measuring the vertical and horizontal integration of new ... · the outcome of the vertical...

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Measuring the Vertical and Horizontal __Integration of New Harmony’s Brand Image_

Dr. Perry Burnett [email protected]

Dr. Chad Milewicz

[email protected]

Romain College of Business Research in this report was funded and completed as part of a 2013-14 USI New

Harmony Outreach and Engagement Faculty Fellowship

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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I. INTRODUCTION

New Harmony, celebrating its bicentennial in 2014, is a nationally recognized town located in

Southwest Indiana with a distinct heritage as a utopian community and an economic structure in

which a significant portion of revenue into the city is generated from tourism. The amount of

tourism is, in part, dependent on outsiders’ perceptions of New Harmony. These perceptions

make up the city’s brand image. Potential visitors’ brand image of New Harmony and their

experiences, actual or anticipated, associated with visiting New Harmony can influence the

town’s overall tourism value. This project sets out to inform New Harmony about its existing

brand image and perceived tourism value.

Historic New Harmony, a joint program of the University of Southern Indiana and the Indiana

State Museum and Historic Sites, awarded the 2013-2014 USI Historic New Harmony Outreach

and Engagement Fellowship Awards to Dr. Perry Burnett, assistant professor of economics, and

Dr. Chad Milewicz, assistant professor of marketing. This fellowship award funded this research

project. The project’s stated purpose is to measure the integration of the town’s brand image both

internally among the town’s different stakeholders (vertical integration) and externally across

geographic and demographic characteristics of the surrounding region (horizontal integration).

The outcome of the vertical integration study, presented here, is an assessment and visual

representation of internal stakeholders’ views of the town’s brand image and the town’s ongoing

branding processes. The outcome of the horizontal integration analysis, also presented here, is a

snapshot of elements of New Harmony’s brand image across geographic and demographic

groups of external stakeholders (i.e., potential visitors). We also present the results of statistical

analyses which seek to explain relationships between New Harmony’s brand image, perceived

tourism value, and potential visitors’ intentions to visit New Harmony in the next year. This

report also includes some recommendations for using this data and the results of the analyses.

Overall, this report may provide several benefits to New Harmony. First, it seeks to provide an

increased understanding of the town’s internal branding perceptions across stakeholders. This

can potentially support a common vision of how to market New Harmony in the future and

increase social capital through this shared vision. Second, it sets out to improve the town’s

understanding of how external stakeholders’ perceive New Harmony. This can lead to

recommendations that may potentially increase marketing planning efficiency and effectiveness,

hopefully contributing to increases in tourism. The information in this report may also provide

useful information for future grant writing. Of course, these are potential benefits of the study

and not guarantees.

The organization of this report is as follows. Section II provides an overview of select academic

studies of city branding. This section sets out the theoretical foundation and motivation of the

current study. Section III describes the methodology and documents the data collection

procedures. Section IV is a discussion of the results of the data analysis (data tables and figures

are in the Appendixes). Section V provides some recommendations and opportunities for future

studies.

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II. THEORETICAL MODELS OF BRAND IMAGE

In a seminal paper, Chen and Tsai (2007) propose an Integrated Tourist Behavior Model

(ITBM). Their model, shown in Figure 1, establishes destination brand image and perceived

value into the general quality-satisfaction-travel intention model. Their theoretical and empirical

research indicates that destination brand image may directly impact future travel intentions or

may impact these decisions through its influence on perceptions of trip value and overall

satisfaction. Their research and others suggests that destination brand image can influence

tourists’ initial travel decision and post-travel behaviors of tourists. Thus, understanding a

destinations image and endeavoring to build or improve the image can have a positive effect on

tourists revisiting a destination and recommending it to others. As such, Chen and Tsai (2007)

and others argue that destination brand image is “critical to the success of destination tourism

development.”

Figure 1: Integrated Tourism Behavior Model

Brand image’s indirect impact on travel intentions begins by setting a tourist’s expectations of

the trip. Because people often seek to confirm their expectations, higher expectations can lead to

higher perceptions of overall trip quality and vice versa. As actual trip quality exceeds

expectations, this generally leads to higher overall satisfaction with the tourism experience.

However, it is important to understand that tourists evaluate trip quality relative to the costs of

the trip, such as monetary, time, and effort costs. In other words, the trip’s benefits must

outweigh its costs to generate a positive perceived trip value for a tourist. Chen and Tsai (2007)

summarize the impact of perceived trip value in this way: “by better understanding how tourists

value their trip experience, tourism managers could be able to devise more effective marketing

strategies and service delivery [of that value] to meet tourist’s actual needs.”

Destination

Brand Image

Trip

Quality

Future Travel

Intentions

Overall

Satisfaction

Perceived

Value

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There are various dimensions of tourism value. For example, Petrick and Backman (2002)

suggest that towns look at five dimensions: quality, monetary price, non-monetary price,

reputation, and emotional. Other scholars suggest that towns consider value dimensions such as

social, emotional, functional, epistemic, and conditional value (Sheth, Newman, and Gross,

1991). Whichever dimensions a town decides it wants to provide, the key is to recognize that

tourists will be most satisfied with a trip when the destination not only delivers on expected

value dimensions but also exceeds these expectations. Exceeding expectations adds perceived

value. Marketing theorists often describe top levels of added value as creating customer delight.

Economic theorists categorize the top level of added value as providing transformations (Pine

and Gilmore 1999).

In addition to considering the key factors of destination brand image and perceived trip value in

our study, we also tried to incorporate research specific to small town tourism. For example,

Prideaux’s (2002) research considers the uniqueness and isolation of peripheral areas and finds

that the viability of peripheral tourism is dependent on perceived access factors and local

community support. That study focuses on the small town of Burra near Adelaide, South

Autralia, which remains a viable heritage tourism attraction. Prideaux (2002) states that

“uniqueness is likely to be the single most important factor in creating the degree of interest

needed to overcome the problems of isolation and access.”

In other research, Hanna, Dale, and Ling (2009) study how a place’s brand image relates to its

social capital (i.e., community trust, cultural norms, and networks of potential and actual

resources that improve resiliency by facilitating coordinated actions). They study a small town,

Merritt, British Columbia, and suggest that a common image enhances social capital. They

propose that a shared vision leads to local economic development and continued viability.

