The aim of this paper is to assess, with a view to marketing strategies, the potential of a marketing intelligence software application designed to extract information from non-structured web sources (typically websites and social media). The paper also proposes a conceptual model that SMEs can use to transform simple qualitative and quantitative data into knowledge that is useful for supporting the decision-making process in the context of international marketing.

Purpose of the paper: The aim of the paper is to analyze the level of convergence between online brand identity and online brand image in the museum sector. Methodology: This paper proposes an operative framework - called Assessing Web Convergence (AWC) - for extracting information from the web, processing it with text mining techniques and interpreting it in order to monitor the level of convergence between identity and image on the web for the British Museum (BM). Results: Empirical testing of the framework has shown that in the case of the British Museum, the museum’s communication and the users’ perception share four thematic areas: Aim and Organisation, Prospects, Art and Collections and Visit Experience. It is possible to observe that the effectiveness of such communication does not depend on the apparent homogeneity of the themes but on the convergence between identity and image with reference to three qualitative dimensions - Functional, Holistic and Experiential. Research limitations: The framework is limited by its purely qualitative approach. Practical implications: The proposed operative framework can be used by museums for self-diagnosis. Specifically, the interpretative phase enables management to identify and exemplify those elements that enable museums to transform data into knowledge that is useful for developing and enhancing their competitive strategies with regard to the co-evolution of web content. Originality of the paper: The operative framework’s originality lies in the possibility of extraction and analysis of non-structured information which, if interpreted from the perspective of convergence between identity and image, can be transformed into knowledge, useful for decision-making.

Obiettivo. Il presente lavoro si propone di osservare il ruolo delle relazioni tra la proprietà e l’impresa vitivinicola di tipo cooperativo, con l’obiettivo di definire il contributo allo sviluppo ed alla competitività della stessa impresa in un’ottica customer centered. Metodologia. Analisi on desk sui contributi teorici allo studio delle relazioni tra imprese, con particolare attenzione all’approccio sistemico vitale. Case study, utile ad una verifica in profondità del modello di analisi proposto. Risultati e implicazioni manageriali. Lo studio svolto ha consentito di: a) individuare percorsi operativi per le imprese vitivinicole in grado di sostenere la loro competitività, fruendo altresì del contributo del territorio di riferimento; b) definire un modello di analisi delle relazioni di fornitura utile al fine di osservare le potenzialità di sviluppo delle relazioni produttive e commerciali.

The paper aims at getting to know the online transmitted image (by a wine tourist destination of excellence) and the relative perceived image (by third actors), through a gap analysis model designed for this purpose. So, the analysis is structured in different steps: 1) the identification of a wine tourist destination (best practice) through the study of the online content posts, by looking up the word “wine” in the top 100 international travel blogs; 2) text mining on the website contents of the DMO selected and on the articles of the blogs selected; 3) use of the interpretative model proposed (AIWA). The model represent a cause for reflection for DMOs in order to reach: a) a multiple effect of awareness and brand recall; b) increasing the sensorial, emotional and cognitive perception of the destination; c) evaluation of the level of communication of web users and the DMOs’ strategies; d) creation of targeted forms of promotional communication.

Research Background: Wine businesses operate in an increasingly harsh and globalized competitive environment, characterized by shifting consumer behavioural trends, the rise of new players (Third World Countries, Banks and Overton, 2010) and unpredictability. They are thus obliged to strive for ‘strategic transcendence’, through holistic re-evaluation, redefinition and redevelopment of all their functional and marketing processes. Research Aims: This paper analyzes attributes of the wine purchasing process and assesses, from a consumer-oriented perspective, their value as determinants of marketing strategy. Research Methodology: Extensive theoretical research was conducted into various aspects of wine consumer purchasing behaviour. Subsequently, an empirical survey was performed, and the gathered data was processed with both descriptive and multivariate statistical techniques. The empirical research evaluated the theoretically identified variables in the context of the new competitive conditions that characterize the wine sector today. Research Findings: The research identified five ‘macro-themes’ associated with the perception of the generic product ‘wine’: ‘Relationship between territory and wine’, ‘Wine Identity card’, ‘Experiential identity of the wine’, ‘Information in support of the purchase process’, and ‘Price’. Research Value: The research identified trends which, properly interpreted, add to our understanding of consumer behaviour and offer valuable guidance for the development and implementation of corresponding strategies (primarily concerned with marketing and branding) in the wine sector.

