Introduction Rob and Pablo, the co-proprietors of SNOG (a chain of UK based yogurt shops), mention that the secret behind their success lies not only in the type of product they sell but rather in the way in which they make each transaction an “experience” for their customers. What these two entrepreneurs are referring to is the general ambiance and “feel” that permeates a particular store or shopping area. This particular concept can be defined as experiential marketing which relies on establishing an emotional and rational connection with a customer to convince them to buy a product or patronize a particular service. Experiential Marketing in Action Within the context of experiential marketing, the “experience” that Rob and Pablo are referring to is not just the quality of the product itself but what customers feel when they enter into a particular establishment 1 . In the case of Snog, all their outlets have a warm and friendly ambiance which is not only family friendly but actually promotes, in their words, “a happy feeling” for customers. For example, it can be seen that in the case of Apple Inc. that all their stores, no matter what country they are present in, have a stylish and ergonomic design that looks “clean, modern and cutting edge” which has come to exemplify the experience of buying products at an Apple store. Based on the popularity of not only Snog but of Apple itself, it can be seen that by making their store into an “experience” rather than just a store, this helps to encourage buying behaviour among their clientele and even repeat visits. As such, for any business that wants to increase their customer base it is important to develop the experience their venue provides so as to better appeal to consumers and create repeat business. Components to Market Orientation There are three components within market orientation that need to be taken into consideration when it comes to examining experiential marketing, namely: a company’s competitor orientation, its customer orientation or whether it adheres to inter-functional coordination. When it comes to marketing strategies involving customer orientation, a company utilizes its available resources in gathering data on the needs and behaviours of the consumer segment that it is targeting. The same can be said for competitor orientation marketing strategies; however, in this case it focuses on competitors within the same market instead 2 . Either method has a distinct weakness; focusing too much on consumer orientation can actually blind a company to changes in the market or may actually stifle innovation since the company focuses too much on consumer satisfaction rather than changing based on trends 3 . Focusing too much on competitor orientation on the other hand results in too much time and capital being placed on competitive activities which results in companies at times neglecting their consumer bases and focusing too much on getting ahead of the competition. In the case of IBM, what was done was to focus on a customer oriented strategy by providing solutions instead of merely software and hardware 4 . Not only that, the company also avoided the potential pitfall of being blind to changes within the market by in effect taking itself out of the competitive direct to consume