex reflects individual properties of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world upon their direct impact on the organs of the senses. Traditionally, there are five senses, according to which the following senses can be distinguished: vision (colour and black and white), hearing, touch (pressure, pain, cold and heat), taste (salty, sweet, bitter and sour) and smell. Today, however, psychologists add other, less known senses, such as kinaesthetic sense and vestibular sense. It is exactly the need to stimulate sensations that explains the popularity of perfume, cosmetic, tobacco and other products.

Until recently, the goods (services) advertising campaigns were mainly based on the creation of ideal visual and sound images. Video commercials targeted at sensory sensations excite the visual and auditory receptors of consumer by rapid succession of fragmentary images and accompanying music. And the colour sensations are of great importance, such as colour contrast, brightness, saturation, match to certain emotions, as well as all kinds of colour combinations etc. — after all, vision prevails over other senses and can persuade the consumer to buy a product. Even after fifteen seconds of demonstration a dynamic, eye-catching video ad can form a strong, lasting impression with a potential consumer. Certainly, by means of television, Internet, radio and press it would be often hard to make a consumer feel certain sensations: it is difficult to convey them by an advertising message text or by visual images and symbols contained in it, and therefore most often the ads depict people experiencing certain feelings and emotions, using psychophysiological, social psychological, physiognomical, nonverbal communication psychological and other techniques. For example, when characters are tasting the advertised foods, meals prepared on their basis or drinks, they close their eyes typically saying “M-m-m!” and shake their head with a pleasurable sensation, with his (her) whole appearance showing pleasure from taste sensations. The point of such advertising is that the demonstration of pleasure will be so inspiring that the consumer will also want to experience such feelings, and therefore he (she) will buy the advertised product.

The development of technologies and communication channels enable to include other types of sensations in this process. “Got Milk?” (an outdoor commercial) can serve as an example: people passing by the billboard feel the smell of chocolate cookies; the smell is generated by the strips stuck to a bus shelter and under the bench; thereby a combination of just-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies and milk loved by many people is played on using visual and olfactory elements of the advertising. (Bernd Schmitt, 1999)

Package is another striking example of the use of the Sense Module in marketing communications with consumers. According to the Deutsche Verpackungsinstitut (German Packaging Institute — DVI), the role of the senses in a buying decision is distributed as follows:

Sight (vision): 58%;

Smell (olfaction): 45%;

Hearing (audition): 41%;

Taste (gustation): 31%; and

Touch (somatosensation): 25%.

And the loyalty to the product when exposed to several senses (vision + touch, vision + hearing etc.) is estimated as two times higher than the same indicator when exposed only to vision. As a consequence this trend results in a bottle shaped for hand holding, flipping vacuum indicator, crunching foil sound etc”. The use of consumer’s taste buds will also be possible by means of a package design because people are able to feel taste (as well as experience the tactile, thermal and other sensations) just by looking at a picture. Fruits and berries, fresh cuts of products, imitation texture (roughness, fogging etc.) are used for sensory influence; unusual perspective and defocus enable to simulate the effect of physical perception.

It should be noted that senses are closely linked with other mental processes, for example, with emotions; this is conditioned biologically, psychologically and socially. The researchers found the existence of sensory (emotional) and structure hunger phenomena, in many respects similar to nutritional hunger. In addition, such terms as malnutrition, satiation, gourmet, gourmand, faddist, ascetic etc., are easily transferred by E. Berne from the field of nutrition to the field of sensation. The fact of the gradual separation of the child from the mother in the process of growing up underlies the formation of the sensor hunger defined as a “need in thirst for sensations, recognition and structure”. Structure hunger is caused by the need to avoid boredom and melancholy. Senses may affect consumer feelings and, hence, a buying decision making process: for example, a sensor signal generated at the point of contact with a consumer, using the visual power of a package design (combination of package colours, fonts, textures, shapes, sizes, etc.) and decoded by the organs of the senses (vision and touch) creates the consumer’s emotional response that manifests itself in endowing the product with certain associations and emotional characteristics. Coca-Cola is an example: laconic and eye-catching package depicts drink consumption situations and creates emotional associations — leisure, freedom, fun, and entertainment. (McLuhan M., Fiore Q., 1967)

The reference to emotions in advertising is due to their ability to attract the consumer's attention to the promoted products: “the objects that cause a strong emotional experience spontaneously and that, as a rule, instantly capture the attention of the subject, in the phenomenological field of consciousness take the place of a “figure” in relation to which all the rest acts as a “background”.