The essential theoretical requirements of the present study are represented by an analysis on brand equity adapted to the wine sector with the aim of elaborating the value added to the concept of trademark and origin of the products by the consumers. Consequently, the empirical test attempts to identify the essential components of the image of the territory of origin in order to determine the consumers’ preferences thus calibrating the aspects of brand-land equity of the enterprises and of their territories of origin. The research, by adopting the Keller model, based on the two dimensions of brand awareness and brand image, thus aims at testing the level of prestige and the image of some Italian wine territories.

The web is increasingly ranged as one of the options available to agri-food small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to face the challenge on how to provide personal taste experiences and manage differentiation in a global market. This research aims at analysing users’ lexical choices in unstructured web sources, identifying the essential determinants in the local products web communication, while highlighting the latter’s contribution to both consumer empowerment and SMEs’ competitiveness. A content analysis of Italian and English-language agri-food blogs was done, in order to retrieve the most frequent concepts from and detect the language used in such sources, thus guiding SMEs in their market decisions. Managerial implications are discussed, due to the sector’s role in the development of the whole Mediterranean area and its ability to gain local preservation and territorial sustainable development.

this work assumes that reciprocal recognition (enterprise-region) generates local economies which, thanks to the interdependence and complementarity of their formulas, produce a general competitive advantage. It proposes a theoretical model in which region and enterprise merge into a single entity, transforming their relationship into a driver for the joint creation of competitiveness.

I manager delle organizzazioni non profit sono chiamati ad individuare processi e pratiche che incoraggino e sostengano i volontari in un continuo e costante processo relazionale di allineamento di valori, risorse e skills con l’organizzazione. Comunicare gli High Performace Work Systems (HPWS), in particolare in un’ottica di involvement/commitment, significa generare processi chiari e noti, coerenti con le aspettative dei volontari che, a loro volta, devono essere in linea con il mandato dell’organizzazione per rendere efficace il loro contributo nel processo gestionale. La comunicazione appare, quindi, come il “luogo” in cui trascendere dalle particolarità, mentre l’informazione crea un mondo di esperienze sempre più complesse (Boccia Artieri, 2004). In tale ottica, ruolo rilevante assume la web communication che, in quanto strumento di comunicazione altamente dinamico, interattivo e multi‐direzionale, diviene un potente driver per la generazione di informazioni e conoscenze nell’ambito delle strategie di Human Resources- Il contributo, dopo una review della letteratura in materia di engagement, HPWS e relative relazioni con il web 2.0, ne esplora la presenza nella Volunteer Value Proposition (VVP) comunicata via web. Inoltre, pone a confronto gli approcci in due differenti aree geografiche – USA e Europa – al fine di osservare se esiste una differente matrice culturale agli HPWS nella comunicazione della VVP. In tal modo, il paper intende contribuire alla letteratura individuando le condizioni in cui la web communication arricchisce la comunicazione degli HPWS e crea un nuovo paradigma per coinvolgere i volontari.

L’obiettivo del paper è di indagare i marchi collettivi dei consorzi di tutela nel settore agroalimentare partendo dall’assunto teorico secondo il quale il valore del territorio può trasferire rinomanza, quindi riconoscibilità ed appeal, al prodotto. In particolare si vuol cercare di verificare quando e come il marchio di tutela può diventare brand collettivo, valorizzando così non un singolo operatore ma una pluralità operante in un determinato contesto territoriale il quale, a sua volta, partecipa e beneficia di tale evoluzione. Alla luce dei principi della brand theory e attraverso un’indagine empirica si cercherà di individuare le risorse chiave dei processi di branding a cui tali i marchi di tutela devono orientarsi per affrontare le dinamiche di mercato nel settore agroalimentare.

