본 연구는 존 던의 사랑시를 통해 큐피디타스와 카리타스 사이의 전통적인 이원론이 재고되는 방식을 고찰한다. 던의 시가 서로 다른 종류의 사랑을 다루는 두 가지 범주로 대별될 수 있는 것은 사실이지만, 세속적 사랑과 종교적 사랑에 대한 그의 접근 방식은 서로 중첩되는 경향을 보인다. 던이 인생 경로에서의 변화 과정이나 회개 등의 개인사적 경험과 관련하여 성 어거스틴과 유사하다는 평을 받음에도 불구하고, 던의 초기/세속적 시와 후기/종교적 시 사이의 대조는 상대적이며 문제적인 측면을 보여 준다. 던의 시에 나타난 이런 경향은 이질적인 생각들을 독창적인 방식으로 결합시키고 통합하는 그의 형이상학적 상상력과 깊은 관계를 지니고 있다. 본 연구는 던의 사랑시를 변증법적 논리의 관점에서 이해하고자 시도하면서, 신체와 영혼 사이의 분리를 전제하는 어거스틴 의 ‘부정의 신학’과 던의 형이상학적 시학이 빚는 차이에 대해 논의한다. 던의 변증법적인 사랑의 철학은 큐피디타스와 카리타스의 융합이 이루어지는 과정을 보여 주며, 감각적이고 육체적인 경험을 통해 영적인 쾌락을 맛볼 수 있다는 논리를 궁극적으로 전달해 준다.

The luxury branding industry thrives on creating products and services that are exclusive in nature. To achieve this, brands often control for pricing, quality, quantity and availability to create a perception of exclusiveness. The literature showcases a handful of concepts to explain how marketers can create exclusive products and services. However, the literature does not give a theoretical foundation to the creation of the Theory of Exclusivity. This study is the first to address this issue. A number of theories and concepts in marketing, psychology, sociology and other fields of sciences have been reviewed to conceptualise the Theory of Exclusivity. The conceptualisation of this theory gives marketers a better understanding of how they can create exclusive brands.

The aim of this exploratory research is to investigate whether luxury brands social media activities (Kim & Ko, 2012) – which are online activities that could potentially engage customers in digital environment (Sashi, 2012) – are capable of transmitting the sense of heritage of such brands to the customers. Moreover, the authors will observe whether the aforementioned activities are capable of transmitting the sense of exclusivity, which will be measured through the customers’ perceptions of the brand prestige (Hwang & Hyun, 2012), to the latter. In order to explore such a phenomenon, the authors have selected structural eqation modeling (SEM) as the main methodology of the research (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988). The theoretical foundations of the present research are related with three streams of marketing literature, namely (1) luxury brands social media marketing activities (Kim & Ko, 2010; Kim & Ko, 2012), (2) luxury brands heritage (Ciappei, Zollo, Boccardi, & Rialti, 2016; Hudson, 2011; Rialti, Zollo, Boccardi, & Marzi, 2016) and, finally, (3) luxury brands customer-based prestige (Napoli, Dickinson, Beverland, & Farrelly, 2014). In particular, building on the concept of social media marketing activities (Kim & Ko, 2010), we aimed at observing how the latter could influence customers’ perceptions of the brand by engaging them in online activities and conversations (Sashi, 2012; Zaglia, 2013). Specifically, we investigated if engagement in online activities or in online communities is related with a positive perception of luxury brands’ heritage and prestige. Hence, customers’ online engagement deriving from social media activities has been considered as an antecedent of customer perceived heritage and prestige (Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011; Hamzah, Alwi, & Othman, 2014; Riviezzo Garofano, & Napolitano, 2016). Luxury brands have been selected as the context of research since heritage and prestige have emerged as relevant strategic marketing levers for luxury brands’ brand strategist. As a proof of that, recently, luxury brands’ strategist and product managers are increasingly focusing brands’ strategies on the history of the brands in order to transmit customers a feeling of exclusivity and elitism (Hudson, 2010; Balmer, 2011). Thus, luxury brands heritage perceived by costumers emerged as a fundamental component of brand identity and, in addition, it may be considered as a form of competitive advantage increasing brand equity (Van Riel & Balmer, 1997). The main findings of the present research are related with the fact that social media marketing activities may engage customers online (Sashi, 2012). Moreover, it emerged how social media strategies are capable to engage customers and transmit them the sense of heritage and prestige. Hence, social media marketing strategies focused on developing a relationship with customers emerged as crucial in order to enhance customers’ perceptions of a brand heritage and prestige. Finally, the development of such a kind of social media marketing strategies is the principal implication for marketing managers. Due to the aforementioned results, this exploratory research contributes to online luxury brand management literature (Kim & Ko, 2010). In particular, due to our results it is possible to assess that social media activities, which are capable to engage customers online, are able to transmit the sense of heritage and of prestige. Future researches should explore better this phenomenon. In particular, on the one hand we suggest scholars to investigate through qualitative methodologies which kind of communications are capable to transmit sense of heritage and prestige. On the other hand, we suggest scholars to compare traditional form of communications with online form in order to understand which one is more capable to influence customers’ perceptions. The principal limitation of this research is related with its exploratory nature and with the traditional limitations of SEM methodology.

