A typology of organisational stakeholder engagement with place brand identity

ABSTRACT

This study explores how stakeholders engage with a place brand identity (PBI) in the context of country branding. This research extends beyond the importance and challenges of stakeholder brand engagement with place brand identity by exploring several typology of stakeholder engagement with PBI. A case study approach using semi-structured interviews with 39 senior-level representatives from national Australian organisations was adopted to explore how internal stakeholders in Australia are engaged with the current PBI initiative in Australia: Australia Unlimited (AU). A typology of stakeholder engagement with a PBI, including philosophical and concrete engagement was identified. Stakeholders’ philosophical engagement is reflected by their moral support, future engagement intention, as well as positive word-of-mouth (WOM) behaviour. Concrete engagement, on the other hand, is reflected by place brand partnership and internalisation of PBI in the organisations’ strategy. The research findings offer practical ways for place brand managing organisations (PBMO) to enhance stakeholder engagement with a PBI. The identification of multicomponent nature of PBI from the research findings allows PBMO to identify which PBI component lacks stakeholder support in order to make necessary improvements. Further, identification of the typology of stakeholder engagement with PBI provides alternative strategies of how stakeholder engagement can be managed.     

The end of silence? Qualitative findings on corporate auditory identity from the UK

Sensory dimensions of corporate identity such as auditory identity are nearly absent in academic literature so far. This paper addresses this shortage by presenting qualitative findings from interviews with brand consultants and managers on the nascent topic of auditory identity. Findings include, inter alia, strong support for the construct definition of auditory identity as proposed in this paper. Moreover, factors driving corporate auditory identity management at an organisation are examined. Furthermore, based on the conceptual similarity between visual and auditory identity consequences as perceived by managers are discussed. Moreover, findings addressing type of company, type of business and industry sector are presented. Finally, findings advocating corporate auditory identity as a valid ingredient of corporate identity management are presented and academic and managerial implications are given.     

Place as a site and item of consumption: an exploratory study

While places are recognized as sites of consumption within the field of consumer behaviour, they have yet to be generally accepted as forms of consumption. This study investigates the idea of place as a consumption object by comparing conceptions of city and country within a cross‐cultural sample. Thirty‐six consumers living in the US, the UK and Australia were interviewed to explore their thoughts and feelings relating to the cities and countries in which they reside. The findings provide empirical support for key conceptualizations of place in the sociology literature and extend consumer behaviour theory to include considerations of the physical, social and cultural aspects of place that impact upon consumption. In addition, the findings portray places as entities that are assessed, selected and experienced in comparable ways to products.     

Do violent movies scare away potential visitors?

This study explored movie transportation's role in the relationship between movie watching and tourism. Based on the transportation theory, the results indicated that movie transportation (i.e., movie immersion) had a significant impact on the viewers' affective place images, cognitive place images, and visitation interest. Regardless of movie content, the more the movie viewers were transported, the more favorable impressions they had for the featured tourism sites and consequently the more interested they were in traveling to the target place. Moreover, the results also demonstrated that movie transportation did weaken violent movie content's influence. Particularly, for the highly transported audience, there were no significant differences between the movie groups in terms of their perceptions of place images. However, significant differences were found among the audience that was not well transported. Finally, this study found that both affective place image and cognitive place image could enhance the viewers' visitation interest.     

Gender identity and brand incongruence: when in doubt,pursue masculinity

Gender identity is the extent to which an individual identifies with masculine or feminine personality traits. Sex roles in Western societies continue to evolve, so this research examines the developing relationship between gender identity and consumer responses to gendered branding. Grounded in self-congruency theory [Sirgy, M. J. (1982). Self-concept in consumer behavior: A critical review. Journal of Consumer Research, 9, 287–300], the present research reports an experiment that supports a congruence relationship between gender identity and brand response. Masculine consumers prefer masculine brands. The results also show incongruent brand rejection where masculine consumers react negatively to feminine brands although feminine consumers are more accepting of masculine brands. Further, the results suggest that gender identity is a more effective dimension for customer segmentation than biological sex. Overall, the results suggest that masculine brands are more effective than other gendered brand profiles for masculine, feminine, and androgynous consumers.     

The Corporate Identity Management Process Revisited

This paper has two objectives. It attempts firstly to define a number of related concepts in the corporate identity management process and secondly, to update one of the earlier models of this process. Recent developments in the corporate identity management theory are discussed and models of this process are reviewed. An up-to-date model of the corporate identity management process is proposed.     

Thin-slicing Tremé as a subjective sashay: heretical pilgrimages to St. Augustine Catholic Church

ABSTRACT

Five heretical field researchers celebrate human subjectivity in a fractured journey toward St. Augustine Catholic Church in the heart of Tremé in September 2015. They populate their diverse pentagonal thoughts with Mary Douglas’ negotiated concepts of purity and pollution, rituals and symbols as a counterweight in their backpacks. Some are inspired by the theatrical mythologies of the guides who take them there, others are stopped in their track by the residual devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Some stop to wonder at Nicolas Cage’s future resting place, others line up at food-trucks to add smells and taste to Tremé’s mediated precreation. Some frame it as a battle ground of past and present injustice, others acknowledge the strife inside the dirty tourist. The thin-sliced meanings acquired on the boulevards to St. Augustine Catholic Church provide a touch of truthfulness, in the idiosyncratic segments, and the spirited spaces in between.     

Measuring customer-based place brand equity (CBPBE): an investment attractiveness perspective

Place branding has increasingly gained attention in last the two decades. However, there is a lack of measuring instrument for place branding effectiveness and subsequent place brand equity. This study develops a measurement instrument for customer-based place brand equity (CBPBE) for a place from the investment attractiveness perspective. Exploratory factor analysis followed by confirmatory factor analysis were used which resulted in an 11-item CBPBE scale. The dimensions of the scale consist of brand awareness, brand image, perceived quality, and brand loyalty. The study makes both theoretical and managerial contributions by offering a refined scale for the measurement of CBPBE which provides a tool for effective place branding activities and strategies.