Objectives. the objective of the present work is to deeply analyse the experiential dimension of the innovative sales format and website dedicated to the promo-commercialisation of the typical agrofood products, particularly representative of their place of origin (cd. brand-land relation). Methodology. with the aim to verify the hypothesis of research, we use a model already created and tested, which considers (through the adoption of the focus group techniques, too) the analysis of the consumers’ perception of the experiential aspects in the communication strategies implemented by the best practices examined (Consortia: Chianti Classico, Parmigiano Reggiano, Parma Ham) in both the website and in the store (for the latter, there will be analised and tested the structural and experiential elements useful for the creation of a concept store for the “Made in Salento” products). Findings. the analysis permitted to identify the key elements to hand over both the experiential dimension and the brand-land relation of the typical agrofood products, to provide an emotional offline and online communication of them. Research Limits. even if the research uses a benchmarking technique, it focuses on a specific case study; so, the generalisation of the outcomes could be possible with an extension of the analysis. Practical implications. this work is part of a research project in which are involved several firms of the agrofood sector; with them it has been possible to share and improve some of the results obtained, which will likely facilitate the implementation of good communicational practices. Originality of the study. the marketing literature on the experiential dimension applied to the website tool is still lacking; for this reason, this work could stimulate future in-depth analysis, referring to the proposed model in addition.

Wine’s cultural identity is linked to authentic experiences, valued by the modern consumer because they represent a particular geographical area tradition, heritage, culture, ethnic variety, and identity. The presence in this industry of many family businesses well describes the strong relationship between the product and the terroir. The purpose of this work is to identify online communication models and wine family business (FB) and wine no family business (NFB) implemented strategies, to discover and describe the distinctive elements, deriving from the family participation in the business. The content of their websites has been analyzed through the content analysis, using text mining (words associations analysis). There were also highlighted the differences and the similarities between the FB and NBF online communications.

A fondamento del lavoro vi è la considerazione che il prodotto tipico può essere interpretato come frutto dell’azione collettiva di risorse materiali ed immateriali all’interno di un processo di valorizzazione della risorsa reputazione legata, non solo ad esso, ma anche al contesto territoriale di riferimento. L’obiettivo è quello di comprendere, secondo l’ottica del marketing, quali sono gli attributi che permettono ad un marchio collettivo o ad una denominazione di origine di essere riconosciuto come brand. Dopo un breve excursus sullo stato dell’arte dei marchi e segni collettivi in Italia e l’analisi di alcune eccellenze, si è proceduto a definire, nell’ottica kelleriana della brand identity un modello concettuale attraverso il quale interpretare il passaggio del marchio collettivo, da semplice potenziale elemento di identità a value driver della relazione prodotto – territorio.

Sommario: 1. Verso nuove forme di relazione sociale – 2. Evoluzione del web e nuovi modelli cognitivi – 3. I social media – 4. Web e user approach nei social media

Il vino è un prodotto composito, poiché ingloba una serie di elementi che spaziano dalle sue caratteristiche organolettiche e sensoriali, all’esperienzialità del consumo derivante dalle tradizioni legate alla coltura di origine e, nondimeno, alle tradizioni culturali delle città di provenienza. Sono proprio tali elementi che conferiscono al prodotto la notorietà e l’unicità; ciò, se efficacemente trasmesso e percepito, può incrementare l’attrattività delle aree rurali da cui proviene una determinata produzione vinicola. Il ruolo di Internet, in tal senso, potrebbe essere determinante: la pervasività degli strumenti web 2.0 (e successive generazioni) consente di diffondere e reperire informazioni in maniera immediata, nonché di monitorare cosa si dice in Rete del proprio prodotto/brand. Per tali premesse, il presente lavoro di ricerca, che necessita di ulteriori approfondimenti, intende proporre un modello utile all’individuazione ed all’analisi dei contenuti online redatti da utenti esperti (in questo caso, wine blogger) che in Rete scrivono del prodotto in esame (vino proveniente da vitigno autoctono pugliese, il Negroamaro), al fine di esaminare i principali messaggi tematici trasmessi ed il sentiment. Questi ultimi riferiti non solo al prodotto, ma anche all’associazione con il territorio, in chiave brand-land. Le informazioni derivanti dall’analisi di una mole rilevante di dati possono essere un prezioso punto di partenza per la (ri)definizione di efficaci strategie comunicative volte ad incrementare il valore sia del prodotto, sia delle zone in cui questo ha origine (si pensi, in tal caso, all’apporto offerto in chiave turistica, ovvero enoturistica in senso stretto).

