“Sorry, Not Tonight” Lecture and Field Trip by Michael Kleinaltenkamp

Invitation to Guest Lecture and Field trip to the Burrell Collection

Hosted by the Stephen Young Institute, Prof Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Professor Emeritus of Business and Services Marketing at Freie Universität Berlin, will be visiting the University of Strathclyde in June 2024. Michael will deliver a lecture on ‘How Firms Manage Social Atmospheres through the Curation of Aesthetic Fit’ followed by an option to accompany Michael on a field trip to the Burrell Collection. Participants will have the opportunity to explore the practical application of aesthetics and curation in an experiential service context before we return back to the campus. Light lunch included.

All staff and students are welcome!

Early registration is advised

Date: Thurs 27/06/24 10.15am-2.30pm

Venue: Burrell Collection (coach transport to and from Strathclyde will be arranged)

Event Schedule

10.15-11:30 Guest lecture “Sorry, Not Tonight”: How Firms Manage Social Atmospheres through the Curation of Aesthetic Fit

Optional

11:30-12:00 coach to the Burrell Collection

12:00-1:00 Self-guided tour of the museum

1:00-2:00 Lunch at the museum cafe

2:00-2.30 Coach returning to SBS

Abstract

In sectors across the experience economy, from live sports to music festivals, religious events to nightlife entertainment, private members’ clubs to invite-only events, marketers recognize the strategic value of creating social atmospheres. If firms get social atmospheres right, they benefit from meaningful customer experiences, increased customer loyalty, and place attachment. While social atmospheres often fail, marketing research provides little insight into how they can be managed. Through an in-depth ethnographic study of Berlin’s electronic music club scene, this study explains how firms strategically manage social atmospheres by bringing together heterogeneous customer groups who nevertheless fit together. By drawing on aesthetic work literature, this paper conceptualizes atmosphere curation, defining it as the process through which firms achieve aesthetic fit among customers to create desired social atmospheres. This study details a three-stage atmosphere curation model comprising aesthetic work practices of cultivation, selection, and mystification. This work contributes to marketing scholarship’s understanding of social atmospheres, marketplace inclusion and exclusion, and aesthetic work. By outlining managerial tasks associated with each stage of our model, this study provides managers with actionable guidance across contexts on how to curate the right crowd to create meaningful shared experiences of place..

About the Speaker

Michael Kleinaltenkamp is Professor Emeritus of Business and Services Marketing at Freie Universität Berlin. His research focusses on B2B and services marketing, relationship marketing and marketing theory. He published in leading marketing journals like Journal of Marketing, Journal of Service Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Marketing Theory, Journal of Service Management and Journal of Service Theory and Practice.

Host or Publisher Stephen Young Institute at SBS