Mathilde Pulh

Museoparks and re‐enchantment of the museum visits: an approach centred on visual ethnology

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the structural dimensions of a new museal offer, museoparks, which use edutainment and more generally re‐enchantment strategies. Design/methodology/approach – To bring out the symbolic dimensions specific to these cultural sites, the methodology used is based on the analysis of photographic media. Findings – The analysis reveals four main symbolic dimensions structuring these hybrid cultural offers: spectacularization, immersive character, ritualized character, and very intense merchandizing of the experience. Research limitations/implications – This analysis allows us to update a hybrid, complex and re‐sized form of cultural experience that goes beyond the classic combination identified in the analysis of edutainment strategies (educational and fun dimensions). Practical implications – From a managerial action perspective, this research provides keys to understanding the strategies proposed by the hybrid offers of museoparks; strategies that might inspire many museum managers eager to imitate them. Originality/value – This research provides keys for understanding the logic underlying the structuring of the experience offered by cultural institutions.

When the arts inspire businesses: Museums as a heritage redefinition tool of brands

While the literature has mainly considered brand museums as communication tools or complex retail environments, this article analyses them through a heritage framework and suggests that brands can use heritage technologies of the arts for their own purposes. The case study of the brand museum of the Laughing Cow highlights the heritage technologies the brand uses to endorse two heritage roles: an inter-generational memory role based on the transmission of the brands history and a community representation role through spaces and objects. As a consequence, this research sheds light on how brands can come to be accepted as heritage objects. By using heritage technologies within a museum, brands can capture heritage functions, and thus no longer fully rests in a market logic: the brand becomes a sacred and inalienable common good.