This paper aims to investigate the collective brands of guardianship consortiums in the food industry, starting from theoretical assumption according to which the value of land may transfer reputation, so recognition and appeal, to the product. In particular, this study tries to verify when and how the trademark can become a collective brand, thus enhancing not a single operator but a multitude operating in a particular local context, which participates and benefits itself from this development. Based on the principles of brand theory and by an empirical investigation, this study seeks to identify the key resources of the branding process to which these guardianship marks must be oriented to address the market dynamics in the food industry.

L’obiettivo principale della ricerca consiste nell’individuare gli attributi che qualificano l’immagine delle destinazioni enoturistiche ed analizzarne il ruolo nella percezione dei wine tourist. Facendo propri i principi della letteratura manageriale in materia di Destination Management e, nello specifico, di Destination Image si è inteso adottare a livello metodologico il modello di misurazione proposto da Echtner e Ritchie (1991). Si è pervenuti ad una mappatura delle risorse che contribuiscono a qualificare l’immagine di una destinazione enoturistica, verificandone la rilevanza assegnata dagli enoturisti, con uno specifico focus sulle principali destinazioni enoturistiche internazionali. La mappatura generale alla quale si è pervenuti può costituire, se opportunamente contestualizzata, uno strumento per valutare l’ampiezza del percorso che un’area deve intraprendere per valorizzare i prerequisiti di base fino a renderli identificabili come un sistema enoturistico dai wine tourist.

Nowadays many small and medium companies are interested in entering into foreign markets to establish a brand presence, sell their products and beat the competitors. Before making such a marketing decision, marketing experts can be guided by the traditional analysis of reports but also by the Web, through the analysis of social networks, blogs, forums, etc. These sources can provide real-time information about the perception that users have of specific brands and products. As a result, there are several tools that can extract interesting information from these unstructured data. In this paper, we propose an innovative knowledge extraction architecture realized through the integration of some existing tools. The aim is to retrieve the more frequent concepts from unstructured sources, suggest other links of articles and images, with multi-language feature so that the research is language independent. The architecture provides a knowledge base of a specific domain, which is used to suggest concepts related to the research, and to filter the results obtained from the elaboration of the unstructured sources. We present a case of study related to marketing in agri-food sector, in order to illustrate how the software works, the results obtained, their interpretation and the managerial implications.

Premessa. Il settore vinicolo italiano, ambito importante del Made in Italy, deve affrontare nuove sfide di mercato per via del rinnovato contesto competitivo in cui coesistono differenti contesti di produzione e consumo. Obiettivi. Il lavoro intende analizzare le determinanti di scelta del prodotto vino sui mercati internazionali, con il fine di supportare le scelte commerciali delle imprese vinicole italiane in un’ottica di brand experience. Metodologia. E’ stata condotta un’indagine empirica che ha previsto la somministrazione di un questionario semi-strutturato ad un campione non probabilistico di buyer. Tali soggetti possono ritenersi interlocutori privilegiati del canale distributivo per il patrimonio di conoscenze tecniche, creatività e capacità di individuazione del mercato di riferimento e dei relativi trend di cui sono depositari. I dati raccolti sono stati elaborati con tecniche statistiche di natura sia descrittiva, che multivariata. Implicazioni manageriali. Si sono delineati i driver della competitività del settore vitivinicolo con l’obiettivo di supportare i marketing manager nell’ideazione ed implementazione di strategie di commercializzazione.

Il paper si prefi gge l’obiettivo di indagare e confrontare la web communication di due differenti categorie di vino (un vino autoctono – rappresentativo del patrimonio culturale del territorio di origine – e uno globale), valutando il gap nella comunicazione dei wine bloggers. Gli step di lavoro previsti dalla metodologia sono: 1) individuazione dei primi 100 wine blogs internazionali; 2) text mining sugli articoli presenti nella homepage di ogni wine blog, al fi ne di determinare il vino internazionale più menzionato; 3) selezione degli articoli inerenti alle due tipologie di produzione vinicola in esame, al fi ne di approfondirli tramite text mining; 4) valutazione del gap nella web communication dei wine bloggers, attraverso un modello all’uopo ideato e testato in precedenti lavori. L’analisi condotta risponde all’obiettivo della ricerca di informazioni utili per individuare somiglianze/differenze, ovvero peculiarità nella web communication dei due differenti vini.

