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Towards a model of the Place Brand Web
... Against this background, the literature about (collaborative & network) governance offers interesting insights (and empirical evidence) about how to manage multiple stakeholders in place branding processes (see also Feuvre et al. 2016;Eshuis et al. 2018). The range of stakeholders involved in branding initiatives constitute a network of actors as branding publications also emphasize (Hankinson 2004;Hanna and Rowley 2015). Empirical research in collaborative and network governance also shows that stakeholder participation is positively correlated to the outcomes and performance of governance networks (Klijn and Edelenbos 2013). ...
... The unity of the brand and the strategic character of the brand are central in this approach, and thus, this approach is essentially top-down (see also Kotler and Keller 2006;Arvidsson 2006;Aitken and Campelo 2011). Proponents of this view have argued, however, that symbols can also be created in collaborative ways together with place stakeholders (Hanna and Rowley 2015). This will enhance brand legitimacy and identification among local communities and increase their support for the brand (see Klijn et al. 2022). ...
... Place branding literature often presents brand management as clear-cut marketing activities like creating brand images and other brand elements, as well as communicating and maintaining the place brand (see Park et al. 1986;Hanna and Rowley 2015). Although the importance of stakeholder involvement in those activities is widely acknowledged (e.g., Ind and Schmidt 2020;Ripoll González and Gale 2020;Van den Berg and Braun 1999), the place branding literature does not explicitly address how stakeholder involvement can and should be managed. ...
The importance of stakeholder involvement in place branding is emphasized in recent literature. However, ideas about how this should be managed are underdeveloped. To address this gap, we draw from network management theory and compare the management of two region branding processes (top-down vs bottom-up). We find that the choice of network management strategy matters for fostering stakeholder involvement because they lead to differing outcomes and levels of involvement; that different management strategies are needed at different points in time to address specific priority needs; and that consequently a fluid approach to applying network management strategies is recommendable, especially in regional contexts affected by multi-level governance structures and a myriad of stakeholders. The empirical data show the practice potential of the introduced network management framework to inform strategies that fittingly involve stakeholders in place brand development processes. This study challenges current knowledge by demonstrating that the employment of network management strategies is more path dependent and less voluntary than often stated in the network governance or place branding literature.
... What can be branded as a place varies, encompassing the natural and man-made; geographical scales ranging from nations to neighbourhoods; and encompassing the physical, fictional and virtual (Kavaratzis & Kalandides, 2015). The branding of places, in particular cities, is nuanced, with place brands existing within larger place brand webs (Hanna & Rowley, 2015), incorporating the brands for businesses, attractions, sports teams, universities or other organisations linked to the place, or the wider region or nation. Yet, a place brand is not only relevant to marketers. ...
... Branding processes are exchanges and enactments of brand meanings, which include narrative curation, performances, identity formation and embodiments in place (Campelo et al., 2014;Preece & Kerrigan, 2015). Our sample was restricted to those able to facilitate and share these narratives across the web of place stakeholders (Hanna & Rowley, 2015). ...
... Fourth, and connected to the previous point, it is not to say that contestation can be necessarily avoided. The research identifies tensions that remain prevalent regardless of how the place brand is positioned in time and the presence of a web of brand stakeholders (Hanna & Rowley, 2015). Managing multifarious stakeholder understandings of omnitemporality is inevitably complex, ambiguous and contested (Burghausen, 2023). ...
This paper investigates how multiple stakeholders understand and navigate the interrelationship between past, present and future time-frames through what is termed omni-temporality. Despite an interest in the phenomenon within the corporate brand heritage literature, a limited understanding persists concerning how omni-temporality shapes stakeholders’ interactions with brands and with each other. These omissions are particularly pertinent in place branding where stakeholders are well-recognised as integral to the branding process. Through case studies of two city brands, our findings reveal tensions that arise when brand stakeholders prioritise the past or strive for a more contemporaneous and future-orientated framing. We identify the ways brand stakeholders navigate these tensions by utilising six (re)framing strategies that range from the reconciliatory to the destabilising. We show how facilitating stakeholders’ expressions of diversity and dissent can produce meaningful brand exchanges, ease the challenges associated with balancing continuity alongside change, and support an iterative form of temporal agency.
... citizens, residents, local influencers, non-governmental organisations and community leaders). Extant research has shown that these multifarious groups co-exist and collectively shape place branding processes across what has been termed place brand webs (Hanna and Rowley, 2015), relational networks (Andersson and Ekman, 2009;Muñiz Martínez, 2016) and communities (Björner and Aronsson, 2022;Leal et al., 2022). Despite advancements in our understanding of multi-actor governance and what this ought to mean for place branding, studies continue to point to the prevalence of top-down and uneven forms of participation (Green et al., 2016). ...
... Stakeholder engagement is the overarching term used to describe the multitude of discursive tools that are intended to bring together and showcase actors' disparate interests, claims and activities (Hanna and Rowley, 2011;Henninger et al., 2016), foster dialogue and information exchange (Andersson and Ekman, 2009;Viglia et al., 2018) and promote trust and interpersonal relationships (Hanna and Rowley, 2015). In doing so, engagement provides the conduit where brand meanings are constructed and shared (Hatch and Schultz, 2010). ...
... The local knowledge is absolutely valuable. (P11) Previous studies explain how local knowledge attracts recognition and legitimacy, which can be traded for entry and involvement in the web of actor exchanges and interactions inherent for participatory place branding (Aitken and Campelo, 2011;Hanna and Rowley, 2015;Reynolds et al., 2022). The current study indicates that the legitimacy gained by possessing local knowledge is continuing to rise, facilitating local actors' justification for more active involvement in place branding processes. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on participatory place branding processes and, in particular, on multiple actors’ ability to build agency.
Design/methodology/approach
An in-depth qualitative inquiry of place branding processes in Cardiff (UK) was undertaken during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured (online) interviews with 28 city representatives from the public, private and voluntary sectors are analysed using three-stage conceptual coding.
Findings
Five transitions in the meaning-making and engagement processes at the nexus of participatory place branding are identified: heightening value of the local environment; building and sharing local knowledge; embedding a sense of community into relational networks; innovating engagement channels; and blurring of roles and responsibilities. Combined, these demonstrate a cultivating place (brand) attachment and evolving logics around participation.
Research limitations/implications
Transitions in actor agency require monitoring over time, drawing on additional studies, wider samples and multidisciplinary frameworks.
Practical implications
Local knowledge and multi-actor networks are increasingly viewed as valuable assets, providing legitimacy for those in possession of these resources and for the brand. Practitioners, policy makers and community representatives should support innovative ways to involve and learn from local actors, including those not currently active across the place brand web.
Originality/value
Antecedents to actor agency are investigated, highlighting that during a period of disruption actors gained legitimacy for their participation by emphasising the value attached to localities, building place (brand) attachment and drawing on blurred place branding boundaries.
... Branding remains a powerful tool for destination marketers, but reducing complex places into simplistic visitor-facing destination brands risks overlooking the myriad of meanings attributed and shared by a place's multiple stakeholders (Braun et al., 2013;Zenker et al., 2017). In response to this tension, destination branding has evolved beyond an early focus on the dyadic relationship between potential visitors and destination management organisations (DMOs), to consider places more holistically and a wider range of stakeholders within them (Hanna & Rowley, 2015;Warren & Dinnie, 2018;Zenker et al., 2017). Prescriptions for effective place branding (inclusive of the branding of destinations) focus on the need for a participatory branding process (Kavaratzis, 2012) involving a range of stakeholders including tourism providers (Warren & Dinnie, 2018), tourism advocates (Knollenberg et al., 2021), destination businesses and entrepreneurs (García et al., 2012;Halme, 2021), visitors (Filieri et al., 2021), investors (Jacobsen, 2012), tourism lobbyists (Knollenberg et al., 2021), and community and resident groups (Braun et al., 2013;Campelo et al., 2014;Zenker et al., 2017). ...
... More recently, the complexity of places and the facilitating role of the people who reside and work within them has gained traction (Braun et al., 2013;Braun et al., 2018;d'Angella & Go, 2009). This shift sees a move beyond the tradition of "top-down" decision-making by DMOs that often prevailed in destination branding toward an appreciation of the role of a "brand web" of public and private individuals and organisations concerned with local regeneration, marketing, communication, culture and economic development (Hanna & Rowley, 2015). ...
... These components reveal the essence of a place through communication in images, symbols and narratives (Kavaratzis & Kalandides, 2015). The heightened acceptance that destinations can rarely be removed from the wider place and its constituents unites the place and destination branding literatures (Hanna & Rowley, 2015;Zenker et al., 2017). This holistic approach sees the place brand (including destination brands) as "a network of associations in the place consumers' mind based on the visual, verbal, and behavioural expression of a place, which is embodied through the aims, communication, values, and the general culture of the place's stakeholders and the overall place design" (Zenker et al., 2017, p. 17). ...
Although stakeholder participation in place branding is actively encouraged, there has been a paucity of studies examining why uneven involvement persists in practice. This study builds on Bourdieu's theory of field and capital to explain how stakeholders from the local state, destinations, businesses and local communities negotiate influence and legitimacy in the place branding process. A multi-case study of two UK cities was employed involving semi-structured interviews with 60 stakeholders. We identify the specific characteristics of cultural capital in place branding: procedural know-how and place-sensitive knowledge. Our findings show that community representatives can acquire a seat at the place branding table by possessing distinct place-sensitive knowledge and drawing on procedural know-how accrued from professional settings. Nevertheless, traditionally dominant stakeholder groups, such as local state actors, destination management organisations and the business community, can build strategic collaborations that counter deficits in cultural capital and thus retain their status.
... In a Branded House strategy, the supra-brand leverages its name and transfers its values to all of its extension brands. While a nation, by default, can be interpreted as a house of place brands (Kerr and Balakrishnan 2012), only few, if any cases of a clear, strategically planned place brand architecture have been identified so far (Hanna and Rowley 2015;Datzira-Masip and Poluzzi 2014). Hanna and Rowley (2015) proposed the Place Brand Web Model that applies "a perspective that views the brands associated with a place as 'contributing brands'" rather than competing place brands (p. ...
... While a nation, by default, can be interpreted as a house of place brands (Kerr and Balakrishnan 2012), only few, if any cases of a clear, strategically planned place brand architecture have been identified so far (Hanna and Rowley 2015;Datzira-Masip and Poluzzi 2014). Hanna and Rowley (2015) proposed the Place Brand Web Model that applies "a perspective that views the brands associated with a place as 'contributing brands'" rather than competing place brands (p. 108). ...
... In the Place Brand Web Model, the place brand is positioned at the core of a co-creation process, that is focused on co-branding relationships with partner brands, i.e., negotiated, dynamic agreements based on mutual benefits. The commitment of the different partners will depend on their resources as well as the potential value their organization will gain from the co-branding relationship (Hanna and Rowley 2015;Kahuni and Rowley 2013). Different levels of commitment are associated with different forms of co-branding, such as placing each other's logos on websites and documents, promoting each other, and developing shared identity and articulation. ...
Few studies have looked at the interaction of place branding practices of geographically linked places. Moreover, the different administrative contexts of the linked places and the resulting different place branding approaches have not been taken into consideration. This study provides insight on the interactions of the brands and branding initiatives of higher-level administrative rural places and lower-level places within their territory. A qualitative study was conducted based on the cases of three Danish municipalities and eight smaller places within them. Although none of the vertically linked places under investigation had applied a strategic approach to manage place brand architecture, four archetypes of interaction between the place brands at the different vertical levels are identified. The findings provide guidance for place branding officials and others involved in the initiatives regarding the role the higher-level place brand can play in the lower level’s place branding, while making the lower level aware that their place branding should also focus on building good reputation towards the higher-level place. The study further reveals challenges regarding the strategic implementation of place brand architecture and highlights important areas for future research on the topic.
