Impact of Experiential Marketing on Customer Satisfaction: Special Reference to Restaurant Sector in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the impact of experiential marketing on customer satisfaction, with special reference to the restaurant sector in Sri Lanka. Delivering valuable and unforgettable experiences to customers is critical for an organisation with changing customer requirements. Experiential marketing can be recognised as an effective approach to satisfying customer needs and retaining them loyal to the organisation. Nowadays, one of the key developments in the restaurant industry is that individuals not only come to restaurants for a meal but also to spend their time extraordinarily and gain spontaneous excitement. Therefore, this trend shows the growing importance of experiential marketing activities to satisfy customers. To achieve research objectives, a quantitative approach was utilised. Six hypotheses were developed for the five dimensions of experiential marketing and the dependent variable. For this purpose, data was collected from 384 respondents who have visited restaurants located in the western province through the convenience sampling method. A web-based survey was conducted with a Google form to collect data. SPSS was used to analyse the data, and the findings show that there is a significant impact of experiential marketing on customer satisfaction. Further, the results show that there is a high degree of customer satisfaction in the selected sample. Overall results suggested that this study satisfactorily demonstrates the impact of experiential marketing on customer satisfaction, proving the purpose of the study. However, managers of restaurants can adopt the findings of the current study to gain a much deeper understanding of visitors' ‟ experiences” to promote their services more efficiently and formulate marketing strategies to maximise customer satisfaction, which could ultimately improve the repurchase intention of customers.