The present works aims at observing social web communication practices within agri-food consortia. In particular, researchers aim to develop a model of social communication and a set of indicators, through which sketching the most suitable path towards social web communication performance improvement and market relationships monitoring. Following the marketing management studies, on line communication is appraised giving “interaction”, “co-creation”, and brand content and values “sharing” a key role in obtaining positive performance in terms of: brand awareness, brand engagement, word of mouth, thus fostering the building of the collective brand’s equity.

L’obiettivo principale della ricerca consiste nell’analizzare il ruolo che le risorse immateriali assumono nelle determinanti d’immagine delle destinazioni enoturistiche. Facendo propri i principi della letteratura manageriale in materia di Destination Management e, nello specifico,di Destination Image si è inteso adottare a livello metodologico il modello di misurazione proposto da Echtner e Ritchie (1991). Si è pervenuti ad una mappatura delle risorse che contribuiscono a qualificare l’immagine di una destinazione enoturistica, verificandone la rilevanza assegnata dagli enoturisti e si è condotta un’analisi dell’immagine delle principali destinazioni enoturistiche internazionali. La mappatura generale alla quale si è pervenuti può costituire, se opportunamente contestualizzata, uno strumento per valutare l’ampiezza del percorso che un’area deve intraprendere per valorizzare i prerequisiti di base fino a renderli identificabili come un sistema enoturistico dai wine tourist. Il principale elemento di originalità attiene alla scelta di applicare una metodologia di analisi consolidata in tema di immagine della destinazione ad un ambito, quello enoturistico, di crescente rilevanza in chiave di sviluppo turistico, ma ancora poco studiato ed approfondito, pur con il limite derivante dalla difficoltà di definire il campione secondo idonee regole statistiche che permettano una generalizzazione dei risultati.

L’obiettivo del paper è quello di analizzare i contenuti e i caratteri della comunicazione di tipo web 2.0 a supporto dei sistemi di sCRM, con riferimento al settore vitivinicolo. L’elevato contenuto cognitivo del vino e la sua complessa struttura, legata ed elementi emozionali ed esperenziali di tipo territoriale, si prestano all’interazione, alla condivisione e alla rigenerazione dei contenuti, tipica degli strumenti web 2.0.

L’obiettivo del lavoro consiste nel valutare, in chiave di strategie di marketing, le potenzialità derivanti dall’estrapolazione di informazioni dalle fonti web non strutturate. A tal fine, è stato appositamente progettato e realizzato un software di marketing intelligence finalizzato ad agevolare l’operatività sui mercati internazionali delle piccole e medie imprese agroalimentari. Alla descrizione dell’architettura e della funzionalità del software segue la presentazione dei risultati ottenuti da una sua sperimentazione sul mercato dell’oliod’oliva australiano.

Wine businesses operate in a competitive environment, characterised by shifting consumer behavioural trends and the rise of new players (Third Region countries). An extensive theoretical research is initially performed, intending to examine the various aspects regarding wine consumer purchase behaviour. Subsequently, an empirical survey is performed, with the gathered data processed with both descriptive and multivariate statistical techniques. The empirical research evaluated the theoretically identified variables in the context of the new competitive conditions that characterise the wine-growing sector today. The research has identified five ‘macro-themes’ explaining the perception of the generic product ‘wine’; two different clusters of countries presenting homogeneities in terms of their consumers’ purchase attitudes; and three consumer-behaviour-defining elements implicitly linked to marketing and branding approaches. The research has identified trends which add to the comprehension of consumer behaviour and offer valuable guidance for the development and implementation of corresponding strategies in the wine business sector.