... Според някои автори дестинационните брандове се прилагат към продукти и услуги в контекста на географска и политическа рамка (Allen, 2007;Hankinson, 2009). Основното предизвикателство пред практиците, занимаващи се с брандиране на дестинация, се състои в липсата на директен контрол върху бранда дестинация (Hanna, Rowley, 2015). ...
... Ако е налице централна роля на бранд инфраструктура, то нейното развитие ще бъде ключово за развитието на дестинацията като бранд, включващо развитие на бранд архитектурата на дестинацията. Имплементирането на стратегии, свързани с бранд архитектурата, е повлияно от колективната ориентация на вътрешните и външните стейкхолдъри, които се асоциират с дестинацията (Hanna, Rowley, 2015). ...
... Утвърждаването на бранд дестинацията от стейкхолдърите се свързва с използване на визуална идентичност на мястото като тяхна цел (Hanna, Rowley, 2015). Според указанията бранд архитектурата трябва да призовава за единство и кохерентност, т.е. ...
For such a long time culture has been perceived as an important constituent part for closer European cooperation and integration. The cultural tourism market is heterogeneous and dynamic. The European Capital of Culture project is also a part of this market, because the city destination mission is to build an attractive urban environment and thus to increase the number of foreign tourists as well as investments. Some destinations use a brand architecture mix instead of only a single strategy in order to demonstrate a fluid approach in managing the relationships regarding the brand destination (Leitch & Richardson, 2000; Uggla, 2006). The aim of this paper is to analyze brand strategies of Plovdiv-European Capital of Culture 2019 and to justify to what extent the fluid elements represent a tool that can be useful for involving stakeholders in the branding process and what are the long-term benefits for the brand destination arising from such procedure.
... Additionally, Govers (2013) highlights the importance of adapting marketing strategies to market dynamics and consumer expectations while simultaneously maintaining the unique values of the territory. In this context, the active participation of different stakeholders in defining and promoting the territorial brand is fundamental to ensuring its acceptance and long-term sustainability (Hanna & Rowley, 2015). Thus, marketing strategies become an effective tool for communicating and disseminating a territory's identity and differentiating values, thereby contributing to its positioning and economic and social development. ...
... Vol:. (1234567890) effectiveness of a territorial brand depends on collaboration between different actors and the ability to adapt to emerging challenges, thus ensuring the relevance and sustainability of the brand in the long term (Hanna & Rowley, 2015). ...
In today's interconnected world, effectively communicating territorial values is paramount for regions seeking to distinguish themselves globally. Effective destination branding requires carefully synthesizing cultural, historical, natural, and socioeconomic elements to create an enticing identity for tourists, investors, and locals. How a region communicates its unique attributes is crucial in shaping its perception and attractiveness in a highly competitive global market. British Columbia is a prime example of successful destination branding, thanks to its remarkable cultural diversity and breathtaking natural landscapes. BC has effectively conveyed its values and appeal to a worldwide audience through various innovative strategies and platforms. This paper explores BC's communication efforts through its website and social media, analyzing how it conveys its essence to a diverse audience and positions itself on the world stage. Ultimately, BC's success in this domain highlights the critical role of effective territorial value communication in today's globalized world.
... In the age of city-centric-development, the mesoscale can enable towns, villages and hinterlands to gain a competitive advantage by pooling resources for the betterment of the whole region (Turok, 2004). The existing literature on region branding suggests thatmanagement of local place brands and stakeholders in the regionare the two key aspects of 'region brand management' (Hanna & Rowley, 2015;Ikuta, Yukawa, & Hamasaki, 2007). This study focuses on the aspect of 'stakeholder management' in region branding since this has received little attention in the literature. ...
... The proposed model of region brand management focuses on 'stakeholder management and collaboration' (illustrated in Figure 1). This model adopts a modified version of the 'place brand web' (Hanna & Rowley, 2015). The Place Brand Web model adopts Brand Architecture strategy in which the place brand represents the master brand, and the stakeholders are considered to be the sub-brands. ...
A distinguishing feature of 'place branding' in comparison to the mainstream product or corporate branding is the complexity of managing diverse stakeholders of the place. While participatory place branding is being advocated as a preferred model for implementation and development, few normative model and guidelines are available. In accordance with participatory place branding, this research asserts that all stakeholders must at least have the opportunity to be involved in place branding. However, it appears that institutional stakeholders predominantly decide the extent and level of participation of community stakeholders. For their part, community stakeholders have their own motivations and also encounter barriers to participation. Thus, this study seeks to understand how stakeholders' perceptions relate to collaboration in 'region branding'. It focuses on region branding since regions are the least explicated scale in place branding even though regions are important for their development and governance context. A single case study strategy has been applied in this study by examining the county-region of Northamptonshire. Stakeholders from public sector agencies, private businesses and the local community of Northamptonshire will be engaged via semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions to investigate stakeholders' perceptions towards collaboration in creating a regional place brand. brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by NECTAR 2 Introduction:
... The studies provided by Rinaldi and Cavicchi (2016) show the different roles that the university can assume in this case: facilitator, innovator, revitaliser, director, and communicator. Studies provided by Hanna and Rowley (2015) highlight, in the same way, that the participation of multiple stakeholders can lead to the co-production of the brand identity of the place. This becomes fundamental for the co-creation of sustainable tourism destinations (Rinaldi et al., 2020). ...
... Concerning the cultural association Marchigianamente in the initiative, it has a key role in providing a huge range of information about the features of the territory, the local wines and the peculiar history related to the cultural heritage. Thus, in this perspective, it can be considered a key stakeholder in the co-production of place branding identity of the region (Hanna and Rowley, 2015) and in the co-creation of a sustainable destination (Rinaldi et al., 2020). Moreover, by collaborating with a wide range of wineries and other stakeholders, it has a fundamental role in broadening the results of the researches coming from the academic world, thus strengthening the university-business collaboration in tourism. ...
The paper reports about an exploratory case study related to the role of universities in fostering synergies among local actors, for the creation of cultural tourism projects. The main objective of the study is to understand how the 'European Cultural Routes' program can be supported locally by university-business collaboration. To this aim, it is presented the case of the University of Macerata, and the related idea emerged, through multi-stakeholder engagement, to create a wine route project in the area of Le Marche region, where it is located. Conclusions highlight the important role of the universities in supporting the cultural routes initiative and in the whole territorial development. JEL Classification: L32, Z32, R58, M31
... Tourism destination is a product which is intangible and depends on place branding in order to be able to attract visitors. Hanna & Rowley (2015) gave an example of Balearic Islands using house of brands model to make Majorca more famous than the rest of the islands but Maldives on the other hand is using branded house approach, branding all the islands of Maldives in the same way without putting forward their specific features [65] . Tourists are nowadays not only concerned in pricing, which is still important, but the most important is the emotional factor that affects tourists' decision making. ...
... Tourism destination is a product which is intangible and depends on place branding in order to be able to attract visitors. Hanna & Rowley (2015) gave an example of Balearic Islands using house of brands model to make Majorca more famous than the rest of the islands but Maldives on the other hand is using branded house approach, branding all the islands of Maldives in the same way without putting forward their specific features [65] . Tourists are nowadays not only concerned in pricing, which is still important, but the most important is the emotional factor that affects tourists' decision making. ...
Fujian province is rich in natural and cultural tourism resources, but in recent years there are still not enough inbound tourists. Tourism destination image has a great influence on tourists' choice of a tourism destination. In order to improve the number of inbound tourists in Fujian province, it is necessary to study and analyze inbound tourists' perception of Fujian destination image. The purpose of this study is to understand the needs of inbound tourists, analyze the advantages and opportunities of Fujian tourism, analyze the shortcomings of Fujian tourism, and propose marketing measures to improve the competitiveness of Fujian inbound tourism. The first chapter is about research background, research significance, research content and technical route of this research. This study uses literature analysis method, survey method, Delphi method, structure analysis method, factor analysis and other methods to study inbound tourists' evaluation of Fujian province's tourism destination image perception. The second chapter is the literature review and theoretical underpinnings of this study, focusing on the tourism destination brand marketing theory and communication related theories; the third chapter is the investigation and analysis of the characteristics of inbound tourists in Fujian province, such as the proportion of tourists' gender, age,occupation, citizenship, income, purpose and ways of obtaining tourism information. Chapter four is inbound tourist Fujian province image perception analysis through statistical software to analyze the international market in Fujian province, demographic characteristics of the samples, and identification of Fujian tourism image etc, using the correlation analysis, variance analysis methods to analyze the influencing factors on tourism perceived image, etc. Through factor analysis, the tourism image of Fujian province is divided into five common factors: tourism activities and services image, cultural activity resources and tourist facilities image, natural resources image, tourism value image and emotional image. The score of tourists' emotional image evaluation of Fujian province is from highest to lowest: it is safe, it is quiet and it is crowded. Inbound tourists of different ages have different perception of the tourism image of Fujian province, and the middle-aged people from 45 to 54 have a good evaluation of the overall image perception. The fifth chapter is positioning of Fujian province tourism destination image from the perspective of inbound tourists, which puts forward how to improve the image, market segmentation, strengthen publicity, laying out four marketing strategies; Chapter six: conclusion and future progress. The innovation points of this study are as follows: innovation from the analysis perspective based on first-hand data, questionnaire design based on SMED evaluation system, analysis of the factors influencing image perception of inbound tourists in Fujian province, evaluation of Fujian province, and some targeted international tourism marketing strategies for Fujian province.
... Translating vision into action requires the strategic use of policymaking, building assets strength through infrastructure and service planning, and finally, marketing and communicating what the place has to offer (Anholt, 2010;Kavaratzis, 2004). Throughout this process, the various stakeholders of the place need to be consulted, involved and aligned to realise the goals of place branding (Hanna and Rowley, 2015;Kavaratzis and Kalandides, 2015;Hereźniak, 2017). ...
... The notion of 'participatory' and 'inclusive' place branding has gained popularity, whereby all stakeholders of a place should at least have the opportunity to be involved in place branding as co-producers of the brand identity (Hanna and Rowley, 2015). However, civil societies and residents are categorised as 'indirect', and 'quaternary' stakeholders, as their participation depends upon the will of the institutional stakeholders (Henninger, 2016;Vasudevan, 2008). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to create a conceptual framework to demonstrate the role of universities as knowledge partners in place branding networks.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts a case study strategy to explore the perceptions of institutional and community stakeholders in Northamptonshire. The objective is to examine the regional activities and engagement of a single-player university in a peripheral region and explore its potential for widening stakeholder participation. Qualitative data was collected through interviews and focus groups and thematically analysed.
Findings
The university played a complementary “partnership” role to other institutional stakeholders, particularly the public sector. As a knowledge partner, the university filled gaps in information (know-what), skills (know-how) and networks (know-who). The last two aspects are potentially unique to the university’s role in place branding networks and require further development.
Research limitations/implications
The conceptual framework demonstrates the potential of a single-player university in a peripheral region to enhance the capabilities and skills of stakeholders in place branding networks and widen stakeholder participation. Future researchers can use the framework to develop recommendations for universities’ role in place branding based on their unique situation.
Originality/value
There has been limited research on how universities participate and influence participation in place branding. The exploration of this topic in the context of a rural, marginalised region is also novel.
... Through their social media interactions, visitors and locals alike help to create a place's unique identity. The genuine viewpoints, collective encounters, and active participation of everyone involved contribute to a dynamic and diverse representation of the destination's essence, cultural attributes, and way of life (Hanna & Rowley, 2015;Zenker et al., 2017). Travellers use social media platforms to exchange their experiences, provide recommendations, and offer reviews of multiple destinations, influencing the formation of a destination's identity as a hospitable and culturally stimulating locale. ...
