HRMARS - The rapid expansion of China’s new-style tea beverage market has intensified competition, compelling brands to differentiate through experiential value rather than product innovation alone. This study examines how holistic experiential marketing influences customer loyalty within the context of Nayuki Holdings Limited. With China’s new-style tea market exceeding RMB 200 billion and continuing to grow steadily, brands increasingly integrate store atmosphere, packaging aesthetics, digital engagement, and social media storytelling to create immersive consumer experiences. Nayuki exemplifies this strategy, supported by a strong digital ecosystem and a large membership base exceeding 100 million registered users. Drawing on experiential marketing theory proposed by Bernd H. Schmitt and the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework, this study conceptualizes experiential marketing as a holistic construct encompassing product, service, store, digital, and community experiences. A quantitative cross-sectional survey of Chinese consumers who recently purchased from Nayuki was conducted, and the data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that experiential marketing significantly enhances customer loyalty, both directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of customer satisfaction and brand trust. The results highlight the strategic importance of integrated experiential strategies in digitally mediated beverage markets and contribute to the limited empirical literature on experiential marketing and consumer loyalty in China’s new-style tea industry.
Qiu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.