An exploratory study looking at the relationship marketing techniques used in the music festival industry

There are current issues and trends in the music festival market, which may affect the success of an event, and market saturation is at the forefront of these issues. Previous literature, maintaining the need for a marketing approach to festivals, identifi es the need for maintaining strong stakeholder relationships in order to succeed in a business environment; attention has been focused to the theory of relationship marketing (RM) because of the recognition that this practice is complementary to the marketing of festivals. The very nature of the music festival as an annual, usually, 4-day event means that effective marketing is needed to keep connections with the consumer throughout the year. This article focuses on the RM techniques utilised within the music festival industry from the viewpoint of the festival organiser in an attempt to establish how festival organisations value and monitor organisational relationships. This article explores the extent to which these relationships are valued and managed; furthermore, the variations between these intricate relationships are considered by focusing on those held with the organisation ’ s consumers and sponsors, the results of which have provided the ability to establish the importance and relevance of RM to the industry and further identify the marketing communication methods employed to establish and maintain such relationships. In-depth, convergent interviews have been conducted with a segment of music festival organisers from a range of events. The results have been integrated with the study of current literature to best exemplify these issues. It has been established that RM has a strong role in today ’ s commercial and independent music festival industry; technological advances are enabling the organiser to support online relationships further and increase consumer loyalty. There is a need to expand the research further because of the complexity of organisational relationships and the varying categories of festivals

Emoting infertility online: A qualitative analysis of men's forum posts

Relatively little research on infertility focuses exclusively or significantly on men’s experiences, particularly in relation to emotional aspects. Evidence that does exist around male infertility suggests that it is a distressing experience for men, due to stigma, threats to masculinity and the perceived need to suppress emotions, and that men and women experience infertility differently. Using thematic analysis, this article examines the online emoting of men in relation to infertility via forum posts from a men-only infertility discussion board. It was noted that men ‘talked’ to each other about the emotional burdens of infertility, personal coping strategies and relationships with others. Three major themes were identified following in-depth analysis: ‘the emotional rollercoaster’, ‘the tyranny of infertility’ and ‘infertility paranoia’. This article then offers insights into how men experience infertility emotionally, negotiate the emotional challenges involved (especially pertaining to diagnosis, treatment outcomes and their intimate relationships) and how they share (and find value in doing so) with other men the lived experience of infertility

Digital play and the actualisation of the consumer imagination

In this article, the authors consider emerging consumer practices in digital virtual spaces. Building on constructions of consumer behavior as both a sense-making activity and a resource for the construction of daydreams, as well as anthropological readings of performance, the authors speculate that many performances during digital play are products of consumer fantasy. The authors develop an interpretation of the relationship between the real and the virtual that is better equipped to understand the movement between consumer daydreams and those practices actualized in the material and now also in digital virtual reality. The authors argue that digital virtual performances present opportunities for liminoid transformations through inversions, speculations, and playfulness acted out in aesthetic dramas. To illustrate, the authors consider specific examples of the theatrical productions available to consumers in digital spaces, highlighting the consumer imagination that feeds them, the performances they produce, and the potential for transformation in consumer-players

The branded and gendered Brazilian body: Material and symbolic constructions in an overlooked context

Since its first conference in 2006, CCT has been growing in size and reach. Some have noted that CCT has become much more European in the recent years, with North American and European countries taking turns to host the event

"Yay, Another Lady Starting a Log!": Women's Fitness Doping and the Gendered Space of an Online Doping Forum

This study aims to investigate and dissect the meanings attached to women’s use of performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs), how fitness doping can be understood in terms of gender and spatiality, and what implications this has for women’s communicative engagement with one another within an online forum. The study is based on a netnographic and qualitative methodology. Theoretically, it considers a women’s online forum for PIEDs and analyzes it as a community of practice (CofP) and a spatiality in which gender, bodies, and side effects are discussed and negotiated. The results show that although the women’s forum provides a space for women to share their own unique experiences, there is a limit to the extent to which the discussions mirror the experiences and experimentations of women. Instead, discussions are often dominated by men’s voices/experiences. This has two main implications. Firstly, the prevalence of men’s voices can block the development of a women’s CofP. Symbolically, men engage in a sort of cultural manspreading by encroaching on the women’s forum space. Secondly, it has implications for women’s PIED use and use practices. Women seeking out advice or the experiences of other women must navigate through and around men’s contributions

Youth transitions as ‘wiki-transitions’ in youth policies platforms

The version of a journal article that has been accepted for publication in a journal. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in European Societies on 22/11/2019 available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14616696.2019.1690158.In recent years, a number of youth-focused online platforms have emerged which, in different ways, seek to support young people across Europe in building pathways to independent adulthood. In this article, we draw on data from Edgeryders, a recent youth policy research project, to reflect on the extent to which online discussion platforms are useful instruments for understanding the challenges youth face in their transitions to independent adulthood across Europe. Noting the collaborative emphasis articulated by both the project designers and participants, we ask how we might make sense of the data – and the meanings conveyed by that data – produced by online projects. We propose the notion of ‘wiki-transitions’ as a means of theorising young people’s use of online space to support their transitions to adulthood

Электрофоретическая подвижность эритроцитов у больных с тяжелыми формами интоксикации

