Interested in eating and drinking? How food affects travel satisfaction and the overall holiday experience

This study addresses the question of how an inherent interest in food affects consumers as travellers. This is done by focusing on food interest as an antecedent and uncovering the effects of such an interest on travel motivation, destination choice, positive food experiences and, further, on satisfaction and overall holiday experience. The links between food attitudes and travel satisfaction and experiences are studied among Finnish travellers using a quantitative research approach. The results of the exploratory factor analysis showed that destination food experiences consist of five dimensions with varying effects on satisfaction and travel experiences. The results also prove that these dimensions are conditioned by travellers' food interest. The provided insights have managerial implications as they highlight that food has multifarious effects, which do not emerge only in service encounters.©2016 Taylor & Francis. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Scandinavian journal of hospitality and tourism on 17 August 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/15022250.2016.1215871.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

A destination's gastronomy as a means for holiday well-being

Purpose - To provide insights into holiday well-being, the purpose of this paper is to examine two inevitable traveller activities related to destinations’ gastronomy: pre-trip food information sourcing and the daily meals consumed. Design/methodology/approach - A survey was carried out among 243 Finnish travellers. The findings are based on univariate analysis (t-test, ANOVA and regression analysis). Findings - Pre-trip behaviour to ensure holiday well-being is based on travellers’ interests in food, an emotional desire for a sense of safety and a functional desire for convenience, while they collect information from the internet and guidebooks about recommended food places and local food as well as food safety and price level. Travellers’ place the highest importance on dinner for their holiday well-being, especially foodies – those travellers with a keen interest in food. Breakfast is the second most important meal contributing to holiday well-being. Practical implications - These findings inform destination marketing organisations about what food dimensions they should emphasise in destination gastronomy-related marketing communication for tour operators and hotel and local restaurants about the essence of dinner and breakfast for holiday well-being. Originality/value - The study provides insights into the role of destinations’ gastronomy in holiday well-being, which deserves to be studied in the current era of experiences and food interest.©2017 Emerald Publishing Limited. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY–NC 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Using colour semiotics to explore colour meanings

Purpose The impact of colour is acknowledged within the marketing field. However, research on colour communication is limited, with most prior studies focusing on pre-defined meanings or colour associations. The aim of this study is to reveal insights into colour meaning and propose an alternative view to understanding colour communication. Design/methodology/approach The study takes a conceptual approach and proposes Peircean semiotics to understand colour communication. The proposed framework is applied to analyse a set of colour meanings detected by prior colour research. Findings The study elucidates the underlying mechanism of how colour is read and interpreted in various marketing activities, and how meaning is conveyed. This study addresses this mechanism by identifying colour semantics and colour as a symbolic, iconic and indexical sign. Originality/value By elaborating on how colours convey meanings and the mechanism that explains such meanings, this study demonstrates that colour meaning is far more than mere association. The study contributes to the current knowledge of colour by facilitating a deeper understanding of how consumers interpret representations of single visual cues expressed in various contexts.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Cruise holidays - how on-board service quality affects passengers' behaviour

This study examines the relations ships between the perceived service quality and satisfaction on on-board spending and behavioral action, while it also explores differences in on-board spending. Survey data were collected from 649 cruise ship passengers. A partial least square structural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual model and analysis of variances to explore the influence of passengers' demographic characteristics. Results show a positive link between service quality and satisfaction, and satisfaction and behavioral actions. Spending behavior has a moderating effect on behavioral actions, and is influenced by gender and travel frequency. Investing in the quality of cruise ships is vital, as it influences satisfaction and positive word-of-mouth. How to increase on-board spending, is more complex. On the one hand, the findings show that increased customer satisfaction does not habitually mean increased revenue. On the other hand, the results imply that passengers' on-board spending varies across customer segments.©2019 Cognizant LLC. This article is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives International (CC BY–NC–ND) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Como avaliam os consumidores de automedicação as embalagens de medicamentos não sujeitos a receita médica

Recent transformations in the healthcare industry reflect changing consumer health and self-care behaviours. The consumer is now expected to take control of his or her own health, including self-medication. The increasing number of non-prescription medicines, as well as their availability in non-pharmaceutical shops, has also contributed to the current situation. One challenge of this scenario is that consumers increasingly make their brand choices without professional advice. In response to this, the present study aims to explore how consumers evaluate the packages of OTC medicines. A mixed method (conjoint analysis and semi-structured interviews) study was designed. The study was executed among Portuguese consumers and focused on a number of cues expressed on brand packaging such as COO, producer and packaging colour. With this approach, we attempt to shed some light on the effect of packaging design, which may provide valuable insight to both researchers and packaging designers as well as other professionals in the pharmaceutical industry.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Silence as a moment of luxury : insights from contemporary travellers visiting churches

