Building brands through experiential events: when entertainment meets education

Experiential marketing is increasingly getting companies’ attention as a strategy to interact with consumers and engage them to better convey their brand image and positioning. However, its effects are still unclear both at the aggregate and at the individual levels. This paper addresses this topic and presents a field experiment investigating the effects of experiential marketing on brand image in retailing. Two similar consumer electronics stores with different strategies – traditional vs. experiential – constitutes the setting in which a field experiment has been run. Two similar samples of consumers took part in our study by visiting one of these two stores, and answering a questionnaire before and after the visit with the primary goal to investigate the brand image and its changes due to the shopping visit. Brand image was measured as the overall brand attitude – via four items – and five specific desired brand claims that the company wanted to convey to consumers. Findings show that engaged consumers through the multisensory and interactive event arranged in the experiential store register higher levels of both brand attitude and all brand claims than those visiting the traditional store, and that the increase in both the dependent variables after the visit of the experiential store is higher than the increase in the traditional store. Thus, experiential stores are not only able to entertain consumers, but they are also able to educate them, by conveying them a set of brand claims more effectively than the traditional stor

Clinical evidence continuous medical education: a randomised educational trial of an open access e-learning program for transferring evidence-based information – ICEKUBE (Italian Clinical Evidence Knowledge Utilization Behaviour Evaluation) – study protocol

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In an effort to ensure that all physicians have access to valid and reliable evidence on drug effectiveness, the Italian Drug Agency sponsored a free-access e-learning system, based on <it>Clinical Evidence</it>, called ECCE. Doctors have access to an electronic version and related clinical vignettes. Correct answers to the interactive vignettes provide Continuing Medical Education credits. The aims of this trial are to establish whether the e-learning program (ECCE) increases physicians' basic knowledge about common clinical scenarios, and whether ECCE is superior to the passive diffusion of information through the printed version of <it>Clinical Evidence</it>.</p> <p>Design</p> <p>All Italian doctors naïve to ECCE will be randomised to three groups. Group one will have access to ECCE for <it>Clinical Evidence </it>chapters and vignettes lot A and will provide control data for <it>Clinical Evidence </it>chapters and vignettes lot B; group two vice versa; group three will receive the concise printed version of <it>Clinical Evidence</it>. There are in fact two designs: a before and after pragmatic trial utilising a two by two incomplete block design (group one versus group two) and a classical design (group one and two versus group three). The primary outcome will be the retention of <it>Clinical Evidence </it>contents assessed from the scores for clinical vignettes selected from ECCE at least six months after the intervention. To avoid test-retest effects, we will randomly select vignettes out of lot A and lot B, avoiding repetitions. In order to preserve the comparability of lots, we will select vignettes with similar, optimal psychometric characteristics.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>ISRCTN27453314</p

Alexithymia in juvenile primary headache sufferers: a pilot study

Starting in the 1990s, there has been accumulating evidence of alexithymic characteristics in adult patients with primary headache. Little research has been conducted, however, on the relationship between alexithymia and primary headache in developmental age. In their research on alexithymia in the formative years, the authors identified one of the most promising prospects for research, as discussed here. The aim of this study was to verify whether there is: (a) a link between tension-type headache and alexithymia in childhood and early adolescence; and (b) a correlation between alexithymia in children/preadolescents and their mothers. This study was based on an experimental group of 32 patients (26 females and 6 males, aged from 8 to 15 years, mean 11.2 ± 2.0) suffering from tension-type headache and 32 control subjects (26 females and 6 males, aged from 8 to 15 years, mean 11.8 ± 1.6). Tension-type headache was diagnosed by applying the International Headache Classification (ICHD-II, 2004). The alexithymic construct was measured using an Italian version of the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children in the case of the juvenile patients and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) for their mothers. Higher rates of alexithymia were observed in the children/preadolescents in the experimental group (EG) than in the control group; in the EG there was no significant correlation between the alexithymia rates in the children/preadolescents and in their mothers

From Education Services to Edutainment Experiences

This paper starts from the assumption of the convergence of education and entertainment, and accepting the interpretation that everything is a form of consumption. The research is intended to survey the characteristics of consumption in the edutainment experience. The experiential interpretation that is a part of consumer behaviour is used to deepen knowledge about the existence of an impact of the new technologies on the experiential consumption that is object of study. The results of the Rose Center for Earth and Space case seem to support the existence of such a link, which is manifested in the concept of a Virtual Learning Environment

Il Neo-Istituzionalismo e le sponsorizzazioni aziendali nel settore culturale

In un contesto ambientale di riferimento caratterizzato da una crescente domanda di consumi edonistici, questo studio si propone di verificare la validità dell’applicazione delle tesi neo-istituzionaliste alle sponsorizzazioni aziendali nei beni e nelle attività culturali. In particolare, il tema della ricerca attiene alla possibile interpretazione delle sponsorizzazioni aziendali nei beni e nelle attività culturali come veri e propri strumenti di perseguimento, da parte delle imprese, di un profittevole riconoscimento di legittimità sociale. La complessità della ricerca presuppone alcuni richiami generali alla teoria neo-istituzionalista preparatori all’approfondimento delle ipotesi di studio alla luce del contesto esaminato. La struttura del lavoro prevede pertanto: una prima parte in cui è tratteggiato il Neo-Istituzionalismo, essendone delineate le preposizioni di base, soprattutto nell’ottica del campo di applicazione prefissato; una seconda parte in cui si risponde alla domanda di ricerca sopra precisata. In antitesi sono contrapposte due interpretazioni del fenomeno oggetto di analisi: la chiave di lettura economica o più esattamente di marketing, che riconosce l’utilità per l’azienda degli investimenti culturali in termini di ritorno di immagine, definita secondo parametri prettamente economici, nei vantaggi fiscali e nelle capacità di raggiungere target specifici; la seconda chiave di lettura o neo-istituzionalista che individua invece il carattere differenziale di questi investimenti nel più esaustivo tentativo di ricerca operato dall’azienda di una fonte di legittimazione sociale. La ricerca si conclude infine mettendo in rilievo il ruolo precursore svolto dalle imprese americane che per prime si sono interessate dei beni e delle attività artistiche e culturali e che successivamente sono state emulate dalle imprese italiane. La scelta del Neo-Istituzionalismo quale teoria idonea a leggere il fenomeno delle sponsorizzazioni è dovuta alla sua adattabilità a diverse e molteplici realtà. La sua flessibilità non solo ne permette un’applicazione estensiva, ma la mette anche in grado di fornire rilevanti contributi conoscitivi. In questa ottica rientra ad esempio la lettura neo-istituzionalista delle procedure contabili adottate dalle aziende: gli studiosi della misurazione economica d’azienda danno ampio spazio infatti a concetti come potere, legittimità e razionalità (1). Il Neo-Istituzionalismo è tuttora in via di definizione cosicché è presumibile che a tale processo di costruzione possa utilmente contribuire ogni ricerca di carattere applicativo e innovativo. Il settore dei beni e delle attività culturali ben si presta poi a questa sperimentazione poiché solo recentemente è al centro dei dibattiti scientifici, usufruendo di importanti risorse ed eterogenei contributi. I convegni scientifici su questo tema si stanno moltiplicando, tanto che ormai molti esponenti del mondo accademico italiano propongono il settore in questione come un’area degna di studi e ricerche finalizzate