Objective: to study the diagnostic and prognostic value of changes in red blood cell electrophoretic mobility (RBCEM) in patients with infectious and noninfectious forms of intoxication.Materials and methods. A cytoferometer (Opton) was used to determine RBCEM; venous blood samples taken on heparin were studied. Thirty patients with peritonitis (infectious intoxication) and 22 patients with a pancreatic tumor and mechanical jaundice (noninfectious intoxication) were examined. All the patients received standard therapy for this disease. Eight out of 30 patients died on days 3—10 postoperatively.Results. On postoperative days 1—2, the values of RBCEM were outside the lower normal range in 90% of the patients with peritonitis (p<0.01). At the same time the patients with a good outcome of the disease differed from those who subsequently died (p<0.05), but they did not differ in the severity of the disease (APACHE II scale) and the results of laboratory and clinical blood tests. On days 7—14 versus days 1—2 after surgery, the survivors, unlike the deceased, showed an increase in RBCEM (p<0.05) and a reduction in disease severity by the APACHE II scale (p<0.05). On admission, in 95% of patients with pancreatic tumor, the values of RBCEM were beyond the lower normal range (p<0.01). Seven-day disintoxicant therapy caused a rise in this index.Conclusion. Intoxication with infectious and noninfectious agents leads to lower RBCEM. In patients with general peritonitis, the values of this index and its changes are of diagnostic and prognostic value in evaluating the severity and outcome of the disease and the efficiency of performed therapeutic measures. Цель. Изучение диагностической и прогностической значимости изменений электрофоретической подвижности эритроцитов (ЭФПЭ) у больных с инфекционной и неинфекционной формами интоксикации организма.Материалы и методы. Для определения ЭФПЭ был использован цитоферометр фирмы «Opton», материалом для исследования служила венозная кровь, взятая на гепарине. Обследование проведено у 30 больных с перитонитом (инфекционная форма интоксикации) и у 22 больных опухолью поджелудочной железы с механической желтухой (неинфекционная форма интоксикации). Всем больным проводили стандартизированную терапию для данного заболевания. Из 30 больных перитонитом 8 умерли на 3—10 сутки после операции.Результаты. На 1—2-е сутки после операции у 90% больных с перитонитом величины ЭФПЭ находились за пределами нижней границы нормы (р<0,01). При этом больные с благоприятным исходом заболевания отличались от впоследствии умерших более высокими значениями этого показателя (р<0,05), но не различались по тяжести состояния (шкала АРАСНЕ II), результатам лабораторно-клинического анализа крови. На 7—14-е сутки после операции у выживших больных, в отличие от умерших, наблюдалось увеличение ЭФПЭ (р<0,05) и уменьшение тяжести их состояния по шкале АРАСНЕ II (р<0,05) по сравнению с 1—2 сутками послеоперационного периода. При поступлении в стационар у 95% больных с опухолью поджелудочной железы величины ЭФПЭ были меньше нижней границы нормы (р<0,01). Проведение дезинтоксикационной терапии в течение 7 суток сопровождалось увеличением значений этого показателя.Заключение. Интоксикация организма инфекционными и неинфекционными агентами приводит к снижению ЭФПЭ. У больных с разлитым перитонитом значения этого показателя и его динамика имеют диагностическую и прогностическую значимость для оценки тяжести и исхода заболевания, эффективности проводимых лечебных мероприятий.

Mapping the absence : A theological critique of posthumanist influences in marketing and consumer research

In this study, we critically examine the ongoing adoption of various posthumanist influences into the fields of marketing and consumer research from a theological perspective. By conducting a theological-historical assessment, we propose that it is not posthuman notions of human/technology relations, nor their broader context in the emerging non-representational paradigms, that mark radically new disruptions in the continuing restructuring of the disciplines of marketing and consumer research. Instead, we argue that what is taking place is an implicit adherence to a contemporary form of age-old Christian dogma. As a radical conjecture, we thus propose that an identification of certain similarities between Christian dogma and the grounds for various posthumanist frameworks suggest that posthuman thought may well herald the global dissemination of a far more elusive, authoritarian, and hegemonic system than that which posthumanists typically claim to have abandoned. Consequently, we elaborate on implications to developments in marketing thought.Peer reviewe

They are not all same: variations in Asian consumers' value perceptions of luxury brands

Asian markets are steadily becoming key growth regions for luxury brands. However, despite the growth, many luxury brand firms are unable to obtain the desired economic returns through their marketing strategies in Asia. Often these firms treat consumers across Asian markets as homogenous groups, which could lead to inaccurate luxury brand management strategy. Additionally, there is limited understanding of consumer value perceptions toward luxury brands across the Asian markets. Employing impression management theory and the horizontal/vertical collectivistic cultural distinctions, this study examines differences and similarities in constituent luxury value perceptions across three prominent Asian markets, namely China, India, and Indonesia. The results of a quantitative survey conducted with 626 real luxury consumers in these three countries identify variations in perceptions of symbolic, experiential, and functional value of luxury brands. The study contributes to knowledge on constituent luxury value perceptions, along with providing theoretical explanations for the differences between consumers across Asian markets. With the emerging novel insights on Asian consumers, luxury brand firms can align their marketing strategies to respective markets by leveraging the similarities and differences in consumer value perceptions. This approach, informed by empirical evidence, will enhance luxury brands’ competitiveness and profit opportunities in the high-growth Asian markets. The study identifies a number of future research directions