Themes and plots of marketing and communication in cultural promotion institutions

Head: Annamaria Esposito

Year 2019

The aim of the project is to study the strategies of cultural marketing, heritage marketing implemented in non-profit institutions promoting culture to reconcile sustainability, branding and communication. It will then map the policies and practices (including digital and social media) through which these institutions pursue the implementation of their mission to trace their uniqueness. In particular, it will be possible to analyse the strategies that make it possible to:

  • adopt transparent and sustainable practices, inspired by the principles of equality, impartiality, safety, quality and participation;
  • ensure more effective use and wider dissemination of culture and knowledge;
  • promote the effective exploitation of the collections and other assets possessed, also through actions coordinated with other institutions, bodies and national and international bodies;
  • increase the promotion and enjoyment of cultural heritage;
  • acquire financial resources for its economic and financial sustainability.

It will investigate cultural promotion institutions (such as museums and theatres), and their main strategies for reconciling sustainability, branding and communication.

The innovative element is represented, on the one hand, by the very theme of research, namely the challenge of sustainability in non-profit cultural promotion institutions; on the other hand, by the subjects taken into consideration with particular reference to museum businesses, which constitute a universe studied as a tool of corporate communication but still little explored in their museum vocation and as a new frontier of tourism.


Among the publications in progress

  • Esposito A., Besana A., Fisichella C., Vannini M.C., 2019, Museum Branding: Challenges and Strategies beyond Works of Art. A Pilot Study in Italy
  • Exhibit A., Fisichella C., 2019, Sustainability in Museum Practices. Evidence from an Italian Perspective
  • Esposito A., Mazzei A., Fisichella C., 2019, Heritage marketing and brand identity co-creation process: when clients become visitors. Early evidence from an Italian perspective.