... In the age of city-centricdevelopment, the mesoscale can enable towns, villages and hinterlands to gain a competitive advantage by pooling resources for the betterment of the whole region (Turok, 2004). The existing literature on region branding suggests thatmanagement of local place brands and stakeholders in the region -are the two key aspects of 'region brand management ' (Hanna and Rowley, 2015;Ikuta et al., 2007). ...
Differentiated place branding based on geographical scales such as city, region and nation is regarded as an integral part of theory building in the field. However, 'regions' are the least explored scale in place branding, in comparison with city and nation, even though regions are important in the context of development (Herstein, 2012). In the age of city-centric-development, the mesoscale can enable towns, villages and hinterlands to gain a competitive advantage by pooling resources for the betterment of the whole region (Turok, 2004). The existing literature on region branding suggests that-management of local place brands and stakeholders in the region-are the two key aspects of 'region brand management' (Hanna and Rowley, 2015; Ikuta et al., 2007). In regards to 'stakeholder management', a new participatory approach to place branding has become widely recognised in the field (Braun et al., 2013; Kavaratzis and Kalandides, 2015). All stakeholders who affect or are affected by the branding of the place should be viewed as co-producers in brand strategy, creation, implementation and governance. However, not all stakeholders are considered to have the same role, influence, level of involvement and mission congruence (Ford et al., 2009; Hankinson, 2004; Henninger, 2016). Based on their roles and relationships, stakeholders in place branding have been viewed as either: (i) Institutional stakeholders: those who occupy managerial or executive positions in institutions of place governance and are capable of directly influencing resource allocation and decision-making in line with their institutional goals. (ii) Community stakeholders: those who are active in the civic, social or voluntary aspect of community life and have a high sense of pride and belonging to the place. While this study recognises the participatory approach in place branding, the aim is to gather the views of stakeholders to understand how they see their role and involvement in place branding. In this paper, the focus is on the perceptions of Institutional Stakeholders-about their own role and community engagement in place branding.
... how they interact with the brand consequently (Kavaratzis 2004;Salas-Olmedo et al. 2018). From a promotional perspective, organizations' social media and web sites are an effective tool to transfer the desired city image and message, and thus to build the city brand (Hanna and Rowley 2015;Liu and Andriano-Moore 2023;Sevin 2013). Along with content created by city officials and practitioners, user-generated images are also an important source of information for understanding how a city's brand is perceived (Li et al. 2023;Tran and Rudolf 2022;Zhan et al. 2024). ...
Coolness is a socially constructed positive trait that is attributed to people, brands, products, etc. It is subjective, dynamic, and attained by the beholder. Despite the extensive research on city branding, city brand coolness is neglected in the literature. There is only one study on cool cities. This research aims to deepen the knowledge of city brand coolness, extend its conceptualization, develop an insight into its dimensions, and add to the generalizability of the city brand coolness concept by reflecting the perceptions of a more diverse segment. On that basis, an inductive qualitative approach is employed for defining the characteristics of cool cities and for developing dimensions of city brand coolness rather than adopting coolness dimensions deductively from brand coolness. The data is collected from individual Instagram accounts without geographical restrictions. In total, this research has covered 435 contents (including photos, captions, comments, hashtags, etc.) and 155 cool cities through the eyes of the beholder. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. As a result, cool cities were found to be distinctive, bold, aesthetic, energetic, artistic, and authentic. Individuals, mostly tourists, perceive a city as cool when it possesses several of these characteristics. The findings were discussed in detail.
... The Internet, with platforms it enables, has become pivotal for branding a destination (Hanna and Rowley, 2015) and has altered the branding and communication practices of cities (Florek, 2011). Similarly, it has become an undeniable information source for travelers who seek extensive information about where to go (Pan, Maclaurin and Crotts, 2007) since they find it hard to decide (Sirakaya and Woodside, 2005). ...
Purpose of the research is to explore how Instagram was utilized in city branding context in the era of COVID-19. By applying content analysis method, this study aimed to identify any shifts in social media strategies operated by two significant tourist destinations’ official tourism accounts: New York City, and London. The findings indicate that the first confirmed COVID-19 cases significantly impacted both cities’ city branding practices on Instagram. Changes observed include the most frequently used hashtags, increased numbers of informative posts, increased use of scenic views, and decreased use of cultural events, shopping, people, and streetviews. Furthermore, a significant decline in the number of inviting posts was observed. The study also highlights the need for cities to take advantage of the technical opportunities of Instagram and encourage dialogue-seeking posts.
... Studies of the processes applied to develop place brands have mainly been done in cities, destinations and nations (Kavaratzis and Hatch, 2013;Muñiz, 2016). This research highlights that the leadership of place branding is usually seen as the responsibility of local governments or destination marketing organizations (DMOs) (Fayzullaev et al., 2021;Hanna and Rowley, 2015) and tourism offices and involves marketing and branding professionals (Braun et al., 2014). Unlike cities, rural places are characterized by lower population density and larger distances to the nearest administrative centre (Søgaard, 2011). ...
Purpose
The place branding process in cities and tourism destinations is usually steered by a central organization but in rural places, a focal actor often does not exist. The purpose of this paper is to identify which approaches to place branding processes are applied in different rural places. This is done by seeing the place branding process as a service ecosystem with focus on actor engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
A theoretical framework based on the concepts of service ecosystems and actor engagement is developed. This is then applied to analyse qualitative data collected through semi-structure interviews with participants from several Danish rural places.
Findings
The authors identify four different types of rural place branding processes along three dimensions: existence and type of a focal actor; type, extent and temporal properties of other actor groups’ engagement; and organization of the process, including its formalization, centralization and strategic focus. Type 1 is a highly formalized, centralized and strategically driven process under the leadership of a public authority. The other types are community-based approaches. Type 2 is formalized, centralized and strategically driven process. Type 3 is less formalized but also centralized and strategically focused. Type 4 is a non-formalized, decentralized process with ad hoc initiatives.
Originality/value
This paper applies a service marketing-based framework to analyse qualitative empirical data from different cases of rural places and identify different place branding processes.
... The tangible elements of a destination include its heritage sites, infrastructure, and architecture. Intangible elements include culture, traditions, and practices (Hanna & Rowley, 2015). Related to the intangible components of a destination brand personality as well as tangible, symbolic capital can attract consumers, such as residents and visitors (Priporas et al., 2020), influencing their preferences (Sirgy & Su, 2000). ...
This study clarifies destination brand equity and examines the effect of destination brand personality on symbolic capital and attitude toward destination brand, and the effect of symbolic capital and attitude on destination brand equity. Using a survey research method, 309 participants from South Korea were recruited. The finding indicated that a well-established destination personality enhanced symbolic capital and positive attitudes toward the destination, leading to higher destination brand equity. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by clarifying the concept of symbolic capital and highlighting the effects of destination brand personality on symbolic capital and attitudes toward destination brands, which in turn lead to destination brand equity. Our findings have practical implications for destination brand marketing strategies, suggesting that these strategies can be made more effective by catering to symbolic capital and destination brand equity.
... Destination branding can be defined as "a name, symbol, logo, word, mark or other graphic that both identifies and differentiates the place; furthermore, it conveys the promise of a memorable travel experience that is uniquely associated with the place; it also serves to consolidate and reinforce pleasurable memories of the place experience" (Ritchie & Ritchie, 1998, p. 17). Hanna and Rowley (2015) expand the concept further by explaining that branding initiatives should go beyond serving visitors' interests but also its residents. Similarly, Zenker et al. (2017) explain that a place (or destination) brand is "a network of associations in the place consumers' mind based on the visual, verbal, and behavioral expression of a place and its stakeholders. ...
This study proposes and tests a structural model that integrates brand gestalt, brand attitude, and revisit intention in the context of tourism destinations. Specifically, the study investigated the influences of 4S brand gestalt dimensions (i.e., story, sensescape, servicescape, and stakeholder) on tourists' attitudes and intention to revisit a destination. Survey-based data were collected from visitors of North Sulawesi, Indonesia (n = 357). Findings from the structural equations modeling analysis indicate that the two underlying dimensions of brand gestalt (i.e., story and sensescape) significantly influence brand attitude and revisit intention. Additionally, brand attitude has a significant effect on revisit intention. Finally, while the brand story is the most salient predictor of brand attitude, sensescape has a greater impact on revisit intention. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are proposed.
... Pobirchenko et al. (2019) list a number of territorial branding models, highlighting for instance the strategic territorial brand management model (Hanna & Rowley, 2013. Hanna and Rowley (2015), developed an integration attempt of existing models, directed to practitioners, taking into account tangible (e.g., infrastructures, landscape) and intangible (e.g., services, infrastructure) territorial features that result into functional and experienced attributes. They also focus on the construction of the brand taking into account the relationship between leadership and stakeholders and the need to a permanent assessment of the brand, articulating the brand architecture and identity with the brand communication in order to achieve a desired brand perception (Hanna & Rowley, 2013). ...
Strategic communication is becoming more relevant in communication sciences, though it needs to deepen its reflective practices, especially considering its potential in a VUCA world — volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The capillary, holistic and result-oriented nature that portrays this scientific field has led to the imperative of expanding knowledge about the different approaches, methodologies and impacts in all kinds of organisations when strategic communication is applied. Therefore Strategic Communication in Context: Theoretical Debates and Applied Research assembles several studies and essays by renowned authors who explore the topic from different angles, thus testing the elasticity of the concept. Moreover, this group of authors represents various schools of thought and geographies, making this book particularly rich and cross-disciplinary.
... Meanwhile, consumer-brand identification aims to expand the focus of target consumers (Hanna & Rowley, 2015;Zenker et al., 2017). Consumer-brand identification can help understand the key factors that contribute to successful brand value creation (Kucharska, 2017). ...
Introduction/Main Objectives: This study investigates affective and cognitive involvement that reflects psychological ownership and consumer-brand identification in the use of zoom application. Background Problems: The Zoom application was proposed because of its increasing popularity amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The selection of the zoom meeting application is the right way to find out how much the users want to continue this application both for themselves and to promote it to others by word of mouth (WOM). Novelty: This study examines the effect of cognitive and affective involvement on continuance intention to use and WOM by examining the mediating role of consumers’ psychological ownership and consumer-brand identification. Research Methods: 200 responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to test this study’s hypotheses. Finding/Results: The findings support the mediating role of the extent of consumer’s psychological ownership in describing the effect of affective involvement and continuance intention to use of a brand. In addition, the results support the mediating role of the extent of consumer-brand identification in describing the relationship between affective involvement and continuance intention to use a brand and engage in WOM promotion. Conclusion: These findings expand and unite existing theory on involvement and a continuing intention to use and engage in WOM.
... Pobirchenko et al. (2019) list a number of territorial branding models, highlighting for instance the strategic territorial brand management model (Hanna & Rowley, 2013. Hanna and Rowley (2015), developed an integration attempt of existing models, directed to practitioners, taking into account tangible (e.g., infrastructures, landscape) and intangible (e.g., services, infrastructure) territorial features that result into functional and experienced attributes. They also focus on the construction of the brand taking into account the relationship between leadership and stakeholders and the need to a permanent assessment of the brand, articulating the brand architecture and identity with the brand communication in order to achieve a desired brand perception (Hanna & Rowley, 2013). ...
Strategic communication is becoming more relevant in
communication sciences, though it needs to deepen its
reflective practices, especially considering its potential
in a VUCA world — volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.
