‘Brands create experiences & experiences build brands’

The recently-held e4m India Brand Conclave 2023 saw Saurabh Khurana, Co-founder and CEO, Laqshya Live Experiences, delve on the nostalgia and emotion that are intertwined with products. “The entire premise of my deliberation is going to be about creating moments and experienced, and how marketers and brand managers can create brands using those experiences,” Khurana kicked off the session.

He explained that the idea was to understand how to create an emotional connect with audiences. “Whether it is your end consumer or B2B audience – whatever we plan and whatever we do, eventually we want to evoke emotions with the brand.” He cited the example of Lakme Fashion Week, Vh1 Supersonic, Hero Honda Roadies and more. “A lot of these events are actually known by the brand names. Most of these brands have built a lot of their legacy using experiences and events in their entire marketing campaign.”

He directed the audience's attention to one hard fact - a customer who believes they are on the same wavelength is the one who will listen to what you have to say. In that space when a brand connects with its customer, it has the entire event experience to deliver what it wants to narrate. “I think those hours of commitment with the consumer is important.”

To deep-dive into this aspect, Khurana explained the process in gradual steps, the first, and most crucial one, being to identify and understand the target audience. “Whether it is your end consumer or channel partner or dealers, and what is it that they would connect with.” After making that connect, which is the second step, it is imperative to personalise the experiences. “Instant gratification is something that any event or experience will offer you. And lastly, what the entire exercise is about - to create and evoke expression and emotions.”