MEETING THE DESTINATION BRANDING CHALLENGE
A destination brand can be developed in a variety of ways, most obviously in advertising, through direct marketing, personal selling, on websites and in brochures, but also through public and media relations, and through the cooperation of destination marketing organization DMOs with journalists, event organizers and film makers. Moreover, place promotion, defined as the conscious use of publicity and marketing to communicate selective images of specific geographic localities or areas to a target audience not only involves advertising and publicity, but also encompasses flagship developments and spotlight events in the art, media, leisure. Heritage retailing or sports industries.
There is now a sizeable industry. Focused literature covering destination marketing issues from stakeholderinvolvement to marketing management and destination branding, it is well established that a destination is not a product and, while there are significant opportunities in the imaginative and responsible application of classical marketing approaches to place destinations cannot and should not be promoted as if they were soap powder. Simon Anholt 1998 argues that a more useful metaphor than country as corporate brand. Moreover, he further suggests that some of the misconceptions surrounding the possibilities of destination or country branding spring from the notion that today marketers can actually brand or rebrand a place. More accurately, what they are attempting to do is to coordinate and existing brand relationship, to work with and often gradually to change existing perceptions and misconceptions of places. In this task, however, they face a number of key challenges, many of which are beyond their control. Destination Branding is perhaps the most powerful marketing weapon available to contemporary destination marketers confronted by tourist who are increasingly seeking lifestyle fulfillment and experience rather than recognizing differentiation in the more tangible elements of the destination product such as accommodation and attractions. Most destinations have superb five star resorts and attractions, every country claims a unique culture, landscape and heritage, each place describes itself as having the friendliest people, and high standards of customer service and facilities are now expected.
As a result, the need for destinations to create a unique identity to differentiate themselves from their competitors- is more critical than ever. Indeed, it has become the basis for survival within a globally competitive marketplace dominated by a handful of leading destinations with attracts over two-thirds of the worldwide tourism market. All successful brands have social emotional and identity value to users: they have personalities and enhance the perceived utility, desirable and quality of a product. When consumers make choices about products, including destination, they are making lifestyle statements since they are buying in an emotional relationship. Choice of vacation destination has become a significant lifestyle indicator for today’s consumer and the places where they choose to spend their increasingly squeezed vacation time and hard-earned income have to be emotionally appealing, with high conservational and celebrity value. The battle for consumers in tomorrow’s destination marketplace will be fought not over price but over hearts and minds, and this is how places have moved into territories previously reserved for consumer brands.
Brands have been conceptualized in four key ways, as communication devices, perceptual entities, value enhancers and relationships. Broadly speaking, in marketing terms a brand represents a unique combination of product characteristics and added values, both functional and non-functional, which have taken on a relevant meaning that is inextricably linked to that brand awareness of which may be conscious or intuitive. Brand advantages are secured through communication that highlights the specific benefits of a product, culminating in all overall impression of a superior brand.
The image the product creates in consumer’s mind how it is positioned is crucial to its ultimate success.
Brand managers position their brand so that they are perceived by the consumer to occupy a niche in the marketplace occupied by no other brand; thus for marketers, the value of a successful brand lies in its potential to reduce sustainability. Brand managers differentiate their product by stressing attributes that they claim will match their target markets’ need more closely than other brands and then the create a products image consistent with the perceived self-image of the targeted consumer segment. Consumers have their own ’brand wardrobes’ from which they make selections to communicate, reflect and reinforce associations, statements and memberships; in effect, ‘consumers enrobe themselves with brands, partly for what they do, but more for what the help express about their emotions, personalities and roles’ given the nature of this brand-consumer connection, there is increased focus among marketers on differentiation through relationships and emotional appeals, rather than through discernible, tangible benefits .
Thus, it is our perceptions- our belief and our feelings about a brand that are most important’. However, mere emotions is not enough, the key is to develop a strong brand that holds unique association for the consumer which can be articulated as a clear point of difference. Such is the importance of this product positioning that it has been described as the essence of marketing, and different consumer meanings can be assigned to the same products via different positioning strategies, depending on the audience and stage in the brand life cycle.