According to R. Batra, the term ‘Emotional Advertising’ means “advertising that is primarily aimed at awakening an individual reciprocal feeling and, as a rule (but not always), contains minimum information or no information at all. Unlike information advertising, it is usually skilfully made and aimed not only at awakening feelings, sensations or moods, but also at recalling the brand”. The TV advertising oriented at emotions often represents a whole section of the life situation, gradually increases the emotional aspect of perception, and therefore lasts quite a long time enabling the viewer to be fully overwhelmed with the suggested images. At the same time, however, the plot of the advertising must model the entire emotional cycle, otherwise the emotion will be interrupted, incomplete usually causing a feeling of irritation and discontent.

The following feelings and their combinations are most frequently used in domestic ads:

Love, friendship, gratitude etc. — love, family or friendships (visual images of happy couples, warm relationships, holidays or vacations are shown directly or indirectly, for example, a Christmas scene as a warm family moment, etc.) The feeling of warm, close relationships with other people is contrasted with loneliness, isolation and non-involvement. An ad can also be focused on the issue that can be solved through the advertised product. The theme of warmth, cordiality can often be seen in advertisements of food, healthcare products, household chemicals etc. The products such as jewellery, flowers, candies and postcards are often positioned as symbols of love and care. The theme of love dominates in the ads that promote children care products, especially for newborns, baby food for kids, toys etc. Love and affection are used in the advertising of goods for pets (the advertising of Whiskas is perhaps the most striking example) etc.

Passion, being a fusion of emotions, motives and feelings concentrated around a particular activity or object, is always expressed in a recollection, concentration of thoughts and forces, and their focus on a shared objective. As an emotion, passion is reflected in advertising, particularly when an action or a static self-image are sensually coloured. Passionate relationships can be seen during a dance of the advertising mascots, demonstration of romantic or intimate scenes in advertising etc. This theme is used in the advertising of perfumes, cosmetics, clothing and underwear, drinks... and even of cat food (e.g. promotional video — SHEBA, Feed Your Passion).

Pleasure (cheerfulness, fun, entertainment etc.) — Pleasure (derived from the satisfaction of needs) and displeasure (associated with the inability to do it with the actualization of the corresponding needs) are the oldest in origin, the simplest and most common forms of emotional experiences. TV, movies, music, theatrical performances, fine literature, sporting events, tourist cruises, outside activities (for example, parachute jumps, mountain river rafting, hunting etc.), night clubs and other entertainments are popular because they offer the consumer a variety of pleasures and create a feeling of fullness of life as opposed to boredom. For example, a chocolate advertiser can appeal to the need for pleasure by positioning the consumption of its product as a way to cheer up. It should be noted that entertainment is one of the methods of marketing communication between the company and consumers enabling to use all five SEMs rather than just the emotional component. The theme parks can serve as an example: thus, the Hershey Park provides an opportunity to spend the whole day walking or horse-riding while listening to the lectures on the secrets of chocolate production. Consumers learn the brand from all sides, using all five senses: for example, smell in the perception of stunning flavours associated with the production of sweets, or touch — when tasting cocoa beans, etc.

Nostalgia — the theme of longing for native land, parental home, childhood, past times etc. is played on in the advertising by referring to memories of consumers. An advertising campaign of the Small House in the Village products, positioned as “milk and dairy products from childhood” can serve as an example.

However, the use of nostalgic themes is not limited to advertising: it is used in the package design for such products as canned stewed meat (the package can contain elements of the Soviet past), candies and confectionery (“homemade recipes”, “like when we were kids” etc), vodka etc. The product package design using illustrations from all favourite fairy tales, cartoons and children's books can also be attributed to expressive nostalgic tools.

Humour successfully attracts attention and is able to instil a positive attitude to the advertiser, facilitates memorization and understanding of the product. A humorous effect can be achieved by using puns, allusions, jokes, absurdities, satire, irony, caricatures etc. among which the following can be highlighted:

Gag Advertising contains comic elements: funny images (including personalised ones), phrases, replicas, actions etc., although in general the advertising message may not be necessarily funny. The task of such advertising is to bring information to the consumer and amuse him (her) a little. Among the examples of the gag advertising are children goofing on adults; mischievous behaviour of characters; presence of the hapless, funny character (the comical appearance; a character with peculiarities or oddities that distinguish it from the surrounding environment; a normal character getting into a ridiculous situation etc.).

