A Conceptual Framework for Event Marketing's Effect on Customer Experience and Buying Decisions in India's Service Sector

Abstract

This paper develops a conceptual framework for understanding how event marketing shapes customer experience and buying decisions among service-sector consumers in India. Three theoretical strands are brought together: the Stimulus-Organism-Response model which supplies the underlying behavioural logic, Schmitt's experiential marketing theory which specifies the mechanism through five experience modules, and Pine and Gilmore's experience economy framework which supplies the strategic rationale for staging an event rather than simply advertising. Building on these foundations, the paper proposes six outcome factors, event management and interactivity, brand awareness and trust, customer pleasure and knowledge, buying decision influence, emotional construction and brand remembrance, and communication and information simplicity, moderated by nine demographic variables and contextualised by five event types drawn from Indian service-sector practice. The paper closes with seven research propositions intended to guide future empirical testing across India's eleven major service sub-sectors.