Fabio Forlani

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role that food and beverage (F&B) sensory stimuli play in building non-food-themed touristic experiences, such as wellness tourism experiences.
Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts an asynchronous netnographic approach supported by software (T-Lab, 2021). The study was conducted on a database consisting of 3,141 reviews in English, left by customers of 38 wellness facilities (Spa Retreats) spread across 5 continents.
Findings: The analysis reveals that F&B stimuli contribute significantly to the tourist's perception of the wellness experience in a two-fold manner: on the one hand, they support the wellness experience, and on the other, through specific proposals (e.g. wine, vegan, detox, etc.), they qualify and differentiate the wellness experience in a hedonic rather than eudaimonic way.
Research limitations/implications: on the topic of gastronomic tourism and wellness tourism by providing, on an international scale, empirical evidence of (a) the importance and role of F&B touchpoints in hybrid gastronomic experiences; and (b) the presence of a variety of “wellness experiencescapes”.
Originality: This study is the first attempt to measure the role of F&B in tourists' perceptions of non-food-themed experiences. The research not only provides new data on the wellness experience through a cross-continental analysis but also offers useful theoretical and managerial insights for the design of wellness tourism experiences.

This paper analyses sport passion as a possible determinant for sport consumption. The purpose of this research, after defining the concept of passion for cycling, is to understand the existing relations between the latter and the costs incurred to practice this sport at an amateur level. This research is exploratory in nature and uses a qualitative mix-method approach. Given the need to isolate individual dynamics of cyclists from socio-cultural influences, the interviewees were selected from a restricted and homogeneous geographical area: the Umbria Region (Italy). The study is structured in two phases: in the first phase 22 in-depth interviews were carried out; in the second phase a group interview was preferred. In order to guarantee transparency e verifiability of the results, the answers were handled with the help of a word processing software (NVIVO). The results of this research suggest that cyclists’ consumption models are instrumentally influenced by the passion for cyclin...

The first chapter describes the evolution of the state state-of-the-art of the experiential perspective (ExP) approach in managerial literature, an approach that uses the concept of customer experience management (CEM) in a variety of ways. Through a systematic review, the chapter provides a structured overview of the main studies that use the experiential perspective; this overview is instrumental to in the conceptual scheme of the book developed in the chapter Marketing in an experiential perspective: from “goods and services logic” to “experience logic.” To describe the various approaches in which the authors classify articles, authors, and journals of reference in experiential perspective and customer experience management (ExP and CEM), the authors measure the notoriety of the articles and their authors, in an attempt to assess whether and how their impact dwindles inside the “small world” of ExP and CEM, or whether, instead, it extends to a wider radius that includes management literature. Lastly, the authors define the areas of application (areas of interest, or sectors), where the concept has found its widest application. The chapter, recognizing that the experiential logic is assuming centrality in marketing studies, indicates the need to construct a key to understanding and a conceptual basis of synthesis capable of integrating the various contributions that emerged in the literature into a unified framework.

The present chapter applies the experience logic to the trade show (TS) sector by analyzing the role of the different stakeholders’ categories (exhibitors, organizers, visitors) in the transformation of trade shows into interactive and experiential platforms. Based on the complexity and the multiple facets characterizing the phenomenon of TSs, the starting objective of this work is to outline, through a review process, the main trends emerging from the recent (2010–2017) business and management international literature devoted to trade shows (TSs) and trade fairs (TFs). In the second part of the chapter, attention is focused on one of the trends identified in the literature review (i.e., the growing importance of the entertainment and experiential component in the TS management), and the main tasks, performed by the different categories of TS actors, are explored by discussing the review’s outcomes. The results of this work make different contributions to TS literature (identification of recent trade show papers, systematization of their main research focuses, and construction of a possible framework of synthesis) and to business management (identification of the main roles and tasks each category of TS participants is called to play in order to stage the trade fair experience).

The work aims to show how experience logic can be used to renew the most known marketing perspectives, by directing them towards new management approaches, which, starting from the customer experience, can find new ways to create, communicate, and deliver value. We use a conceptual approach: We want to propose a new vision of marketing, starting from the traditional goods logic inspired concept of marketing, discussing services marketing contributions, and ending with the experiential and experience marketing theories. We discuss the differences between experiential and experience marketing approaches, in order to go toward a new common vision: the marketing driven by the logic of the customer experience or “experience logic.” Moving from the traditional marketing logic to an “experience marketing logic,” we discuss six managerial processes for marketing managers in order to understand and improve customer experience: developing the experience concept; building the experience setting; communicating the experience; organizing and motivating employees; delivering or staging the experience; monitoring the perceived quality.

Il presente lavoro nasce da un precedente contributo di ricerca che ha portato alla definizione di uno strumento di misurazione della visibilità online (IVOH) applicato al comparto turistico-alberghiero. Partendo dalle potenzialità di tale indice e dalla identificazione del comparto retail della moda come settore di analisi, dopo un doveroso lavoro di adattamento dello strumento alle specificità del settore, l’obiettivo del presente contributo è quello di rispondere alla seguente domanda di ricerca: quali caratteristiche presentano i punti vendita che conseguono le migliori performance di visibilità online?Il paper si avvale dell’Indice di Visibilità online (opportunamente adattato al comparto retail), per misurare la VO dei negozi al dettaglio di abbigliamento della città di Milano (545 punti vendita identificati mediante il Database AIDA). In un’ottica teorico-manageriale, le implicazioni attese sono di due tipi. Dal punto di vista teorico, il lavoro contribuisce ad approfondire la letteratura esistente sul filone social media fashion ed in particolare sulla visibilità online nel comparto retail/moda. Dal punto di vista manageriale, invece, dai risultati derivanti dalla analisi della visibilità online, si cercherà di evidenziare le possibili relazioni fra le migliori performance di VO ed i principali fattori strategici di successo dei retail store di abbigliamento.