Funny Story Ad — advertising, a characteristic feature of which is the mandatory presence of anecdotal plot linked with a real product or service. Often the essence of a humorous message is to create a text or a story that can be interpreted in two opposite ways (for example, one level is real and the second one is unreal/unexpected) after which the storyline is developed which switches the viewer from one of these two opposite levels to another: the recipient is told the first part of the message designed so that a predictable false forecast could be created in his (her) mind; the person who is waiting something familiar in the end of the message suddenly faces an unexpected ending. The longer the time interval between the false prediction and the real result, the stronger the consumer’s emotional response is.

Parody Advertisement: being a parody of advertising in general it is a parody of advertising of non-competing products without outlining the boundaries of product groups; a parody of a non-competitive product group is a parody of advertising of a certain product group as a whole not related to the category of the advertised product; a parody of advertising of a non-competitive product is a parody of a specific product that is not related to the category of the advertised product; a parody of a competitor’s advertisement is a parody of advertising of a product (or goods) promoted in a parody advertisement.

Shock (emotions associated with a shocking behaviour in advertising) — the plots or methods (for example, harsh, cynical or absurd statements, images, etc.) that contradict social stereotypes and violate social taboos are used. The information presented in the advertisement must conflict with conventional beliefs existing in the society or in a particular group, i.e. the greater the difference between the norm and the advertising information, the greater the surprise and even shock of the message is. The shocking advertising exploits sensual motives, as well as motives of violence and aggression.

Fear, sense of guilt — appeal to the sense of fear associated with social and psychological motives (fear of loss of friends, status or job, the guilt over bad parenting or improper fulfilment of household responsibilities etc), anxiety, fear of threat etc. generate a consumer emotional reaction in response in the form of fear, as well as related feelings (fear, disgust, discomfort, etc.) enabling to emphasize the problems that may occur when using the product (for example, cigarettes, alcohol, fast food, confectionery etc.), or rejecting it (for example, failure to comply with traffic regulations), the consumer may also be offered a solution to the problem (for example, Nestlé Fitness Breakfast Kits are positioned as “the healthy way to start the day”; Nivea Sun Protection Cream solves the consumers’ “dilemma of wanting to protect themselves from the sun while at the same time desiring a natural tan”; healthcare products promise immediate relief and deliverance from health problems etc).

The Think SEM refers to a consumer’s intellect, formation of cognitive experience, problem solving, motivation to analysis and generalisations, makes the consumer wonder and be interested in novelty, originality, comparative efficiency so that the promoted product could get into the field of cognitive and evaluation activity of the consumer. In other words, the main task of the advertising that causes thoughts is to provide the consumer with information about the promoted product and thereby to activate the thinking process, as well as to form a cognitive response to advertising. The following mental process properties can be used in such advertising: (LaRose R., Mastro D., Eastin M. S., 2001)

• By establishing links and relationships between things and phenomena, a person relies on the direct impact of these things and relationships on such person, on past experience preserved in his (her) memory, and uses the knowledge and experience gained by past generations;

• Close correlation between thinking and speech, both external and internal;

• A human thinks using not only concrete but also abstract notions and symbols.

Commercial reels of this type are distinguished by their steadiness and rhythmicity, usually accompanied by off-screen commentary with the transition to the screen text and also actively use the types of mental operations such as association, comparison, abstraction, concretisation, analysis, synthesis, generalisation, setting analogies, judgment, reasoning and other operations.

It makes sense to apply the thought-oriented advertising when the brand objectively has strong competitive advantages. In this case, its purpose is to encourage a consumer to think about such advantages, though it goes without saying that it can also cause an emotional response or an action response and further with respect to the SEMs.

A teaser advertisement that intrigues a consumer and raises his (her) curiosity may serve as an example of the activation of cognitive needs. By creating an incomplete self-image in the consumer's mind, a teaser advertisement generates a cognitive need to be satisfied with information contained in the ad main part about the merits of the advertised product. Such advertising is effective because according to psychological research about 80% of all people experience severe discomfort in cases of incompleteness of the mental image appearing in their mind.

