Linking Culture and the Environment

U. Jamrozy and J.A. Walsh 133
bination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or
group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition’ (www.
marketingpower.com). Branding is associated with the activity of creating,
managing and positioning brands:
Brands differentiate products and represent a promise of value. Brands incite
beliefs, evoke emotions, and prompt behaviors. Marketers often extend
successful brand names to new product launches, lending existing
associations to them.
(Kotler and Gertner, 2002, p. 249)
Consumers associate the brand name with a certain reputation, and similar
to classical conditioning, respond to a brand name in a favourable or unfavourable
manner because it signifies certain qualities. Associated with brand
and branding are concepts such as brand equity, brand image, brand personality,
brand identity and brand strategy. The concepts have been used widely
for the marketing of products and organizations (Aaker, 1996; de Chernatony
and Dall’Olmo Riley, 1998; Keller, 1998), and tourism marketers have quickly
adopted branding to destinations. Many researchers have used the constructs
synonymously, such as in research models, they replace ‘attitude towards the
brand’ with ‘attitudes towards the destination’, or they discuss ‘brand loyalty’
or ‘brand personality’ for destinations. One of the first questions to be
resolved is if destinations can be treated as brands. Most authors concede
that tourism products are similar to services and experiences, and therefore
have special characteristics such as intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability,
and perishability (Shostack, 1977), as well as affective experiential components.
Attractions such as Disney World have successfully created a brand
image. Some researchers argue that destinations can be compared to corporate
brands rather than product brands. From this perspective, marketers do
not just create a brand image for a newly created product, but establish a
reputation for all corporate activities.
Hankinson (2004) compared place branding to classical product branding
theory and identified four mainstreams of brand conceptualizations. He
established:
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Brands are communicators – beyond the brand logos, taglines, etc., brands
have an identity that develops the products differentiation further by
communicating the firm’s vision of the brand.
Brands are perceptual entities – in this conceptualization, brands were
regarded as having a public image that appeals to the consumers’ sense,
reason and emotions. This conceptualization is close to a destination’s
image and represents ‘what the consumer perceives, while identities are
defined as what vision the firm tries to communicate’ (p. 111).
Brands are value enhancers – brands have been regarded as corporate assets
and therefore led to the development of brand equity. ‘The role of brand
management from this perspective is to define and manage a brand identity
as a means of achieving a competitive advantage’ (p. 111).
Brand as relationships – here, the brand is conceptualized as having a personality
that enables it to have a relationship with its stakeholders.
Branding activities now go beyond communication of images and