The aim of the study is to propose a “quick-response” model for analysing the impact of small and medium events in urban contexts, capable of timeliness, with low budget and able to describe the nature and the intensity of the impact. In order to achieve this goal, a model based on four groups of indicators is proposed. They are referred to: the economic impact for territorial stakeholders, the visibility in the web, the economic balance and the positioning in the city event portfolio. The model has been tested on the Umbria Jazz Festival demonstrating its financial and organizational sustainability, as well as maintaining the quality and accuracy of the information collected.

The aim of the chapter is to propose an application of the experience logic and, in particular, the theatrical model to organize the tourist offer for the destination. Assuming the prospect of selling experiences, it emerges that, among the various factors needed for a destination to fall within the theatrical model, there must be the indispensable presence of a director (governing body in a systemic approach), to which we refer in our proposal for possible tourist destination market-oriented management tools. According to the theatrical model inspired by Pine and Gilmore, in which they underline that each business can be considered a show business, in order to be wholly efficient, the marketing activities must be geared toward the various internal (cast) and external subjects within the organizational system, whether it is a company or a destination. In other words, it is a question of adopting an integrated managerial perspective that is widely diffused organization-wide and cultu...

This work aims to: 1) explore the experiential dimensions of visiting a cultural city, through the Pine and Gilmore model (1999) and 2) understand whether the experiential components vary depending on the socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics of the respondents, the perception of the quality of the basic services and the hospitality of the residents. To this end, a preliminary study was undertaken, based on data collected for a previous research on tourism in Urbino. The main research findings suggest that the positive experience of visiting Urbino is mainly linked to the experiential components of the aesthetic type, while the negative aspects of the tourist experience derive from the lack of basic services. Concerning the perception of the experiencescape components, three findings emerge: 1) the sociodemographic and behavioral profile of tourists does not affect the perception of the experiential dimensions; 2) the perception of the quality of tourist services affects the intensity of the experiential components; 3) the lack of hospitality affects the perception of the experiential dimensions connected to aesthetics.

The tourism sector is undergoing an important evolution with the development and dissemination  of  web  2.0  technologies.  For  this  reason,    it  is  useful  to  understand  how social networks (that  permit  sharing,  joint  planning  and customers  and stakeholders’ participation in value creation) are changing marketing processes of small businesses. This article investigates adoption and utilization of Web 2.0 in small hotels located in an Italian seaside destination. Research was conducted through a qualitative analysis of 8 case studies selected according to their on-line reputation defined by a specific indicator (INOH). The  multicase study analysis allows to investigate the impact of Web 2.0 on marketing processes  of  small  business  hotels,  with  particular  attention  to  the  role  played  by  the entrepreneur. He adopts an entrepreneurial approach to marketing that involves the use of social media, even in cases when he does not master the technology. The instin...

Features and potential of events as "mediterranean experiences": the example of "Palio de lo Daino" - This paper considers the issue of organising and managing events in a mediterranean perspective as a suitable means for enhancing local, typical and traditional events, such as village feasts, that until recently were vaguely contemplated as indistinct containers. Bearing this in mind, this article provides a new way of conceiving the relationship between marketing, experience and value in events, in line with a strategy that is less invasive on the consumers’ experience and based on typically mediterranean values, such as community ties, traditions and local-centricity. Considering new demand developments in post-modern society associated to the new meaning assumed by leisure time and the individuals’ increasing desire to live fulfilling and multi-dimensional experiences to satisfy their cluster needs, we believe that conceiving events bearing this in mind provi...

Purpose This study aims to understand if network brand management is a key activity in tourism business networks and how the network brand relates to the place brand and the brands of individual network members. Design/methodology/approach Preference has been given to a qualitative approach and to the use of case study methodology. Two qualitative techniques have been used: document analysis and in-depth semi-structured interviews. Findings Results indicate that network brand identity is a prerequisite for all alliances, thus confirming the brand’s aggregating role in business networks. However, the network brand is not always exploited for commercial purposes, as signalled by the few efforts in communication activities. Results also indicate that there is a strong connection between the network brand and the place, confirming that tourism businesses are intertwined on a local context and cannot avoid citing the place where they operate. Research limitations/implications Two main as...

... L'Autore distingue anche tra soggetti con dissimili livelli di percezione del rischio (high/low risk perceivers) e sottolinea come questo influenzi significativamente il processo di acquisto e consumo turistico. Una rassegna di profili di turista è sviluppata anche in DELLA CORTE V ...

The research hypothesis of this paper is that the "traditional local products" business is a valid strategic option for the development of agricultural enterprises, enterprises of agro-industry and entire territorial areas. The promotion of local products, however, requires an innovative marketing approach, combining the conceptual tools of marketing services, according to the approach of the Service Dominant Logic (Vargo and Lush, 2004 and 2008; Gronroos, 2011; Gronroos and Gummerus, 2014) with the experiential perspective (Schmitt, 1999; Pine and Gilmore, 1999). The study proposes an "experience logic" marketing approach, which focuses marketing processes on customer experience. The methodology followed is qualitative, based on the case study (Yin, 2003). This method is considered coherent with the exploration and interpretative purposes of the study which also intends to submit to a preliminary verification the new conceptualization of marketing as applied to products and experiential consumption. We have chosen to analyze the case of Marini Azzolini Truffles Acqualagna (PU) because the company has an extensive product portfolio which includes goods, services and experience connected to truffles. The study shows that the company has adopted a marketing approach, disregarding the value created by and with the customer in places where truffle consumption is experienceed (restaurants and in the surrounding local area). In this way the firm does not take advantage of opportunities for further exploiting the market because it has assumed of a marketing approach based on "experience logic". Despite the limitations of the research due to its making use of only a single case study, the paper proposes a new conceptual model (experience logic) for observing and interpreting the food and wine business as well as the businesses involved in the new post-modern consumption processes, in which there is a demand for a strong experiential content, authenticity, and low standardization of the products and services offered.

