Experiential Marketing in Building Consumer Loyalty and Engagement at Esenbi Café and Resto

Abstract

The culinary industry in Pangkal Pinang City faces increasingly intense competition, requiring local businesses to consistently manage customer experiences to retain consumers in a saturated market. This study aims to analyze the effect of experiential marketing on anticipation, consumer loyalty, and customer engagement, as well as the direct and mediating effects of anticipation on consumer loyalty and engagement at Esenbi Café and Resto. This study employs an explanatory quantitative approach designed to test causal relationships among latent constructs. The target population consists of consumers of Esenbi Café and Resto who are at least seventeen years of age and have visited the establishment at least twice. The sample was determined using a purposive sampling technique, resulting in a final sample size of 300 respondents. Primary data were collected through an online structured questionnaire utilizing a five-point Likert scale and analyzed using variance-based Structural Equation Modeling with Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS). The empirical findings demonstrate that all five proposed hypotheses are supported. Experiential marketing exerts a positive and significant direct effect on anticipation, customer engagement, and consumer loyalty. Furthermore, anticipation positively and significantly influences both customer engagement and consumer loyalty, while also acting as a robust mediating variable that bridges the relationship between customer experience and post-consumption behavioral outcomes. The structural model demonstrates strong explanatory power, accounting for 47.2 percent of the variance in consumer loyalty and 44.7 percent in customer engagement. These findings confirm that creating a holistic sensory and emotional experience not only directly fosters brand loyalty but also actively shapes pre-consumption expectations and enthusiasm that reinforce customer engagement. Practically, the results provide strategic insights for café management in designing competitive, experience-based marketing programs that leverage pre-visit anticipation to foster enduring customer relationships.