The capillary, holistic and result-oriented nature that portrays this scientific field has led to the imperative of expanding knowledge about the different approaches, methodologies and impacts in all kinds of organisations when strategic communication is applied. Therefore, "Strategic Communication in Context: Theoretical Debates and
Applied Research" assembles several studies and essays by
renowned authors who explore the topic from different
angles, thus testing the elasticity of the concept. Moreover,
this group of authors represents various schools of thought
and geographies, making this book particularly rich
and cross-disciplinary. The book has the contribution of 28 researchers belonging to 17 higher education institutions representing nine countries: Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Uruguay. With their diverse and rich contributions, it was possible to edit a comprehensive publication, acknowledging different perspectives from distinct parts of the globe. The enthusiasm for the topic and the quality of the chapters are the essence of the project: developing a scientific look on the state-of-the-art and multiplicity of contexts to which strategic communication applies, reflecting the complexity of today’s societies.
... Extending the point further, it is clear from the place branding literature that strategic decisions need to be made as to which assets are likely to be the most effective in projecting and differentiating place given the complexity of the place offer (Hanna & Rowley, 2015). A way to do this could be to consider which assets possess a high fit based on their potential to evoke multiple elements of place identity, and more specifically, to approach food inspired place connections as a brand gestalt (Diamond et al., 2009). ...
Food consumption can incorporate meanings of place whereby the culture
of place becomes a feature of the experience. Despite the apparent
importance of place to how tourists experience food, there is little
understanding of how food experience producers integrate place into
that experience. This research focuses on artisanal food and the artisanal
food consumption experience to study how the relationship between
food and the meaning of place is incorporated into an augmented food
experience based on the input of food experience producers (including
food artisans, restaurateurs, speciality food retailers, tour guides). To
understand how these key stakeholders add value to the experience
through place discourse, the study focuses on Tasmania in Australia as a
context and uses multiple qualitative methods including in-depth
interviews and extensive observation over a two-year period. The
research reveals that food experience producers integrate layers of place
meaning (artisanal food and place stories; the artisan; terroir; community
values of place) into the food experience, and that related discourse is
substantial and unique to the environment and complimentary to both
the food and place. The study contributes to the understanding of how
food experience producers contribute to food consumption experience.
... Such a branded house approach allows several sub-brands to be marketed and operated under an umbrella (or parent) brand and concentrates on the parent-sub-brands relationships and ways to orchestrate the vertical brand architecture. Studies by this school of thought also scrutinize the governance process of destination branding and delve into the influence of different stakeholders (Ageeva & Foroudi, 2019;Aureli & Forlani, 2016;Hanna & Rowley, 2015). However, little has been done to empirically investigate horizontal diversification among sub-brands in a destination. ...
Managing different brands for a single tourism destination imposes challenges for destination marketers, particularly when incoherence arises therefrom. This research adopted a mixed-method approach to analyze what constitutes a favorable destination brand portfolio. Study 1 conducted a tourist survey in Macao where gaming and cultural heritage brand identities collide. It investigated the effects of destination brand portfolio coherence on tourists’ attitude toward this portfolio and their loyalty intentions. In addition, the moderating effects of self–brand congruity were examined. To complement the results, Study 2 conducted text mining by analyzing tourist reviews from a tourism social networking website. The findings suggested that while status coherence evokes positive attitudes and loyalty intentions, personality coherence does not have a significant impact. Self-congruity significantly moderates only the relationship between status coherence and attitude. Managerial implications are provided for destination marketers to effectively employ tourism diversification strategies and maintain overall destination brand portfolio coherence.
... Residents and their relationship with the place brand Traditionally, destination branding aims to increase visitor arrivals by contributing towards a positive destination image (Qu et al., 2011). In recent years, some scholars have extended this aim to include other target groups such as residents (Campelo et al., 2014;Hanna and Rowley, 2015). From an internal marketing standpoint, this shift from a predominantly tourist-focused perspective to a more holistic approach to destination branding recognizes residents' involvement and support as critical to the success and sustainability of the tourism industry. ...
Concerns have been raised that destination branding often overlooks the destination's internal stakeholders, and in some cases, has resulted in a brand identity that does not reflect the meanings and emotions that residents attach to places. Consequently, scholars have advocated for a more participatory approach to destination branding in which residents’ sense of place can be acknowledged, represented, and operationalized. This paper synthesizes these arguments and demonstrates that such an approach can be achieved by embracing residents’ place stories. Through storytelling, residents construe different facets of the place identity that is the foundation of destination brand identity. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role, constituents, and effects of storytelling in destination branding, particularly exploring whose stories should be told and how these stories should be conveyed. In doing so, a participatory approach to destination branding is presented that employs residents’ place stories as a genuine form of participation in the destination branding process. Lastly, an agenda for future research is proposed, and practical implications for destination marketing practice are discussed.
... Again, concerning a recent systematic literature review of the use of philosophical paradigms within tourism and hospitality studies(Khoo-Lattimore et al., 2019), pragmatism is explicitly identified in several recent studies (e.g.,Azer, 2018;Hanna & Rowley, 2015;Pansiri, 2006;Ryan & Gu, 2010). For instance, in a study exploring forms and triggers of negatively-valenced influencing behavior (NVIB) and the impacts on other actors in online review settings, Azer (2018) employed a pragmatist approach for multiple reasons. ...
Understanding the most appropriate research philosophy to underpin any piece of scholarly inquiry is crucial if one hopes to address research problems in a manner distinct from those already evidenced across extant literature. Distinct philosophical ideas and positions are often associated with specific research designs, therefore influencing the research approach adopted in any given study. Identifying an appropriate philosophical approach requires robust comprehension of how philosophical positions differ, alongside a reflective understanding of one's own perceptions and beliefs regarding what knowledge and reality “are” and how new knowledge is discovered, developed, and/or confirmed. This chapter therefore discusses different research paradigms and philosophies in order to identify core distinctions therein, highlighting the advantages and the challenges associated with different philosophical approaches to research along the way.
... A városmárkára legalább háromféle megközelítésben tekinthetünk: -lakóhelyként, amelynek elsődleges célja lakosság vonzása és megtartása; -különböző vállalkozások telephelyeként, amelynek célja vállalkozások (munkahelyek és bevételek) vonzása és megtartása; -desztinációként, amelynek célja turisták vonzása, illetve ösztönzése arra, hogy minél több időt töltsenek el a városban, és / vagy minél gyakrabban látogassanak a településre (Kotler et al. 1993;. A háromféle megközelítés nem különíthető el szigorúan egymástól: a vállalatok megtelepedése lakosságot vonz(hat), míg a turisztikai látnivalók nem csak a turisták élményeit gazdagítják; a turisták ugyanakkor a lakosság mindennapjaira is pozitív vagy negatív hatással vannak, például a megnövekedett forgalom révén (Hanna, Rowley 2015;Insch 2011;. A város desztinációként történő értékelésére erősen hathat a desztináció személyiségének megítélése -az az, hogy milyen személyiségjegyek társíthatóak egy desztinációhoz (Gyulavári, Malota 2019). ...
A települési kutatások aktuális területét képezik a márkázással kapcsolatos elemzések, melyek a településeket – településmárka címszó alatt – a márkamenedzsment szemszögéből vizsgálják. Bár összefoglaló néven településmárkáról beszélhetünk, ez a legtöbb esetben városok márkázását jelenti. Jelen kutatásban a településmárkából, mint az elmében létrejövő entitásból indulunk ki. Ezzel Aaker (1991) és Keller (1998) mellett Sebastian Zenker városmárkákkal kapcsolatos kutatásai jelentik a vizsgálat kiindulópontját – elsősorban a Zenker és Braun (2017) által megalkotott modell, amely a település márkáját a tudatunkban a településhez kapcsolódó asszociációkként értelmezi.
Kutatásunkban egy városmárka és a „fogyasztó” kapcsolatát asszociációs módszerrel vizsgáltuk meg: a lakosoknak a városmárka nevéhez kötődő asszociációit elemeztük. A vizsgálat tárgya Nagykanizsa, a vizsgálat alanya pedig egy konkrét csoport, a Nagykanizsán élő idős generáció.
Az asszociációk alapján kirajzolódó aktuális kép megmutatja, hogy milyen jellemzők nehezítik és / vagy könnyítik meg az idősek mindennapjait a városban. Az eredmények alapján jellemezzük az idősek várossal kapcsolatos képét, majd rámutatunk arra, hogy az idős generáció tagjai amellett, hogy a város egy korábbi, általuk ismert képét hívják elő, a következő generációk szükségleteit is szem előtt tartják. A gyűjtött asszociációk alapján Zenker és Braun (2017) településasszociációkkal kapcsolatos modelljét is módosítjuk. A tanulmány végén javaslatokat fogalmazunk meg, amelyek felhasználásával Nagykanizsa idős lakossága jobban integrálhatóvá válhat a város mindennapjaiba.
... Unifiers make a case for 'co-creation ' -Aitken & Campelo (2011, p. 915). Despite this contested field, the internet and social media potentially brings the individual back into the equation according to research by (Hanna & Rowley, 2015), albeit a participatory model which fully acknowledges the role of all stakeholders is still lacking (p. 110). ...
Pursuing the Post War Dream offers methods to uncover the ‘rhizome’ (Thrift, 2000) which lies below the surface: offering ways to understand the role of the past in the present day. This inquiry arises from gerontology and develops a methodology which explores how the everyday – such as stories about houses, streets and neighbourhoods – allows people from different generations to build empathy in research relationships. The work uses Caerleon, south Wales, as a case study to consider what economic, technological and social changes through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s mean for contemporary ageing populations. Caerleon is a suitable site as statistics from Newport City Council (2017) convey that a fifth of citizens are aged 65 and above. On a theoretical level, this study uses walking interviews to explore how spaces act as thresholds to memories and levels of unconscious which may not otherwise reveal themselves – connecting to phenomena considered to be ‘non-representational’ in the work of Thrift (2008) or Anderson and Harrison (2010). This thesis uses relevant literature from gerontology, human geography and environmental psychology to develop a methodological framework which focuses on space more than time, particularly by using walking interviews. We also bridge between the disciplines of social science, literature and performance by following Solnit (2017, p. 5) where she advises that artists can ‘...open the doors and invite in prophesies, the unknown, the unfamiliar.’ The case study therefore involves a practical collaboration with a performance artist to make public site-specific performances based on the interview materials. The findings are presented as a guided walk where interview materials, public walking tours, responses to performance, and other contemporary materials are mapped on a specific geography. The main philosophical contribution of this study is a methodology which better understands space as unconscious maps or indexes to more deeply-held memories and affects.
... Moreover, a number of studies have taken on the fact that destination branding should incorporate stakeholders and tend to their interests (Cassinger and Eksell, 2017;Hanna and Rowley, 2015;Rodrigues et al., 2019). Destination branding will be successful if the destination's key stakeholders are involved in various actions, together with inclusive forms of community leadership, strategy identification and creativity (Gelder, 2008). ...
Purpose – This study aims to investigate what the crucial elements are when it comes to using a mascot to brand a destination. The study applies the proposed framework of ‘mascot usage for destination branding’ to two mascot cases: Kumamon and Sukjai. In particular, the Kumamon mascot is first investigated, looking at how it is used to promote Kumamoto, one of the key cities in Kyushu, Japan. Sukjai, another mascot, is then analysed in a similar light. The dominant factors that lead to the success of Kumamon mascot are analysed on the case of Sukjai mascot. The disparity between the two mascot cases allows for a better understanding of the dimensions and practices, or lack thereof, that can occur in mascot creation and implementation.
Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative methodology is applied, and thematic and content analyses are applied to the three data sources: 1) secondary data collection from different data sources in the English and Japanese languages; 2) researcher onsite observation in Kumamoto; and 3) an in-depth interview with purposive sampling experts.
Findings – The findings indicate that according to the proposed framework, Kumamon has shown all three elements of the framework: 1) promoting destination identity and personality, 2) creating differentiation for the location and 3) having strong stakeholder involvement. On the other hand, these elements were found not to be as strong in the Sukjai case. The findings from the case analysis determine several underlining factors, including the national culture, which can help or hinder in laying the groundwork for the successful application of a mascot in destination branding.