Il presente lavoro studia i contratti di rete stipulati in Italia in ambito turistico. L’obiettivo è comprendere come viene utiliz-zato dalle imprese questo nuovo strumento giuridico e valutare se esso contribuisce al superamento della frammentazione dell’offerta turistica mediante la creazione di un soggetto aggregato (la rete) che permette ai singoli membri di gestire in modo proattivo il rapporto con il mercato. Dopo una prima rilevazione quantitativa del fenomeno, l’indagine tende ad approfondire, tramite lo studio di alcuni casi pratici, quali sono gli obiettivi perseguiti, le azioni intraprese ed i risultati conseguiti, come è strutturata l’architettura della rete, come sono impostate le relazioni con le altre reti e con il siste-ma territoriale. I casi studio sono stati esaminati ricorrendo a due diverse tecniche di indagine: l’analisi documentale dei contratti stipulati e l’intervista semi-strutturata ad osservatori privi-legiati. I risultati indicano che l’uso di questo str...

... Sui nativi della rete vedi anche Giglietto F. http:// www.slideshare.net/fabio.giglietto/le-convenzioni-dei-nativi-nello-spazio-mediato-di-rete . Page 5. ... del passaparola, ma se ne distingue per il fatto di avere un'intenzione volontaria da parte dei promotori della campagna.” Per IR ...

In a tourist scenario profoundly transformed by the advent of new online players, hotel companies are called today to exploit the online communication tools in a more and more conscious way. In this context, for hotel SMEs, it becomes fundamental to achieve a correct perception of the online presence in order to intervene in real time with specific web marketing actions. The research objectives are 1) to explore the firms’ online presence through an economic literature review 2) to define an online visibility measurement indicator. The research has provided for three sequential phases: 1) the economic literature analysis (to explore the online presence issue/ its principal dimensions) 2) creation of an Index of Online Visibility of Hotel 3) test through three successive measurements of the online visibility of all 227 Hotels  of Cattolica. The research has produced three mutually coherent online visibility charts, showing, albeit with some limitations, the validity of the Index.

Introduction. Cycling is one of the most popular and practiced sports both in Europe and globally. However, management studies aimed at defining cyclists’ consumption behavior are still limited. The most recent contributions describe cycling consumption as an activity heavily influenced by the intensity and sociality of its practice but do not highlight the importance of expenditures related to participation in amateur cycling events and cycle tourism experiences. Starting from these behavioral dimensions, the article proposes an original segmentation of the sport and leisure market, leading to the identification of different profiles of amateur cyclists. Material and methods. The research was conducted on a sample of 182 cyclists located in one single Italian region to ensure a high level of social, economic and cultural uniformity. The data was collected by conducting a questionnaire, and its resulting information relating to sport and consumer behavior was processed through a clu...

The research hypothesis of this paper is that the business of the " traditional local products " is a valid strategic option for the development of agricultural enterprises , enterprises of agro - industry and entire territorial areas . The promotion of local products , however, requires an innovative marketing approach , combining the conceptual tools of marketing services , according to the approach of the Service Dominant Logic ( Vargo and Lush , 2004 and 2008 ; Gronroos , 2011 ; Gronroos and Gummerus , 2014) with the experiential perspective ( Schmitt , 1999; Pine and Gilmore , 1999) . The study proposes a "experience logic" marketing approach, which focuses  the marketing processes on  the customer experience . The methodology followed is qualitative , based on the case study ( Yin , 2003) . This method is considered coherent with the  exploration and interpretation purposes of the study that also intends to submit to a preliminary verification of  the new c...

Customer experiences emerge from value co-creation processes of companies, customers and the actors of the value eco-system. Customers live experiences as personal events and cocreate them according to their level of interest and participation (Pencarelli and Forlani, 2018; Campos et al., 2018; Galvagno and Dalli, 2014; Vargo and Lusch, 2004; Pine and Gilmore, 1999) while companies can provide the platform for the desired customer experiences to emerge (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016; Schmitt, 2003, 1999). In order to create positive customer experience many elements are necessary: goods, services, and experiential components. The experience factor is increasingly important for the creation of the customer experience (Pencarelli and Forlani, 2018b; Pencarelli et. al. 2017). Hence, companies should consider in their offerings the impact of goods, services and mainly experiential features on the value creation for customers and the company itself. This aspect has not yet been assigned the ap...

Over last two decades, the experiential perspective to business analysis has been strongly affirmed and has become a “topic of interest” in managerial literature. In fact, over these period, the experiential perspective has been adopted in various ways: in the general re-interpretation of economic phenomena and of the enterprise-market relationship (experience economy), in the rethinking of marketing approaches (experiential marketing), in managing touristic or territorial systems, in customer management and brand management. The chapter shows how it is desirable to consider the customer’s experience at the center of value creation processes in a managerial marketing approach that the authors define “experience logic”. This introduction also provides a brief description of the contents of each chapter and the conceptual key to reading the entire text, providing a short overview of application cases and of the ways in which the adoption of experience logic can revitalize marketing perspectives and stimulate novel approaches to the value creation.

In the worldwide competition for attracting tourism flows, a strong brand can increase the capability of a hotel to be recognized, appreciated and visited. Thus a brand can represent an important key success factor. However, like every other corporation hotels should manage their brand efficiently and effectively. Hotel brand should be coherent with the network or franchising chain the hotel belongs to and with the place brand of the territory where it is located. Attention to brand architecture help hotels leverage and reinforce the positive image and value proposition of the specific place. Since SMEs represent the main actor in hotel industry, this paper aims to explore small hotel owners’ awareness on the importance of branding and explore which brand management activities they perform alone and within the network. Empirical analysis is performed with reference to the Province of Rimini in Italy.

The document has been organised first and foremost with the aim of examining best practices with regard to branding, and secondly with a view to using the knowledge thus acquired to consider the possible creation of a tourist location, territorial and geographical brand for the Adriatic Area. The research and application of the results have been carried out in the PADMA–LAB (Pan Adriatic Destination Management Laboratory) Project, under the EU framework Interreg III A Programme. The paper is a contribution to the development, through a process of capacity and institution building, of an InterAdriatic “Territorial Brand” shared strategy, encouraging evolution of interregional and local organisational models. Our contribution intends to provide the basis for joint discussion on these topics, to establish a common language, the essential prerequisite for application of the concepts to the real-life case of the Adriatic Area developing in Adriatic brand. The methods of research, analysi...

