Place Branding through Phases of the Image

This was one of the bluntest answers my colleagues and I heard in the summer of 2013, during our interviews with managers from Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs) throughout a Southern state. Though this person’s remarks might seem extreme, several other interviewees also detailed the difficulty of creating, implementing, and measuring a distinct, strategic place brand. We began each of our 12 semi-structured interviews with a seemingly easy question: “In your own words, what is your place’s brand?” About half of the practitioners used an audible pause before responding to the query: “Our brand, um, well, it’s uh, I’ll probably jump around,” or “What is its brand or what do we want its brand [to be]?”

Despite the views of this particular manager, local residents are vital stakeholders in building a place brand (Kavaratzis, 2012; Zenker & Seigis, 2012). There are many moving parts involved in the place branding process, including an established historical and cultural foundation that often cannot be ignored or simply be rebranded, as well as stakeholder coordination among sometimes-competing interests. When established correctly, place branding can move beyond a simple logo and slogan (Govers, 2013) to become an integral part of strategic place governance efforts (Eshuis et al., 2013) that foster democratic legitimacy (Eshuis & Edwards, 2013). Devising a meaningful place branding strategy that appreciates the relational, co-creational (Kavaratzis & Hatch, 2013) process often proves challenging both in theory and in practice. The theoretical framework offered herein attempts such an integration by showing how cities can move through phases of the image (Baudrillard, 1994) based upon a combination of market models of governance, communication style and language used, and six promotional tactics (branding, media relations, in-house publications, use of outside people or organizations as PR surrogates, aesthetic and affective appeal, and the built environment) (Zavattaro, 2010, 2013a).

As the above quote illustrates, place brand development and maintenance is a job that cannot be confined solely to the lead destination marketing organization. Place brands are living social constructions (Kavaratzis & Hatch, 2013; Zavattaro, 2013b). The marketing and PR director quoted above was explaining the difficult process of getting community stakeholder groups to share the brand vision. One theme that emerged throughout the data analysis was a focus on educating hospitality professionals and locals regarding the importance of strategic place brand campaigns, especially where it related to economic development. As many practitioners (all working for CVBs or CVB-like organizations)¹ in our study explained, their job is to increase the tax revenue within the city while limiting the drain on resources provided by the city.

In the previous chapter, several foundational elements of the framework given in Figure 3.1 were detailed. How those elements mesh for a practical and analytical tool is the focus of this chapter, which showcases cities through phases of the image. For reasons of space, narratives for all 21 cities analyzed are not presented; instead, examples of cities in each phase of the image are highlighted to show differences in rhetoric and presentation. I draw particular attention to the distinction in language, color, imagery, and meaningfulness behind the characteristics present in cities within each phase. As indicated in earlier chapters, I only considered a selling tactic (Zavattaro, 2013a) significant if a city used it regularly and meaningfully. To illustrate, I counted a city as using media relations if it had a regular press release schedule, dedicated media relations contact, and the systematic, strategic use of other media relations tools such as policy papers, e-mail press kits, newsletters, etc. (Reber & Kim, 2006). If, on the other hand, the city issued press releases every month or so, I did not count this as a meaningfully used tactic. How tactics were used and the language found within organizational documents influenced a city’s placement in phases of the image and subsequent implications for democratic governance. I encourage readers to search the web for each city studied herein to see for themselves the distinctions in language, color, imagery, and meaningfulness. Then, readers can search their own city websites and documents and use the framework to determine its placement in phases of the image.

By the time readers finish this book, some of the cities analyzed might already be moving into a different phase of the image. Some cities might have updated websites and added additional communication tools. Some might be switching to a business-based form of governance. The place brand manager’s quote above highlights the ever-changing field of destination management and the associated challenges those changes bring about. In my view, these shifts and punctuations do not show shortcomings of the framework of cities through phases of the image. Changes within cities do not render the framework incomplete. To the contrary, changes highlight the framework’s inherent advantage—its dynamic nature that accounts for shifts in governance policies geared toward developing strategic place branding practices. That is why I could repeat the analysis from 2009 in 2013 using the same framework and research strategy.

This quote from a CVB manager expresses the difficulties many professional place brand managers have with defining, refining, deploying, and evaluating a strategic place brand program. Despite challenges, place branding and its associated practices are taking place in public and non-profit organizations, hence, it becomes incumbent upon scholars to understand the rationale, challenges, and implications, while practitioners need tools to improve existing branding processes or begin fresh strategies to create and leverage a distinct brand identity and ethos. While the former part of this book relied heavily upon theoretical constructs, this chapter is dedicated to briefly giving practitioners a strategic process for place brand development, implementation, and evaluation.