Originality/value – This study complements the previous literature on mascot branding and elaborates on the framework of mascot usage for destination branding based on a combination of the three proposed elements.
Keywords: Destination branding, Kumamon, mascot, Sukjai, Thailand
... An emergent stream of research considers the impact of these platforms on placemaking, place branding and place marketing in various contexts (e.g. Sevin, 2014;Zhou and Wang, 2014;Hanna, and Rowley, 2015;Oliveira and Panyik, 2015;Kim et al., 2017;Scott et al., 2017;Tussyadiah and Jia, 2017;Uşaklı, Koç and Sönmez, 2017;Zach and Tussyadiah, 2017). Therefore, to further understand how digital and social media augments -or inhibitsphenomena relating to place, this session will provide a review of key contributions in this area highlighting apparent knowledge gaps. ...
... Accordingly, place branding should differ for internal and external audiences (Zenker et al. 2017). However, a completely disjointed branding approach for different target groups is not feasible as one brand approach would also influence the other target group (Hanna and Rowley 2015;Braun et al. 2013). The same holds for a state. ...
State branding communication tends to be challenging for state authorities as it involves employing a comprehensive branding approach to make the state equally attractive to all target groups. This study attempts to unearth empirically established factors responsible for shaping positive perceptions about the state through state branding communication. Mediation analysis was undertaken to explore the real relationship between constructs. Multigroup analysis was conducted to estimate moderation effect of the residential status of respondents. The result shows that increasing awareness of state branding has a positive impact on framing attitudes towards branding initiatives and, in turn, inculcates a positive outlook towards the state as a favorable destination for residents, tourists, and investors. The result suggests that this is possible only if state brand communication ensures relevant and correct connection with the target groups. This finding is significant because such communication mediates the relationship between attitude and perception about the state. The result of the multigroup analysis reveals that respondents’ residential status moderates the relationship between predictors and outcome variables of the model. From the result, we may argue that one-size-fits-all approach is insufficient for state branding communication and that state authorities should plan customized brand communication for residents and non-residents.
... Therefore, millennials continue to become more adept at technology, making use of it to share their opinions about their experiences with brands. The use of online communication channels has also changed the manner in which people can build brands (Hanna and Rowley, 2015). Online branding has become a tool to acquire more recognition, memorability and attractiveness among new users (Hwang and Jeong, 2016). ...
Purpose
Societal changes and technological development have brought about drastic lifestyle change in the past decades. This drastic change is evident when comparing the lifestyle and general characteristics of generations who have been born immersed in this technological context to those of other generations. The objective of this paper is to analyze brand image (BI) as determinant of brand attitude (AB), and the moderating effect of brand equity (BE), in the use of online information among millennial shoppers from Colombia. In general, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to existing literature related to the importance of generational membership in classifying individuals regarding brand perception (BI, AB and BE) and association with the use of shopping channels between different generations.
Design/methodology/approach
A hierarchical regression model is estimated with a sample of university students in Colombia who are considered potential coffee consumers, and who were classified as millennials based on their age.
Findings
The results support that BE effect has a greater impact on AB when consumers have a good BI. Millennials also use more online communication sources to create brand perceptions.
Originality/value
Nevertheless, few studies have concurrently analyzed the characteristics of brand building and types of sources of information (online vs offline). This paper attempts to analyze the behavior of millennial consumers and the use of information channels online vs offline to manage brand and analyze BI, AB and BE.
... Social media represents the best example of the change in customer-brand relationship as it allows direct interaction with brands (Kirá lˇová and Pavlí ceka, 2015). It is for this reason that social media is currently considered the most relevant tool among branding strategies (Andé hn, et al., 2014;Hanna and Rowley, 2015). In short, social media lends a hand in building a competitive advantage for brands (Yan, 2011). ...
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the effect of the use of social media on the perception of brand personality and to identify its effect on customer brand engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted an exploratory approach, adapting Aaker's brand personality scale (1997) to the context of cultural tourism before carrying out a quantitative study resorting to a structural equation modeling to obtain empirical evidence to identify these relationships.
Findings
The findings reveal that the use of social media has a positive effect on the perception of brand personality and that brand personality, likewise, has a positive effect on customer brand engagement.
Research limitations/implications
This study indicates that transmission of an attractive brand personality according to the desires of the public, combined with dissemination through social media, is a valid strategy to improve customer brand engagement.
Originality/value
This study represents an advance in the specialized literature on the value that consumers place on information transmitted through social media. Specifically, it sheds light on how the transmission of brand personality through social media affects customer brand engagement.
... Nowadays, internet marketing communication strategies have become the norm not only for promoting tourist destinations [54] and managing place brands [55], but also in finding a balance between globalizing and localizing place identities [56]. This is why local authorities have recently started to pay attention to the potential of Web 2.0 for place branding communication [57]. ...
Places have been promoting their attractions throughout history for almost a century now and place marketing started capturing the attention of economic researchers in the early 1990s. Although the globalized space has become a major interdisciplinary field of study in the past few decades, we still do not have a definite solution for measuring or predicting the changes it brings. The aim of this study is to propose an instrument to help scholars quantify the Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 components of the online presence of place brands and their spatial dynamics in a broader global context. By taking the ‘space of flows’ approach to frame globalization, we questioned whether geography is still destiny in the context of online place branding communication. To answer the question, we developed a category grid and applied it in the content analysis of 82 official country websites. We found that geographical position is still important in conditioning the adoption of Web 1.0, and does not make a significant difference in the adoption of Web 2.0. However, the strongest predictors of the adoption of Web 1.0 are not the ones related to geography, but to socio-economic inequality. It is therefore possible for the theorizations of the advantages of the ‘space of flows’ globalization to be suitable only for Web 2.0, Web 1.0 still being under the influence of the ‘space of place’. We discussed the implications of adopting the network society theory in place branding communication in order to nuance the understanding of the transitions from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 in place marketing.
This paper explores the role of village tourism in promoting sustainable practices and enhancing destination branding, using the case study of Montegridolfo and Palazzo Viviani, a luxury hotel in Italy's Riviera Romagnola. Through ethnographic research, we investigate the motivations behind establishing a high-end hotel in a small,rich village far from mainstream tourist routes. The study examines how luxury tourism can foster sustainable development, support unique destination branding, and balance tourism growth with the preservation of cultural heritage and local identity. The case of Palazzo Viviani demonstrates the integration of eco-sustainable strategies within the luxury sector, highlighting the interplay between environmental responsibility, economic growth, and cultural revitalization. Our findings suggest that luxury tourism when properly managed, can provide ethical and economically sound development opportunities for rural destinations. The paper concludes by offering strategic insights for developing sustainable luxury tourism models in similar small village settings
In the face of growing competition between territories in an increasingly globalized world, smart territorial marketing is an essential approach to development. Commitment to the territorial brand plays an important role in this context, strengthening the identity and competitiveness of the territory. Despite the importance attached to territorial marketing, there is a notable lack of literature on how these strategies can be effectively implemented to promote territorial brand commitment. This systematic literature review aims to understand how smart territorial marketing contributes to fostering brand loyalty.
We argue that a capacity to embrace ambiguity allows market actors to accommodate the symbolic, dialectical and dynamic nature of place brands. Using the Wild Atlantic Way as an illustration, the paper considers how this brand is appropriated by diverse actors to create value through place performances and experiences. Brands can embody tourism imaginaries and are part of the cultural media for creating and circulating place meanings. When brands are mobilised in ways that result in convergent or coherent meanings, the result is a living brand, accommodating an evolving sense of place. The paper contends that the ambiguity of place branding is manifest in the spaces in-between materiality and discourse, reality and imagination, object and experience, concept and performance.
Purpose
This paper aims to provide conceptual clarity on the different approaches of place branding in the literature. It discusses three main approaches and provides a new definition of place brands that acknowledges the full multi-sensory experience of place brands. This paper also elaborates brand management within the three approaches.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual paper
Findings
This study identifies three co-existing approaches of place branding and provides a definition of place brands for each of them. The first approach conceptualises place brands as symbolic constructs that identify and differentiate places from others. Brand symbols such as logos and slogans are central, assuming that brand meaning resides in them. The second approach views place brands as images and associations in the minds of target groups, whereby brands reside in individuals’ minds (the cognitive). This paper aligns with a third approach that views place brands as experiential, multi-sensory constructs. Brands invite not only mental representations in people’s minds but especially also multi-sensory embodied experiences. The authors thus define place brands as marketing systems that consist of dynamic performative assemblages of symbolic, discursive, institutional and material elements that selectively invite certain multi-sensory and embodied experiences of place by stakeholders and target groups.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to conceptual clarity by providing an analytical framework identifying three main approaches to place branding. The authors further reflect on the implications of each approach for brand management. This paper also builds on recent literatures to provide a new and contemporary definition of place brands as multi-sensory experiences that encompasses embodiment.
Destination brand identity has become a crucial topic in tourism research, garnering considerable significance recently. This study aims to provide a scholarly contribution by conducting a bibliometric mapping analysis, specifically focusing on identifying areas that will significantly impact future research. The research uses SciMAT software to structure various topics into clusters based on their similarities and scientifically map them. The data sample comprises 295 papers published in the SCOPUS database between 1995 and 2022. The findings show the evolutionary structure of pertinent domains. The analysis identified eight main themes and proposed a research agenda to guide future lines of research: (a) tourist destination, (b) communications and digital technologies, (c) co-creation; (d) place branding, (e) cultural identity, (f) sustainable destination, (g) dimensionality, and (h) destination satisfaction. This article is a pioneering document in mapping this field of research, as it identifies relevant areas and sub-areas for current and future research. As a result, this article should be considered a guide for tourism and hospitality researchers.
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a cross-border regional brand management model to help enhance cooperation for developing such localities. It analyzed its applicability in the Brazil–Argentina and Italy–Austria cross-border regions comprising several cities.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review was conducted to obtain a theoretical basis and select elements for creating the cross-border regional brand management (CRBM) model. To apply the model, in-depth interviews were conducted with 19 specialists of different nationalities and distinct expertise on cross-border governance and regional branding. In addition, to validate the proposed model, a focus group was carried out, and specialists were consulted using forms, providing 22 additional opinions.
Findings
The results show good managerial practices and gaps that must be overcome to create and manage the brands from the two regions analyzed.
Research limitations/implications
The theoretical contributions consist in extending the literature in place branding by presenting the first CRBM model and the conceptual explanation of each of the model's elements.
Practical implications
The study's practical implications occur through the suggestion of good management practices for the studied localities arising from the applicability of the CRBM model. Furthermore, it is expected that the model developed can be applied in other locations, bringing practical contributions to the management and creation of cross-border regional brands in other countries.
Originality/value
This study presents the first CRBM model and its applicability to two cross-border regions.
Purpose
Drawing on the service-dominant logic and taking a multi-stakeholder brand value co-creation perspective, this paper aims to investigate whether positioning a place brand around sustainability helps or hinders stakeholders’ ability to co-create value for themselves and the brand.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on a case study of Bristol’s city branding following its award of European Green Capital, drawing on 29 in-depth interviews with key informants from multiple stakeholder groups. These interviews are supported by secondary material and field observations.
Findings
The findings evidence a “tale of two cities”. When sustainability is used as a positioning device, tensions are identified across three elements of brand co-creation: brand meanings; extraordinary versus mundane brand performances; and empowerment and disempowerment in branding governance. These tensions create stakeholder experiences of both engagement and estrangement.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is based on one case study and evaluates face-to-face stakeholder interactions. Future research could access further stakeholders, across multiple cities and also examine their digital engagement.
Practical implications
Positioning a brand as sustainable (i.e. green) requires strong commitment to other ethical principles in practice. Brand practitioners and marketers may benefit from advancing stakeholders’ everyday brand performances to reduce disillusionment.