The assessment of tourist offerings and the attractiveness of tourist destinations has been the subject of many studies in the tourism management literature over the years. Several authors have  examined the territorial characteristics and factors that nurture tourist destination attractiveness in  order to create flexible models that are capable of providing recommendations and instructions for destination management policies in the tourism industry. However, one of the fields in which this topic has so far been under-studied is with regard to pilgrim routes.
Calling upon the ‘Atlas of the Paths through Italy’ which represents the official census or count of Italian routes published and recognised by the Ministry of Environmental, Cultural and Tourism Heritage (MiBACT) in 2016, the purpose of this article is to compare all the ‘Paths through Italy’ and classify them according to their expressed or unexpressed tourism potential. In particular, through an experiential approach and the use of Fuzzy Set Ideal Type Analysis (FSITA) methodology, this article aims to evaluate the attractiveness of the Paths in terms of their structural capability, create a taxonomy of the Paths, identify the most attractive type of Path which should be taken as a best practice benchmark, and provide managerial and policy suggestions to improve the attractiveness of the weaker Paths.
The results of the analysis found that three Paths had strong potential and six Paths had good potential for tourism development. This study provides both a descriptive framework and an interpretative approach to the Italian Paths to help public intuitions manage and develop policies for the sustainable development of these pilgrimage routes.

The experiential perspective has become the primary lens adopted in the current economic and managerial literature. In recent years, the marketing literature has recognized the importance of the contributions of consultancy work on the Experience Economy, Experiential Marketing, and Customer Experience Management.This work defines the experiential approach as the managerial tool that puts the customer experience (CE) at the center of a company's decision-making processes. It also recognizes that experiential management studies constitute a rich and important research field, but one that has not yet been clearly defined or characterized.Moreover, this paper describes the evolution of the state of the art of the experiential approach and outlines possible future developments.To this end, a systematic review of the literature is offered in order to make the review process both transparent and reproducible. It is built on the articles published in the SciVerse Scopus database up unt...

ABSTRACT The hypothesis underlying this paper is that the business of traditional-local requires a specific and suitable approach (experience logic), which needs to combine the conceptual tools of service marketing (Vargo and Lush, 2004 and 2008; Gronroos, 2011; Gronroos and Gummerus, 2014) with the experiential perspective (Schmitt, 1999; Pine and Gilmore, 1999). In line with an experiential perspective we suggest that the producers of traditional-local goods abandon the conservative strategy that rests upon the defense of traditional means of production, and embrace instead an experiential logic marketing approach. In this way manufacturers could offer an integrated portfolio, inclusive of both traditional agro-industrial articles and new experiential products, such as thematized events, carrying higher added value (Pencarelli and Forlani, 2002, 2006). From the methodological point of view, consistent with the purposes of exploration, we chose to use a qualitative approach and the case study (Yin, 2003). The case study Marini & Azzolini Truffles of Acqualagna (PU - Italy), is considered particularly remarkable (Yin, 2003). The company studied, contrary to the expectations, acts according to a good-based logic. It is not interested in the value co-created by and with the customer in places where the truffle experience originates (in restaurants and in the local area) and operates only residually in the business of culinary tourism. In this way, in our opinion, the company does not grasp the opportunity offered by the experiential logic approach to marketing, and it leaves it up to the other players in the sector to co-create value for customers by acting on the experiential, emotional, relational, and symbolic benefits to the end customer. Despite the limitations of the research related to the use of a single case study, the paper proposes a new conceptual model (experience logic) to observe and interpret the food and wine business as well as the businesses involved in the new post-modern consumption processes, in which there is a demand for a strong experiential content, authenticity, and low standardization of the offer. Keywords: experience logic; experiential logic marketing, traditional and local products, truffles market, tourism, distribuction, attractions;

La ricerca vuole verificare se ed in che modo il web 2.0 (O'Reilly, 2005; O'Reilly, 2007) e le logiche della rete che prevedono la condivisione, la co-progettazione e la partecipazione dei clienti (e più in generale degli stakeholders) alla creazione di contenuti (Forlani, 2009) abbiano modificato e stiano modificando gli approcci di marketing delle imprese turistiche. In particolare, dopo un inquadramento del framework concettuale entro cui il fenomeno si colloca nell'ambito della letteratura di marketing, lo studio si prefigge di affrontare il tema “Web 2.0 e turismo: un nuovo paradigma di marketing?” attraverso le seguenti domande di ricerca (RQ): a) Le imprese alberghiere utilizzano consapevolmente le logiche del web 2.0? (RQ1); b) Le imprese alberghiere, che dichiarano di utilizzare un approccio di marketing che fa propri i principi del web 2.0, si limitano a utilizzare nuove strategie, nuovi strumenti e nuovi mezzi di comunicazione o la partecipazione, la condivisi...

The aim of the paper is to illustrate the changes in tourism and especially in touristic districts resulting from the managing approach based on the idea that not goods or services are the value delivered to the customers, but experiences. Experiences, in comparision to goods and services, are not simply “delivered” to customers (as if it was a theatre performance), but customers get involved themselves. Therefore experiences are unique in their nature and can be easily customized. In order to identify the single marketing activities which are necessary for a successful experience-based management, the paradigm of “the vital system” is used. Key words: experiences, touristic industrial districts, the vital system.

The document has been organised first and foremost with the aim of examining best practices with regard to branding, and secondly with a view to using the knowledge thus acquired to consider the possible creation of a tourist location, territorial and geographical brand for the Adriatic Area. The research and application of the results have been carried out in the PADMA–LAB (Pan Adriatic Destination Management Laboratory) Project, under the EU framework Interreg III A Programme. The paper is a contribution to the development, through a process of capacity and institution building, of an InterAdriatic "Territorial Brand" shared strategy, encouraging evolution of interregional and local organisational models.

