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Archives of Business Research – Vol. 10, No. 6
Publication Date: June 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/abr.106.12502. Essam, R., & Kortam, W. (2022). An Abstraction Theory in Marketing: Examining the Relationship Between the Effectiveness of Art
and Heritage Marketing Dimensions and Customer Value. Archives of Business Research, 10(6). 79-114.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
An Abstraction Theory in Marketing: Examining the Relationship
Between the Effectiveness of Art and Heritage Marketing
Dimensions and Customer Value
Reem Essam
Assistant Professor of Marketing
Faculty of Business Studies, Arab Open University (AOU) - Egypt
Wael Kortam
Professor of Marketing
Faculty of Commerce, Cairo University - Egypt
ABSTRACT
This research is attempting to find a new realm contributing to the current
marketing practices through proposing a new method of marketing of art and
heritage artefacts. This research tries to find a hint of a new angle through
marketing practices on the relationship among abstraction, art and heritage
marketing and customer value in art museums, galleries and exhibitions in Egypt.
This research aims at gaining insight into the abstract marketing themes for a better
use of the best marketing practices at museums, illuminating the way for other
researchers to establish additional studies that look deeply into the relationships
among abstraction theory, art & heritage dimensions and customer value. This
research uses a quantitative research design beside a qualitative exploratory study
for a clearer overview of the way art museums; galleries and exhibitions customers
in Egypt view the provided service, through the use of an in-depth interview. The
research develops and tests a conceptual model through quantitative analysis,
using a self-administrated questionnaire of eight hundred copies distributed to art
and heritage customers at some different art museums; galleries and exhibitions in
greater Cairo and Alexandria. 320 questionnaire copies have been collected
through a non-probability snowball sampling and convenience sample technique.
The statistical analysis for the data, using SPSS and Path Analysis through AMOS
have proved that there are positive correlations among the study variables, proving
that abstraction has a significant positive impact on art and heritage marketing
dimensions and that art and heritage marketing dimensions have a significant
positive impact on customer value.
Keywords: Abstraction, Art, Heritage, Customer Value, Marketing, Museums, Exhibits,
Galleries
INTRODUCTION
As abstract thinking may be regarded as a key factor in the study of social sciences in the near
future, including such fields as marketing, it is important for most art organizations, as
providers of art and heritage services, to create an advanced image for themselves. Such image
needs to surpass the expectations of visitors of art museums; galleries and exhibitions. Art
organizations need to use abstract thinking in their marketing strategies.
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Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol. 10, Issue 6, June-2022
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Abstraction doesn't mean losing important information. It is only a means of compression,
summarizing complex human relation, selecting only relevant elements.
People have expressed their emotions and life style through drawings, statues, etc... throughout
the ages. Such historic expressions have led to the following generations to be drawn to and
appreciate such historic expressions through visiting museums; galleries and exhibitions.
These visitors are known to pay large sums to acquire, visit or even see such works of art or
heritage.
Philip Kotler has argued that marketing is not just an art of finding clever ways to dispose what
one makes but it is the art of creating genuine customer value and the art of helping one's
customers to become better off. Marketing has been considered as both a science and an art.
Marketing provides a means of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of
a target market at a profit (Kotler, 2013).
Arts organizations face severe competition with other entertainment activities for attracting
people who are willing to spend their money for enjoying their leisure time. Arts organizations
exert all efforts to find a balance between satisfying their artistic mission and meeting the needs
of their customers. They are under increasing pressure to keep their current customers and to
attract new ones. They are aware of the fact that this can be accomplished only if they have full
knowledge of what motivates people to pay visits to their museums; galleries and exhibitions.
They know that they need to be aware of the diversity of their customers. They try to invest
their effort in marketing research, promotion and other marketing techniques to attract a
broader range of visitors who need to understand and appreciate the artworks on display.
Museums, galleries and exhibitions must have deep understanding of their potential as well as
current visitors' motivations and expectations, satisfy their art message on one hand and attract
more customers to expand their visitors range on the other hand. Museums, galleries and
exhibitions have their institutional role which needs to be evaluated through the level of
heightened aesthetic, historical awareness of their visitors but which still needs to be measured
in attendance figures and popularity.
The term “Art” has many definitions. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, it is defined as
"the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic
objects". Oxford Dictionary defines it as "The expression or application of human creative skill
and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be
appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power". There are many other definitions
which also state that a large portion of art is about the creation and experience of the aesthetic.
Works of art are displayed in museums; galleries and exhibitions for people to come and see.
Museums, galleries and exhibitions are responsible for displaying the products while
communicating their social values. However, they still need to prove that they achieve success
from a business point of view. Museums are basically found to educate the public who come
and visit them. Still, they need to have all what is needed to sustain the numbers of their visitors
and to attract new segments. Museums have to create their own strong and appealing
marketing plans to reach successes in attracting visitors and in reaching the necessary revenues
that are needed for accomplishing their mission both art wise and businesswise. For the
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Essam, R., & Kortam, W. (2022). An Abstraction Theory in Marketing: Examining the Relationship Between the Effectiveness of Art and Heritage
Marketing Dimensions and Customer Value. Archives of Business Research, 10(6). 79-114.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.106.12502
purpose of this research, marketing of art and heritage products is done through establishing a
foreseen relationship between abstraction and customer value helping to attract and bring
customers to art museums, galleries and exhibitions.
This research tries to use abstraction in marketing to discover ways to market a non-traditional
product, namely displayed art. The purpose of this study is to highlight the role that abstraction
plays in influencing customer value of art and heritage products displayed in art museums in
Egypt. This study also seeks to show how art and heritage affect the relationship between
customers' value and abstraction.
The dimensions of the main constructs have been selected on the basis of reviews from
available previous studies of art and heritage marketing, as well as the questionnaire
instrument that has been constructed mostly by adopting the measures from prior researches
to be consistent with the purposes of this study and to go with the targeted study population
and sample.
This study starts with an extensive literature review, focusing on abstraction; art & heritage
and customer value, followed by a conceptual model and the derived hypotheses. Then, the
methodology, data analysis, and results are subsequently presented. Finally, there is a
discussion of the results and conclusions that have been presented.
Research Problem
As the current art market is rapidly changing, it is becoming more depending on the marketing
techniques to adapt to the rapid change in society as well as the whole world. Although art
marketing does bring some aesthetics, emotional, symbolic and social values, most art
organizations still use only traditional marketing methods.
Despite the art market's recognition of the importance of marketing, there are minimal
publications in the art marketing field and almost no publications of the abstraction theory in
marketing. Any extensive research on the possibility of any relationship between an abstraction
theory perspective and art and heritage marketing dimensions does not exist.
Due to the lack of previous research on the relationship between applications of abstraction
theory and marketing, there is a need to prove that the abstraction themes can be applied to
measure customer value and vice versa. There is a need for moving beyond experience-based
marketing and more towards abstract based marketing to examine the relationship between
abstraction and customer value in the art museums, galleries and exhibits in Egypt. So, the topic
of this research is examining the relationships among an abstraction theory perspective, the
effectiveness of art and heritage marketing dimensions and customer value as an empirical
analysis of some art museums, galleries and exhibits in Egypt
Research Hypotheses
This research tests the following hypotheses:
H1: There is a significant impact of abstraction on art & heritage dimensions
H2: There is a significant impact of art & heritage dimensions on customer value