Originality/value
Rallying around virtuous associations, i.e. sustainability, does not in itself facilitate the generation of value for stakeholders and the brand, but instead can illuminate power imbalances and tensions in stakeholder interactions that result in a co-destruction of value.
This chapter aims to add value to available existing literature in term of highlighting the catalytic roles and responsibilities of destination management organisations (DMOs). Moreover, it aims to study the involvement of DMOs in strategic planning and promotion of local fairs and festivals. Destination management organisations (DMOs) act as torchbearers of every global and local tourism destination and are indispensable when promoting a destination through events and festivals. In this context, the sustainable development of the destination is imperative and a crucial factor for prospective visitors and guests. This chapter shall comprehensively discuss DMOs and their underlying roles and responsibilities. Moreover, it shall highlight the operational activities undertaken by city-level DMOs in relation to the strategic planning and promotion of events being hosted. This study shall be purely based on reviews done on existing literature supported by cases of major fairs and festivals specifically with reference to North Eastern India.
Even though city branding has recently been considered an urban policy, it remains a research area theoretically detached from urban planning theory and ethics. On this issue, there is still no theoretical link between the ideological and instrumental aspects, leading to a gap between theory and practice. Hence, this paper aimed to contribute to the academic discussion on city branding by extracting a comprehensive framework concerning both formal (instrumental and procedural) and informal (ideological and normative) dimensions. To this end, 534 scientific sources have been studied through a systematic review process, and 380 of them were analyzed using a meta-synthesis method. The findings indicated that city branding based on urban planning includes five categories: (1) the environments involving the planning system (22.5%), (2) ideological and policymaking field (22.2), (3) the field of planning (27.1%), (4) the field of implementation (6.2%), and (5) social feedback (22%). This framework illustrated that city branding is an ideological issue interlinked with different environments and fields institutionalizing a hegemonic ideology formally and informally.
Objetivo do estudo: Analisar os sentimentos dos conteúdos gerados pelos usuários no Instagram, expressos em hashtags vinculadas à marca Pernambuco. objetivos específicos: realizar a análise de sentimentos dos usuários do Instagram a partir de hashtags relacionadas à marca Pernambuco; analisar o conteúdo atrelado aos sentimentos e suas polaridades.Metodologia/abordagem: Orientação metodológica de natureza qualitativa, no que tange a classificação de dados e quantitativa, considerando a frequência de dados. Para alcance dos objetivos, foi empreendida uma Análise de Sentimentos (AS) a partir dos comentários gerados no Instagram utilizando as hashtags #turismopernambuco, #descubrapernambuco, #borapernambucar, #passaportepernambuco e #pernambucomeupais.Principais resultados: Os conteúdos compartilhados nas hashtags possuem majoritariamente a valorização de aspectos ambientais, culturais e valores simbólicos da marca lugar nos sentimentos de polaridade positiva, reverberando na rede de interessados (residentes, turistas, governo e empresas), à medida que os sentimentos de polaridade negativa podem emergir diante de situações pontuais do contexto.Contribuições teóricas/metodológicas: Os achados colaboram de forma significativa para o desenvolvimento sustentável e suporte às estratégias contemporâneas acerca da concepção da marca lugar, levando em conta a perspectiva do residente e visitante em potencial.Relevância/originalidade: Uso de machine learning com o objetivo de compreender os valores que constituem a marca Pernambuco, possibilitando o alicerce de políticas públicas para o fomento do turismo na região.Implicações para a gestão ou sociais: Sugere-se que os estudos utilizando análise de sentimentos dos conteúdos dos usuários nas redes sociais, possam ser utilizados pelos gestores públicos para entender o comportamento do turista, por meio de pesquisa-ação, preparando e adaptando melhor o destino, a partir dos dados e informações obtidas.
Las urbes ecuatorianas tienen la posibilidad de desarrollarse a partir de sus potencialidades, identificando atributos que les permitan atraer inversiones, generar empleo y establecer una posición competitiva. Para esto, es necesario definir, las acciones y los atributos de notoriedad que las hagan reconocer como ciudad de oportunidades, para lo cual se desarrollan estrategias de marketing, que, posibiliten bajo el paraguas de una marca atractiva diferenciarlas en el mercado urbano actual. Es por ello que el objetivo del presente estudio es poder identificar cuáles son los principales atributos más comunes que utilizan los decisores para posicionar en el mercado nacional e internacional en ciudades ecuatorianas seleccionadas para el estudio. La metodología que abordó la investigación responde a un paradigma cualitativo de tipo revisión documental y del análisis de la presencia de las marcas de ciudades en las páginas web institucionales y redes sociales de ciudades seleccionadas para la presente investigación. Los resultados derivados permiten validar que un alto porcentaje de marcas de ciudades se centran en el sector turístico, sin que exista un proyecto con una visión holística sobre el papel de la marca en el desarrollo de las ciudades.
Co-creation in branding is gaining momentum. This study contributes to the branding literature by combining a systematic search and a critical review of 148 articles focusing on co-creation in branding, published in 55 academic journals. Three themes guide this critical review: (1) What is co-creation? (2) Who initiates and who participates in co-creation? (3) What is co-created and for whom? The findings reveal that co-creation is considered a process of interaction and influencing among various participating parties. A classification of different types of co-creation crystallizes the conditions under which co-creation is proposed to occur. This article contributes by proposing a new definition as a starting point to guide further research: Co-creation in branding refers to a process of intentional interaction between or among two or more parties that influences a brand. Three positioning questions are proposed for future research. Marketers may gain significant new market understanding through cocreation in branding.
Abstract
This study explores the relatively new potential of places to ethically enhance their branding through accreditation under the Fairtrade Towns (FTT) scheme. It presents insights from a qualitative study of marketing practices across eleven UK FTTs, focussing on the activists who establish these initiatives to facilitate and promote FT consumption within their communities. FTT accreditation is revealed as a grassroots local branding initiative that can work symbiotically with the place brand through connections to other fundamental aspects of a place’s identity and character, or even by playing a “redemptive” role. FTT status encourages a less introspective approach to place branding by connecting with distant producer communities and encouraging tourists and residents to reconsider their consumption in the context of the socio-environmental realities of global supply chains.
Statement of Contribution.
By exploring the implications of Fairtrade Town (FTT) status in eleven UK towns and cities this study reveals its potential to ethically augment how places are branded and promoted to visitors and residents. Several novel or underappreciated roles for FTT are revealed including its symbiotic relationship to the place brand, acting as a community-wide integrator of ethical initiatives, crystalising global ethics through local consumption, and providing a “redemptive” narrative for places with a troubled history.
Although there is increasing interest in place and destination branding, the inter-disciplinary
nature of the field poses challenges for the development of a coherent knowledge base. With
a view to informing both research and practice, this article presents a systematic review
combining place and destination branding, identifying and defining its core themes, and
developing a conceptual map of the inter-play between them. The following key themes are
identified: general, brand identity, image and personality, politics, heritage,
communication/media, country-of-origin, and designscape and infrastructure. The article
concludes with an agenda for further research including the need for research on specific
themes across a wider range of place entities.
The purpose of the article is to investigate the problem of place brand architecture. Despite being a well-established research domain in the field of product and services marketing, brand architecture remains an under-explored phenomenon in relation to places. The article aims to discuss a new approach to a sub-brands strategy that builds on both the supply and the demand sides, and explores the benefits and challenges of the suggested strategy.
The article is based on a case study of St Petersburg, Russia, utilising both secondary and primary data. The primary data consists of in-depth interviews with stakeholders involved in city branding and applies thematic analysis.
The results demonstrate that place brand architecture helps to design a differentiated system of sub-brands that are customer-focused and reflect the complexity of a place. The article outlines the benefits (such as, flexibility of the sub-brands strategy and the increased credibility of the brand) and the challenges for strategy implementation (such as, higher promotional expenditure and communication risk and stakeholder misalignment).
This research will be helpful for place brand and tourism managers who seek to attract new target groups and avoid various problems, such as the overcrowding of popular sights.
While the existing literature on place brand architecture is mainly approached from a geographical perspective, this article proposes a new target-group-specific approach that incorporates the supply and demand sides.
Zelenskaya, E. and Elkanova, E. (2020), "Designing place brand architecture: the potential of a sub-brands strategy", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-08-2019-2551
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited
The purpose of this work is to introduce the concepts of brand architecture and brand portfolio followed by its relevance to place branding by way of its application to Sydney, Australia. Data were collected by way of interviews of government and business leaders as well as analysis of documents and websites. The study revealed that despite similarities to corporate brand architecture, there are complexities that are more specific to place brand management. These are the relationship between a nation brand and a city brand, the role of a city brand as a lead brand, and some of the complexities of place branding, which includes barriers resulting from long-standing political and administrative structures, the need for leadership support, the positioning of the brand in many markets and that of image management.
As a relatively new field, research into place branding is predominately case-study based, focusing specifically on single place entities. This paper reports on an exploratory study that uses semi-structured interviews with place-branding practitioners working in various geographical locations (towns, cities, regions). The study tests the relevance of the components of strategic place brand management and elucidates their meaning and explores the relationships between these components. The research confirms the relevance of the components but suggests that relationships between components may be context dependent. The study makes both theoretical and managerial contributions by offering a refined, holistic, and new practitioner-led strategic place brand-management model along with structural meanings for each component that describe to those embarking on the process the key processes, activities, and success factors that are integral for an effective place-branding approach.
Social media provides a unique opportunity for brand analysis. The mere fact that users create content and messages through social media platforms makes the detailed monitoring of temporal variation in brand images possible. This research analyzes data collected from a specific social media platform, Twitter, about the city of Stockholm over a 3-month period to analyze how social media could be conceptualized as a new venue for place brand meaning formation, and to see how user-generated content pertains to the issue of place brand equity. Using semantic and content analyses, assemblages of place brand-related themes are explored. Subsequently, these assemblages of themes are deconstructed at a conceptual level and then subjected to frequency analysis, revealing an underlying typology based on characteristics of the temporal variation of the various types of brand elements. These results are explored on the basis of both how they apply to the understanding of content on social media in general and how they apply to the online presence, or digital footprint, of place brands.
Place marketing is increasingly being used as a governance strategy for managing perceptions about regions, cities, and towns. What are the most important obstacles
to implementing place marketing? Based on a survey of 274 public managers involved in place marketing in the Netherlands, this article analyzes the main obstacles as perceived by public managers. It also analyzes the effects of obstacles on perceived results of place marketing in terms of attracting target groups. A factor analysis of a variety of obstacles investigated in the survey shows three clearly demarcated obstacles: administrative obstacles within municipalities, obstacles in developing the substance of marketing campaigns, and political obstacles. Obstacles in developing the substance of the marketing campaigns have signifi cant eff ects on the results of place marketing in terms of attracting stakeholders, whereas the two other obstacles have no signifi cant infl uence.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of ownership in relation to place branding and to establish a basis upon which the representation of a place as a brand can be developed. We suggest that a bottom-up approach based on the paradigm of co-creation should be taken to developing a place brand and that brand ownership is determined by the extent to which the representation of the place reflects the experience of the community. Such an approach, we believe, is essential to achieve authenticity (brand essence), commitment from stakeholders, and brand sustainability. Grounded in ethnographic research, this paper presents a model that structures the features of community ownership from a bottom-up perspective and proposes four fundamental elements of place branding that encapsulate the experience of the place: rights, roles, relationships, and responsibilities.
