Online Core Communication and Online Core Perception. Is There Convergence

The purpose of the research is to analyse the convergence between the core communication (identity) and the core perception (image) that can generate more extensive knowledge of the brand over time. This paper uses a model, created by the authors – called Assessing web convergence (AWC) –, for extracting information from the web, processing it by text mining techniques and interpreting it in order to monitor the level of convergence between the online core communication (identity communicated by the company) and the online core perception (image perceived by third parties). It was decided to test the model on the brand of a DMO in the field of wine tourism. The empirical methodology entailed three steps: 1) identification of a wine-tourism destination (considered to be representative of best practice) by studying the content of online posts, selected by searching for the keyword “wine” in the top 100 international travel blogs; 2) text mining, with cluster analysis, of the content of the selected DMO’s website and of the articles published by the top 100 travel blogs; 3) use of the Assessing Web Convergence model (AWC) in the interpretative phase. This paper is a work in progress. Specifically, the interpretative phase enables management to identify and exemplify those elements that enable companies to transform data into knowledge that is useful for developing and enhancing their competitive strategies with regard to the building the brand.