Studying the association of online brand importance with museum visitors: An application of the semantic brand score. (January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fronzetti Colladon, Andrea; Grippa, Francesca; Innarella, Rosy
• Is Part Of: Tourism management perspectives. Volume 33(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Subjects: Big data -- Social media -- Semantic brand score -- Brand importance -- Museum marketing; Tourism -- Periodicals; 338.4791
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tmp.2019.100588
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2211-9736

Abstract

Abstract: This paper explores the association between brand importance and growth in museum visitors. We analyzed 10 years of online forum discussions and applied the Semantic Brand Score (SBS) to assess the brand importance of five European Museums. Our Naive Bayes and regression models indicate that variations in the combined dimensions of the SBS (prevalence, diversity and connectivity) are aligned with changes in museum visitors. Results suggest that, in order to attract more visitors, museum brand managers should focus on increasing the volume of online posting and the richness of information generated by users around the brand, rather than controlling for the posts' overall positivity or negativity. Highlights: We analyzed 10 years of online conversations from the TripAdvisor travel forum. We used the Semantic Brand Score to measure brand importance of 5 European museums. Variations in brand importance were aligned with changes in museum visitors. Sentiment was not relevant for predicting change in museum visitors.