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International audience; The literature dedicated to heritage experience and brand heritage defends the idea that it is a source of significant value creation for consumers and brands. By contrast, the aim of this article is to propose a more complete view of the consequences of the heritage strategy for brands and consumers by exploring how consumers perceive a brand heritage experience and by identifying potential resistances that may emerge during their visits. In consequence, this research examines the features of a brand heritage experience through extended case studies in two brand museums with narratives of 47 visitors. By unpacking a brand heritage experience, the study highlights its acceptance by a majority of visitors as a real heritage experience since they give scientific, authentic and aesthetic values to the industrial and commercial features of the brand. However, some visitors do not accept – partially or totally – the brand as part of the heritage corpus insofar as they exhibit scepticism or even reject the experience.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the consequences of the heritage experience in brand museums on the consumer–brand relationship. By highlighting its heritage within a museum, the brand proposes a specific experience that deserves attention because it is based on memory and communal identity, thus creating or strengthening a relationship with consumers. Design/methodology/approach Ethnographic case studies were conducted through direct observation and extensive interviews with 72 visitors at two brand museums, the Fallot Mustard Mill and the House of the Laughing Cow. Findings The results highlight the emergence/strengthening of the relationship between consumers and the brand through the development of intimacy with the brand and the emergence of supportive behaviors toward the brand in the form of commercial support, ambassadorship and volunteering. Research limitations/implications By characterizing and articulating the different relational consequences of visiting a brand museum, this research contributes to the literature dedicated to heritage experiences in consumption contexts and to the literature dedicated to consumer–brand relationships in servicescapes. Practical implications The study shows the necessity of grounding “heritage” in the physical setting of the brand museum to create a meaningful experience for visitors and, in turn, a deep relationship. Managers should treat brand museums as a relational tool in the marketing strategy of the brand and approach them from the perspective of long-term profitability. Originality/value While the literature has examined the spectacular and esthetic experiences brand museums offer, this study is the first to characterize the heritage experience and to document its consequences in terms of the consumer–brand relationship.

International audience; 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 brand's 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.

Des techniques de communication alternatives s'appuyant sur des contenus generes pas les utilisateurs se developpent de plus en plus. Or la communication 2.0 pourrait ne pas se reveler etre cette nouvelle panacee manageriale tant esperee. Si ces outils permettent de s'engager dans un dialogue avec le consommateur, ce dialogue va se faire sous certaines conditions dont les entreprises doivent avoir pleinement conscience.

WEB 2.0AND MUSEUMS: THE NEW EACES OF THE VISITOR The increasing integration of techniques from Web 2.0 by the museums illustrates the profound changes that these structures have realized in building their relationship with the audience. The use of these devices, based on a logic of participation, leads to involve the visitor, traditionally rather kept at a distance, on all stages of the implemeritation of the mUseum offered on Internet. Through a careful examinât icin of sites arid features offered by the museal structures, different roles now devolved to the public have been identified. The emergence of these new "faces" of the visitor comes to question, in the longer-term, about the identity and the legitimacy of the museums themselves., L'intégration croissante des techniques issiies du Web 2.0 par les musées illustre les profondes modifications que ces structures ont engagées dans la construction de leur relation avec le public. Le recours à ces dispositifs, basés sur une logique de participation, conduit à impliquer le visiteur, traditionnellement tenu à distance, dans toutes les étapes de la mise en oeuvre de l'offre museale sur Internet. Grâce à un examen attentif des sites et des outils proposés par leÉ structures niuséales, différents rôles désormais dévolus au public ont pu être identifiés. L'émergence de ces nouvelles figures du visiteur vient interroger à plus long terme l'identité et la légitimité des musées eux-mêmes.

Many companies now use the Internet as part of a click & mortar strategy. This strategy is also used in the museum field, but its consequences have not been evaluated yet. A quantitative study carried out on a sample of 388 visitors, at the Bibracte Museum (France), indicates that the quality of an internet website, as well as the satisfaction and trust experienced by Internet users when browsing, have direct positive influence on word-of mouth and the actual museum visit. It seems therefore appropriate to integrate the internet website to the whole management of cultural and artistic activities, without forgetting to take into account the specificities of this particular field., De nombreuses entreprises utilisent Internet dans le cadre d'une stratégie click and mortar. Cette même stratégie est également utilisée dans le champ muséal, mais ses conséquences n'ont pas été évaluées. Une étude quantitative menée sur un échantillon de 388 visiteurs, effectuée au musée de Bibracte (France), indique que la qualité d'un site Internet ainsi que la satisfaction et la confiance éprouvées lors de la navigation par les internautes ont une influence directe sur un bouche à oreille positif et la visite effective du musée. Dès lors, il paraît intéressant d'intégrer le site Internet au management des activités culturelles et artistiques, tout en respectant les spécificités de ce domaine d'activité.

