Place Branding is a theoretical, economic and public policies that needed many years to be gradually acknowledged and told apart by Place Marketing. The academics that dealt with the production and ...distribution of the places’ image, as matter of fact, often did it with a marketing-oriented approach, trying to measure how and many tourists, investors and new inhabitants were attracted by specific communications campaigns. Over the course of time, however, Place Branding has been increasingly identified as a more complex and multidimensional theme. By the end of this point of view changing process, Place Branding was not only and independent matter of study, but also was comprehending Place Marketing as an ancillary component. The Place Branding, indeed, has been described, during the last fifteen years, as a territorial government tool, even worthy to have specific institutional structures, too. “Participatory Place Branding” and “Public Branding” theories, at last, describe Place Branding also in its most social aspects and contemplate the need of participation during the local image management processes. Place Branding, in conclusion, can be now considered an independent matter of study and policies, which needs to develop new strategies to involve all the stakeholders in the local promotion process. The emancipation of Place Branding, however, still requires to overcome the common prejudice that links it to the commodification of spaces, which pushes some disciplines not to consider it an interesting study object in local development studies. To do so, it is necessary to address more precisely how the narratives about a place influence its development and to understand how the local development dimensions interact with the actions related to local Place Branding. This article wants to contribute to expand the knowledge about the connection between Place Branding and local development. It will try to do so using a still under-exploited methodology for this kind of studies, that is the visual content analysis as described by Bell (2000) and Parmeggiani (2011). This methodology will be applied to a dataset of pictures in the tourism context, taking in consideration that, even tourism has a certain tradition in visual studies, it often has been addressed to mere economic aims. Tourism visual narratives will be also considered as an important source of data because of the great importance that Anholt (2007) attaches to it as communication channel of a place. The research will consist of a comparison between different narrative lines about the same rural village of Central Italy, Postignano. It is a deserted hamlet bought by a private company that wants to make it live again attracting new inhabitants, tourists and investors, but also connecting it with the surrounding territory. This project, naturally, is taking place within an Italian region – Umbria – that already has its own active narrative on places like this one – that are a specific characteristic of its territory – and it could be interesting compare what are the similarities and differences between the different narratives activated by these entrepreneurs and the regional government. Another under-valuated narrative will be produced and considered for this article, that is the local inhabitants’ one. Using the photo elicitation technique, indeed, a further comparison will be made, with the aim to underline what are the characteristics of the territory that have not been considered during its promotion. Visual content analysis of different narratives produced by Place Branding in tourism field can give useful hints about what is excluded by place branding and about many potentialitiesthat can be carried out. This approach, indeed, is a way to confront different points of view, opinions and desires on the many different possible development paths that a place can choose.
This study investigates the impact of three place branding and marketing campaigns conducted by the Isle of Man (IoM) government between 2003 and 2019. Using archival data from the IoM Census and ...data on the taxpayers in the IoM, research analyses the fluctuation on the number of residents relocating to and from the IoM during the period covered by the campaigns and tries to establish whether any changes can be attributed to the campaigns. Findings suggest that the residents’ numbers increased during two of the three campaigns; however, full causality cannot be confirmed.
Широко используемые официальные региональные символы позволяют повысить осведомленность о животных, что необходимо для их эффективного сохранения и развития экотуризма. Оценивалось наличие животных ...на гербах регионов России. Выяснилось, что на 49 % из них изображены фигуры животных, а эти районы составляют 76,3 % территории страны. На проанализированных гербах изображено около двадцати животных, из которых 63% млекопитающие. Наиболее распространены медведи (в том числе полярные), орлы и куницы. Также показаны некоторые редкие и находящиеся под угрозой исчезновения виды, такие как амурский (сибирский) тигр и кавказский леопард. На большинстве региональных гербов изображено только одно животное, а две или три фигуры животных встречаются вместе только в нескольких случаях. Географическое распространение животных, изображенных на региональных гербах, лишь отчасти совпадает с истинными зоогеографическими закономерностями. Это ожидаемый вывод, потому что гербы являются элементами культурного пространства, даже если они представляют собой природные объекты. Хотя региональные гербы отражают небольшую часть совокупности животных России и выбор животных не всегда соответствует истинным потребностям сохранения, этот вспомогательный «канал» продвижения знаний о животных представляется ценным.