Guidelines for determining nonprobabilistic sample sizes are virtually nonexistent. Purposive samples are the most commonly used form of nonprobabilistic sampling, and their size typically relies on the concept of “saturation,” or the point at which no new information or themes are observed in the data. Although the idea of saturation is helpful at the conceptual level, it provides little practical guidance for estimating sample sizes, prior to data collection, necessary for conducting quality research. Using data from a study involving sixty in-depth interviews with women in two West African countries, the authors systematically document the degree of data saturation and variability over the course of thematic analysis. They operationalize saturation and make evidence-based recommendations regarding nonprobabilistic sample sizes for interviews. Based on the data set, they found that saturation occurred within the first twelve interviews, although basic elements for metathemes were present as early as six interviews. Variability within the data followed similar patterns.
This exploratory research examines how corporate communications can influence stakeholder perceptions to enhance or detract from the city as a brand. It uses the UK city of Bradford as a case study and adopts theoretical concepts of product and corporate branding. Balmer's AC2ID test of corporate identity is applied to identify gaps in the City's official communications strategy, revealing conflicting messages between local government policy and different stakeholder groups. This analysis points to the need for positive visual evidence of change, such as an improved built environment in the city centre. The analysis may have value for policy-makers in the UK and elsewhere who seek to improve community and stakeholder relationships. This research may also help to promote an honest approach towards branding cities as well as providing the potential for an enhanced brand value.
This article predicts that strategic planners in organisations of the future need to consider the potential benefits of collaborating, co-operating and co-ordinating with others serving the same markets, rather than pursuing conventional “competition”. The author defines this new mindset as “co-opetition”. It has been observed that the competitive psychology represents oneself as being better than others, and stresses the winning of more resources at their expense. The antithesis is active co-operation, wherein one embraces competitors in partnership to the benefit of all. It is argued that the new business environment demands new kinds of business relationships, and that “co-opetitive” partnerships have emerged as a more effective response to changed environmental threats and opportunities. Co-opetition can deliver synergy if carefully planned, managed and controlled, and preconditions for achieving this outcome are examined. Equally, weak management of a relationship can produce the opposite effect, so preconditions for survival are also discussed. The conclusion is that, on balance, co-opetition deserves marketing planners' close attention.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of stakeholders in the creation, development and ultimately ownership of place brands. The paper contributes towards laying the foundations of a participatory view of place branding. It establishes an urgent need to rethink place branding towards a more participation‐oriented practice. This is based on the centrality of stakeholders in the creation, development and ownership of place brands. The role of stakeholders goes well beyond that of customers/consumers as they are citizens who legitimize place brands and heavily influence their meaning.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper highlights a turn towards stakeholder‐oriented place branding in recent literature. This is contrasted to a critical evaluation of place branding practice where stakeholders are paid “lip service” regarding their participation, rather than being given opportunities to get more fully involved in the development of their place brand.
Findings
An emerging discussion is identified on the significance of stakeholders. This is integrated with additional arguments for stakeholders' participation found in the political nature of place branding, in the concept of “participatory branding” and in the changes that on‐line communication has brought about.
Practical implications
The participatory approach introduced here re‐evaluates the role of both stakeholders and place brand managers. It also implies a significant change in the perceived role of analysis within the place branding process. A re‐direction of branding budgets is also suggested.
Originality/value
The paper provides a clear description of the role of stakeholders in place branding. It brings together for the first time in an integrated manner several arguments for stakeholders' participation. These lead to the conclusion that effective place brands are rooted in the involvement of stakeholders and substantiate the call made here for participatory place branding.
Purpose
The paper aims to clarify the relationship between organisational structures and individual brand supporting behaviour. It proposes modelling the social transformation process and outlining why and how leadership is important throughout the internal brand building process. The study aims to expand the domain of corporate branding by including a broader range of human resource and leadership‐related aspects than is normally found in the branding literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper opted for an exploratory study using the open‐ended approach of grounded theory, including 30 depth interviews and one expert group discussion with employees representing middle and senior management having mainly a marketing and corporate communications background. The data were complemented by documentary analysis, including brand documents, descriptions of internal processes, and copies of employee magazine articles.
Findings
The paper provides empirical insights about how change is brought about during internal brand building. It suggests that successful leaders act as “integrating forces” on two levels: integrating the elements of corporate identity structures, and mediating between the corporate branding structures and the individual.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for the development of a powerful brand image, the development of “brand ambassadors” and for managing the balance between stability and change.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need to study how brand‐supportive behaviour can be enabled.
This study presents a theoretical and practical model of how the development of a country as a tourism destination brand creates leverage for its products and services in export markets. To effect this leverage, it is essential to conceptualise the tourism system as a network of interacting service providers rather than as a channel of distribution. This aids in the management of the multiplexity of interactions between tourists and the destination's products and services that affect the development and success of the brand in leveraging export products. The theoretical models of the tourism system, the tourism product (experience) and country brand are operationalised and fused so that a detailed process emerges which describes how the brand can link the tourism experience with the products and services that facilitate it. The systematic management of this facilitation process permits a gradual extension of the tourism brand attributes to other products and services destined for export in four stages.Journal of Brand Management (2002) 9, 262-280; doi:10.1057/palgrave.bm.2540077
Brands play a significant role in developing marketing strategies for specific product categories in a firm. A coherent international brand architecture is a key component of a firm's overall marketing strategy as it provides a structure to leverage strong brands into other markets, assimilate acquired brands, and rationalise the firm's branding strategy. This paper discusses how firms can develop brand architecture, and considers the factors that contribute in shaping the architecture. The managerial implications for marketing management and the impact of architecture on the brand hierarchy are also analysed.Journal of Brand Management (2004) 11, 233-247; doi:10.1057/palgrave.bm.2540169
Collaboration among key players is a fundamental ingredient in sustainable development efforts. To this end, this article discusses stakeholder theory and its application as a normative planning model, and introduces the relationship/transaction strategy continuum as a tool for applying this theory in development. In this application, planning authorities are directed to identify and proactively consider the transaction vs relationship orientations of key stakeholders. Congruency across this orientation increases the likelihood of collaboration in service delivery. In presenting case instances of tourism efforts, the application of the proposed stakeholder orientation matrix is illustrated. The article concludes with market segmentation strategies designed to promote alignment of the stakeholder orientations.
The classic brand manager dealt with simple brand structures in part because he or she was faced with a relatively simple environment and simple business strategies. Today the situation is far different. Brand managers now face market fragmentation, channel dynamics, global realities, and business environments that have drastically changed their task. In addition, there is pressure to leverage brand assets because of the prohibitive cost of creating new brands. This set of challenges has created a new discipline called "brand architecture." A coherent brand architecture can lead to impact, clarity, synergy, and leverage rather than market weakness, confusion, waste, and missed opportunities. Brand architecture is an organizing structure of the brand portfolio that specifies brand roles and the nature of relationships between brands. This article introduces a powerful brand architecture tool, the "brand relationship spectrum." It is intended to help brand architecture strategists employ insight and subtlety to subbrands, endorsed brands, and their alternatives. Subbrands and endorsed brands can play a key role in creating a coherent and effective brand architecture.
Business Research Methods contains new and revised chapters on quantitative methods and visual research, while cutting-edge material on inclusivity and bias in research, feminist perspectives, and decolonial and indigenous research is also introduced. The book is composed of four parts. The first part looks at the research process. It covers research strategies and designs, as well as ethics in business research and writing up business research. Part 2 looks at quantitative research and details the nature of quantitative research, sampling, structured interviewing, and questions. It also looks at secondary analysis and statistics. The next part is about qualitative research. This part examines ethnography, participant observation, interviewing, focus groups, language, and document data. The final part is about mixed methods of research.
Purpose
– The purpose of this article is to explore the corporate brand‐web associated with the TOYOTA F1 Racing Team in order to exemplify existing theoretical discussions of the brand‐web concept and contribute to insights towards developing understanding of the structure of the corporate brand‐web and brand relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
– A case study analysis of the TOYOTA F1 Racing Team, focusing on brand relationships associated with different levels of sponsorship is presented. The case study analysis is based on desk research.
Findings
– The corporate brand‐web of the TOYOTA F1 Racing Team is presented. This portfolio of corporate brands and their relationships can be regarded as a corporate brand meta‐architecture. The study also offers taxonomy of different types of sponsorship‐based brand relationships, and identifies and discusses two key aspects of the relationships between brands, title sponsorship, and network relationships between the corporate brands in the brand‐web.
Originality/value
– This article contributes to understanding of the corporate brand‐web and brand relationships in the sponsorship context and demonstrates the complexity of multiple brand relationships, and the need for researchers and practitioners to understand and manage their corporate brand architecture.
Much literature in tourism is dedicated to brand management; nevertheless, even in a sector characterised by the coexistence of several brands, little research has been carried out on the critical issue of brand architecture. This study focuses on the process of developing and managing a set of interrelated brands and contributes to an understanding of how the concepts of brand architecture are practically applied, specifically in four tourist destinations of Catalonia. The results show that brand architecture concepts are only partially applied, despite the fact that a structured system of brands would stimulate synergies, adding more value to each brand.
This article reviews the expanding literature on city marketing and place branding to explore the strategic dilemmas associated with transforming a negative city image. It conceptualises the emerging communicative logic, which is becoming more evident in the urban regeneration and planning and development discourses. The article puts forward a framework to explain how contemporary theories of city communications can be used to help understand the potential active interplay between the physical (infrastructure) and landscape (urban design, green spaces) dimensions of managing urban change and the governance (structural, organisational) and behavioural (strategic planning and leadership) facets of image communication. These activities can have important effects on how a city is perceived, and can work in tandem with formal and deliberate communicative activities, such as the use of slogans. This conceptualisation is illustrated with reference to Dundee, a relatively small post-industrial city in Scotland, which is seeking to transform its image by attempting to communicate a new vision of its aspirations and economic potential.
The stakeholder theory has been advanced and justified in the man- agement literature on the basis of its descriptive accuracy, instrumen- tal power, and normative validity. These three aspects of the theory, although interrelated, are quite distinct; they involve different types of evidence and argument and have different implications. In this article, we examine these three aspects of the theory and critique and integrate important contributions to the literature related to each. We conclude that the three aspects of stakeholder theory are mutually supportive and that the normative base of the theory-which includes the modern theory of property rights-is fundamental. If the unity of the corporate body is real, then there is reality and not simply legal fiction in the proposition that the man- agers of the unit are fiduciaries for it and not merely for its individual members, that they are . . . trustees for an institu- tion (with multiple constituents) rather than attorneys for the stockholders.
A recurring theme in the place marketing literature relates to the inadequacies of traditional theory in accommodating the context specificity of places. Such special characteristics of place marketing relate to the complexity of place 'products', the complexity of the organizational mechanisms for their marketing, and the ways in which branding theory can be applied. This paper explores these three aspects through the 'mindset' of the service-dominant logic of marketing and its foundational premises. The paper concludes that, viewed through the lens of S-D logic, issues which have in the past been argued to create a degree of distinctiveness in place marketing theory and practice could actually have much resonance with more mainstream marketing. Thus, place marketing could be seen as being more similar to more 'main-stream' marketing practice than previous place marketing literature implies, and in some areas the specific place context may shed some light on issues relating to the service-dominant logic more generally.
This paper examines the area of cross-sectoral branding where tourism is combined with other international economic activities in order to construct a common national umbrella brand. From a theoretical perspective the article contributes to the study of cross-sectoral place branding by developing a coherent analytical framework, drawing on recent contributions to the study of Other images and inter-organizational relations. On the basis of this, an empirical case study of the prospects for establishing a cross-sectoral umbrella brand is undertaken, focusing on Danish national tourism and inward investment promotion bodies. Having analysed both the rationales behind and the image profiles of current branding efforts, it is concluded that while disagreement exists at the strategic level with regard to the potentials of umbrella branding, the differences between the current image profiles are of a more manageable character. In the case of Danish tourism and investment promotion, barriers to interorganizational cooperation, in other words, seem to be founded on unfavourable assumptions about potential alliance partners in view of own future aspirations rather than the present branding actions of the actors involved.
