Rossella Chiara Gambetti

Questo volume rappresenta un omaggio al contributo scientifico offerto da Edoardo Teodoro Brioschi nella sua attività accademica all'Università Cattolica.

Abstract The study of the business communication has begun on the international level on the Fourties of the last century, while the debate about the rising of such a communication to a scientific discipline status dates back to the Eighties. To be observed that the development of business communication from that time up to the present has not been either uniform or consistent everywhere. There is therefore the exigence to deepen the study especially of two theoretical schools of this discipline: the American school – that is the leader in the field – and the European one that is interested by a progressive strengthening.

The present paper is aimed at illustrating the main changes in the market scenario that have recently emphasized the use of ambient communication as a signifi cant tool in the marketing communication mix of the companies. Nowadays companies have to engage consumers in an active and participative relationship in order to enhance their brand value. At this regard, ambient communication can act as a powerful brand value enhancer, thanks to its ability to convey a brand distinguishing features in a creative, unconventional and surprising way capable of grabbing the audience attention and eliciting consumers’ engagement towards the brand. In particular, in today’s society the only way for companies to reach an increasingly complex and unpredictable consumer effectively is to use an integrated communication mix of traditional and unconventional tools, involving consumers in a value co-creation process with the brand. Since ambient communication includes a wide variety of communication surfaces and media, the next challenge will be to fi nd a unitary defi nition and categorisation of such concept. The present paper offers a preliminary effort towards the construction of a conceptual frame of reference from which to derive in the future a possible unifi ed concept of ambient communication casting light on its effectiveness conditions.

L'impiego di Internet a sostegno dei processi aziendali rappresenta un elemento propulsore per l'applicazione di un "approccio