The challenges of Destination branding no matter where destinations are in the life cycle, by comparison to branded products and services, managers in the destination organization face peculiar, they have small budgets, exert little management control and are vulnerable to both external and internal political pressures, with many stake holders to consider. Most DMOs have very limited budget and yet they have to market globally, competing not just with other destinations but also with other global brands. Proctor and advertiser, spends millions each year promoting its various brands, and countries such as Croatia, Vietnam and Egypt still have to vie with them for consumer mindshare in a crowded environment characterized by spiraling media costs. One corporate giant such as Sony probably spends as much on its annual global advertising budget as the combined totals of most of the world’s national destination organizations.
In addition to their limited resources, DMOs all operate in a very volatile external environment. While every product is affected by external change, tourism is particularly vulnerable to political strife, economic downswings, tourism is environmental disasters. In today’s world this seems more apparent than ever, with the Iraq conflict and terrorist attacks in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bali, Kenya and Madrid, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), September 11, the UK foot and mouth and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) out-breaks, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes in the Caribbean, political in stability in Fiji, oil spills off the Galapagos island and the Asian economic collapse of the late 1990s.
The list of recent crises that have damaged international travel to particular destinations seems never ending. Moreover, when it is a small country with a limited share of voice in the global media that is affected, results can be devastating. Although tourists may resume ‘normal’ travel habits after a single terrorist’s event, is becoming clear that investors may take longer to return to what they perceive as unreliable business climates. In addition, sustained terrorism, war or political instability and the consequent negative media coverage can cause long-term damage to a destination’s image.
Take the example of Nepal in southern Asia. A remote landlocked country only slightly larger than Arkansas, Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in the world, with over 40 per cent of its population living below the poverty line. However, as home to eight of the world’s ten highest peaks (including Mount Everest), tourism has become a significant foreign currency earner for Nepal and during the 1990s its tourism sector enjoyed an unprecedented period of growth, with international arrivals peaking at 429 000 in 1999. During 2001-2002, however, the country’s tourism industry collapsed.
Arrivals fell by over 20 per cent in the wake of a highly publicized airline hijacking, the subsequent five-month suspension of key flight to Nepal’s International airport and a series of internal political crisis and a series of emergency in 2001. Combined with the legacy of 11 September 2001, these incidents of terrorism, constitutional crisis and violence between the government and Maoist insurgents all contributed to a major downturn in international tourism under the spotlight of the global media. Only in 2003 did international tourism to the country begin to recover, partly as a result of Nepal’s successful staging of celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 1953 conquest of Everest. Such external pressures on marketing activities not only highlight tourism’s vulnerability to a hostile environment, but also remind us that destinations are a composite of a bundle of different components, including accommodation and catering establishment; tourist attractions; arts, entertainment and cultural venues; and the natural environment .
Destinations marketers have almost no control over these different aspects and a diverse range of agencies and companies are stakeholders in the marketing of a place. Public sector destination marketers have to reconcile an array of local and regional interest, and craft promotional appeals acceptable to a range of constituencies. These vary from local and national government agencies, through environmental groups and trade bodies, to tour operators and airlines.
Some of the reasons why Brand Oregon, designed to be inclusive of tourism and economic development, began to fall apart in the late 1980s, included: the tourism sector’s resistance to direction from the top; the failure by some economic development organization to see the connections between Oregon’s lifestyle and business opportunities; and the tourism region’s reluctance to produce advertising and publications consistent with the state’s branded campaign. In addition to such compromising of the creative process of marketing destinations, destination brand building is frequently undermined by the short-termism of the tourism organization brand’s lifespan is a longer term proposition than the careers of most politicians and Julie Curtis of the Oregon Tourism Commission urges destination marketers to ‘stay the course’ and resist making changes too quickly, since ‘it takes many years to establish a brand image, establishes name recognition and develop strong awareness of a destination or product’.
