314 Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 11, No. 3, 2012 Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Critical success factors for experiential marketing: evidences from the Indian hospitality industry Saranjit Gupta, Samrat Dasgupta and Ranjan Chaudhuri* National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai, 400087, India E-mail: gupta.saranjit@gmail.com E-mail: dasguptasamrat26@gmail.com E-mail: ranjanchaudhuri@hotmail.com *Corresponding author Abstract: With the continuous proliferation of communication media and ever-dynamic consumer expectations, the fight for capturing a prospect’s mind-space has seen a radical shift from product/service orientation to a customer-experience driven approach. In the cluttered space of brands and advertising noise, consumer engagement is turning out to be the winning formula. The traditional product-centric positioning needs to be necessarily complemented by emotional buying triggers encountered during the ‘moments of truth’ to lead to consumer action and advocacy. This paper, based on existing literature and a primary research conducted on 17 luxury restaurants and over 200 customers and service staff in and around Mumbai, identifies seven essential factors (physical ambience, food quality, interaction with service staff, interaction with other customers, price, service quality and theme) contributing to a positive customer experience. The study examines the contribution of the service elements to customer perceived value and explores the service gap model for delivering experiential value across restaurants. Using these insights on the psyche of the Indian consumer and his response to experiential marketing; the paper helps propose an indicative framework to successfully launch and sustain experiential marketing from the perspective of the Indian hospitality industry. Keywords: experiential value; customer satisfaction; behavioural intention; service gap model; price reasonability; India. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Gupta, S., Dasgupta, S. and Chaudhuri, R. (2012) ‘Critical success factors for experiential marketing: evidences from the Indian hospitality industry’, Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 314–334. Biographical notes: Saranjit Gupta is a student of PGDIM at National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai. Samrat Dasgupta is a student of PGDIM at National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai. Ranjan Chaudhuri is an Assistant Professor in Marketing at National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai. He also served as a faculty in the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He has over ten years of industrial, teaching and research experience. He has presented research papers and case studies in international symposiums in the