The study of the behavioural component includes both conscious and unconscious behaviour of consumers. There exist different views on the nature of the ways people behave. For example, from the psychoanalytic approach standpoint, the buying behaviour of an individual in the market will be built based mainly on irrational, unconscious motives; hence, in this case an advertising campaign seeks to associatively link the advertised product with suppressed, unconscious motives. If the conscious in the human psychological nature is taken as a basis, the most effective way will be to encourage the buyer by the seller to call, come, compare and to buy the goods, of course. (Nadtochii Yu.B., Budovich L.S., 2018)

Results of certain actions, manifestations of a certain lifestyle are represented by the action-oriented advertising. The Act SEM refers to physical experiences of people, the experience of interacting with a product and with other individuals. In order to evoke a consumer’s response, the following techniques are used in advertising:

• Use of the instructive advertising which is a consistent description of the actions required to use the advertised product; this enables not only to represent the product characteristics in detail and provide the consumer with a virtual experience of interaction with the product, but also influence his (her) subconscious mind due to the internal structure of such advertising that Advertising that expresses motivation and has an expressive meaning. The instructive advertising is often used in the promotion of beverages and food products (ready-made breakfasts, seasonings, semi-finished products, etc) offering the cooking recipes from the advertised product. Such as, for example, “Maggi for crispy chicken with cheese and tomatoes”: “Take chicken thighs, dip in egg, roll in Maggi for crispy chicken, and bake without adding oil”.

• Motivational structures in the ad text: predominance of verbs often in the imperative mood, expressing a call to action and taking the form of: advice “Select your shampoo and forget about the problems: dandruff, dry or excessively greasy hair, itching and hair loss (CLEAR vita ABE); wish (“Live on the bright side” (Beeline); invitation to act including joint action («Find out the special offer details in the Avon Catalogue”); Don’t be afraid. Believe in a world without breast cancer. We will not give up before we win (Breast Cancer Awareness campaign within The Estée Lauder Companies).

According to the personality theory, every person has:

• A real “self-image”, i.e. the way people see themselves in reality;

• An ideal “self-image”, i.e. how people would like to see themselves;

• A social “self-image”, i.e. how, in their opinion, they are seen by others;

• An ideal social “self-image”, i.e. how people would like to be seen by others.

The Relate SEM is based on the consumer's concern about how other people perceive him (her), as well as on the need to make the desired impression on the social environment. The leaders, opinions with which the viewer presumably associates himself (herself) or among which he (she) would like to be become the advertising characters of this type of advertising. And aspects of sensations, feelings, thoughts and actions are used with this regard. There is a correlation of a person with his (her) ideal state, with other people and cultures. Among the techniques most commonly used in the advertising aimed at correlating with the ideal (template), to which the consumer aspires are:

• The use of celebrity services in advertising, acting as objects of identification, role and image models the imitation of which gives the consumer a psychological sense of unity with his (her) idol. There are different scenarios of celebrity participation in advertising: for example, he (she) can give a recommendation (praise the benefits of a product, referring to their own experience); can express their approval by allowing to his (her) name or image to advertise a product, without acting as an expert in this area; can participate in advertising as an actor or the company’s representative etc.

• Creation of Brand Personality, i.e. a description of the brand image based on the related associations and personal attributes, giving the brand the characteristics of a complete, holistic and unique personality (that is, the description of the brand as “courageous” or “feminine”, “old-fashioned”, “aggressive” or “elegant”), assigning a personal name to it (for example, Dr. Pepper, Mr. Muscle), as if it were a man, etc

• Charity is able to turn the brand into an element of personal experiences, thereby involving the Feel SEM and the Think SEM. According to R. Levinson, Charity Advertising is one of the fastest growing areas of marketing: “Let the world know that you’re an environmentally responsible business and you will see that it attracts like-minded people... 63 percent of Americans will pay as much as 36 percent more to patronize a business that is environmentally friendly. When they see that they purchase what they need and help their fellow citizens of the world at the same time, they’ll be inclined to do business with you”. The examples of such charity advertising are the Project of the Yves Rocher Foundation “Greening the Planet Together”, the joint campaign of Pampers and UNICEF “1 pack = 1 vaccine” etc. In connection with this trend, the practice of placing information about the company's charitable activities in advertising materials, on the website, as well as the practice of publication of reports to inform about the social, environmental, production and financial results of the company's performance has been expanding. The approach to make a report from the perspective of experiential marketing involves the use of photos and drawings, charts and graphs, a variety of colour and font designs etc.; this enables you to get a colourful booklet to be distributed not only among shareholders, but also used to inform other target audiences (for example, financial circles, government agencies, as well as existing and potential customers) about the company's activities.

