La fidélité du consommateur de biens culturels : Une analyse empirique des comportements d'assiduité et d'adhésion au Parc de La Villette

In the economic literature or in marketing research, works on cultural demand generally suggest market segmentation according to the kind or the frequency of consumers? practices. We support the idea that a consumer is characterized by his level of loyalty. The consumer faces an information problem: given that each cultural good is unique, he?s uncertain as to its quality until he attends it. More generally, cultural goods are ?search goods?: consumers lack information about their existence, their price, their availability and their characteristics. This results in information costs and in a risk of being disappointed. Since he?s unable to consider every substitute before he fixes his choice on a cultural product, the consumer adopts a loyal behaviour to reduce costs and risks. I shall illustrate these ideas with an econometric study of attendance at the Park of la Villette in Paris.