Similarly, Kerr and Johnson (2005) review the brand strategy and management for another small

town, Bargo, Australia, and suggest it is critical for a place brand strategy to have support of the

local community, government, and business community along with public-private partnerships in

order for brand strategy to be effective. These last two studies point to the necessity of including

the vertical integration portion of our study in this project.

III. METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION

Intercept surveys were used to measure the horizontal integration of New Harmony’s brand

image. The survey instrument was designed to capture three different elements of New

Harmony’s image: its standard tourism image, a generic unique image, and New Harmony’s

desired unique image. Dr. Milewicz’s previous work on New Harmony’s brand was used to

derive New Harmony’s desired unique image. The specific elements of this unique image are

artistic, inspiring, and peaceful. In reference to Prideaux (2002), general accessibility (isolation)

was also measured.

This study sought to measure four dimensions of perceived value: economic, entertainment,

experiential, and transformational, using three measures per dimension. Various travel behaviors

and intentions were also measured including a general travel disposition, recommendation

likelihood and information search along with the traditional measures. In addition, we measured

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overall evaluations of New Harmony to capture the satisfaction construct, and we measured

demographic and geographic data for each respondent.

The intercept surveys were collected at “general population” locations around Evansville,

Indiana. “General population” locations can be defined as locations in which a typical resident

of the area would attend. The surveys were collected by students in Dr. Burnett’s courses with

IRB approval. This data collection process was relevant to course topics, so it generated buy-in

from participating students. To further ensure that survey collection was valid, a two-step

process was used. First, students were presented with two assignment choices, a survey and a

non-survey option, where each choice earned identical points towards the class. Students were,

therefore, not required to collect surveys. Second, before the surveys were collected for analysis,

each student reported, anonymously, in writing if she collected the surveys according to

specified guidelines. Only those surveys that were collected according the guidelines were used

in this report. Because students received credit for collecting the surveys before affirming their

adherence to the guidelines and because the affirmation was done anonymously, there is little

plausible reason to doubt the validity of the data used in analysis. This data was collected

between October and November, 2013.

The portion of the survey instrument used to measure the vertical integration of New Harmony’s

brand image and internal stakeholders’ perceptions of New Harmony’s tourism value used the

same design and questions as that given to external members. This allows us to also compare

internal and external perceptions of brand image and perceived value. In addition to this portion,

a second portion of the internal survey measured respondents’ attitudes about branding New

Harmony, beliefs about their ability to impact the town’s brand, and their beliefs about various

stakeholder groups’ beliefs about branding the town. Additional questions also captured some

demographic about respondents and each respondent’s self-reported association with New

Harmony.

Historic New Harmony Board Members were invited to participate in an electronic version of the

survey via an email sent from Connie Weinzapfel, Director of Historic New Harmony. Dr.

Milewicz also distributed paper copies of the internal survey instrument and invited participation

from internal stakeholders at a meeting for employees of the New Harmony Visitors Center and

at a meeting of New Harmony Business Associates. Additionally, paper copies of the survey

were distributed to elected officials and other internal stakeholders who could not attend either of

these two meetings. All participants responded to the same survey instrument, rather it was done

on paper or electronically. This data was collected in January and February, 2014.

In all, 484 valid surveys were collected from the external data collection, and 57 valid surveys

were collected from the internal data collection. The aggregated descriptions for participants in

each group of respondents are provided in Tables 1-4 in Appendix 1. Because the sampling

methods were not random, the generalizability of the results should be interpreted with caution

and the statistical sampling error cannot be measured. Additionally, as Table 2 shows, the

number of external respondents from some geographic locations is very low, so interpretation of

results from these areas should be viewed with added caution. Overall, we believe the internal

and external samples are relatively representative of important stakeholder groups.

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IV. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

External Perceptions of New Harmony’s Brand Image (Appendix 2: Figure 2 – Figure 5)

We set out to measure three different elements of New Harmony’s image: its standard tourism

image (safe, friendly, fun), a generic unique image (the town is different), and New Harmony’s

desired unique image (peaceful, artistic, inspiring). In addition, considering the general

challenges of small towns and those specific to New Harmony, we also set out to measure

perceptions of the town’s image relative to access (easy to get to, easy to get information about,

and beliefs that the businesses have good hours). The overall external results for these measures

are in Figure 2. The results broken down by geographic location of respondents are shown in

Figures 3a-3c. The results broken down by select demographic information about respondents

are shown in Figures 4a-4c. Below, we first discuss the results shown in these figures, then we

draw some final conclusions about New Harmony’s external brand image based on these results.

Overall Brand Image: On average, external respondents indicate that New Harmony is best

described as peaceful, safe, artistic, and friendly (see Figure 2).There is a statistically significant

difference between external respondents’ average level of agreement that these words describe

New Harmony’s image and the next set of descriptors (different, fun, inspiring, easy to get

information about, and easy to get to). There is also a statistically significant difference between

external respondents’ average level of agreement that this second set of words describe New

Harmony’s image their agreement that the businesses have good hours.

Brand Image by Geography: Figure 3a shows how perceptions of the top four image descriptors

break down based on where respondents live. We see that, among these image descriptors, there

is a notable difference across geographic areas.

Respondents in Vanderbugh, Gibson, and Warrick counties tend to hold similar images of New

Harmony along these descriptors. The only notable difference is that Gibson County respondents

appear to think of the town as more peaceful than respondents in the other two counties.

One can also see that respondents in north Posey have a notably different image of New

Harmony along each of these descriptors, with exception of its “artistic” image.

Respondents in Illinois, Dubois, and Vigo counties tend to think of New Harmony’s brand image

more similarly to respondents from Posey County than to respondents from Vanderbugh, Gibson,

and Warrick counties. In contrast, respondents from Kentucky tend to hold images more similar

to members of Vanderbugh, Gibson, and Warrick counties.

Overall, it appears that Indiana residents’ image of New Harmony tend to be less defined by

these four descriptors the farther away they live from Posey County.