Background of the study The Italian tourism industry is made up of various actors (i.e. hotels, service providers, private and public promotion agencies, tour operators, amusement parks), who usually design their own tourism offer independently. In fact, Italy has many fragmented territorial systems, each one made up of many small businesses which do not coordinate with one another (OECD, 2011). However, researchers as well as and the Italian Government advocate for the emergence of an integrated tourism system to enable and enhance travel and tourism throughout Italy (Rispoli, Tamma, 1996; Pencarelli, Forlani, 2002; Sciarelli, 2007). Currently, several travel destinations in Italy are lacking competitiveness in the tourism industry, making this call for collaboration even more important. Today, Italian destinations are not able to attract huge flows of new tourists (Banca d’Italia, 2013) because of their lack of financial and human resources (usually associated to small company dim...

La comunicazione non convenzionale nel turismo, le opportunità per il destination marketing. Introduzione 1. Il protagonismo del consumatore post-moderno, il concetto di Web 2.0 e il marketing non convenzionale 1.1 Il web 2.0, gli User generated content e le forme di social computing 1.2 Le implicazioni manageriali dei social media e dei social network: il gonzo marketing e "The Long Tail" 1.3 Il marketing non convenzionale e le tecniche di comunicazione che sfruttano il web 2.0 2. Turismo 2.0. I cambiamenti in atto nella domanda, nel consumo e nella comunicazione turistica 3. Marketing o comunicazione non convenzionale? Riflessioni concettuali e operative 4. Web 2.0 e la comunicazione non convenzionale, le opportunità per il destination marketing Si sente sempre più spesso parlare di marketing non convenzionale, di marketing alternativo e di mezzi alternativi di comunicazione. Parole come word-of-mouth, viral marketing, guerrilla marketing, buzz marketing sono passate dal...

Features and potential of events as "mediterranean experiences": the example of "Palio de lo Daino" - This paper considers the issue of organising and managing events in a mediterranean perspective as a suitable means for enhancing local, typical and traditional events, such as village feasts, that until recently were vaguely contemplated as indistinct containers. Bearing this in mind, this article provides a new way of conceiving the relationship between marketing, experience and value in events, in line with a strategy that is less invasive on the consumers’ experience and based on typically mediterranean values, such as community ties, traditions and local-centricity. Considering new demand developments in post-modern society associated to the new meaning assumed by leisure time and the individuals’ increasing desire to live fulfilling and multi-dimensional experiences to satisfy their cluster needs, we believe that conceiving events bearing this in mind provi...

In the worldwide competition for attracting tourism flows, a strong brand can increase the capability of a hotel to be recognized, appreciated and visited. Thus, a brand can represent an important key success factor, but it should be efficiently and effectively managed. The hotel brand should be coherent with the brand of the network (i.e. a franchising chain) the hotel belongs to and with the brand of the territory where it is located. Attention to the brand architecture helps hotels to leverage and reinforce the positive image of the network and the value proposition of the specific place. Since SMEs represent the main actor in the hotel industry, this paper aims to investigate whether owners/managers of small-sized hotels are aware of the importance of branding, and to explore which brand management activities they perform alone and within the network. Empirical analysis is performed with reference to the Province of Rimini, a famous tourism destination in Italy.

