Place marketing

1
Place marketing experience economy

• Branding Experience Economy
• 10 March 2006 / AT

2
Content

• A typology of places
• Place branding
• suppliers, products, customers
• strategic market planning process
• attracting investors, residents, tourist
• Place branding potentials challenges
• Case Aalborg
• an image study in practise
• Branding Aalborg
• Means to place branding events films

3
A typology of places success or crisis (Kotler
et al. 1999)

• 1. Dying/chronically depressed places
• old industry-based unemployment, brain-drain,
  abandonned houses etc
• 2. Acutely depressed places
• characteristics like above but with potential for
  revival (historical/cultural/commercial assets)
• 3. Healthy recovery places
• changing a crisis into recovery through effective
  place marketing, from old to new industries
• 4. Boom bust places
• focus on single industries
• 5. Favoured few places
• can rely on a historically strong image, place
  marketing unnecessary?

4
(Kotler et al. 1999, p.17)
5
Strategic market planning process (ibid.)

• Place audit
• Identifying place attraction factors,competitors,t
  rends
• Classification of strengths/weaknesses,
  opportunities/threats
• Establish main issues to be addressed
• Vision goals
• Identify attraction factors to be sold
• Identify target markets
• Long-term and short-term goals
• Strategy formulation
• Competitive advantages and resources to be
  evaluated continuously
• Action plan
• Who is responsible, how is the action to be
  implemented, costs, completion date
• Implementation control
• Regular reviews of communitys progress towards
  its goals

6
(No Transcript)
7
Attracting residents(Kotler et al. 1999)

• Attractive job market
• Tax reductions
• Attractive housing
• High educational quality
• High quality social welfare reasonable costs
  (daycare, health service etc)
• Cultural offers
• Relocation services (finding acc,, schools,
  spouse jobs)
• Welcoming attitude towards newcomers

8
Attracting tourists.(ibid.)

• Sea, sun, sand - relaxation
• Natural beauty/wilderness
• Culture/history
• Events/sports/gaming
• Theme parks
• Food/restaurants
• Special interests/ unique products
• Low prices
• Facilities/hotels

9
Attracting businesses(ibid.)

• Labour force (low cost or highly skilled)
• Tax climate (low taxes or modest/high service)
• Land/buildings (cheap or high quality/service)
• Limited bureaucracy
• Innovative, partnership oriented business
  environment
• Reliable transportation, energy supply
  communication network
• Quality housing schools
• Cultural recreation offers

10
Place images tourist/investor/resident appeal
Resident appeal
(Therkelsen Halkier 2004)
11
Place branding - potentials

• Adding feelings/values/experiences to a place
• Creating identification with the consumer
• Speaking with one voice clear message
• Economy of scale developing one concept for
  many actors
• Useful strategic / analytical framework
• developing marketing strategy
• analyses of identity, image, positioning

12
Place branding - challenges

• A mix of different elements difficult to create
  common, clear profile
• Many interests involved to create ownership
  consensus
• Different customers with different interests
• Customers image influenced by many
  uncontrollable sources
• Local population important to involve difficult
  to control
• Often limited resources

13
Locals Interests

• City brands which reflect only the cleaned up
  croissant and cappuccino urbanity of a rising
  urban middle class will not be in unison with the
  true existing living conditions of larger parts
  of the urban population. They will, in the worst
  case, actively oppose the branding strategy and
  the associated restructuring policy, with the
  consequence that city authorities may achieve the
  opposite of what they set out to (Mommaas, 2002,
  p.42).

14
Locals Interests (cont.)

• a manner of introducing order and certainty
  into what is in principle a chaotic reality.
  Branding provides people, things and events with
  a markwhich makes them appear to be part of a
  whole. Seen in this way brands are not purely a
  source of differentiation, but also of
  identification, recognition, continuity and
  collectivity (Mommaas, 2002 p.34).

15
Image study - Aalborg

• Three groups
• Experienced Aalborg citizens
• Danish newcomers/commuters
• Foreign newcomers
• Assignment
• If Aalborg was an animal, what animal would it
  be?
• With point of departure in this question the
  group is to identify 4 characteristics that
  summarize their understanding of Aalborg as place
  to live in.

16
Events - a means to place positioning

• Olympic Games (Barcelona 1992)
• World Expo (Seville 1992)
• European Song Contest
• EU Cultural Capital
• Multiple target groups
• Participants spectators --- tourists
• Future tourists, residents, businesses

17
Films a means to place positioning(Piggott et
al. 2004)

• credible and create attention
• alternative way of communicating ones message
• a fit between the image of the film and the image
  of the place
• the economic value of an event to the host city
  or region is often predicted on the media
  attention that the event obtains (ibid. p.209)

18
Further readings

• Mommaas H. (2002) City branding. The necessity
  of socio-cultural goals. In Vermeulen (ed) City
  branding. Image building building images.
  Rotterdam Nai Uitgevers
• Therkelsen A., Halkier H. (2004) Umbrella Place
  Branding. A study of friendly exoticism and
  exotic friendliness in co-ordinated national and
  investment promotion SPIRIT discussion paper
  no.26, Aalborg University
• Piggott R., Morgan N., Pritchard A. (2004). New
  Zealand and The Lord of the Rings leveraging
  public and media relations. In Morgan, Pritchard,
  Pride (eds). Destination branding. Creating the
  unique destination proposition. Oxford Elsevier
  Butterworth-Heinemann