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These general patterns of geographic differences in respondents’ perceptions of New Harmony’s

brand image tend to hold true for the “different,” “fun,” and “inspiring” descriptors (see, Figure

3b) and for the access-related descriptors, “easy to get to,” easy to get information about,” and

“businesses have good hours” (see, Figure 3c).

Brand Image by Demographic: Male respondents report greater agreement than female

respondents that New Harmony’s brand image can be described as “artistic,” “friendly,” “fun,”

and “inspiring.” There are no statistically significant differences between these two genders’

images of New Harmony along the other descriptors (see, Figure 4a).

In general, the older a respondent is, the more likely they were to agree that each brand image

descriptor represented New Harmony. For most descriptors, respondents who are 35 and older

tend to have similar images of New Harmony, and respondents 34 and younger tend to have

similar images. The only exception to this trend is in New Harmony’s image as a “different kind

of place.” For that descriptor, agreement is strongest among respondents 55-years-old and over,

with a notable drop off to the 35-54 age group and again to the 18 – 34 age group (see, Figure

4b).

Figure 4c shows differences in brand image perceptions based upon relationship status. These

trends are relatively similar to those seen when the responses are broken down by age, with

“married” or “widow” respondents having strong agreement about each descriptor than those

who are “single” or are a “couple.” However, it is worth noting that married people think of New

Harmony as much more fun than any other relationship-status group.

Brand Image by Frequency of Visiting New Harmony: Our results indicate that people who visit

New Harmony at least once a year tend to hold very similar images of New Harmony.

Additionally, respondents who have never visited New Harmony have very week associations

with New Harmony’s brand image. (see, Figure 5).

Overall Brand Image Conclusions: Based on the data we collected, it appears that the strongest

descriptors of New Harmony’s brand image in external stakeholders’ minds are “safe,”

“friendly,” (both standard tourism images) “peaceful,” and “artistic” (both part of New

Harmony’s desired unique image). On average, New Harmony’s brand image is likely to be

viewed as “different,” “fun,” or “inspiring.” Regarding its image as being accessible, the lowest

ranking descriptor is that “businesses have good hours.”

We do identify evidence of differences in New Harmony’s brand image based on geography.

With few exceptions, the top four image descriptors are generally stronger among respondents in

Posey County, Illinois, and Dubois counties than they are in Vanderburgh, Gibson, and Warrick

counties and Kentucky. In general, these top four image descriptors tend to be weaker the farther

away live from Posey County.

We also find some evidence of differences in New Harmony’s brand image based on

demographics. Where gender difference exist, males respondent tend to hold stronger images

than females. Age and marital-status differences tend to follow similar trends, with older

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respondents and married respondents have having stronger images than their counterparts.

Finally, it seems that respondents’ form their image of New Harmony after multiple visits.

Respondents who have never visited the town report very neutral brand images.

External Perceptions of New Harmony’s Tourism Value (Appendix 2: Figure 6a – Figure 6d)

We set out to measure four dimensions of perceived tourism value:

economic value (value for the cost to visit, value for the time to visit, value for the effort

to visit),

entertainment value (value for places to go, value for activities to do, value for

entertainment options),

experiential value (value for offering a beautiful setting, value for offering a relaxing

atmosphere, and value for offering a unique experience), and

transformational value (value for helping me learn about myself, value for personal

growth, and value for helping me become who I want to be).

In our analysis, we revealed that the “value for entertainment options” questions appeared to be

not well understood, so we do not report its results, here. Also, an exploratory factor analysis

revealed that the external respondents viewed these questions as representing two dimensions of

tourism value, not four. Thus, we report our results in the following way.

Perceived overall tourism value: the overall economic, entertainment, and experiential

value of visiting New Harmony (see, Figures 6a and 6c)

Perceived transformational tourism value: the transformational value of visiting New

Harmony (see, Figures 6b and 6c)

Perceived Overall Tourism Value: On average, external respondents indicate that the top two

sources of value in visiting New Harmony is in the beautiful setting and the relaxing atmosphere

(see Figure 6a).There is a statistically significant difference between external respondents’

average rating of these elements of overall tourism value and the third highest source of value,

which is value based on offering a unique experience. There is also a statistically significant

difference between the perceived value for offering a unique experience, and the perceived value

relative to monetary cost, time to visit, and effort to visit. Respondents reported the places to go

and the activities to do provide the least amount of overall tourism value.

Perceived Transformational Value: On average, external respondents indicate lower perceived

transformational value in visiting New Harmony than they do overall tourism value (see Figure

6b). The difference between perceived transformational value and overall tourism value is

statistically significant.

Perceived Tourism Value by Geography: We do not report either component of perceived

tourism value by geography in a figure. However, the results follow these same trends as those

found in the brand image data.

Perceived Tourism Value by Demographic: We do not report either component of perceived

tourism value by demographic in a figure. Regarding gender, we find that males perceive a

statistically higher level of value in each of the overall tourism value elements. We find no

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differences based on gender among perceptions of the transformational value elements. That

same trend is also found according to age (older = greater perceived value in overall tourism

components) and relationship status (married = greater perceived value in overall tourism

components).

Perceived Overall Tourism Value by Frequency of Visiting New Harmony: Our results indicate

that people who visit New Harmony at least once a year tend to hold very similar perceptions of

overall tourism value. These respondents’ value perceptions tend to mirror the overall averages

trends in value perceptions noted in Figure 6a. In contrast, respondents who have never visited

New Harmony have low perceptions of overall tourism value New Harmony provides (see,

Figure 6c).

Perceived Transformational Tourism Value by Frequency of Visiting New Harmony: Our

results indicate that people who visit New Harmony a few times a year or more perceive

significantly higher levels of transformational tourism value relative to those who visit about

once per year or less. Overall, it appears that respondents’ perceptions of the transformational

tourism value of visiting New Harmony are closely related to the frequency with which they visit

the town (see, Figure 6d).

Overall Brand Image Conclusions: External respondents in this study perceived higher overall

tourism value than they do transformational tourism value in visiting New Harmony. The highest

value is perceived in the beautiful settings New Harmony offers and in its relaxing atmosphere.

On average, the other elements of overall tourism value are perceived just slightly above

average. None of the transformational tourism value elements are perceived as being more than

slightly above average, and perceptions of these elements only tend to be above average among

respondents who visit a few times a year or more.