The museum offer undergoes at present profound transformations. Beyond the traditional structures which do not any more hesitate to use innovative museographies and to slide in the sphere of the leisure activities, it seems to develop a new sector, halfway between museums and amusement parks called museopark. The aim of this article is to analyze an example of this hybrid offer, the City of Arts and Science in Valencia (Spain), fitting very well with the edutainment logic and to understand the structuring elements and the borrowings made in of the amusement parks. After the presentation of theoretical foundations underlying the definition of experiential museums, we expose our case study, by defining the methodology, presenting all the dimensions structuring the museum experience offer and by identifying managerial implications., L'offre muséale subit actuellement de profondes transformations. Au-delà des structures traditionnelles, qui n'hésitent plus à recourir à des muséographies innovantes et à glisser dans la sphère des loisirs, semble se développer un nouveau secteur, à mi-chemin entre musées et parcs d'attraction. L'objectif de cet article est d'analyser un exemple de cette offre hybride de type muséo-parc, la Cité des Arts et des Sciences de Valencia (Espagne), s'inscrivant dans une logique ludo-éducative, afin d'en comprendre les éléments structurants. Après avoir présenté les fondements conceptuels sous-tendant la redéfinition expérientielle des musées, nous exposerons notre étude de cas, en définissant d'abord la méthodologie utilisée puis en présentant l'ensemble des dimensions structurant cette offre d'expérience, avant d'énoncer les implications managériales de cette réflexion. +

PurposeOne conclusion is widely shared by professionals in the cultural sector: consumer motivations have changed and in particular their relations with cultural products and services. This paper seeks to analyze different trends applied to museums in order to improve the understanding of this “new” cultural audience.Design/methodology/approachFor this trend marketing analysis, seven consumer orientations have been identified (without claiming they are at all exhaustive) after an extended review over the shape of contemporary consumer habits. Besides, the authors wanted to know the opinion of the cultural managers. Each consumer orientation has been evaluated by taking a sample of French practitioners from different areas of the museum sector.FindingsThe paper is interesting in that it highlights the gap between actual management practices and practitioners' judgments.Research limitations/implicationsThe first limitation that should be borne in mind relates to the exploratory character of this paper. In an extremely shifting environment, it is difficult to claim to have successfully identified all of the consumer trends that may criss‐cross the cultural sector. The second limitation of the research is the cultural contingency of the empirical validation. This was done in a French context.Practical implicationsThe environment (especially the competitive environment) in which cultural institutions find themselves should urge them to take account of changes in modes of cultural consumption in order to reach individuals through an attractive and coherent discourse. Museums have to continue to open up to their audiences. It is not, of course, a question of forcing a change or complexification of the core cultural offer (exhibition), but rather a contemplation of what can be done around that core.Originality/valueThe paper offers insights into the evolution of the relation between museums and visitors by analyzing seven consumer orientations. The authors illustrate how museums stray from their original image as a high cultural place. They then show that museums are also revitalizing themselves by redefining the role played by the visitor: from a passive individual to an actor fully interacting in the museum's offer.

International audience; L’accélération de la concurrence, les difficultés d’exploitation, les problèmes d’élargissement du public sont des contraintes qui obligent le marché du spectacle vivant à avancer vers une meilleure compréhension de son public afin de pouvoir agir sur la fréquentation des lieux de diffusion. Or analyser le vécu des consommateurs revient à se confronter à une multiplicité de comportements de valorisation et de logiques de consommation de la part des spectateurs. En conséquence, il convient d’envisager des leviers d’action et des stratégies marketing diversifiés pour permettre aux organisateurs la construction d’expériences à travers une offre à la fois unique (en termes d’événement) et plurielle (qui combine plusieursfacettes).