Thus, some of the marketing tools are aimed at a specific module. For example, there are many empirical product names focused on one or another SEM. This is because of the fact that quite a number of studies within various product categories (alcohol, soft drinks, tobacco products etc.) show that the perception of a product by consumers (for example, gustatory qualities) depends on its name which should not only attract attention and please the buyer, but should also create a certain impression. The name of Avon Skin-So-Soft products is sense-oriented; the name of Nestlé 48 Kopeek Ice Cream evokes nostalgic associations (Feel SEM); the name of margarine “Khozyaiushka” (Kind Hostess) refers to the Relate SEM and flatters the woman who buys it and the quality of meals cooked by her; Khrum-Krum Corn Curls refer to the Act SEM. Certainly, there are names oriented at several SEMs at a time: for example, the name of Pampers Active Baby Diapers is oriented at the Act SEM and at the Relate SEM.

At the same time, the effective marketing communication must be directed at sensations, feelings, thoughts, and behaviour (actions) of the consumer, and at the correlation providing a holistic effect. There are new marketing communication tools that enable to address the consumer concurrently through all SEMs, for example:

• Product Placement (placement of product, branded entertainment), i. e. the technology that uses visual, auditory, motion and emotional channels of information perception by the consumer, making play with the presence of the product in the frame: an actor eats, drinks, tastes, smokes, drives, takes something, switches it on, goes somewhere etc., as well as the whole range of psychological techniques influencing the consumer such as the mechanism of identification, imitation (for example, a tradition to gift a diamond engagement ring appeared thanks to the product placement), stereotyped perception, Talent Relations Technology (Celebrity Marketing) etc.. The product placement technology enables to involve the product into the character's lifestyle and his (her) environment, and therefore to penetrate into the subconscious mind of the story-driven viewer who is ready to accept the advertised product at this particular moment.

• Event-Marketing — the emotions created in the course of the event-marketing events involve the consumer in the atmosphere of celebration, pleasure and entertainment, whose emotions are transferred and subsequently subconsciously associated with the company —organizer of the event — reinforcing the brand image in the memory of consumers and creating emotional bonds. Event-marketing events also enable to engage other SEMs, involving the consumer in competitions, games etc — these can be the strength and endurance, reaction speed, accuracy competitions, and singing, culinary art, homemade products contests, etc, — all these also facilitate memorization of the experience of interaction with the product, feelings and emotions by the consumer.

• Online tools enable to influence the components of consumer feelings and senses through music, animation, audio and video clips, promotion actions and contests, etc. The Internet tools provide the consumer with unlimited opportunities for interactive action: access to information about products, online comparison of different models, making a purchase, communication with an individual or a specific target audience. One of the strengths of the online tools for experiential marketing is their ability to involve people (creating a community of interests, creating of one’s own page on the company's website (personal account) which reflects tastes and preferences, making a list of desired purchases, participation in contests and promotion actions etc). Apart from the standard online marketing tools such as e-mailing, advertising of the groups of people (on the websites of) united by common interests, audio and video postcards, chats, forums, blogs and websites, the following features draw special attention in experiential marketing:

o Augmented Reality (AR) is a term used for the systems in which the real world is augmented by virtual objects. Today, one can try on clothes without putting them on to order them thereafter in the online store; take a virtual walk in one or another resort: see tennis courts, try scuba diving or swim in a boat, ride a horse, see the playgrounds for children, fitness centre, do water-skiing; see a 3D model of a car by placing an advertising booklet with its image in front of the web camera; or make a virtual test drive using the keyboard etc.

o Mobile applications enable the brands to establish a long-term communication with the audience. Users download small software programmes to their mobile phones that can provide them with useful information and a pleasant pastime opportunity. And the mobile applications distributed both on a paid and on a free of charge basis become a platform for advertising.

o Crowdsourcing is another form of interaction between the company and consumers, enabling the latter to express thoughts on improving the staff performance, product design, advertising campaign, etc, and at the same time to create emotional attachment, increase loyalty, or relate oneself to the company. Among the companies that use crowdsourcing are Nike, Fiat, Starbucks, Nokia, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Ford, etc. The McDonald’s Mein Burger Campaign (Germany) may serve as an example of crowdsourcing: fast food lovers were able to design on the website their own Burger which was advertised thereafter in social networks and offline; it became the most successful advertising campaign in the history of McDonald's attended by every fourth Internet user in Germany.

