Impact of Digitalization and the Mediation Devices on Visitors’ Engagement and Satisfaction: A Case Study of Venetian Museums with Experiential Marketing Approach

The emergence of digital technologies has fundamentally transformed the way organizations operate and therefore adjusting strategic business outlook and operational practises is inevitable in order to stay competitive in challanging environment. Businesses have been impacted by rapid changes culturally, socially and technologically, consequently, adaptation to the new technological era is a crucial fort he success of the organizations. Cultural institutions in this context, can not be separated from the other organizations, considering the rapid changes in exhibition concepts following the technological advancements. In recent years, digital technologies have altered the way cultural content is created, distributed and consumed, pushing institutions to reevaluate their traditional role, shifting away from merely preserving artifacts and focusing more on the audiences in order to create efficient engagement and unique experiences. In recent years, museums have recocnized the significant influence of visitors on their strategic planning. As a result, museums have been adapting ‘’customer-centered’’ and ‘’marketingoriented’’ approaches by dedicating their resources on improving customer experiences and delivering efficient services. Considering the whole process of a museum visit, the experiences that consumers have play a crucial role in their decision making process and influence their loyalty towards the museum and the level of spreading positive Word-of-mouth. In this context, experiential marketing specifically emphasizes the intangible and emotional aspects valued by consumers and therefore recognition of this phenomenon in museum management and strategic planning is very crucial for museums and their professionals. 10 In the new digital era, digital elements have become new tools for individuals for expressing their feelings, attitudes and actions since they are exposed to digital factors at mostly every stage of their Daily lives. For this reason digital elements affect individuals’ way of thinking and decision making. Introduction of interactive digital devices in museums, therefore, enhances visitor engagement with the exhibition and induces positively the total museum experience. In this context, since the focus of experiential marketing on consumers is irrational and emotional, it makes possible for this study to focus on visitor experiences in five different strategic modules. On the basis of these considerations, this study aims to identify and analyse the importance of digitalization in museums and the use of interactive mediation devices interms of creating visitor satisfaction and loyalty. To do so, a theoretical model was applied to the case study in this thesis. The case study was conducted in MUSME – Padova, and the museum contains several interactive digital devices with various features. As the survey was conducted with 104 participants, the survey was composed of three distinct scales and a socio-demographic information section, moreover the brand experience scale was adapted and tailored to fit the context of museum. The scale that is used in this thesis encompasses four dimensions: sensory, affective, intellectual and behavioral. Moreover, the consumer satisfaction scale and loyalty scale were adapted to the study in order to highlight the impact of digitalization and the use of interactive digital devices in MUSME to evaluate the overall satisfaction and the loyalty levels of the visitors. Furthermore, the present work sets future research directions for exploring the relationships in various context and to consider other potential factors that could influence consumer satisfaction and loyalty.