We do identify evidence of differences in respondents’ perceptions of the overall tourism value

provided by New Harmony based on gender, age, relationships status, and geography. However,

these factors do not appear to be related to respondents’ perceptions of the transformational

tourism value of visiting New Harmony.

External Respondents’ Travel Intentions (Appendix 2: Figure 7)

Travel Intentions by Geography: For each geographical area represented in our sample, we

analyzed respondents’ intentions to travel out of town for pleasure in the coming year, and their

intentions to travel to New Harmony in the coming year. Figure 7 shows the comparisons of our

samples’ average responses for each measure. On average, most respondents, with the exceptions

of those from Spencer and Floyd counties, report that they are likely to travel out of town for

pleasure in the next year. However, only respondents from Posey County and areas of Illinois

south of I-64 report, on average, that they are likely to visit New Harmony. Respondents from

areas close to New Harmony report being relatively uncertain about traveling to New Harmony

in the next year. The exceptions to this trend are from respondents Illinois, North of I-64.

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Overall Travel Intentions Conclusions: Respondents in areas within a 1-hour drive to New

Harmony report they are likely to travel out of town, but that they are relatively uncertain if those

trips will include New Harmony.

External vs. Internal Brand Image and Tourism Value Perceptions (Appendix 3: Figures 8 - 10)

Internal & External Brand Image Comparisons: As shown in Figure 8, we find a statistically

significant difference in internal and external respondents’ perceptions of several elements of

New Harmony’s brand image. Internal respondents think of the town as notably more peaceful,

safe, artistic, friendly, different, fun, and inspiring than do external participants. In contrast,

external participants have better perceptions about business hours in New Harmony than do

internal participants.

Internal & External Perceived Overall Tourism Value Comparisons: As shown in Figure 9, we

find a statistically significant difference in internal and external respondents’ perceptions of four

out of eight elements of New Harmony’s overall tourism value. Internal respondents perceive the

town as providing notably higher value in relation to its beautiful setting, relaxing atmosphere,

unique experience, and the places to go than do external participants.

Internal & External Perceived Transformational Tourism Value Comparisons: As shown in

Figure 10, we find a statistically significant difference in internal and external respondents’

perceptions of all three elements of New Harmony’s transformational tourism value. On average,

internal respondents perceive the town as providing notably higher value in relation to its

transformational value than do external participants.

Overall Internal & External Brand Image Conclusions: On average, external respondents do not

hold as strong of opinions about New Harmony’s image as do internal respondents. It is

important to note that external participants’ image of New Harmony is less strong than internal

participants’ image on many desired brand image elements. It is encouraging that external

respondents tend to agree that New Harmony’s image represents much of what the internal

members believe the town represents, even if they agree about these elements less than internal

respondents.

Overall Internal & External Perceived Tourism Value Conclusions: On average, external

respondents do not perceive as high a level of value as do internal respondents on several

elements of overall tourism value. Also, on average, external respondents do not perceive as high

a level of value as do internal respondents on all elements of transformational tourism value. The

largest gaps are in perceptions of transformational tourism value, the value of the town’s

beautiful setting and relaxing atmosphere, and the value in regards to having a unique experience

and having places to go.

Internal Stakeholders’ Branding Image Alignment (Appendix 4: Figures 11a – 11c)

Overall Internal Brand Image Alignment Conclusions: Overall, internal respondents have a well-

aligned brand image of New Harmony. As shown in Figures 11a to 11c, Overall there are only

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minimal differences in how business owners, Historic New Harmony Board members, local

employees, and other stakeholders describe the New Harmony’s image. The largest gaps across

groups tend to show up in relation to the stakeholders’ perceptions of how easy it is to get to the

town.

Internal Stakeholders’ Branding Process Attitudes and Beliefs (Appendix 4: Figures 12 - 14)

Internal Satisfaction with New Harmony’s Brand: As shown in Figure 12, on average various

internal stakeholder groups tend to have similarly low levels of satisfaction with New Harmony’s

brand image.

Internal Attitudes toward Branding New Harmony: As shown in Figure 13, on average various

internal stakeholder groups tend to have a positive attitude branding efforts for New Harmony.

Respondents from each group tend to agree that branding is helpful and necessary.

Internal Perceptions about Stakeholder Groups’ Beliefs about Branding New Harmony: As

shown in Figure 14, on average most internal stakeholder groups hold similar perceptions about

visitors’ consideration of New Harmony’s brand image and residents’ support for branding New

Harmony. A few differences between specific groups are apparent in these areas, though.

Specifically, participating employees’ are less likely to agree that visitors’ consider the town’s

brand image than do business owners. Also, HNH Board member respondents are less likely than

Business Owner respondents to agree that residents of New Harmony support branding efforts.

The most notable variation in perceptions is in regards to business owners’ thinking that

managing branding is important. While Business Owner respondents agree that they think

managing the town’s brand is important, other respondent groups do not report as high a level of

agreement with this belief.

Overall Internal Branding Process and Attitudes Conclusions: The data indicates that

respondents from each stakeholder group have a low level of satisfaction with New Harmony’s

current brand image. Across the internal stakeholder groups, respondents have positive attitudes

about branding New Harmony. However, the data also indicates some differences in how

respondents from various stakeholder groups perceive other stakeholder groups’ beliefs about

branding New Harmony.

Internal Stakeholders’ Intentions toward Branding New Harmony (Appendix 4: Figure 15)

Overall Internal Intentions toward Branding: As shown in Figure 15, respondents from each

stakeholder group tend to indicate that they will support branding efforts and that they will do

what they can to help. On average, the employee group of respondents reported slightly lower

intentions to do what they can to help the town’s image than did respondents from other groups.

Business Owner respondents and the group of “Other” respondents indicated the highest

intentions to help manage New Harmony’s brand. While nearly 40% of respondents of the HNH

Board reported strong intentions to help manage New Harmony’s brand, the average intentions

from this group are slightly lower than the average intentions reported by the top two groups.

Employee respondents stated the lowest overall intentions in this area.