Nowhere is the paradox of public policy and market forces more shapely defined than in destination branding. Political considerations have compromised many a creative execution; as Bob Garfield, editor of Advertising Age and longtime advertising critic, has said of destination advertising:
When you look at the ads… you can see transcripts of the arguments at the tourist boards… the membership of which all wanted their own interest served…you can see the destruction of the advertising message as a result of the politics. In this sense, successful destination branding is about achieving a balance between applying cutting edge solutions to a marketing problem and the real politics of managing local, regional and national politics. The real success stories reflect destination brands that have been able to resist the political dynamic (which is exerted at all levels of the political scene).
These are brands that have strong marketing heritages and are consistent, but at the same time evolve and appear continually contemporary and fresh. This is easy to write but difficult to achieve and that is why the same destination are constantly cited as classic examples of cohesive, long-term branding, because they are a rare breed and they succeed against the odds. Thus, Ireland has been running the same basic brand proposition in its various campaigns for some decades and while marketing directors and executives change the brand values remain constant. Branding destination: Making it happen, as we have seen, limited budget, the lack of management control and internal and external pressure pose unique challenges for destination marketers. Yet the creation of brand saliency- the development of an emotional relationship with the 1980s there were several highly successful marketing campaigns that centered on a consistent communications propositions. New York’s’ I love NY’ and the ‘Glasgow’s miles better’ campaigns are two of the best known. In these and in many other instances, the campaigns focused on logos and slogans, but they were less branding initiatives and could the more accurately term ‘sloganeering’. in a building a meaningful destination brand, the essence is to create an emotional relationship between the destination and potential visitors, as in the current ‘ being at one’ new Zealand brand position. Here, the branding activities concentrate on conveying the essence or the spirit of the destination.
Countries often showcase their history, their culture and their beautiful scenery in their marketing, but many destinations have these attributes and it is critical to build a brand on something that uniquely connects a destination to the consumer now or has the potential to do so in the future. It must also be a proposition that the competition wants and may be able to copy, but that they cannot surpass or usurp. For example, other world cities can claim to be romantic or spiritual, but only Rome (or more Cities: it has that epithet it had it first and no other place can now claim it. Virginia in the USA has had phenomenal success with its Virginia is for Lovers campaign, but no destination can surpass Paris’s association with romance. Whatever proposition is used it must also have the potential to evolve in a long-term branding campaign, so it is essential to get it right. However, the point of differentiation must also reflect a promise that can be delivered and that matches expectations. Good destination branding is therefore original and different, but its originality and difference need to be sustainable believable and relevant. For instance, one destination that has transcended the commodity nature of the product and promised a unique (yet credible) experience is India.
There are many exotic countries that a tourist could visit and most have breath-taking scenery and fascinating heritage, yet such is the emotional power of the subcontinent with its poignant history and diverse cultures that its promise to the consumer (seen powerfully in its 1998 campaign) – that a visit to India can actually change you- is sustainable if successful, such activities have an impact not only on how the rest of the world regards a place, but also on how that places views itself. This has very much been the case recently in Australia. Here, the achievement of the Sydney 200 Olympic (in sporting, marketing, operation management and facility design term), coupled with the ongoing aggressive branding of the country as a whole, has created a new view of Australia as a cosmopolitan, outward-looking country’s politicians saw Sydney 2000, as symbolizing the modernization of the Australian economy. It has been estimated that the exposure gained through hosting the games accelerated Australia’s marketing by a decade, as well as generating billions in additional foreign exchange earnings and opening up the country to a new group of visitors.
Achieving Celebrity Image is all important and how a place is represented can inspire people to visit and revisit it. Never was the saying’ accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative’ more true than in destruction branding. Destination branding can help to bridge any gaps between a destination’s strength and potential visitors’ perceptions. Place reputations are not made in a vacuum and neither are tourist choices, so place marketers must.