In the extant managerial literature, the recent contribution by J. Pine II and J.H. Gilmore, The Experience Economy Goes Beyond Service, has attracted our attention because it offers so much food for thought regarding the possible evolutionary pathways that advanced societies’ consumption models could follow and the consequent strategic challenges that businesses will have to face in order to meet their clients’ new needs and to successfully adapt to market changes. Based on their observations of American society, certainly that with the greatest propensity toward consumption, and starting from the implicit hypothesis that demand is constantly on the lookout for new objects and forms of consumption, for new emotions and sensations, and with greater consumer expectations (Ritzer, 2000), the two scholars suggest the provocative thesis that, by now, the era of services is on its way out to make way for the experience economy. In this new scenario, in which there is little or nothing left to purchase, for the extre mely demanding and aware consumer, value is created by the enterprise that offers experiences, rather than goods and services. In the American authors’ view, experiences represent economic proposals that differ greatly from services, at least to the same extent that services differs from goods; nevertheless, they still represent ‘products’ which, like goods and services, can be offered to the client either singly or in combination with other outputs (good, services) in the form of ‘packages’. Moreover, compared to services, experiences stand out for their uniqueness and capacity to be personal, instead of personalized, in addition to the fact that they are ‘staged’ and not simply handed out. This implies that enterprises must undergo a transformation from being mere providers of services or sellers of goods to becoming ‘stage directors’ of experiences for the client who, in the new perspective, is called ‘guest’. By the same token, writes Rifkin, the economy is being transformed, from “gigantic factory” to “endless theater” and now “every business is show business” (Rifkin, 2000, p. 219). Consumer satisfaction and loyalty are determined by the ability of organizations to go beyond the normal capacity to satisfy demand, trying to transcend expectations through new and completely unexpected offerings for the clientele; it is a matter of staging surprises, thus widening the gap between what the client perceives and what s/he expects to get (Pine and Gilmore, p. 117). According to Toffler (1988, p. 236), “we will become the first civilization in history to utilize highly advanced technology to produce the most transitory and, at the same time, the most enduring of products: the human experience”. The experience economy model, which came out in the U.S. in parallel with numerous other managerial theories and models in support of the ‘theatricalization of economic activities’ (Grove, Fisk, and Bitner, 1997), seemed, to us, particularly applicable to the tourism industry and especially to tourism districts. The latter are territories in which it is a daily task of tourism operators to formulate offerings that are often inspired by the logic of providing the clientele with a more or less integrated mix of goods and services in which, however, there is an experiential dimension that is purely casual, spontaneous, and unintended, with no real economic or marketing objective. In a context of entertainment economy (Bird, 2002), the evolution of tourist demand towards forms of demand for experiences actually forces agents in the sector, if they are to remain competitive, to develop a new conceptual framework and adopt original managerial tools for fulfilling this demand. In other words, if consumers tend to essentially purchase emotions and experiences, then the supply side must be populated with producers and sellers of ‘memories’ (Valdani and Guenzi, 1998), and the marketing of services and of experiences must use the theater model as its point of reference (Grove, Fisk, and Bitner, 1997). The aim of this article is to propose an application of the experience economy model to tourism and, in particular, to tourist districts (Pencarelli, 2001), interpreted as a paradigm of the Viable Systems Approach (VSA) (Golinelli, 2000). This concept has allowed us to discern what type of districts, otherwise labeled as touristic systems, local tourist offering systems and so on in the literature, fit the concept of ‘system’ in a narrow sense and what the prerequisites are, therefore, that a district must meet in order to qualify as a viable system. From this work it emerges that, among the various factors needed for a district (in the strictest sense) to fall within the viable systemic concept, there must be the indispensable presence of a governing body, to which we refer in our proposal for possible tourist district market-oriented management tools. We propose applying the marketing concept to tourist districts with all due conceptual caution, aware of the limitations inherent in both theory and managerial actions, in undertaking to shift into territorial contexts paradigms and tools that were developed with reference to organizational systems. The marketing paradigm most effective for our purposes is that of total relationship marketing (Gummesson, 1999), which goes beyond the traditional framework of marketing management to move toward the concept of marketing-oriented management. Total relationship marketing is based on a holistic approach which aims to build and maintain longterm, positive relationships with single clients and other stakeholders, and which recognizes that the end value for the client is co-created with all of the parties involved. From this standpoint, Gummesson’s thesis, analogous to the relationship marketing approach put forward by Peck, Christopher, Payne, and Clark (1999), promotes the idea that relationship marketing represents the convergence of the marketing paradigm and that of total quality (Cozzi, Ferrero, 2000), and focuses on customer satisfaction and customer service. In other words, it is a question of adopting an integrated managerial perspective that is culturally holistic, in keeping with the viable system concept. What is to be avoided is the logic of focusing the marketing only on the final client thereby falling into a near-sighted approach that underestimates the importance of truly satisfying an audience when all of the theater components have worked together well. Indeed, concentrating exclusively on the external consumer means ignoring the fact that, in an organizational system, there are stakeholders (internal clients, distributers, suppliers, financial backers, public institutions, mass media, etc.) whose complete satisfaction is an indispensable condition for satisfying the final client and for long-term competitive success. Finally, from our work there emerges, alongside the indisputable merits of providing innovative and holistic elements for reflection and action for the governance of tourist districts in the new consumption scenario, that the experience economy model also presents some negative aspects. These aspects should not be overlooked in the governance of touristic systems when, for instance, following in the wake of a strong theme, the choice is made to stage experiences aimed at enhancing existing facets of the territory or region (in terms of both front region and back region) and build artificial touristic spaces that tourists must pay for in an area where a real experience could be enjoyed for free. We allude, in particular, to the danger that in an effort to make an offering so spectacular in terms of providing tourists with experiences, emotions, memories, dreams come true, or other forms of entertainment, it risks becoming excessively trite and overly commercialized, thus creating desensitized clients who are even resentful of the various forms of experience-tourism and are less apt to be amazed, awed, and surprised. Pushing too hard or inappropriately on the spectacular experience lever can actually make people want to run from anything that makes their free time, which should be for creative and recreational activities of choice, become ‘mandated time’ geared toward forced consumption. Ultimately, time is manipulated so that it no longer enriches and relaxes but rather, impoverishes and tires individuals, negatively impacting on their quality of life (Rifkin, 2000, p. 201; Pratesi, 2002, pp. 73-74). The experience economy model must therefore be adopted prudently, avoiding interpretations that are totally uncritical which can occasionally be seen in Pine and Gilmore; instead, it would be preferable to follow the suggestions of Grove, Frisk, and Bitner (1997) according to whom, when management embraces the theater metaphor, it is essential that a staging of experiences be authentic (tourists can tell immediately when a situation or an attitude is fake and they usually do not appreciate it), adaptable, and appropriate (every performance must be adapted to the situation, to the client, etc.), as well as be sufficiently applicable to the context being managed.

Customer experiences emerge from value co-creation processes of companies, customers and the actors of the value eco-system. Customers live experiences as personal events and cocreate them according to their level of interest and participation (Pencarelli and Forlani, 2018; Campos et al., 2018; Galvagno and Dalli, 2014; Vargo and Lusch, 2004; Pine and Gilmore, 1999) while companies can provide the platform for the desired customer experiences to emerge (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016; Schmitt, 2003, 1999).
In order to create positive customer experience many elements are necessary: goods, services, and experiential components. The experience factor is increasingly important for the creation of the customer experience (Pencarelli and Forlani, 2018b; Pencarelli et. al. 2017).
Hence, companies should consider in their offerings the impact of goods, services and mainly experiential features on the value creation for customers and the company itself. This aspect has not yet been assigned the appropriate attention in the literature on experiential marketing (Forlani et al., 2018).
This paper is aimed at exploring the impact of services and experiential components on the global customer experience. To this scope, a preliminary study based on data collected for a research on tourism of Urbino (Conti et al. 2016), a Unesco Italian site, was conducted. The findings of this research suggest that positive aspects of customer experience are especially connected to the experiential components while the most perceived negative aspects of the customer experience are connected to bad evaluation of services. In short, the experiential elements of the offer of an art city amplify the perceived value of customer experience of visitors, while services play a very basic role.
From this explorative study, some preliminary theoretical and managerial implications ad directions for future research emerge.