This conceptual article reconsiders the formation of destination and place brands. It proposes that brands initiate people’s meaning making over the place directly involving them in the branding ...process. Using a combination of process-based approaches to brands and places, the article substantiates the argument that the place brand’s quintessence lies in the constant alterations it causes to the meaning of the place as stakeholders interact, thereby keeping the brand active and in constant formation. The distinction between conceived, perceived, and lived dimensions of a place brand is used to conceptualize the brand as open-ended, allowing for different interpretations to occur and different meanings to develop. This makes the brand rather elusive. The article accounts for the implications of the elusiveness of place brands for place brand management and proposes the ATLAS wheel of place brand management as a tool to follow and influence the place brand in its on-going formation.
Suzhou City in East China is well known within the country for its booming economy and rich culture but less so internationally. This study focuses on a comparative analysis of the construction of ...Suzhou's image in different cities and countries through multiple media platforms to explore the variations in themes, narrative styles and promotion strategies. Adopting the quantitative approach, the authors selected 1265 texts from 2015 to 2020 for a content analysis. Findings show that both the local and global media often report on Suzhou as a tourist city. However, Suzhou's local media report more on the city's history and lifestyle than their global counterparts, while the global media more on the city's culture and arts. Moreover, Suzhou's local media preferred adopting narrative styles that created visual symbols and used corporates, brands and activities for place branding, while the global media would use personal storytelling more for interaction with its target audiences.
Despite increasing experience with the practice of place branding, researchers find it challenging to produce a broad, multi-disciplinary framework that encompasses the full complexity of a place ...brand. This paper applies a geographical approach to brand analysis, acknowledging the multifaceted relationship between place brands and the network of socio-cultural dependence and collaboration. This study examines how interactions between place brands affect small, peripheral place brands by identifying interactions between brands, estimating their importance, and explaining them geographically. The research focuses on the interactions between four city brands in the Negev region in Israel and between them and the Negev regional super-brand to which they belong. The sample includes Beersheba, the central city, and three medium and small towns in the northeastern Negev. Four hundred questionnaires were completed by residents of the Central District, representing the target audience that might visit or move to the Negev. Various brand components were measured, including brand associations, familiarity, recognition, and perceived quality, to determine the value and positioning of the brands in the eyes of the respondents. The analysis reveals the network of associations and images, showing similarities and differences between the place brands, their strengths and weaknesses, and the impact of spatial relations.
•Despite the increasing practice, place branding still misses a multi-disciplinary framework.•The paper offers a methodology and a case study applying the geographical approach to brand analysis.•The paper analyses 400 questionnaires measuring various brand components and free associations.•The research exposes the interactions of peripheral place brands in the spatial hierarchy.•The Geographical Aspect of Place Branding: Interactions Between Place Brands in the Spatial Hierarchy.
Purpose
Although place branding is increasingly popular in research as well as in local, regional and national political agendas, the theoretical foundations of the place branding discipline are ...still underdeveloped. By embracing the stream of identity-based studies, this paper aims to attempt to demonstrate that place brands can be usefully approached through an emphasis of their cultural traits and the practical connection between culture, identity and image.
Design/methodology/approach
In constructing its theoretical arguments, the paper challenges the place branding model propounded by Kavaratzis and Hatch (2013), and uses practices as units of analysis. The paper conducts a brief review of the principal tenets of practice theory(IES) and uses structuration theory as a theoretical device to demonstrate how this theory can provide a (still lacking) theoretical anchorage for the place branding process.
Findings
The usefulness of structuration theory for understanding the place branding process is analysed at both the strategic and tactical levels by means of two illustrative examples. Structuration theory proves to be a solid theory which links the constitutive elements of the place branding process, i.e. culture, identity and image, and to inspire further theoretical elaborations and empirical efforts grounded on this theory.
Originality/value
This is the first paper which uses practice theory(ies) in general and structuration theory in particular to explain the place branding process. The theoretical arguments advanced provide valuable guidance for further theoretical elaborations and empirical applications.
A glaring paucity of a measuring instrument for place branding effectiveness and place brand equity still remains. This study contributes theoretically by exploring and developing the dimensions and ...instrument of customer based place brand equity (CBPBE) quantitatively, in the context of international relations (public diplomacy) between two places, West Bengal (in India) and Bangladesh. To this end, the study employed: focus group discussion, depth interviews and survey, in order to develop and validate the items generated to measure CBPBE. Confirmatory factor analysis was used on a total sample of 437 respondents that resulted in a nine (9) item CBPBE scale, represented by multidimensional constructs namely: place brand salience, perceived quality and place brand engagement. The CBPBE construct is then tested with brand loyalty – investment attractiveness construct in a conceptual model in order to verify the nomological relationship of the instruments developed.
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