and Commercial Communication. His research has covered a wide variety of topics in marketing and consumer behaviour with a special focus on issues related to communication in general and to aesthetics, semiotics, hermeneutics, art, entertainment, nostalgia and stereography in particular. AbstractMarketing managers currently face an explosion of subjectivity. A glance at the business world reveals new solutions developed to offer customised products. Mass customisation is stressed by academicians in different ways. For example, relationship marketing emphasises the role of the relationship between a vendor and its customer, with particular reference to the importance of personal involvement and trust. Reading such phenomena as manifesting an explosion of subjectivity in consumption suggests an enhanced opportunity for applying the experiential view of consumer behaviour. This paper invites marketing managers, as well as marketing and consumer researchers, to recognise the changing environment more proactively and to embrace the increasingly well-established conceptions of the consumption experience more enthusiastically.

Previous studies of cultural consumption have found a significant but weak relationship between expert judgment (EJ) and popular appeal (PA) and have suggested that this "little taste" phenomenon reflects a mediating role played by ordinary evaluation (OE) in diluting the association between EJ and PA. However, various weaknesses in this work have involved problems with sequential timing, nonindependence of measurements, and contamination by market(ing)-related influences. The present investigation of new data on motion pictures addresses these concerns to show that, when controlling for market success, consumers display aspects of "good taste" via indirect links from EJ to OE to PA. (c) 2007 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Previous studies of the movie industry have raised questions concerning the problematic relationship between the success-related aspects of artistic excellence and commercial appeal. The present article proposes that-when the former is measured by industry recognition (Oscars and other awards) and the latter by market performance (box office and video rentals) and when the former hinges on the evaluative judgments of reviewers and consumers (ratings of excellence) and the latter on the level of buzz among these audience members (amount of attention, word of mouth, or click of mouse)-the two phenomena are essentially separable as independent paths to conceptually distinct and empirically uncorrelated aspects of motion-picture success. An analysis of data for 190 movies from the year 2003 shows that reviewer-and-consumer evaluations and buzz respond differently to a film's marketing clout (production budget, opening screens, and opening box office) and that these audience responses contribute independently to a film's industry recognition and market performance along two separable paths. These findings suggest various implications for movie marketers, film producers, actors or actresses, and other members of the motion-picture industry

Being typically hedonic, arts and culture by definition provide pleasurable experiences that are consumed for their own sake. If pleasure acts as the key emotion in these experiences, at the same time other emotions might be elicited by the rich and holistic environment and the interaction that takes place between the cultural product and the consumer. By adopting the common theoretical framework of the PAD model (Mehrabian & Russell, ), but innovating in the structural links among the three main affective dimensions—pleasure, arousal, and dominance (PAD)—this study empirically tests whether arousal, dominance, and their interaction generate pleasure. Findings show that arousal and dominance affect pleasure positively and significantly, whereas their interaction affects it negatively. Pleasure leads to a direct and positive effect on satisfaction that mediates a positive effect on behavioral intention.

Purpose-This paper aims at interpreting the epistemology of marketing. The paper investigates several research questions, proposing some initial reflections concerning their impact on marketing. Design/methodology/approach-The paper addresses the research questions by conducting an analysis of the marketing literature. An analysis of philosophical postmodern literature is also carried out. The paper's attempt constantly to create links between the level of philosophical elaboration and that of marketing research leads to a proposal of new approach to marketing research: experiential research. Findings-In the paper's review of the marketing literature the traditional pragmatic approach of marketing as a discipline is highlighted. Its strong managerial perspective has partly diverted researchers' attention from the theory, and focused it mainly on the method. This has created an increasingly marked distinction between the marketing literature aimed at management, and that aimed at the academic community. The postmodern perspective on marketing calls for a rethinking of the "scientific nature" of marketing as an investigative field. Research limitations/implications-The main point is that marketing cannot be a scientific discipline only by adopting a scientific method. Marketing research is by definition different in nature: it cannot generate better but only different knowledge. This perspective shift has an impact on all research components. First, the field of research widens enormously, because researchers can deal with everything arousing their interest and to which their accumulated knowledge can be applied. Since the discipline does not become scientific, the researcher can use any method. All methods can originate scientific theories, and therefore incremental knowledge. Hence science is neither objective nor absolute. Originality/value-This paper analyses the philosophical roots of postmodernism, in order to understand its impact on postmodern marketing better. It also focuses on the impact of postmodernism on marketing research, and proposes a new approach. This paper then explores the features of the experiential research in marketing, and its effect on the processes of generating knowledge.