The purpose of the research is to analyse the convergence between the core communication (identity) and the core perception (image) that can generate more extensive knowledge of the brand over time. This paper uses a model, created by the authors – called Assessing web convergence (AWC) –, for extracting information from the web, processing it by text mining techniques and interpreting it in order to monitor the level of convergence between the online core communication (identity communicated by the company) and the online core perception (image perceived by third parties). It was decided to test the model on the brand of a DMO in the field of wine tourism. The empirical methodology entailed three steps: 1) identification of a wine-tourism destination (considered to be representative of best practice) by studying the content of online posts, selected by searching for the keyword “wine” in the top 100 international travel blogs; 2) text mining, with cluster analysis, of the content of the selected DMO’s website and of the articles published by the top 100 travel blogs; 3) use of the Assessing Web Convergence model (AWC) in the interpretative phase. This paper is a work in progress. Specifically, the interpretative phase enables management to identify and exemplify those elements that enable companies to transform data into knowledge that is useful for developing and enhancing their competitive strategies with regard to the building the brand.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiential dimension of certain Italian agrofood products’ websites, which are seen as exemplifying best practices in the terms of the representation of the brand-land relationship, including their link with the territory of origin in the sense of terroir. Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted after the conception and experimentation of a model (called SObER), the fruit of detailed studies of experiential marketing (Schmitt, 1999a, b). The model was tested using the user-based focus group technique (Mich, 2007) and verified with reference to certain consortia brands considered to reflect best practices in communication of the brand-land connection. Findings – The analysis made it possible to identify the key elements for expressing both the experiential dimension and the brand-land relationship of traditional agrofood products, ensuring their effective online communication. Research limitations/implications – Although the research uses a benchmarking technique, it focuses on specific case studies; thus, the outcomes can be generalised by means of an extension of the analysis. Originality/value – The value of the analysis carried out lies in the creation of a model aimed at the assessment of agrofood products and, more generally, their link with the territory of origin in the online context. In addition, the marketing literature on the experiential dimension applied to website tools is still limited. For this reason, this work may stimulate future in-depth analysis with reference to the proposed model.

Nell’attuale contesto competitivo la notorietà di un territorio e, quindi la sua capacità di competere con gli altri territori, dipende dall’interazione sinergica tra le varie entità che lo compongono in un’ottica di connotazione e di corrispondenza. Il lavoro si pone come obiettivo di comprendere come, in aree tradizionalmente vocate alla coltura e cultura agroalimentare, possano generarsi forme di sviluppo socio-economico compatibili con le caratteristiche strutturali e con le potenzialità del territorio. In particolare, si cercherà di verificare come dall’interazione di attrattori turistici ed enogastronomia possano emergere condizioni utili per la creazione di un sistema turistico di prodotto “Enogastronomia Puglia”. A tal fine si è resa necessaria una rivisitazione dei principali contributi della letteratura che si è occupata di destination management e di competitività dei territori. Successivamente, si è proceduto con la mappatura delle risorse materiali ed immateriali presenti sul territorio della Puglia con il fine precipuo di osservarne il contributo, attuale e potenziale, alla costruzione del predetto sistema. Lo sviluppo del sistema d’offerta in esame, data la sua peculiarità (determinata, oltre che dalla specifica vocazione d’area anche dalla carenza di risorse immateriali), richiede azioni di meta management, partecipate e condivise, con cui pianificare la genesi e la promozione di un brand del sistema d’offerta dell’enogastronomia, in grado di comunicare un’identità territoriale coerente con le aspettative del potenziale fruitore; tale percorso, nel contesto attuale, appare costituire una leva strategica per una competitività di lungo termine.

This book was born from the desire to analyze the role of social recruitment in human resources management. The first chapter analyzes theoretical background of social media communication and focuses on the trend to make use of these instruments in SMEs and public and non-profit sectors. The second chapter explores an analysis of social sphere through three perspectives: a) how it has changed the identity of individuals; b) the relationship between social media and aspects of personality; c) the correlation between social media and cultural dimensions. The third chapter, focuses on the advantages and limitations of social recruitment and examines how employer branding can used strategically in order to attract potential candidates. The relationship between social network and recruitment has been analyzed through empirical research on public and non-profit sector and SMEs (using Cranet data) in the fourth chapter. The last chapter analyzes the competitive advantage which social recruitment can generate.

The aim of the paper is to observe and analyse the contributions made by social media in redefining firm-client relations in the wine sector as a support for CRM systems. After a literature review, in order to define the theoretical framework, the research will provide two stages of analysis: - the first step concerns an investigation of buyers aimed at gathering information about their degree of usage of social media for interacting with customers as well as the spread of content and critical issues; - the second step investigates the content and characteristics of Web 2.0 communication for detecting social media best practices in the use of wine blogs and the social networking site Facebook. The originality and managerial usefulness of this paper consists of studying the emerging trends in the use of Web 2.0 tools in the wine sector, identifying the main purchase determinants that lead the choice process of consumers and developing new guidelines for the effective implementation of the instruments observed. This will help companies to better manage the social media communication tools called sCRM applications as well as their related marketing strategies, according to the companies’ mission and goals.