Il presente lavoro nasce da un precedente contributo di ricerca che ha portato alla definizione di uno strumento di misurazione della visibilità online (IVOH) applicato al comparto turistico-alberghiero. Partendo dalle potenzialità di tale indice e dalla identificazione del comparto retail della moda come settore di analisi, dopo un doveroso lavoro di adattamento dello strumento alle specificità del settore, l’obiettivo del presente contributo è quello di rispondere alla seguente domanda di ricerca: quali caratteristiche presentano i punti vendita che conseguono le migliori performance di visibilità online?Il paper si avvale dell’Indice di Visibilità online (opportunamente adattato al comparto retail), per misurare la VO dei negozi al dettaglio di abbigliamento della città di Milano (545 punti vendita identificati mediante il Database AIDA). In un’ottica teorico-manageriale, le implicazioni attese sono di due tipi. Dal punto di vista teorico, il lavoro contribuisce ad approfondire la letteratura esistente sul filone social media fashion ed in particolare sulla visibilità online nel comparto retail/moda. Dal punto di vista manageriale, invece, dai risultati derivanti dalla analisi della visibilità online, si cercherà di evidenziare le possibili relazioni fra le migliori performance di VO ed i principali fattori strategici di successo dei retail store di abbigliamento.

Sommario:
1. Introduzione: tipicità e localismo;
2. Il prodotto tipico. Una rilettura nella prospettiva dell’economia delle esperienze;
3. Un modello d’analisi delle caratteristiche dei prodotti tipici locali;
4. Forze e debolezze del sistema di offerta dei prodotti agricoli tipici locali;
5. Strategie di marketing delle produzioni tipiche locali; 6. Il ruolo dell’immagine, della comunicazione e della distribuzione nella valorizzazione dei prodotti tipici locali e dei territori;
7. Il caso: l’olio extravergine d’oliva di Cartoceto;
8. Considerazioni conclusive

"Objective of the article is to appraise the conceptual and operational problems of branding applied to the management of the territory in a tourist perspective (tourist destination). In the study, after a synthetic analysis of the literature on branding, we analyse the perceived image by a tourist sample of the Italian tourist destinations faced on Mare Adriatico, the degree of Adriatico brand awareness on the specialized reviews and web sites and the characteristics of the web sites of these Regions. From the study, utilizing the system approach, we can say that branding is a critical managerial work that policy makers and managers of tourist destinations must do in order to improve the competitiveness of the destinations, also if it is not possible to transfer totally the managerial approach from firms to territories. It also arises that the quality of the destination branding process strongly depends on the quality of destination management process.
Keywords: Brand, Destination Branding, Destination Management; Tourism, Tourism Marketing"

