Journal of Product & Brand Management

Tourism destination branding complexity

Steven Pike

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Steven Pike, (2005),"Tourism destination branding complexity", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 14 Iss 4 pp. 258 259
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Beyond products brand management

Tourism destination branding complexity

Steven Pike

Downloaded by Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey At 17:17 20 May 2015 (PT)

School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations, Faculty of Business, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane,
Queensland, Australia
Abstract
Purpose The paper proposes enhancing the understanding of the complex challenges inherent in the development of tourism destination brand
slogans.
Design/methodology/approach Prior to completing a tourism marketing PhD, the author spent almost two decades working in the tourism
industry, mostly in destination marketing organisations (DMOs). In this paper he laments a significant gap in the literature in the area of tourism
destination branding, a field that has only attracted academic attention since the late 1990s.
Findings While interest in applications of brand theory to practise in tourism is increasing, there is a paucity of published research with which to
guide DMOs. There has been relatively little discussion on the complexity involved in capturing the essence of a multi-attributed destination with a
succinct and focused brand position, in a way that is both meaningful to the multiplicity of target audiences of interest to stakeholders and effectively
differentiates the destination from competitors.
Practical implications The paper will be of interest to tourism practitioners with a vested interest in the marketing of their destination, as well as
research students and supervising academics interested in destination marketing.
Originality/value The paper summarises six issues that make the application of branding theory to destinations a complex undertaking, and which
are worthy of increased research attention.
Keywords Tourism, Brands, Advertising, Marketing agencies
Paper type Viewpoint

Very little published branding research provides pragmatic

guides for destination marketing organisations (DMOs). The
destination branding literature only surfaced relatively
recently, with the first academic conference session
convened in 1996, the first journal articles appearing in the
late 1990s, and the first book published in 2002. The lack of
literature seems incongruent with suggestions that the future
of marketing will be a battle of brands, and that destinations
are arguably the travel industrys biggest brands. With
travellers spoilt by choice of available destinations, never
before has it been more important for a destination to develop
an effective brand. Alas, to do so is also more difficult than
ever before.
In common with branding other goods and services, a place
name by itself is not sufficient differentiation. In most cases a
place name, such as Hamilton or Popocateptl, does not
provide an explicit association with the position sought by the
DMO in travel markets. On rare occasions, a place name has
been changed to increase appeal to travellers, such as in the
case of Elston, which was changed to Surfers Paradise in the

1930s. More recent exceptions include an island in the

Caribbean renamed CuervoNation by the well-known tequila
brand, and another changed from Hog Island to Paradise
Island to appeal to cruise lines.
For the majority of destinations, however, a slogan is a
necessary public articulation of a destinations brand
positioning strategy. Places are becoming increasingly
substitutable and difficult to differentiate, and a slogan
provides the link between the brand identity aspired to by
DMOs and the actual brand image held in the market. There
have been many criticisms of destination slogans over the
years, best summed up in Gold and Wards (1994) suggestion
that they fail to achieve anything other than ephemeral
indifference. In other words, the slogans are unlikely to
meaningfully differentiate the destinations over time.
Branding destinations is more complex and challenging than
other goods and services, for at least six reasons.
First, and arguably most significant, destinations are far
more multidimensional than consumer goods and other types
of services. To be effective, positioning theory suggests that
reaching the minds of busy consumers requires a succinct
message focusing on one or a few brand associations.
Nowhere is this challenge better highlighted than in the
development of a slogan that encapsulates a destinations
diverse and often eclectic range of natural resources, built
attractions, culture, activities, amenities and accommodation.
This is often reflected in slogans that appear to attempt to
cover everything, such as Kenya creations most beautiful
destinations, all in one country and Ohio so much to
discover. In other cases the difficulty appears to manifest in

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258

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Tourism destination branding complexity