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Testing the Integrated Tourism Behavior Model (Appendix 5: Tables 5 - 11)

We use the external data in this study to test relationships proposed in the Integrated Tourism

Behavior Model. We test these relationships by running several linear multiple regression

models and the results of these tests are shown in Tables 5 – 11. We discuss these results in this

section.

In our analysis, we use respondents’ average response to each of the three perceived

transformational tourism value measures to represent overall perceived transformational value.

Also, we do not include the “relaxing atmosphere” perceived overall tourism value element

because doing so caused measurement issues (i.e., multicollinearity) that negatively impacted the

interpretability of results. Instead of using this element in respective models, we use the

“beautiful setting” element. External respondents responses to these two elements are highlight

correlated (r = .756).

Our analysis of respondents’ intentions to visit New Harmony in the next year follows the

following logic:

What we examine first:

o Examine the direct influence of brand image and perceived tourism value on

intentions to visit.

o Examine the extent to which brand image and perceived tourism value influences

the overall evaluation of New Harmony.

o Examine the direct effect of respondents’ overall evaluation of New Harmony on

their intentions to visit.

Why we examine the above:

o If brand image and perceived value influence overall evaluations and overall

evaluations influence intentions to visit, then we will say that brand image and

brand value also have an indirect influence on intentions to visit (they impact

intentions indirectly through overall evaluations).

What we examine second:

o Examine if specific brand image components influence key elements of

respondents’ perceived value.

Why we examine the above:

o If specific elements of brand image influence specific elements of respondents’

perceived value, it can help the two evaluate which elements of their brand image

to invest in and promote in order to increase the respective elements of

respondents’ perceived tourism value of New Harmony.

Brand Image’s Direct Impact on Intentions to Visit New Harmony (Table 5): As shown in Table

5, the “fun” (β = .164, p < .05), “artistic” (β = .127, p < .10), “different” (β = .153, p < .05), and

“GoodHours” (β = .095, p < .10) elements of New Harmony’s brand image appear to have a

positive impact on respondents’ intentions to visit new Harmony in the next year. Overall, New

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Harmony’s brand image, respondents’ gender, and their age explain 22% of the variance in

respondents’ intentions to visit New Harmony in the next year.

Perceived Tourism Value’s Direct Impact on Intentions to Visit New Harmony (Table 6): As

shown in Table 6, the perceived overall tourism value elements related to “effort to visit” (β =

.133, p < .10), and offering a “unique experience” (β = .175, p < .05) appear to have a positive

impact on respondents’ intentions to visit New Harmony in the next year. Additionally,

respondents’ perceived “transformational value” (β = .111, p < .05) and the frequency of past

visits to New Harmony (β = .408, p < .05) appear to have a positive impact on respondents’

intentions to visit New Harmony in the next year. Overall, respondents’ perceived tourism value,

gender, age, and frequency of past visits to New Harmony explain 39% of the variance in

respondents’ intentions to visit New Harmony in the next year.

Brand Image’s Direct Impact on Overall Evaluation of New Harmony (Table 7): As shown in

Table 7, the “fun” (β = .162, p < .05), “different” (β = .098, p < .10), and “easy to get

information about” (β = .211, p < .05) elements of New Harmony’s brand image appear to have a

positive impact on respondents’ overall evaluation of New Harmony. Respondents’ age is also

positively related to their overall evaluation of New Harmony (β = .097, p < .05), indicating that

he older a respondent is the better higher their evaluation of New Harmony. Overall,

respondents’ brand image of New Harmony, their gender, and their age explain 32% of the

variance in respondents’ overall evaluation of New Harmony.

Perceived Tourism Value’s Direct Impact on Overall Evaluation of New Harmony (Table 8): As

shown in Table 8, the “effort to visit” (β = .171, p < .05) and “unique experience” (β = .141, p <

.05) elements of perceived overall tourism value are positively related to overall evaluations of

New Harmony. Additionally, respondents perceived overall transformational tourism value (β =

.144, p < .05) and frequency of past visits to New Harmony (β = .145, p < .05) appear to have a

positive impact on respondents’ overall evaluation of New Harmony. Again, respondents’ age is

also positively related to their overall evaluation of New Harmony (β = .102, p < .05). Overall,

respondents’ perceived tourism value of New Harmony, their gender, and their age, and their

frequency of visiting New Harmony explain 42% of the variance in respondents’ overall

evaluation of New Harmony.

Overall Evaluation’s Direct Impact on Intentions to Visit New Harmony (Table 9): As shown in

Table 9, respondents’ overall evaluation of New Harmony (β = .435, p < .05) and frequency of

past visits to the town (β = .332, p < .05) appear to explain their intentions to visit New Harmony

in the next year. Overall, these two variables explain 50% of the variance in respondents’

intentions to visit New Harmony in the next year.

Brand Image’s Direct Impact on Perceived “Unique Experience” Value of New Harmony (Table

10): As shown in Table 10, the “fun” (β = .144, p < .05), “artistic” (β = .313, p < .05), and “easy

to get information about” (β = .194, p < .05) elements of New Harmony’s brand image appear to

have a positive impact on respondents’ perception of New Harmony as offering tourism value by

providing a “unique experience.” The town’s image as “easy to get to” has a negative influence

on respondents’ perceptions that it offers value by providing a unique experience (β = -.136, p <

.05). Overall, these elements of respondents’ brand image of New Harmony, their gender, age,

Page | 14

and frequency of visiting New Harmony explain 41% of the variance in respondents’ perception

that the town offers tourism value by providing a “unique experience.”

Brand Image’s Direct Impact on Perceived “Transformational” Value of New Harmony (Table

11): As shown in Table 11, the “fun” (β = .119, p < .10), “inspiring” (β = .236, p < .05), “good

hours” (β = .284, p < .05), and “easy to get information about” (β = .161, p < .05) elements of

New Harmony’s brand image appear to have a positive impact on respondents’ perception of

New Harmony as offering transformational tourism value. Additionally, respondents frequency

of visiting the town has a positive influence their perception that the town provides

transformational tourism value (β = .191, p < .05) The town’s image as “easy to get to” has a

negative influence on respondents’ perceptions that it transformational value (β = -.136, p < .05).

Overall, these elements of respondents’ brand image of New Harmony, their gender, age, and

frequency of visiting New Harmony explain 28% of the variance in respondents’ perception that

the town offers transformational tourism value.

