Sustainable Tourism Branding: Experience and Authenticity · • A Certified Brand Ambassador (CBA)...

Purdue Tourism & Hospitality Research Center

Sustainable Tourism Branding: Experience and Authenticity

Liping A. Cai, Ph.D., MBAProfessor and DirectorPurdue Tourism and Hospitality Research Centerhttp://www.purdue.edu/tourism/


Starbucks from Experience to Commodity

• Schultz: “the commoditization of the Starbucks experience”

Commodity

Product

ExperienceExperience

Service???


Starbucks Losing Authenticity


Le Méridien’s Emotional Makeover


Budget Hotels – Telling Stories

Functional Level

Symbolic and Emotional Levels

Experiential Value


Commodity

Product

BrandBrand

Service

Experience

Feelings, Emotions, Sense of

Authenticity

<<<<Em

otional Rational>>>>


TIM

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Right: Rational and Cognitive

Left: Emotional and Affective


The 4-P Marketing Is Dead!B

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Marketing Branding

• Product (service) Brand• Marketing

Marketing InnovationsBranding

• Branding is a holistic and sustainable approach to serving the experiential needs of contemporary consumers


Destination Branding

The destination offer is inherently experiential:

• Before the trip – Promise• During the trip – Action• After the trip: Cultivation


Destination Branding ≠

Creative Advertising

• The Band Wagon– Pressure to create a message to stand out– Sensational– Even controversial


• Who are there to deliver and keep the promise?

• When promise is broken…• The Australian promise

– Where the…

Destination Branding ≠

Creative Advertising


• “Creative” slogans and taglines:– Examples closer to home:

• Larger than life• The Best Place in the…• Come to life • Pure and simple

Where is the Authenticity?


Authenticity by Delivering and Keeping Promise - the People Factor

• Employees who deal with customers not only represent the brand but, in the perceptions of customers, become the brand (McEwen, 2001)

• When the importance of employees to brand marketing is ignored, the cost is huge

• Employees on the job, “off the job”


Post-Experience: Loyalty


Residents – de facto Employees

• Challenge I

• Challenge II

• Challenge III

• Challenge IV

IntangibleGreater risk and extensive information search

Image

PerishableProduction and consumption of the product

take place simultaneously

Interdependent Supply Chain

Both horizontal and vertical.


Authenticity – People Factor

• How do they do it?– Harrison County, Indiana– Santa Monica, California– Copenhagen, Denmark– Taiwan– Croatia


Harrison County, Indiana


Imagery ResearchDesired by Residents:

1. Downtown Corydon, the square

2. Home, hometown, family, community

3. Slower space, relaxing4. Historic5. Step back in time, nostalgic,

quaint

Perceived by Visitors

1. Affective appeal2. Quality of facilities3. Overall

attractiveness4. Casino draw5. Variety of

attractions


Community Educational Campaign


I Am Santa Monica TM

• A Certified Brand Ambassador (CBA) designation

• Over 1,000 participants taking the initial certificate course

• An advanced CBA in development


Educational Programs

• Sustainable Destination Positioning Branding Educational Courses

• CDME• DMAI


Wonderful Copenhagen


Competion


Too Many Senders of Too Many Messages

http://www.oresundsregionen.org/20033


Wonderful Copenhagen• Started as a traditional DMO• Has grown to be a service

organization for a network of tourism-related organizations

• A flagship brand• Interdependence vs.

independence


Kaohsiung City, Taiwan• Local food as the lynchpin for the brand• Study of residents’ attitude toward the

strategy– Own perceptions– Recommendations


Targeting Mainland Cousins


Moslavina Branding Project• A regional tourism brand of Croatia• Research began with locals

– Pensioners– Families with children– Youth– Tourism professionals

http://www.find-croatia.com/blog/moslavina-branding-project/


Best Practices1. Mindset shift from a “creative” endeavor to a strategic

development process

2. DMO governing and/or advisory body fully supportive, residents’ buy-in and participation

3. Agreement and active participation of other marketing agencies and visitor industry proponents

4. Brand research conducted by credible third-party suppliers


Best Practices5. Use of current destination imagery research and related

market/competitive analyses

6. Destination positioning and brand promise statements, brand blueprint for use in brand identity development and communications

7. Use of integrated communication strategies

8. Destination brand as the flagship brand of a place


Best Practices9. Destination brand application to all visitor marketing

and local audience communications

10. Development of branded service training and professional development programs

11. Enhanced equity in the destination brand through formation of co-branding partnerships and strategic alliances

12. Monitoring and evaluation on brand equity relative to target markets


Main Challenges in Destination Branding

1. Acceptance of one overarching destination brand

2. Appropriate brand research methods3. Consistent delivery of destination brand

promise4. Accountability


Social Exchange in Destination Branding

• From economic perspective– Short-term– Transactional, rational– Exchange of goods and services

• To sociological perspective– Long-term– Relational, emotional– Exchange of relations, emotions, feelings


Social Exchange in Destination Branding

DMOs , Service

Providers

Tourists

Residents

TangiblesTransfer of products/service

for money


The Same Fate for DMO?B

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The New Paradigm

• Branding in general takes place more and more in a social structure

• Social networking


The New Paradigm–“Old” Foundations

• Sociological• Relational exchange of

experience and emotions• Psychological

• Image studies• Economic

• Brand equity


Interdisciplinary Innovations

• Intra-regional Cooperative Branding

• Inter-country, inter- region Co-Branding


Tourism Branding

–A continuing process to create authentic tourist experiences and build a sustained image that emotionally bonds with the host community and resonates with its targeted markets


Happy Branding&

Happy Conferencing

Thank You!www.lipingcai.us

Sustainable Tourism Branding: Experience and Authenticity · • A Certified Brand Ambassador (CBA)...

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