Il contenuto esperienziale ed emozionale del viaggio, del soggiorno di vacanza e del turismo in generale è riconosciuto sia dal linguaggio comune che dalle pratiche manageriali di settore, come dimostrano le numerose campagne di comunicazione “esperienziale” dei tour operators, dei parchi a tema, delle imprese croceristiche e delle destinazioni turistiche.
Negli ultimi anni l’esperienza del cliente è diventata anche uno dei topic della letteratura accademica di marketing e management, sia nel suo complesso che di quella turistica.
Il lavoro si inserisce in questo contesto di studi e si prefigge l’obiettivo di valutare come la dimensione esperienziale del consumo impatta sulle pratiche di marketing delle imprese turistiche. Per conseguire tale risultato lo studio, in coerenza con la sua natura concettuale, definisce gli elementi logici di base della disciplina di marketing e li ridiscute alla luce del concetto di esperienza del cliente. Tale analisi evidenzia da un lato che l’esperienza non è solamente un fenomeno circoscrivibile alla sfera del cliente e quindi risultato dell’interazione dello stesso con i beni e i servizi prodotti dalle imprese, ma è anche il prodotto o output dell’offerta. In tal senso riconosce però che tale prodotto non è nel pieno controllo delle aziende ma frutto di sistemi complessi di co-creazione del valore.
Ciò premesso, la specificità del presente lavoro è quella di osservare l’esperienza del turista attraverso la matrice disciplinare del marketing ed il concetto economico–aziendale di prodotto. Questa prospettiva d’analisi consente di studiare il viaggio per turismo, in quanto esperienza vissuta in un determinato spazio/tempo come unità d’analisi autonoma e distinta dai servizi turistici. In tale prospettiva nel libro si approfondisce il concetto di prodotto–esperienza turistica e attraverso questo si costruisce un modello di gestione dell’offerta turistica che integra la logica esperienziale  con l’approccio sistemico al governo dell’impresa e dei sistemi turistici.
La prospettiva d’analisi esperienziale e l’individuazione del prodotto–esperienza quale “oggetto” di scambio permette all’economista d’impresa di utilizzare il proprio corpus concettuale e argomentare che, in quanto output del sistema di produzione, le esperienze non devono semplicemente “succedere” ma devono essere progettate, vendute e quindi prodotte (generate e governate) effettuando un salto concettuale simile a quello che ha segnato il passaggio dalla logica dei beni alla logica dei servizi. In questo quadro il marketing, in quanto filosofia gestionale e corpus di strumenti strategici e operativi, diviene un riferimento chiave per la gestione delle offerte esperienziali di natura turistica.
Riconoscere il prodotto–esperienza come output deliberato, autonomo e caratterizzato da processi di co–creazione permette di riflettere sui modelli di produzione più idonei per organizzare l’offerta. Su tale punto, nel corso del lavoro, viene mostrato come il modello teatrale risulti essere quello più efficace in quanto definisce i fenomeni turistici come performance che “emergono” nell’interazione (co–creazione) degli attori dell’offerta e della domanda su di un “territorio–palcoscenico” attraverso delle dinamiche non casuali, ma definite dalla trama (dramma) e dalla regia.
Obiettivo dello studio è pertanto duplice: in primo luogo delineare uno schema logico per l’analisi manageriale dei fenomeni turistici; in secondo luogo, con riferimento a tale schema, proporre un modello di marketing delle imprese e dei sistemi d’offerta turistica che utilizza il teatro come modello produttivo.
Dal punto di vista metodologico il lavoro è concettuale e si poggia sulla letteratura accademica di matrice economico– manageriale. Avendo per oggetto le attività di marketing delle imprese e dei sistemi d’offerta del turismo va ad alimentare sia la letteratura turistico–esperienziale, sia la letteratura sul marketing e il management delle imprese e dei sistemi d’offerta.
Il lavoro è articolato in sei capitoli: nel primo capitolo si introducono oggetto e metodologia della ricerca al fine di descrivere le peculiarità dell’approccio sistemico-esperienziale affrontando i temi della natura della scienza, dell’epistemologia e della metodologia della ricerca nel contesto turistico– esperienziale.
Nel secondo capitolo si analizzano le diverse modalità intersistemiche di creazione e trasferimento dei prodotti con e a sistemi terzi. Si definisce così l’esperienza come prodotto distinto dai servizi o dai beni. In tale prospettiva si mostra come il marketing esperienziale è concettualmente differente dall’impostazione dell’economia delle esperienze. Il primo, infatti, teorizza l’utilizzo delle tecniche esperienziali per differenziare l’offerta dei beni e dei servizi, mentre i secondi teorizzano la necessità di concepire l’esperienza come prodotto e come business a se stante. Partendo dal modello della progressione del valore economico vengono mostrate le peculiarità e le caratteristiche dei prodotti esperienza, ponendo anche in evidenza le implicazioni manageriali che nascono dalla loro produzione. La specificità del prodotto offerto richiede di assumere a riferimento un nuovo modello di produzione: il teatro.
Attraverso il modello teatrale si mostra, infine, che le imprese o i sistemi imprenditoriali che vogliono produrre esperienze devono preparasi a fare il salto dal mondo del business al mondo dello show business.
Il terzo capitolo affronta lo studio del fenomeno socio–economico oggetto di questo studio: il turismo. Si dimostra innanzitutto, che l’utilizzo del concetto di prodotto–esperienza permette di reinterpretare il fenomeno turismo e consente di effettuare il salto concettuale da prodotto turistico globale ad esperienza turistica. Questo passaggio logico permette di evidenziare le specificità dell’offerta turistica e di ridefinire le modalità di analisi, progettazione e gestione del prodotto esperienza turistica.
Utilizzando il modello teatrale si sottolinea che l’esperienza turistica nasce dall’interazione su di un dato palcoscenico (territorio, luogo) degli attori della domanda (operatori e popolazione locale) e dell’offerta (turisti). Concependo la vacanza come uno spettacolo da sceneggiare si riesce così a comprendere, e quindi progettare, le vacanze da proporre al mercato decidendo sia il livello di partecipazione dei turisti sia gli ambiti dell’esperienza da coinvolgere. L’analisi svolta nel capitolo, anche grazie all’utilizzo dei modelli di produzione teatrale, consente di mettere a fuoco alcune problematiche di governo dei fenomeni turistici. Tali modelli permettono, infatti, di affrontare due questioni chiave: chi scrive la trama (o dramma) della vacanza?, chi cura la regia della rappresentazione? La risposta a tali domande permette, quindi, di pervenire a tre possibili percorsi di messa in scena dell’esperienza: l’esperienza su copione, l’esperienza su canovaccio, l’esperienza improvvisata.
Nel quarto capitolo, attraverso la chiave interpretativa dell’esperienza turistica, si affronta lo studio del rapporto esistente fra le imprese, i sistemi d’offerta e i sistemi politico–istituzionali territoriali. Attraverso lo studio delle componenti fondamentali del sistema politico territoriale del ruolo assunto dal suo organo di governo e del rapporto dinamico fra gli elementi del sistema territoriale si evidenzia così la necessità di distinguere fra “circolo politico” e “circolo economico”. L’esistenza di due circoli distinti che operano con finalità diverse, anche se collegate, porta a sostenere la necessità di una separazione fra sistemi finalizzati al governo del territorio (sistemi politico–istituzionali) e sistemi finalizzati alla produzione economica di output di mercato (sistemi imprenditoriali). In tale prospettiva si dimostra, anche attraverso lo studio del marketing territoriale, che il territorio non deve essere concepito come un prodotto da porre sul mercato (e quindi oggetto delle politiche di marketing), ma come un “palcoscenico” su cui emergono differenti sistemi socio economici (sistemi territoriali e sistemi d’offerta territoriali).
Nel quinto capitolo si applicano i concetti di sistema e di esperienza sia per comprendere il funzionamento dei sistemi d’offerta turistica (modello di analisi), sia per proporre un modello di gestione degli stessi. Attraverso la prospettiva d’osservazione utilizzata si arriva a concludere che in ambito turistico è oramai evidente il passaggio dalla competizione fra imprese turistiche alla competizione fra sistemi d’offerta turistica. L’approccio sistemico territoriale consente, infatti, di chiarire il rapporto esistente fra prodotto turistico (esperienza), produttore di turismo (sistema d’offerta turistico) e territorio (palcoscenico). Sulla base di tale impostazione si evidenzia come l’impresa turistica sia sempre inserita in due tipologie di sistemi: il sistema territoriale e il sistema locale di offerta turistica che co–produce l’esperienza di visita per e con il turista. In tale quadro, nel corso del capitolo si mostra come l’impresa turistica possa decidere se adattarsi passivamente all’ambiente ricercando soluzioni di consonanza con la filiera turistica e con il sistema territoriale, oppure se interagire con tali sovrasistemi in modo proattivo cercando di influire su di essi per acquisire maggiori spazi di autonomia. Ciò significa creare un sistema di livello superiore all’impresa stessa capace di soddisfare in modo autonomo la domanda di esperienze turistiche come indicato dalla nascente letteratura manageriale dell’Experience Logic. Il lavoro si conclude proponendo un modello di marketing delle esperienze turistiche valido sia per le imprese sia per i sistemi locali d’offerta turistica.

La ricerca indaga le dinamiche attuali ed evolutive del settore turistico-portuale marchigiano, cercando di cogliere aspetti d'innovazione emergenti e/o realizzabili al fine di migliorare il posizionamento competitivo della portualità turistica regionale rispetto al contesto competitivo nazionale ed internazionale. Argomenti trattati: il settore nautico, i porti turistici e le problematiche innovative; analisi della domanda nel diporto nautico: basi teoriche ed evidenze empiriche; analisi del sistema d'offerta dei porti turistici; i porti turistici nella regione Marche: potenzialità e limiti; le problematiche di finanziamento dei sistemi portuali.