In recent years, the spread of social media and other digital tools and its massive acceptance have revolutionized marketing practices such as advertising and promotion (Hanna, Rohn and Crittenden, 2011) by changing the approach of communication between consumers and brands (Henkkig-Thurau et al. 2004) and the sources of information about products, services or brands for consumers (Kozinets, 1999). On the one hand, these changes have provided consumers of the additional power to influence other buyers by sharing ideas and experiences about products, services or brands (Ioanăs & Stoica 2014). On the other hand social media websites allow business to engage and interact with users by increasing sense of intimacy with consumers and building strong relationships with potential customers (Mersey et al. 2010). Therefore, the incomparable efficiency of social media has induced industry leaders to participate in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others, with the aim to succeed in online environments (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). Furthermore, brands are motivated to develop social network campaigns for gathering consumers’ personal information useful to targeting or personalising future marketing strategies (Noort, Anthenius and Verlegh, 2014). This situation have brought many authors, especially interested in luxury industry, to investigate on social media as a new way for luxury firms to communicate with consumers and influence their purchases. One of the main objectives for literature was to understand if luxury products, related to prestige, uniqueness and exclusivity values, could be express using channels accessible to everyone, such as social media. Indeed, in this era of the “democratization of luxury” (Atwal and Williams 2009), luxury brands are dealing with the challenge of using mass marketing tools and at the same time emphasizing the exclusivity dimension of their products (Okonkwo 2010). So as Hennigs states: “As the virtual environment is a place where images, videos and opinions circulate regardless of brand ownership, is it possible to keep a sense of exclusivity around a luxury brand?” (Hennigs, Wiedmann and Klarmann 2012 p. 30). In Italy, the digital population keep growing and the time spent in front of digital devices is increasing; people is becoming more familiar with e-commerce and as a consequence the communication of firms is more transparent (The Boston Consulting Group 2011). In this perspective, this paper aims to analyse the impact of social media marketing on brand equity and consumer behaviour within the Italian luxury economy. Our research has tried to understand this phenomenon from two perspectives; on the one hand, authors have observed digital marketing strategies of some luxury firms, emphasizing the way these brands use social network to promote their products, their special events or their stories. On the other hand, researchers have studied consumers’ approaches to social networks through a survey (Chisnall 1993) delivered to a sample of Italian respondents. The goal of the research is to show how social media have been used by five luxury brands and how they can influence luxury brand equity, by affecting Italian consumer behaviour. With this objective, the authors have analysed the composition of the sample that is active on social networks in order to gather useful demographic information about users. Moreover, this research has been important to discover the most popular platforms for Italian users and the response of some of the major international luxury brands in terms of contents shared on specific social networks. In addition, the survey has represented a great opportunity to understand the influence of social network on consumer behaviour, seeking to measure cognitive, affective and conative responses (Laroche and Mourali 005).

Consumers with a strong desire for exclusivity tend to prefer scarce products more than those with a weak desire for exclusivity (Bagwell and Bernheim 1996; Lynn 1991). For example, they are willing to pay more for limited-edition products to fulfill their desire for exclusive association with scarce resources (Amaldoss and Jain 2005). In an effort to further develop the theoretic framework for the scarcity effect, I examine the interactive effect of desire for exclusivity and power, defined as asymmetric control over valued resources (Magee and Galinsky 2008), on evaluations of scarce products such as luxury experiential products. Two experiments show that participants with strong desire for exclusivity evaluate luxury experiential products more favorably than those with weak desire for exclusivity, only for high power condition, not for low power condition. This finding suggest that power state moderate the effect of desire for exclusivity on consumers’ preference for scarce products.