With the advent of Internet and Social networks, the process of knowledge extraction and search has became of great importance, especially for companies that are interested in collecting customer feedback, establishing a brand presence, observing the way their brands are discussed and perceived. Several tools for the extraction of semantically related concepts from unstructured sources are available on the web. These sources such as forums, blogs, etc. can provide real-time information about how users perceive certain brands and can guide companies in making market decisions. In this paper, we propose an innovative knowledge extraction architecture realized through the integration of some existing java based tools that aims to retrieve more frequent concepts from unstructured sources, suggest other links of articles and images, and detect the language used in the sources. The architecture provides a knowledge base of a specific domain, which is used to suggest other concepts related to the research and to filter the results obtained from the elaboration of the unstructured sources. This software, integrated with traditional marketing channels (analysis of reports) makes possible the extraction of useful information for companies. In order to show, interpret and benefit from the software output we present a case of study related to marketing in agri-food sector.

The aim of this paper is to assess, with a view to marketing strategies, the potential of a marketing intelligence software application designed to extract information from non-structured web sources (typically websites and social media). The paper also proposes a conceptual model that SMEs can use to transform simple qualitative and quantitative data into knowledge that is useful for supporting the decision-making process in the context of international marketing. The presentation of the proposed interpretative model is followed by the application to the wine market in the USA. Comparison of the themes typical of online discourse in the worlds of supply and demand highlights a certain communicative misalignment that SMEs can resolve by adopting suitable communicative strategies.

Obiettivo del paper: Obiettivo generale del lavoro è quello di proporre un modello di misurazione del valore generato dalla partecipazione ad un network composto da imprese del turismo enogastronomico e di prodotti tipici agroalimentari. Metodologia: Dopo aver inquadrato concettualmente un possibile costrutto del valore e dopo aver esplicitato i driver che lo compongono, il lavoro propone un modello di quantificazione (di detto costrutto), verificandone empiricamente la sua attendibilità. Risultati: La conoscenza dei driver del valore della relazione intersettoriale assume importanza per il governo di quelle realtà territoriali che intendono operare in termini di valorizzazione del legame prodotto tipico-cultura enogastronomica-turismo. Limiti della ricerca: Il ricorso alla metodologia empirica adottata, presenta limiti connessi alla specifica contestualizzazione del modello, il quale, infatti, richiede un adattamento per essere applicato a differenti contesti territoriali e/o di settore. Implicazioni pratiche: Il modello di analisi proposto presenta delle potenzialità applicative (nei settori considerati) per quei contesti che vogliono ripensare le logiche relazionali. Originalità del lavoro: L’osservazione delle relazioni tra due settori economici che, oggi, ricercano un dialogo per la comune creazione di valore.

Assuming that actual or potential wine tourists may perceive the wine tourism destinations’ image using as cognitive keys what has been communicated by both wine tourism destinations and travelling bloggers, the research aims at carrying out an analysis which: 1) suggests the identification of the main recurring themes and their importance in communicating the destination image; 2) highlights the [eventual] gap existing between what is communicated by the wine tourism destinations and what is transmitted by third party actors (in this case, by bloggers in their own blogs). The approach is innovative because: 1) the creation of a communicative and relational sphere of the image derives from techniques and instruments that stimulate conversations, taking advantage of the bi-directional communication potentialities offered by the web; 2) it suggests an operational framework through which it is possible to identify the dimensions to decode the extracted information.

