Comunidades virtuais como fonte de informaÃÃes para estratÃgias mercadolÃgicas: o caso do setor de turismo. / Virtual communities as source of information for marketing strategies: the case of the tourism sector

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2006

RESUMO

The evolution of new communication and information technology has introduced new ways of making business. In this context, Internet arises as a major technological innovation, whose utilization has undergone by an exponential growing, that allows great opportunities for organizations to reach consumers and improve theirs relationships. Considering the indisputable importance of a marketing approach to this new context â the virtual environment â, the aim of this thesis is to investigate the potentiality of the utilization of virtual communities as source of information and competitive differential for marketing strategies in the tourism sector. Each client has a relationship network, which acts as a major information source of innovation and virtual utilization of message transmition among consumers, thereby promoting exchanges of product and services information, opinions and suggestions. In this way, this thesis is aimed at identifying the psychosocial profile of the members of the tourism-discussing community and the way they exchange information. In order to do that, it assesses the impact of these interactions on the decision-making process related to tourism products and services. With this purpose this study has focused on understanding the relevancy of new technologies under the âvirtual communityâ concept in marketing theory, strategy formation and tourism segment, where internet expressive credits have been found. So, due to the relevant transformations observed, Internet not only promotes an extremely important paradigm change, but also one of the most important and revolutionary technological-social advances mankind has ever undergone. The revolutionary aspect of a simple Web access is the fact that by it anyone is able of producing, controlling and disseminating information on a very broad or even world scale. This study has been developed by a qualitative research. In the first phase the research was conducted through an on-line survey to sketch the psychosocial profile virtual community members discussing tourism. In the second phase of the study, the ways of interaction and information exchanges among virtual community members were specifically analysed by taking on-line focal groups as objects of study. The results obtained have shown a quick spontaneous interaction among members in Internet discussions, where experience exchanges play a significant role. These results show the reliability of information and the role of potential grupal influences on the environment. Thus, we have identified the potentiality of virtual communities as source of information for marketing strategies in the tourism sector by which clients interact and discuss topics of their interests and share this information without the aim of doing business, but rather to show their experiences. In this study this is called informational marketing, whose purpose and focus is the information exchanges and the building of a client-client relationship, instead of business deals. Thus, the communication capacity allows consumers to actively participate in the debates in which they will have to express and position themselves, defend their ideas, consult experts, understand other cultures and make themselves be understood, i.e., interact and relate to other clients, helping and sometimes influencing the decision making process of product/service consumption through virtual communities.

ASSUNTO(S)

administracao turismo tourism comunidades virtuais virtural community estratÃgias strategies marketing marketing

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