Examination of the Integrated Tourism Model Conclusions: Our analysis appears to support the

following conclusions related to the Integrated Tourism Model.

Respondents’ image of New Harmony as fun, artistic, different, and having good hours

has a direct influence on their intentions to visit New Harmony in the next year.

Respondents’ perception that New Harmony offers a unique experience, the ability to be

transformative, and is worth the effort to visit have a direct influence on their intentions

to visit New Harmony in the next year. Additionally, the more frequently respondents’

visited New Harmony in the past, the more likely they are to state intentions to visit in the

future.

Respondents’ brand image of New Harmony and their perceptions of New Harmony’s

tourism value also have an indirect influence on their intentions to visit the town in the

next year. These two components both indirectly influence visit intentions through their

impact on respondents’ overall evaluation of New Harmony.

New Harmony’s image as being fun, artistic, and different influences respondents’

perception that it offers tourism value by providing a unique experience.

New Harmony’s image as being fun, inspiring, and having good hours influences

respondents’ perception that it offers transformational tourism value.

V. RECOMMENDATIONS AND ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

Of first to note is that respondents who have never visited have very neutral brand images of

New Harmony which suggests that current and past marketing campaigns have not formed

lasting images on potential visitors, but rather visitors form their image of New Harmony after

multiple physical trips. In other words, New Harmony currently communicates its brand image

through physical visitation and it may take multiple physical trips to fully communicate its

desired image. This neutrality suggests that New Harmony has an opportunity to influence new

visitors’ image of New Harmony from the surrounding region potentially leading to more

tourists according to the ITB Model presented in Figure 1; however, New Harmony needs to be

more efficient in establishing its image once the visitor physically travels to New Harmony.

Page | 15

In regards to the brand image New Harmony needs to communicate, as it is correlated with

intention to visit, are the images of New Harmony as “fun”, “artistic” and “different”. The

perceived value of visiting New Harmony should concentrate on New Harmony providing a

“unique experience” and “transformational value” and whose businesses are accessible and open.

With regards to demographics, in general, male, older and married respondents perceive a higher

overall tourism value (economic, entertainment and experiential) and stronger agreement with

brand image. Research has found that in married couples, travel decisions are made together for

younger couples (less than 35 years old), but at age 35 the male generally makes travels

decisions until age 45 where the female is generally responsible for travel decisions until the

couple is in their 60s when it reverts back to a joint decision (Oliveria and Pereira 2008). Also

families (couples with children) are more likely to travel intrastate compared to singles, but

couples (married or not) are most likely to travel intrastate after the ages of 55 (Kattiyapornpong

and Miller 2008).

Given our results, marketing to attract more visitors may be more effective if concentrated on

females as they are the primary decision-maker for married couples over 45, though in our

results, females had less agreement with New Harmony as “fun”, “artistic”, “friendly” and

“inspiring”. A future study could further confirm and explore this gender difference.

Tourists from 45 to 64 years old prefer a social setting/environment (shopping and dining) and

tourist infrastructure on repeated visits (Beerli and Martin 2004). Older tourists prefer to

experience nature as scenery and value landscape and setting the most while engaging in passive

behavior (Oliveria and Pereira 2008). Well educated and married couples collect high amounts

of information prior to trip and are the most likely to purchase local products (Skuras, Dimara &

Petrou 2006).

For New Harmony to better establish its desired image to physical visitors, the research suggests

that businesses providing social settings such as shopping and dining should be easily accessible

and open. This should be combined with a well-defined and easily identifiable tourism

infrastructure that accommodates more passive behavior. In other words, New Harmony should

not expect its visitors to “seek out” its unique and transformational features, rather New

Harmony should expect to “seek out” passive and social visitors with it unique and

transformative features through a well-defined and easily identifiable tourism infrastructure. An

assessment of New Harmony’s current tourism infrastructure could provide valuable information

and reveal improvements that could accomplish a more efficient transference of its desired brand

image to physical visitors.

Once New Harmony has established its brand image to visitors, its perceived value of offering a

unique experience and providing transformational value are highly correlated with intention to

visit as well as a higher frequency of repeat visits. Our results provide a nuanced marketing

strategy in this area as these areas of perceived value are positivity correlated with ease of

information, but negatively correlated with ease of access. This implies that the unique and

transformational value of New Harmony could be due to its isolation, and that this isolation may

work to benefit New Harmony as long as there is adequate and accessible informative about the

events and happenings in New Harmony. This may suggest marketing New Harmony as an

Page | 16

escape, mystery, journey or a pilgrimage may increase its uniqueness and transformative value

while at the same time providing the needed access to information for repeat visits.

In regards to geographic marketing, our research indicates a potential opportunity to enhance

New Harmony’s image as artistic, fun, and unique in surrounding areas. While ratings on these

images were relative high in Posey County and areas of Illinois north of I-64, they were lower

among respondents from Vanderburgh, Warrick, and Gibson counties. Combined with the results

indicating that respondents in these areas are uncertain, but not unlikely, to visit New Harmony,

it appears that these markets can be influenced to visit New Harmony in the near future.

With internal marketing processes, our data suggests that internal stakeholders have relatively

similar views of the elements of New Harmony’s brand image and potential tourism value. We

also identify consistent, positive attitudes about the potential impact and need for branding

efforts and consistent, lower levels of satisfaction with New Harmony’s current brand status. It

appears that clarifying views of each stakeholder groups’ beliefs about marketing activities

across groups and continuously reinforcing each groups’ expected roles in marketing New

Harmony are areas that may benefit from greater attention.

Page | 17

REFERENCES

Beerli, Asuncion, and Josefa D. Martin. (2004). "Factors influencing destination image." Annals

of Tourism Research 31.3 (2004): 657-681.

Chen, C.-F., & Tsai, D. (2007). “How Destination Image and Evaluative Factors Affect

Behavioral Intentions?” Tourism Management, 28, 1115–1122.

Hanna, K. S., Dale, A. & Ling, C. (2009). “Social Capital and Quality of Place: Reflections of

Growth and Change in a Small Town.” Local Environment, 14(1), 31-44.