The goal of this research project is to deepen and expand the web marketing strategies used by family businesses (FB) and to identify the role assigned to websites and the online communication strategies implemented through them. In order to examine the content of the information found on the website of selected FBs, an “ad hoc” analysis model was designed and validated with the support of marketing and industry experts through an inspecting focus group (Mich, 2007). The observation of the FB websites showed that family-run Italian wineries use their websites mainly to present information about the business and as a relational tool through edutainmentstyle activities; FBs yet neglect the potential of e-commerce. Although this path has allowed the traits essential to launch effective online communications for FBs, the small number of businesses surveyed (10) does not permit a theoretical generalisation of the results. Thus, we expect to integrate the information obtained from this preliminary study with in-depth interviews with the digital strategists for the companies examined or by increasing the number of FBs studied. In addition, the results could be compared with those from Italian businesses in the wine industry which are not family run and which meet the selection criteria (turnover, etc.). The study highlights the importance and the attention that FBs, among others, should dedicate to the role of web communication within their communications strategy. It also provides a list of contents to consider when creating a website which should be customised with the brand’s specific details.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to deepen the web marketing strategies used by wine family businesses (FBs) with the aim to identify the role assigned to websites, the online models and the competitive strategies implemented through them. Design/methodology/approach – In order to examine the content and structure of the information found on the website of selected FBs, an ad hoc analysis model was designed and validated with the support of marketing and industry experts through an inspecting focus group (Mich, 2007). Findings – The subsequent observation of the websites of the businesses studied showed that family-run Italian wineries use their websites mainly to present information about the business and as a relational tool through edutainment activities; FBs yet neglect the potential of e-commerce. Research limitations/implications – The study highlights the importance and the attention that FBs, among others, should dedicate to the role of web communications within their communications strategy. Although this path has allowed the traits essential to launch effective online communications for FBs, the small number of businesses surveyed (ten) does not permit a theoretical generalisation of the results. Thus, we expect to integrate the information obtained from this preliminary study with in-depth interviews with the digital strategists for the companies examined or by increasing the number of FBs studied. Originality/value – The paper provides an evaluation model to effectively organise the websites’ contents; wine businesses should consider and customise these essential elements with the brand’s specific details.

Purpose of the paper: The paper aims to examine online communication of wine tourism destinations and their users in order to identify strategic approaches potentially suitable for the development of: 1. new web communication formats; 2. innovative entrepreneurial formulae that meet the expectations of increasingly demanding and expert customers. Methodology: These aims are pursued by means of various methods: - official wine tourism destination websites were investigated with the use of the text mining technique; - wine tourists’ online discussions were analysed with the use of text mining and the results were netnographically investigated. Findings: The analysis enables the search for information, which aims to: a) identify the most frequently used keyword and thematic messages by official wine tourism destination websites; b) profile wine tourists who speak of wine tourism destinations under study. Research limitation: The two main limitations of the study are: (i) the analysis has been conducted only on the wine destination websites, which are less interactive than social networks; and (ii) the netnographic approach used is of the observational kind and thus doesn’t provide any interaction with wine tourists themselves. Research and managerial implications: In managerial terms, the results of the analysis of user-generated content can be used to (re)direct communicational strategies and develop a more innovative and personalised tourist offer. Originality/value of paper: The originality of the research lies in the application of research methods that enable interesting research hypotheses, although they are still infrequently used in tourism marketing studies.

Obiettivi. Il paper si prefigge l’obiettivo di indagare e confrontare la web communication di due differenti categorie di vino (un vino autoctono - rappresentativo del patrimonio culturale del territorio di origine - ed uno globale), valutando il gap nella comunicazione dei wine blogger. Metodologia. Gli step di lavoro previsti dalla metodologia sono: 1) individuazione dei primi 100 wine blog internazionali; 2) text mining sugli articoli presenti nella homepage di ogni wine blog, al fine di determinare il vino internazionale più menzionato; 3) selezione degli articoli inerenti le due tipologie di produzione vinicola in esame, al fine di approfondirli tramite text mining; 4) valutazione del gap nella web communication dei wine blogger, attraverso un modello all’uopo ideato e testato in precedenti lavori. Risultati. L’analisi condotta risponde all’obiettivo della ricerca di informazioni utili per individuare somiglianze/differenze, ovvero peculiarità nella web communication dei due differenti vini. Limiti della ricerca. Il principale limite del presente lavoro può riscontrarsi nel numero limitato di produzioni vinicole considerate; tuttavia, questo potrà essere superato con un successivo approfondimento dell’analisi, al fine di rafforzare altresì le potenziali ricadute manageriali. Implicazioni pratiche. La metodologia proposta consente di estrarre, dai contenuti inseriti sul Web dai wine blogger, informazioni utili a (re)indirizzare le strategie comunicative delle imprese. Originalità del lavoro. Il lavoro adotta un workflow operativo ed un modello di analisi, potenzialmente adottabili in qualunque settore, in grado di valutare il gap nella web communication.