"Experience” on the web: a benchmark among firms

The aim of the paper is to understand if there are differences on web sites and then identify them among firms who communicate customer experience on line and the ones that do not directly communicate the experiential marketing use on line. To look at the different communication strategies used on line, two different firm samples have been selected and compared examining issues like the type of experience communicated on line, information and participation tools used, accessibility and navigability features, etc. Results show how the firm sample which communicates the experiential marketing strategy and instruments on line uses more participation tools, paying attention to both accessibility and navigability and seems to use the web site as part of its overall experiential marketing and communication strategy. However, further investment appears necessary to make the customer communication in this media really effective. The ‘control’ sample seems to pay more attention to the information function of the web site and seems not to use it to establish a relationship with its customers, based on the experiential marketing strategy.