Kattiyapornpong, U., & Miller, K. E. (2008). A Practitioner's Report on the Interactive Effects of

Socio-Demographic Barriers to Travel. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 14(4), 357-371.

Kerr, G. & Johnson, S. (2005). “A Review of a Brand Management Strategy for a Small Town –

Lessons Learnt!” Place Branding, 41(4), 373-387.

Oliveira, Paulo, and Pedro Telhado Pereira. (2008). "Who Values What in a Tourism

Destination? The Case of Madeira Island." Tourism Economics 14(1), 155-168.

Petrick, J. F., & Backman, S. J. (2002). “An Examination of the Construct of Perceived Value for

the Prediction of Golf Travelers’ Intentions to Repurchase.” Journal of Travel Research,

41(1), 38–45.

Pine, B. J. II & Gilmore J. H. (1999). The Experience Economy: Work is Theater & Every

Business a Stage. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press,

Prideaux, B. (2002). “Building Visitor Attractions in Periperal Areas – Can Uniqueness

Overcome Isolatoni to Produce Viability?” The International Journal of Tourism

Research, 4, 379-389.

Skuras, D., Dimara, E., & Petrou, A. (2006). "Rural Tourism and Visitors'

Expenditures for Local Food Products." Regional Studies 40(7), 769-779.

Sheth, J. N., Newman, B. I. & Gross, B. L. (1991). “Why We Buy What We Buy: A Theory of

Consumption Values.” Journal of Business Research,(22), 159 –170

Page | 18

Appendix 1:

Table 1: External Respondents’ Demographic Profile

Frequency Percent (%)

Total Respondents 484 100.0

Gender

Male 256 52.9

Female 216 44.6

Gender Not Specified on Survey 3 0.6

Total Responses 475 98.1

Children in Household

Yes 151 31.2

No 316 65.3


Highest Educational Level Attained

High School or Less 77 15.9

Some College 195 40.3

Associate/Vocational Degree 55 11.4

Bachelors 95 19.6

Masters 23 4.8

Doctorate 10 2.1


Total Annual Household Income

Less than $25,000 68 14.0

$25,000 – $40,000 79 16.3

$40,001 - $65,000 65 13.4

$65,001 - $99,000 58 12.0

More than $100,000 31 6.4

Preferred Not to Respond 157 32.4


Relationship Status

Married 205 42.4

Couple 60 12.4

Single 179 37.0

Widow 22 4.5


Age

18-24 163 33.7

25-34 83 17.1

35-44 62 12.8

45-54 56 11.6

55-64 58 12.0

65 + 53 11.0


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Table 2: External Respondents’ Geographic Profile



Vanderburgh County 264 54.5

South Posey County 32 6.6

Warrick County 35 7.2

Indianapolis Areas 27 5.6

Illinois North of 64 22 4.5

Gibson County 20 4.1

Kentucky 13 2.7

Dubois County 13 2.7

North of Indianapolis 12 2.5

Spencer and Floyd County 10 2.1

North Posey County 10 2.1

Illinois South of 64 6 1.2

Pike County 4 0.8

Bloomington Area 3 0.6

Vigo County 2 0.4

Zip Not Given 11 2.3

Total 484 100.0

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Table 3: Internal Respondents’ Demographic Profile



Age

Under 30 7 12.3

30-45 10 17.5

46-60 14 24.6

61-75 19 33.3

75 + 6 10.5


Highest Educational Level Attained

High School 4 7.0

Some College 10 17.5

Associate/Vocational Degree 5 8.8

Bachelors 11 19.3

Masters 18 31.6

Doctorate 6 10.5

Prefer Not to Answer 2 3.5


Total Annual Household Income

Less than $30,000 5 8.8

$30,000 – $49,999 6 10.5

$50,000 - $69,999 5 8.8

$70,000 - $89,999 5 8.8

$110,000 + 13 22.8

Preferred Not to Respond 17 29.8


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Table 4: Internal Respondents’ New Harmony Connection Profile



Average Months Spent in New Harmony per year

Less than 4 months 18 31.6

4-6 months 1 1.8

7-9 months 6 10.5

10-12 months 29 50.9


Approximate Time New Harmony Has Been

Primary Residence

New Harmony is Not My Primary Residence 32 56.1

Less than 2 years 0 0.0

2-5 years 5 8.8

6-10 years 4 7.0

11 years or more 15 26.3


Respondent Self-Selected Association with New

Harmonya

Business Owner/Operator 13 22.8

Employed by a Local Business 18 31.6

Member of Historic New Harmony Boardb 19 33.3

Otherc 7 12.3

Total Responses 57 100.0 a The following percent of respondents in each listed category also indicated that “property owner” best describes

their association with New Harmony: Business Owner/Operator (60%); Member of Historic New Harmony Board

(21.1%); Employed by Local Business (5.6%); Other (0.0%).

b Two respondents indicated that “Business Owner/Operator” and “Member of Historic New Harmony Board” best

described their association. These respondents are counted as a “Member of Historic New Harmony Board” in this

table and for respective analyses.

c Respondents who chose “Other” most likely represent elected officials and/or individuals who live in New

Harmony but do not identify themselves with any of the other categories.

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Appendix 2: External Respondents’ Perceptions of New Harmony’s Brand Image

Figure 2: External Respondents’ Overall New Harmony Brand Image Perceptions

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Figure 3a: External Respondents’ Overall New Harmony Brand Image Perceptions: Reported by Geographic Region (with respective

sample size)

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Figure 3b: External Respondents’ Overall New Harmony Brand Image Perceptions: Reported by Geographic Region (with respective

sample size)

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Figure 3c: External Respondents’ Overall New Harmony Brand Image Perceptions: Reported by Geographic Region (with respective

sample size)

Page | 26

Figure 4a: External Respondents’ Overall New Harmony Brand Image Perceptions: Reported by Gender

*Difference in means between groups is significant at the .05 level

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Figure 4b: External Respondents’ Overall New Harmony Brand Image Perceptions: Reported by Age

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Figure 4c: External Respondents’ Overall New Harmony Brand Image Perceptions: Reported by Marital Status

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Figure 5: External Respondents’ Overall New Harmony Brand Image Perceptions: Reported by Frequency of Visiting New Harmony

(with sample sizes)

Page | 30

Figure 6a: External Respondents’ Perceived Overall Tourism Value of Visiting New Harmony

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Figure 6b: External Respondents’ Perceived Transformational Tourism Value of Visiting New Harmony

Page | 32

Figure 6c: External Respondents’ Perceived Overall Tourism Value of Visiting New Harmony: Reported by Frequency of Visiting

New Harmony

Page | 33

Figure 6d: External Respondents’ Perceived Transformational Tourism Value of Visiting New Harmony: Reported by Frequency of

Visiting New Harmony

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Figure 7: External Respondents Reported Likelihood of Visiting New Harmony (NH) in the Next Year and Traveling Out of Town in

the Next Year

*Difference in means between groups is significant at the .05 level.