• The company's contact personnel is able to turn the purchase into a pleasant holistic experience: it is exactly the personnel that ensures the participation of consumers in tasting sessions, test drives, promotions, contests, event-marketing events, demonstrates the product, offers to try on, take in hand, advises, provides maintenance service etc. Thus, consumers get a sensory and emotional experience, as well as the experience of direct interaction with the product by touching it, tasting it, etc. In addition, the consumers can perceive a purchase as an opportunity to satisfy their emotional needs, such as for example:

1. Psychological needs. Some consumers believe that a purchase will help them get rid of a particular problem related to self-depreciation, for example, they seek recognition of their significance, power, prestige, status etc.;

2. Risk reduction. The buyers that are unsure of themselves doubt the correctness of their actions. In this case, a seller should give rational and emotional arguments in favour of the purchase decision, enabling to answer any reproaches that the buyer may encounter after the sale and delivery of the product, as well as in the process operation thereof;

3. Need for friendship and communication. Where the long-term relations between the personnel and the customer are built based on sincere trust and respect, they can develop into a friendship; and as a result, the consumer will have another incentive to maintain relations with the company. For example, a consumer remains loyal to her (his) hairdresser: while meeting with each other regularly, the customer and the hairdresser exchange personal information, and their intimate relations promote loyalty to the brand and to the company as a whole, as well as communication in a positive way.

The process of choosing the goods by the buyers enables to engage the Think Module. As for the Relate SEM, the studies show that the type of people who make purchases in a store can influence other consumers’ decisions in its favour because of their subconscious desire to conform to the image of the store. At the same time, some people avoid visiting a particular store because they do not like its clientele, and they do not want to be associated with this establishment. Also an image of a restaurant often reflects the opinions in relation to the type of people who are most likely to be its clients, and therefore can cause consumers’ desire or unwillingness to visit it. (Taken Smith K., 2012)

Interaction of the SEMs is biologically, psychologically and socially determined. Thus, sensation is the primary cognitive process enabling to obtain information about the product from the senses — what the consumer saw, heard, felt, etc., and, in turn, causing an emotional response in the form of one or another feeling created in relation to it: pleasure or displeasure (experience of fear, sadness and happiness, etc.) when contacting the item. Emotions are always personal, subjective, that is, associated with the “self-image” of the consumer. Emotions are accompanied by physical actions such as laughter, crying, physiological reactions (for example, accelerated heartbeat), as well as by visible changes in consumer behaviour: positive changes inspire the achievement of the goal as the consumer seeks to strengthen, extend, repeat the positive emotion, and negative changes stimulate weakening, interruption of negative emotions, as well as avoidance of objects that cause them, including by changing the existing state of things or one’s own behaviour.

As the studies show, the emotional ads can affect consumer behaviour when the consumer does not have a prior judgment about a product or does not think about it, and when the relationship is not well formed. Feelings can affect the size and the nature of a meaningful reaction: positive feelings can cause positive thoughts thereby increasing the level of resistance to counter-arguments caused by the advertisement; moreover, positive feelings reduce the total amount of thoughts aimed at figuring out why the advertised brand is the best; people in a good mood can have a subconscious desire to think less because the process of thinking requires some effort and can worsen their good mood etc. In addition, thinking as a separate mental process does not exist in practice; the process of thinking requires direct impressions to be received from objects of the outside world through various organs of the senses. Thus, the differentiation of the SEMs by specific modules is conditional, the purpose of which is to describe the concept and the content of the marketing communication process of the company, reflecting the most important features and properties in a particular situation. Such differentiation also enables to analyse the effectiveness of managerial decisions in the area of marketing communications.

Bernd Schmitt (1999) «Experiential Marketing: How to Get Customers to Sense, Feel, Think, Act, Relate», NewYork.

LaRose R., Mastro D., Eastin M. S. (2001) Understanding Internet usage a social-cognitive approach to uses and gratifications //Social Science Computer Review.

McLuhan M., Fiore Q. (1967) The medium is the message //New York.

Nadtochii Yu.B., Budovich L.S. (2018) Intellektual'nyj kapital organizacii: sushhnost', struktura, podhody k ocenke [The intellectual capital of the organization: the essence, structure, approaches to evaluation]. Electronic network journal " Russian Technological Journal" Vol. 6. No. 2. P. 82-95.

Taken Smith K. (2012) Longitudinal study of digital marketing strategies targeting Millennials //Journal of Consumer Marketing.

1. Candidate of Economic Science, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics and Innovative Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Economics and Law, MIREA - Russian Technological University (RTU MIREA), Moscow, Russian Federation. Budovich@mail.ru