Differentiating Destinations:Exploring the challenges of

branding regional mass tourism markets

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Australia’s 2006 branding campaign

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Old vs New Tourist (Poon:1993)

OLDInexperiencedHomogeneous

PredictableSun-lust

Security in numbersSuperiority

Escape

NEWMatureHybrid

SpontaneousSun-plus

Want to be differentUnderstanding

Extension of life

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Features of New Tourism (Poon:1993)

• Production of travel services are not dominated by economies of scale alone but also by economies of scope

• Production is driven by the requirements of consumers

• The holiday is marketed to individuals with different needs, incomes, time constraints and travel interests

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Marketing and Branding Destinations

• A key aim of marketing activity is to differentiate products of the same category.

• Effective, branding activities highlight the differentiated value of destinations within the context of competitors in the market.  

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Benefits of Cooperative Branding

• Cooperative branding may ‘build a stronger destination identity for an individual country’.

• Cooperative branding may result in more favourable brand associations for the region in the market. (Cai:2002:737)

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Individual Destination Branding & Cooperative Branding

Cooperative branding tends to be more successful when each destination in the region ‘acquires a unique and interesting image of its own and the image sells’.

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The ASEAN Tourism Brand

The ten destinations of South East Asia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam have embarked on a cooperative branding strategy.

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ASEAN’S PERFECT 10 Paradise

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Partners & Competitors By “twinning” itself

with its competitors, the perceived lack of cultural attractions in Singapore may be more than supplemented by its neighbours’ such that “collective” attractiveness and collective competitiveness” of the region are enhanced.

 

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Challenges of Destination Marketing

• Complexity of the tourism product

• Destination marketer as little control over the components of the product

• Diverse views of stakeholders

• Selecting key attributes to represent the brand

• Building a unified, meaningful representation of the destination’s core values

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Functional and Symbolic Brand Image

On the functional imagefunctional image level the product is evaluated in terms of its tangible or physical attributes

At the other level, the brand is evaluated in terms of the symbolicsymbolic benefits that is associated with the brand image

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RESEARCH GOAL

An exploratory study to determine the extent to which the unique traits and holiday experiences (brand identity) of the ASEAN member countries were differentiated in their presentation of individual country logo, images, slogans and general information on their official tourism homepages

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Study Method

• Homepages were analysed by two independent coders to measure image attributes of the destinations displayed online.

At the time of the study Cambodia and Viet Nam were not available and so were excluded from the study.

• Destination attributes were measured for frequency counts while the brand identity communicated by logos, slogans, pictures and narrative were measured using a five point semantic scale

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List of Destination Attributes Coded

• Landscape: coastal, rivers, mountains, waterfalls, rural, urban, flora & fauna, Built Environment, Other

• People: Locals, tourists, both local and tourists, None, Other

• Activities: Water-based, land-based recreation, dining, festivals, nightlife, shopping, relaxing, Other, None

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Findings – similar emphasis/pattern of

destination attributes Of the landscape attributes, coastal was the most dominant at 50% with the Built Environment second at 43%

Land-based activities were more dominant at 66% than water-based activities

• Myanmar did not feature people on homepage

• Philippines and Thailand featured festivals

• Most homepages featured both locals and tourists at 43% - locals in traditional dress at 25%

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Logo and Slogans Occurrence on Homepages

Most Homepages had both logos and slogans- only Thailand did not display both, while Indonesia only featured a destination logo

Logonly sloganonly Both None

Brandlogo

0

2

4

6

8

10

Count

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Findings of Competitive Attributes (Enright & Newton 2005)

• Geographical information -

• Culture & History• Business• Events• Architecture

• Local People• Accommodation• Shopping • Cuisine• VFR

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Findings – Symbolic and Functional Brand Identity

The Information on Homepage is mainly Physical attribute focussed 2.1875Experience focussed 3.8125Unemotional 3.0Persuasive 3.00  The destination logo is Symbolic 2.5Utilitarian 3.5Factual 2.5Emotive 3.5  

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Findings – Homepage Attributes

Dominant images were pristine, developed infrastructure and the exotic

It was somewhat surprising that culture and heritage did not score higher. It is likely that the identity of ‘New Asia’ is being demonstrated by a tendency to highlight the development and progress of these societies while not abandoning the wealth of their traditions.

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Summary of findings

• Destinations tended to tell similar stories concerning their brands and tend to replicate each other’s focus and emphasis in branding.

• Although they may share similar assets and attributes, they also differ in product strengths-but these distinctions were not highlighted.

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Conclusions

The findings show that selectivity of key consistent, differentiated brand elements are not evident across the respective homepage presentations.

The underlying concept of commonality defines the regional branding strategy.

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Conclusions

These findings also indicate the pervasiveness of mass touristic images and branding strategies with an emphasis on similarities.

Poon’s new tourism is not supported in terms of branding and self representation of the New Asia.

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Thanks for your attention

QUESTIONS