Vatroslav Škare

Understanding competition and service offer in museum marketing

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current role of competition as one of the neglected aspects of museum marketing management. It also aims to discover whether museum professionals consider museums to be market immune and to find out what they think about the role of competition in creating and managing their existing and new services.,The theoretical part of the paper is based on a review of the literature from the multidisciplinary field of arts and museum marketing management. The exploratory qualitative research included 17 museum professionals and was carried out in 17 museums in one EU emerging market country.,Museum professionals are not aware of the competition, or they tend to ignore its existence. They consider the preservation of objects (exhibits) to be equally or even more important than providing services. However, additional services become important. Although some museum professionals try to engage visitors in the active creation of museum experience, most are still conservative in such terms.,The primary research limitations are related to intentional, convenience sample and the perspective of one employee (marketing manager or museums’ director).,Research findings provide valuable insights for both marketing academics and professionals engaged in the museum marketing management field. The contribution of the paper is also contextual as it helps to bridge the gap existing in museum marketing management research in the context of the emerging markets.,El objetivo de este trabajo es explorar el papel actual de la competencia, como uno de los aspectos que ha recibido escasa atencion en la gestion del marketing de museos. Ademas, busca descubrir si los profesionales de museos consideran los museos inmunes al mercado, y conocer como reflexionan sobre el papel de la competencia en la creacion y la gestion de los servicios existentes y los nuevos.,La parte teorica del trabajo se basa en la revision de la literatura del campo multidisciplinario de la gestion de las artes y del marketing de museos. La investigacion cualitativa exploratoria ha incluido 17 profesionales de museos y se ha realizado en 17 museos, en un pais emergente de la Union Europea.,Los profesionales de museos no son conscientes de la competencia, o tienden a ignorar su existencia. Consideran la conservacion de objetos (exposiciones) igual o incluso mas importante que la prestacion de servicios. Sin embargo, los servicios adicionales estan ganando en importancia. Si bien algunos profesionales de museos tratan de involucrar a los visitantes en la creacion activa de la experiencia del museo, la mayoria de ellos todavia son conservadores con respecto a esta idea.,Las limitaciones principales de la investigacion serefieren a la muestra intencional de conveniencia y el punto de vista de solo un empleado (gerente de marketing o director de museo).,Los resultados de este estudio proporcionan informacion valiosa tanto para los academicos de marketing como para los profesionales que trabajan en el campo de la gestion de marketing de museos. Ademas, la contribucion de este trabajo es contextual puesto que ayuda a llenar el vacio existente en la investigacion de la gestion de marketing de museos en el contexto de los mercados emergentes.

Celebrity Endorsement in Brand Management in Croatia

A number of studies have investigated the impact of celebrity endorsers on consumers’ attitudes towards brands and on their purchase intentions. Despite the existence of extensive marketing literature and a growing use of celebrity endorsement in Croatia, little is known about how Croatian consumers react to celebrities in advertisements. Moreover, there is scarce knowledge about consumer opinion of or attitudes towards a celebrity endorsement strategy. This study represents preliminary, exploratory efforts to examine whether Croatian consumers recognize brands endorsed by national celebrities and to understand their opinions of and attitudes towards celebrity endorsement as a common and effective marketing practice employed for the purposes of brand management.