Journal of Product & Brand Management

Steven Pike

Volume 14 Number 4 2005 258 259

slogans such as Greece beyond words. Rarely does a

destination achieve a focused slogan such as Arizona
Grand Canyon state or Snowy Mountains Australias
high country.
Second, the market interests of the diverse group of active
stakeholders are heterogeneous. Counter to a market
orientation where products are designed to suit market
needs, DMOs are forced into targeting a multiplicity of
geographic markets to attract a wide range of segments for
their range of products, most of which are rigid in what they
can be used for. Is one slogan, such as Idaho great
potatoes, tasty destinations and Slovenia the grown place
of Europe likely to be meaningful to all market segments?
Third, the politics of decision making can render the best of
theory irrelevant. The issues of who decides the brand theme,
and how they are held accountable, are critical. Reliant on
government funding, DMOs are evolving into public-private
partnerships, and the topic of who should be appointed board
members makes for interesting debate. There is often mistrust
that tourism businesses represented on tourism boards have
unfair influence. In this regard the author witnessed one
domineering attraction manager influence an RTO board to
change the destination brand of five years, for no other reason
than he had personally grown tired of it. This decision was
made in spite of research indicating the existing theme was
starting to gain traction in the destinations most valuable
market. At another political level, some DMOs, such as
Louisiana and Valencia, have been legislated to change
advertising agencies on a regular basis, subjecting brand
message consistency to regular modification. Other
destination brand campaigns have been derailed by
influential intermediaries, as happened in the case of
Morocco, when European tour wholesalers forced the
cancellation of a new brand that did not fit their offerings.
Fourth, there is a fine balance to be struck between
community consensus and brand theory because a top down
approach to destination brand implementation is likely to fail.
Critically, DMOs lack any direct control over the actual
delivery of the brand promise by the local tourism
community. Without buy-in from these stakeholders the
strategy will flail. This occurred in the case of Oregon
things look different here (see Curtis, 2001), where regional
tourism organisations initially resisted a brand strategy
imposed by the state tourism organisation. The host
population also interact with visitors and, particularly in
resort communities, should therefore feel that the destination
brand represents their sense of place too. However,
Hendersons (2000) survey found evidence to suggest the
New Asia Singapore brand did not match the experiences
of local residents. Thus, while consumer-based brand equity
is of more practical to DMOs than a balance sheet destination
brand value, there is also a case for the concept of community
based brand equity to enter the marketing vernacular.

Fifth, brand loyalty, one of the cornerstones of consumerbased brand equity models, can be operationalised to some
extent by measuring repeat visitation through a DMOs visitor
monitor programme. Staying in touch with previous visitors is
a powerful but untapped means of enhancing the destination
brand, but DMOs have no access to the hundreds of
thousands of visitors contact details left at accommodation
registration desks. How then can a DMO practically stimulate
loyalty by engaging in dialogue with so many customers, in a
meaningful way, as espoused in customer relationship
management theory?
Sixth, funding is often a continuous problem for DMOs, in
both scale and consistency. Even the largest DMO budgets
pale in comparison to those of the major corporate brands,
with which they compete for discretionary consumer spend.
Since DMOs have no direct financial stake in visitor
expenditure, they must continually lobby for public and
private funding. A successful brand campaign leading to
increased yields for local businesses does not translate into
increased revenue for the DMO. Indeed the reverse situation
has occurred at destinations where funding has been pulled by
the government, such as in Colorado for example.
As noted by Jevons (2005) the bottom line question that is
often unasked is whether our understanding of what brands
are, and what branding does, much clearer as a result of all
the research that has been published . . . . Certainly, from the
perspective of destination brand slogans, it is not. Almost
every destination uses a slogan, an indication they are
considered important, and yet published research remains
almost non-existent.

References
Curtis, J. (2001), Branding a state: the evolution of brand
Oregon, Journal of Vacation Marketing, Vol. 7 No. 1,
pp. 75-81.
Gold, J.R. and Ward, S.V. (1994), Place Promotion, John Wiley
& Sons, Chichester.
Henderson, J.C. (2000), Selling places: the new AsiaSingapore brand, in Robinson, M., Evans, N., Long, P.,
Sharpley, R. and Swarbrooke, J. (Eds), Management,
Marketing and the Political Economy of Travel and Tourism,
The Centre for Travel and Tourism, Sunderland,
pp. 207-18.
Jevons, C. (2005), Names, brands, branding beyond the
signs, symbols, products and services, Journal of Product
and Brand Management., Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 117-8.

Further reading
Pike, S. (2004), Destination Marketing Organisations, Elsevier,
Oxford.

259

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