In recent years there has been an emerging literature with regard to corporate brands and their management. This paper examines the relevance and potential contribution of this literature to the management of destination brands. It is evident that there are important features of destination brands that distinguish them from product brands and that these have led to differences in the way destination brands are created, developed and maintained. The paper concludes that corporate brands, in contrast, share similarities with destination brands and that the emerging literature on corporate branding can therefore make an important contribution to our understanding of the particular problems of destination brand management and how it might be improved. The paper presents five guiding principles and a framework for the management of destination brands based upon the literature reviewed. An agenda for future consideration and research is also presented.
This article presents conclusions from a 10-year research program, the purpose of which has been to develop a framework and methodology, grounded in the reality of corporate behavior, for analyzing and evaluating corporate social performance. There are three principal sections: (a) a summary of the approaches, models, and methodologies used in conducting more than 70 field studies of corporate social performance from 1983-1993; (b) a discussion of the principal conclusions derived from the data that (1) corporations manage relationships with stakeholder groups rather than with society as a whole, (2) it is important to distinguish between social issues and stakeholder issues, and (3) it is necessary to identify the appropriate level of analysis in order to evaluate CSP; and (c) a discussion of propositions and areas for further research.
Purpose
Most studies of destination brand images have been conducted from the perspective of the leisure tourist. This study identifies brand images from a business tourist perspective (people visiting destinations for business meetings, incentive events, conferences and exhibitions) and tests their relationship with perceived quality and commercial criteria.
Design/methodology/approach
Data on the brand image attributes associated with 15 UK destinations promoting themselves as business tourism centres were collected via repertory grid analysis from a sample of 25 organisations using business tourism facilities. A self‐completion questionnaire was used to measure managers’ ratings of the perceived quality of each destination and the commercial criteria used to select a destination. The data were analysed using content analysis, exploratory factor analysis and correlation analysis.
Findings
The content analysis identified eight clusters of brand image attributes. Subsequent factor analysis identified three underlying dimensions – overall destination attractiveness, functionality, and ambience. While all three were correlated with perceived quality, commercial criteria were dominated by a destination's functional rather than ambience attributes.
Originality/value
The results of the study provide a more informed and systematic basis on which to develop a destination's business tourism positioning strategy by providing a framework for selecting relevant brand image attributes.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss the strategic positioning of associations that can be established between a corporate brand and entities in its surrounding network such as brands, product categories, persons, places and institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
A semiotic approach is used to describe image transfer processes between the corporate brand and other entities. The paper provides a structure to leverage the corporate brand in different product market contexts.
Findings
The paper offers the “corporate brand association base model” as a conceptual framework for brand‐to‐brand collaboration. The model structures how a corporate brand can develop more expansive brand architecture through transfer of image from sources of brand equity in the internal brand hierarchy and surrounding brand network.
Practical implications
A useful source for brand managers in the process of co‐positioning corporate brands and assessing risks, in relation to brands, product categories, persons and institutions. The framework will make it easier for brand managers to design strategic brand alliances.
Originality/value
The value of this study is that it has presented a model that adds depth and texture to the current academic discussion of corporate brand capitalization, by introducing a balance between in‐house leverage and external leverage of the corporate brand.
There is general agreement in the literature that the marketing of places as brands requires “a special type of marketing” (Ashworth 1993, p. 648). But while the problems inherent in place marketing are well documented (see for example Karavatzis and Ashworth 2005) very little attention has been given to the development of a theory of destination branding which can be used to guide destination brand managers and form the basis of future research. The conclusions from a review of the literature are tested against the experiences of practitioners (Churchill 1979) by means of 25 depth interviews with Senior Managers in 20 Destination Marketing Organisations. Five critical antecedents of successful destination branding are identified: stakeholder partnerships, brand leadership, departmental coordination, brand communications and brand culture. Two key mediating factors are also identified: brand reality and brand architecture. The managerial implications of these findings are discussed.
Brands play a critical role in establishing a firm's visibility and position in international markets. Building a coherent international brand architecture is a key component of the firm's overall international marketing strategy because it provides a structure to leverage strong brands into other markets, assimilate acquired brands, and integrate strategy across markets. The authors examine the way firms have developed international brand architecture and the drivers that shape the architecture. The authors discuss implications for the design and management of the firm's international brand architecture.
This paper develops a conceptual model of the place brand which goes beyond the conceptualisations currently to be found in the literature and, it is argued, reflects more closely the reality faced by those who market places as destinations. The paper begins with an analysis of the classical branding literature and a review of the emerging literature associated with the relational exchange and the network marketing paradigms. Four streams of thought are identified as regards the nature of brands. These include the brand as a communicator, the brand as a perceptual entity or image, the brand as a value enhancer and the brand as a relationship. A review of the place marketing literature suggests that the focus to date has been on brands as perceptual entities or images. The paper argues that such conceptualisations seriously limit the development of place brands in general and destination brands in particular. A model of the place brand is presented based upon the concept of a brand as a relationship with consumers and other stakeholders, focusing on behaviours rather than communications and reality rather than image. The practical implications of this approach are discussed.
Recent academic work has introduced a series of innovative concepts to the branding debate. In particular, the concept of brands that are embedded throughout the organisation has come to the fore. This paper uses a literature review and three mini-case studies to explore the issues in the branding debate and to illustrate how brand management is changing in response to market and environmental changes.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between tourists' user‐generated content on the web and destination branding, as well as to discuss the online strategies used by destination management organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
The research adopts an exploratory study of social media sites and destination brands, relying on qualitative research methods, content analysis and field research.
Findings
Tourists are largely contributing to destination image formation, while avoiding the use of the formal elements of the brands. The most popular strategies used by destination management organizations exhibit some crucial weaknesses. However, a strategy based on analytics brings new opportunities for destination branding.
Originality/value
The study provides an innovative analysis of tourist‐created content and its impact on destination branding and presents a theoretical model of generic web‐based strategies.
Examines the negative impacts of brand extension failure upon the original brand by calibrating the difference of brand equity. Using data collected from college students in Taiwan, establishes four hypotheses to identify various effects of a failed brand extension in diluting the original brand’s equity. Analyzes the different effects among four types of equity-source brands for both close and distant extensions. Equity-source and equity level of the original brand is identified first. All components of brand equity-source are then used to evaluate the performance of a brand extension. Finds that an unsuccessful brand extension dilutes the original brand for all three high equity-source brands. Effects of brand dilution differ according to the type of equity source possessed by the original brand, but there is no difference in brand dilution effects from close and distant extension failures.
Purpose
The paper seeks to discuss and analyse the nature of place umbrella brands and the role such brands play in promotion of a country, a region, or a city. The purpose is also to identify some salient success criteria of provenance associations as core values of place umbrella brands.
Design/methodology/approach
The study delineates a conceptual framework, which illustrates important components in place umbrella branding. It also highlights a set of criteria to aid prioritisations among prospective provenance associations that have a potential to be used as brand values of place umbrella brands.
Practical implications
The paper identifies some characteristics of provenance associations, which make them more transferable across a bundle of umbrella brand partners. The generation of better marketing theory in the field of place branding will make it easier for practitioners to reach the right decisions in choice of provenance associations.
Findings
It is claimed that transcendence is related to the transferability of provenance associations across a bundle of brands. Because transferability strongly depends on perceptions of similarity, the starting point is to identify matches between the partner brands based on their shared provenance.
Originality/value
The article ends with a recommendation that researchers in place branding should carefully analyze provenance associations according to the suggested criteria.
In recent years, companies have been using brand extensions as a strategy for launching new products. The reason why this strategy has been popular is the fact that it decreases the risk of failure of new products, because consumers initially are more willing to accept products marketed under known brands. Nevertheless, this strategy is not free from risks, since it is not convenient for all the brands, and moreover it may have negative effects on the image of the extended brand. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to analyse the influence that brand extensions have on brand image. For this analysis, an experiment is performed that examines the most important variables to consider in using the brand extension strategy. After analysing the information obtained, reaches the conclusion that brand extension strategies may influence the brand image after the extension and that variables such as the brand image prior to the extension, the perceived quality of the extension and the fit between the parent brand and the new product also affect the image.
Purpose
The aim of this research is to investigate how local company web sites can contribute towards the value and characteristics of city brands online, particularly where post‐industrial cities are concerned, and to establish a predictive model for this.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews were conducted to gain an understanding of how post‐industrial city brands can be influenced by local companies, leading to the notion of a “constructed” city brand. An overarching brand model was developed based on the works of Christodoulides et al. and Merrilees and Fry and a survey of company web sites conducted. Structural equation modelling was then fitted to these data.
Findings
Trustworthiness, responsiveness, online experience and emotional connection were confirmed as dimensions of company online brand value. It was further shown that company brand and constructed city brand are influenced by customer perceptions of brand value. Company brand was not, however, related to constructed city brand for the case study of Bradford, UK, which has a pervading negative reputation.
Originality/value
A model incorporating company brand and city brand has been developed and validated for a typical post‐industrial city that is in decline. The influence that local companies can exert on these brands via their web sites and behaviours was established. It is further demonstrated that company brands become disassociated from a city if it has a negative brand image.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore whether multiple stakeholders imbue a single or multiple meanings to a city brand.
Design/methodology/approach
The branding literature hints at multiple stakeholders but most studies take a single stakeholder perspective. A two‐stage quantitative study was used to examine similarities and differences between two stakeholder groups. The context for the study is city branding.
Findings
The evidence suggests that different external stakeholders do have different brand meanings associated to a city brand. Each stakeholder group applies their own filter to interpret the meaning of the city brand. Essentially, a new conceptualisation of the city brand is provided.
Research limitations/implications
Although the samples are reasonably large, it is important to apply the framework to other city brands to test for generalisability. Future research might also test the filter concept in the more general context of corporate branding.
Practical implications
Organisations need to recognise the multi‐faceted, multiple meanings of the brand as a whole. Corporate communication requires adjustment from a convergence approach to one that recognises different brand purposes for each stakeholder group. The ideas are readily usable in not‐for‐profit communities.
Originality/value
The paper joins a small number of studies that challenge the conventional wisdom that convergence of brand meaning across stakeholder groups is an ideal state. The paper develops a filter concept as a way of showing that different stakeholder groups might use a different filter or lens to interpret a city brand.
This article is intended to enhance the position of stakeholder theory as an integrating theme for the business and society field. It offers an instrumental theory of stakeholder management based on a synthesis of the stakeholder concept, economic theory, behavioral science, and ethics. The core theory-that a subset of ethical principles (trust, trustworthiness, and cooperativeness) can result in significant com- petitive advantage-is supplemented by nine research propositions along with some research and policy implications. Even before Preston (1975) issued an intellectual call-to-arms, schol- ars in the field of inquiry called business and society sought a paradigm or an integrating framework for topics thought to be central to the disci- pline. Various models-corporate social performance, social control of business, and stakeholder-have been advanced as part of this search. This article attempts to advance the case for using the stakeholder model as an integrating theme for the field by proposing a formal instrumental theory of stakeholder management. The theory represents a synthesis of the stakeholder concept, economic theory, insights from behavioral sci- ence, and ethics. The argument begins with a brief history of the search for a paradigm in the business and society field followed by a discussion of the stakeholder model as theory. Assumptions that underlie the theory are then offered along with discussions of the nature of contracting, effi- cient contracting, and the role of ethics in efficient contracting. An argu- ment is presented for corporate morality as an analog to individual mo- rality. At this point, the instrumental stakeholder theory is formally presented, followed by several research propositions. Implications and extensions of the theory and a brief conclusion complete the article. THE QUEST FOR A BUSINESS AND SOCIETY PARADIGM Although the business and society field has had at least a nominal presence at numerous business schools for over two decades and has experienced considerable growth since then in terms of faculty member- ship in academic organizations and numbers of outlets for scholarly ar-