Note: Statistical significance of differences only tested for areas with a sample of 20 or more.

Page | 35

Appendix 3: Comparison of External and Internal Brand Image and Tourist Experience Value Perceptions

Figure 8: External vs. Internal Perceptions of New Harmony’s Brand Image


Page | 36

Figure 9: External vs. Internal Perceptions of the Overall Tourism Value of Visiting New Harmony


Page | 37

Figure 10: External vs. Internal Perceptions of the Transformational Tourism Value of Visiting New Harmony

*Difference in means between groups is significant at the .05 level

Page | 38

Appendix 4: Comparison of Internal Respondents’ New Harmony Brand Image

Perceptions: Reported by Respondents’ Association with New Harmony

Figure 11a: Internal Respondents Perceptions of New Harmony’s Brand Image: Reported by

Respondents’ Association with New Harmony (Safe, Fun, & Friendly Image Perceptions)

Note: ANOVA test indicates no statistically significant differences among stakeholder group’s response averages at

the .05 level for these brand image descriptors.

Page | 39

Figure 11b: Internal Respondents Perceptions of New Harmony’s Brand Image: Reported by

Respondents’ Association with New Harmony (Artistic, Inspiring, Peaceful, Different)


the .05 level for these brand image descriptors

Page | 40

Figure 11c: Internal Respondents Perceptions of New Harmony’s Brand Image: Reported by

Respondents’ Association with New Harmony (Artistic, Inspiring, Peaceful, Different)



Page | 41

Appendix 4: Comparison of Internal Views on the Current State and Process of Branding

New Harmony: Reported by Respondent’s Association with New Harmony

Figure 12: Internal Respondents’ Satisfaction with New Harmony’s Existing Brand: Reported

by Respondents’ Association with New Harmony



Page | 42

Figure 13: Internal Respondents’ Attitudes toward Branding New Harmony: Reported by

Respondents’ Association with New Harmony



Page | 43

Figure 14: Internal Respondents’ Perceptions of Various Stakeholder Groups’ Beliefs about

Branding New Harmony: Reported by Respondents’ Association with New Harmony

* ANOVA test indicates statistically significant differences among stakeholder group’s response averages at the .05

level only for the question for this statement

Page | 44

Figure 15: Internal Respondents’ Intentions toward Various Actions to Help Brand New

Harmony: Reported by Respondents’ Association with New Harmony

* ANOVA test indicates statistically significant differences among stakeholder group’s response averages at the .05

level only for the question for this statement

Page | 45

Appendix 5: Regression Analysis of

External Data

Table 5: Impact of New Harmony Brand

Image Components on Intentions to Visit

New Harmony in the Next Year.

Intention to Visit New Harmony in Next

Year

Independent Variable Standardized

Estimate

Safe .030

Fun .164*

Friendly .023

Artistic .127^

Inspiring .051

Peaceful -.045

Different .153*

Good Hours .095^

Easy to Get To .002

Easy to Get Information About -.037

Gender .047

Age .061

R-Square .221

Adjusted R-Square .200

* Statistically significant at the .05 level

^ Statistically significant at the .10 level

Table 6: Impact of New Harmony Perceived

Tourism Value Components on Intentions to

Visit New Harmony in the Next Year.

Intention to Visit New Harmony in Next

Year


Estimate

Cost to Visit .029

Time to Visit -.048

Effort to Visit .133^

Activities to Do .045

Places to Go .021

Unique Experience .175*

Beautiful Setting -.079

Transformational Value .111*

Frequency of Past Visits to

Town

.408*

Gender .031

Age .029

R-Square .391




Page | 46


Image Components on Overall Evaluation of

New Harmony

Overall Evaluation of New Harmony


Estimate

Safe -.042

Fun .162*

Friendly .059

Artistic .169

Inspiring .095

Peaceful -.001

Different .098^

Good Hours .060

Easy to Get To -.037

Easy to Get Information About .211*

Gender .015

Age .097*

R-Square .322




Table 8: Impact of New Harmony Value

Components on Overall Evaluation of New

Harmony.

Overall Evaluation of New Harmony


Estimate

Cost to Visit .004

Time to Visit .008

Effort to Visit .171*

Activities to Do .099

Places to Go .074

Unique Experience .141*

Beautiful Setting .065

Transformational Value .144*


Town

.145*

Gender .015

Age .102*

R-Square .426



Page | 47

Table 9: Final Model Explaining Intentions to Visit New Harmony in the Next Year.

Intention to Visit New Harmony in Next Year


Estimate

Overall Evaluation of New

Harmony

.435*


Town

.332*

Effort to Visit .011

Unique Experience .057

Transformational Value .060

Gender .019

Age -.022

R-Square .506



Page | 48


Image Components on Unique Experience

Value of New Harmony

Unique Experience Value of New Harmony


Estimate

Safe .065

Fun .144*

Friendly -.051

Artistic .313*

Inspiring .004

Peaceful -.011

Different .205*

Good Hours -.032

Easy to Get To -.136*

Easy to Get Information About .194*

Gender .030

Age .020


Town

.026

R-Square .417




Image Components on Transformational

Value of New Harmony

Transformative Experience Value of New

Harmony


Estimate

Safe -.027

Fun .119^

Friendly .012

Artistic -.099

Inspiring .236*

Peaceful -.092

Different .013

Good Hours .284*

Easy to Get To -.169*

Easy to Get Information

About

.161*

Gender -.036

Age -.035


Town

.191*

R-Square .279




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