This chapter focusses on travellers’ pursuit of silence. This quest may be a counteraction to the current invasion of noise in everyday life. Silence has become something rare, unique and exclusive – which conveys luxury in its pristine and simplest form. The study focussed on silence in the setting of a church, which is a place typically intrinsically attached to silence. A qualitative semi-structured study was designed to explore how churches’ atmospheres contribute to the experience of silence, as well as what such moments of silence mean to the contemporary traveller. Silence in a church is very much defined by the place itself. For the traveller, silence is (1) a code of conduct, (2) an inner state, (3) a break, (4) an empowering experience and (5) a precious moment. The findings of this study can be used to promote moments of silence for weary travellers in the need of quiet.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Global OTC pharmaceutical packaging with a local touch

Purpose - The aim of this study is to explore the contextual influences of packaging design and its cues on respondents' preferences. Design/methodology/approach - To explore the contextuality of packaging cues, a multi-attribute valuation technique, conjoint analysis was used for two types of pharmaceutical products (painkiller and sore throat medicine) across seven countries. Data were collected among respondents (N = 461) from Finland, Ghana, Mongolia, Nigeria, Portuguese, South Africa and the USA. Findings - Similarities and dissimilarities were observed between the product types and countries analysed in terms of the impact of packaging cues. The findings demonstrate the global and local nature of brand cues expressed in retail packaging. Practical implications - The study implies that some cues may serve global markets, while some cues may need to be localised in order to meet the needs of local markets. Understanding these cues and their influences on consumers' brand preferences and choices at the point-of-purchases may enable companies to enter new markets, help them create sustainable and credible global brands. Originality/value - The study contributes to the existing retail packaging literature and pharmaceutical branding literature by providing empirical evidence of the multidimensional aspects of sensory packaging cues. Second, it contributes by showing the contextual nature of retail packaging and its associated cues for OTC pharmaceuticals.©2020 the Authors. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Responsible Communication

© 2022 VAKKI ry ja kirjoittajat.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Interpretation of Services Marketing Concepts

Scholarly research has produced conceptual knowledge that is based on real-life marketing phenomena. An initial aim of past research has been to produce marketing knowledge as a base for efficient business operation and for the improvement of productivity. Thus, an assumption has been that the knowledge would be applied by organisations. This study focuses on understanding the use of marketing knowledge within the field of service marketing. Hence, even if marketing knowledge about service-oriented principles and marketing of services is based on empirical research, there is a lack of knowledge on how this marketing knowledge is in fact applied by businesses. The study focuses on four essential concepts of services marketing knowledge, namely service quality, servicescape, internal marketing, and augmented service offering. The research involves four case companies. Data is based on in depth interviews and questionnaire-based surveys conducted with managers, employees, and customers of these companies. All organisations were currently developing in a service-oriented and customer-oriented direction. However, we found limitations, gaps, and barriers for the implementation of service-oriented and customer-oriented principles. Hence, we argue that the organisations involved in the study exploited conceptual knowledge symbolically and conceptually, but the instrumental use of knowledge was limited. Due to the shortcomings found, we also argue that the implementation of the various practices and processes that are related to becoming service-oriented and customer-oriented has not been fully successful. Further, we have come to the conclusion that the shortcomings detected were at least in some respect related to the fact that the understanding and utilisation of conceptual knowledge of service-oriented principles and marketing of services were somewhat limited

The impact of cruise ship dinescape on travellers’ behaviour

Purpose: This study aims to examine how cruise ship dinescapes, as a specific type of organized and staged service environment, influence customers’ attitudes, on-board behaviour, satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Design/methodology/approach: Data was collected using a cross-sectional survey from 552 passengers on-board one of the big cruise ships with a Caribbean itinerary. Findings: Cruise ship dinescape, as an on-board food experience platform, is built on three dimensions: restaurant atmospherics, interactions with other guests and restaurant staff. The findings show how these dimensions influence passengers’ emotional experiences and quality perceptions. The results also show how travellers’ cruise ship dinescape satisfaction affect their overall vacation satisfaction and future travel behaviour. Practical implications: The findings imply that cruise companies should pay extra attention to organised food service environments like dinescapes staged for passengers. Through these scapes cruise companies may provide favourable platforms enabling dining satisfaction, but also social interaction and co-creation of memorable experiences. Originality/value: This study builds a comprehensive model in cruise ship context, which links dinescape experiences to overall cruise ship dining experiences and dining behaviour mediated by emotional and perceived quality outcomes with further consequences