Impact of Brand Experience Built by GSM Operators in Turkey on Young Consumers' Brand Loyalty

IntroductionMarketing academicians and executives who settled for creating and managing demand (Cemalcilar, 1999), however adopted the classical marketing discipline that defines consumers as rational and benefit-oriented individuals have focused on a narrow competition throughout the 20th century (Schmitt, 1999; Babacan and Onat, 2002; Torlak, 2008). Schmitt (2008), unlike the conventional marketing that do not fully understand consumers, states that experiential marketing based on creating valued customer experience examines social behaviors of the individuals as well as consumer psychology (Schmitt, 2008). Consumers not only expect that their needs and desires are met, but also hope for a pleasant consumption (Walls et al., 2011; Kabadayi and Alan, 2014). Today, many firms embrace a product-oriented approach rather than consumer-oriented one (Carbone, 1998, p. 62). Marketing has evolved from a production-oriented into a consumer-oriented concept. Commodity which is important in production-oriented marketing approach was replaced with experience in consumer-oriented marketing approach. Consumers acquire the tendency to consume a product or service not just because of advantages they provided, but also due to pleasant experiences in left in their memories (Pine and Gillmore, 1999; Baudrillard 1998; Aykac and Kervenoael, 2008). The way experiences create unique and memorable feelings by taking personal characteristics of consumers into account serves well to differentiate it from three economic factors (commodity, product, service) and to create differences compared to its competitors (Oh et al., 2007). Since experiential marketing has no clear definition to be accepted by everyone yet, it relates to many relevant concepts, such as user experience, product experience, brand experience, customer experience, experience-driven design, experiential marketing, experience economy, equivalent experience, etc. Although the names of the concepts vary, it would be possible to discover common meanings when examined separately. In order to comprehend and to clarify the concept of experience that attains an important place in marketing, many marketing academicians have studies on the topic (Kabadayi and Alan, 2014; Ozgoren, 2013; Woodruffe-Burton, Wakenshaw, 2011; Nusair, Parsa, 2011; Luo et al., 2010; Sheu et al, 2009; Yuan, Wu, 2008; Gunay, 2008a,b; Yalcin, Cobanoglu and Erdogmus, 2008; Aykac and Kervenoael, 2008; Mossberg, 2007; Oh et al., 2007; Altunisik, 2007; Kirim, 2006; Quan and Wang, 2004; Torlak, 2004; Pine, 2002; Berry et al., 2002; Mathwick et al., 2001; Schmitt, 1999; Gilmore, Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Pine and Gilmore, 1998, 1999; O'Sullivan and Spangler, 1998; Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Bitner, 1992; Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982). Deneyimsel tuketimin kuramcilarina (Pine ve Gilmore 2001; Schmitt, 1999) gore, deneyim; yasanilan, maruz kalinan ve karsilasilan seylerin sonucunda olusmaktadir ve pazarlama tuketicileri icin deneyimler yaratmayi amaclamalidir (Odabasi, 2007). According to experiential consumption theorists (Pine and Gilmore, 2001; Schmitt, 1999), experience is focused on consumer experiences which occur as a result of encountering, undergoing or living through things (Odabasi, 2007). All companies offer products or services, but to ensure that the consumers being accompanied by an experience that cannot be deleted from their memory is the hardest part of this business (Kotler, 2005: 30). In matter of experience creation, businesses primarily need to determine what consumers really want and what kind of sacrifices they endure. In this respect, it is thought that making surprises that consumers never expected and being able make them happy in exchange for the sacrifices they endured could be decisive in businesses' success in the global marketplace (Songur et al, 2012; Schmitt, 1999). Experiential marketing is an important marketing approach which can be utilized for attracting new consumers to the b rand while keeping the existing customers at hand by staging memorable experiences for every product they purchase (Yelka, 2000; Gortes, 2004; Uygur and Dogan, 2013). …