Experimental marketing and the crisis of postmodernism. Problems and perspectives

In this paper, we outline some fundamental aspects of Experiential Marketing Ð or EM Ð, which distinguish it from more traditional forms of Marketing and bestow its distinctive character upon it. We also spell out EMÕs relation to different philosophical traditions, on one hand, and to different scientific trends, on the other, highlighting some heretofore underestimated aspects of its theoretical background. In particular, we delve into the relationship between EM and Romanticism, on one hand, and Phenomenology, on the other. Our analysis focuses upon the relevance of three notions for EMÕs theoretical discourse and practice: experience, authenticity, and reality. All these notions are only apparently na•ve; on the contrary, as we show, they are rooted in complex philosophical paradigms, and are inhabited by conceptual tensions. EM inherits those tensions, as we point out, tensions expressed in paradoxical forms in some of its most prominent formulations, e.g. in the works of Holbrook and Hirschman, Pine and Gilmore, and in those of Schmitt. As we show, most of those contradictions derive from the allegiance of EM to postmodernist metaphysical assumptions, pertaining to the notion of reality and to its relation to the one of experience.