Experiential Marketing in Communication of Loyal Foreign Students on Social Networks

Abstract Nowadays, experiential marketing is of great interest to researchers and practitioners. The use of experiential marketing helps to promote brands, because consumers take into account the experience when choosing a particular brand, product, service. Experiential marketing, which involves concepts such as satisfaction and loyalty, can influence the recommendation messages that customers distribute. With the rapid development of social media communication, the amount of recommendation messages in the Internet environment has also increased. This is also very relevant in the field of higher education. It is on social networks that loyal foreign students can share their impressions and experiences with other potential foreign students about Latvian universities and Latvia as a destination for higher education, thus becoming distributors of marketing messages. The aim of the research is to investigate how the experience of foreign students studying at a university in Latvia is reflected in their communication on social networks, and what is its connection with the formation of loyalty. Research methods: survey, descriptive analysis technique crosstabs, T‐Test. The study concludes that foreign message publishers have a higher average level of loyalty to the country of study than those who do not engage in such social network communication, as well as a higher average level of loyalty to their university. The potential of the recommendations in this group is quite high, and it can be used to promote the recognition of the country as an educational destination and its universities.