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Valuing arts and culture from the
marketing perspective
There is a considerable body of literature in the field of marketing that explores
the value of arts and culture from the perspective of consumers. This work has
rarely been considered in wider discussions of value and impact, in part because
marketing researchers have a narrow understanding of value, one that focuses exclusively
on the components of economic value that are expressed in the marketplace
through price and demand.
While marketing researchers examine consumer value, motivations and customer
satisfaction, which are related to constructs of impact and value discussed
elsewhere in the literature, they do so with the objective of explaining consumer
behaviour (eg, repeat purchases), rather than to contribute to a broader understanding
of the value and impacts of cultural experiences (Bouder-Pailler 1999).
Nonetheless, much can be learned from the theoretical concepts and empirical
studies of the consumption of arts and culture that have been produced in the
marketing field.
One of the most influential frameworks in the marketing literature (particularly
in the relation to arts and culture) is Holbrook’s consumer value framework
(Holbrook 1999). Holbrook defines consumer value as ‘an interactive relativistic
preference experience’.
By ‘interactive’, Holbrook means that ‘value depends on the characteristics of
some physical or mental object but cannot occur without the involvement of
some subject [person] who appreciates these characteristics’ (6). Holbrook uses
‘relativistic’ to suggest that consumer value is personal (ie, it varies from person
to person), involves comparisons between objects, and is specific to a particular
context. Holbrook’s use of ‘relativistic’ thus addresses the three factors that
Belfiore and Bennett describe as ‘determinants of impact’ for arts experiences
Executive Summary 19
UNDERSTANDING the value and impacts of cultural experiences