Download Study on Brand Building of Tourism Cities

Study on Brand Building of Tourism Cities
ZHANG Chunmei1, ZOU Dewen2
1. School of Business Management, Hebei Normal University of Science & Technology, P.R.China,
066004
2. Science and Research Dept., Hebei Normal University of Science & Technology, P.R.China, 066004
[email protected]
Abstract: With the rapid development of tourism and tourism cities will face more and more fierce
market competition, brand building of tourism cities is an effective way to enhance the competitiveness
of tourism cities. In this paper, some methods such as documents review, research and questionnaires are
used. Then based on previous research results, this paper analyzes some problems in brand building of
tourism cities in China, which mainly lie in the brand feature, brand culture, brand marketing and brand
planning. Finally, the paper puts forward some strategies in brand building of tourism cities, and comes
to the conclusion. Brand building of tourism cities not only needs some measures corresponding to
specific issues, but also the participation of all the people, so that tourism city brand can play a better
role.
Keywords: tourism city, brand building, countermeasures
1 Introduction
An expert of U.S. strategic brand management, Professor Kevin Lane Keller thought that one
geographical location, like products and people, can be branded [1]. To apply brand consciousness into
tourism cities can make cities unique. As China's development of tourism, brand awareness gradually
penetrate into the concept of visitors’ spending, in a large extent, brand awareness will affect their
pre-trip destination choice and final decision-making. The development of tourism cities call for brand
awareness, which not only conform to the trend of the market economy, but also adapt to their own
change and development needs of tourism cities. Any tourism city with a competitive regional brand
image, it may occupy a favorable position in the fierce market competition of tourism industry [2].
With regard to the research of tourism city brand, our predecessors achieved many fruitful results. These
studies provide a valuable reference for the following research of tourist city brand. Professor Kevin
Lane Keller, U.S. strategic brand management expert, proposed tourism brand concept, which embodies
the results of regional tourism development and tourism development level [3]. We can see from the
definition that tourism city brand is a comprehensive manifestation of a destination, which requires a
combination of many factors to make the city's image clear in the minds of the visitors. Therefore, a
comprehensive orientation to the city should be determined in order to make the city occupy an
irreplaceable location in the minds of tourists. Tourism marketing scholar of the United States, Morrison
also raised 5DS model [4] for the tourism image orientation, which provide the basis of image orientation
for the tourism cities. In the innovative models of tourism city brand have also emerged an innovative
conceptual mode of tourism city brand from the macro, meso and micro aspects [5]. As an intangible
asset, tourism city brand increases the added value of tourism cities. Yang talked about brand orientation
of tourism destination, from determining the target market, integrating resources, promoting tourism
resources development strategies as well as to establishing brand ideology of all the people [6], which
provides a guideline for brand orientation of tourism cities. It can be said that tourism city brand has
attracted people’s attention, once tourism city brand is built successfully and disseminated widely, there
will be a good brand effect and it will bring a huge economic and social benefits for the city.
2 Problems in Brand Building of Tourism Cities
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In the 21st century, many cities have pay attention to the brand building. However, in comparison with
the tourism developed countries in the world, China's tourism city brand-building is still in its infancy
stage, tourism city brand is still relatively weak and not enough well-known. A number of cities build
brand successfully, at the same time there are some cities entering into a misunderstanding in the
process of branding building. On the whole, the main problems in brand building of tourism cities are as
follows.
2.1 The lack of brand characteristics and differences.
Tourism city is different from the average city, and its brand building is different from that of a general
city. At present, in brand building of tourism cities, there is lack of characteristics and features of
tourism city and personalized design. Such brand is lack of scientific thinking and accurate positioning,
only considering the urban environment, facilities and other basic areas. For example, we often hear
some slogans like “Cities Appropriate to Live, Work and Tour” and “Landscape of the City”, such brand
positioning is too general and lack of the city's characteristics and this kind of tourism city brand is also
lack of core competitiveness. It is difficult for the tourists to understand the core values attracting them.
2.2 The lack of brand culture connotation.
At present, a major misunderstanding in building tourism city brand is that local features, historical
culture and ethnic characteristics are usually abandoned, especially, some cities blindly copy the
developed cities to build brand. Moreover, still other cities destroy ancient, real, valuable cultural
resources on the one hand; while on the other hand invest to engage in the fake resources without culture.
Such brand building of tourism cities only pay attention to the tourist resources and urban resources, and
there is no integration with rich historical and cultural connotation in tourism city brand.
2.3 The lack of brand marketing innovation.
Many tourism cities often only attach importance to brand positioning, often overlook brand marketing
innovation after building a brand. Different cities have their own different characteristics, so urban brand
marketing also need to take a different ways. At present, many cities still focus on the superficial
advertising, publicity, festivals, and their brand marketing methods are single and simple. For example,
there are nearly 5,000 urban festivals in China every year, only the kite festivals and ice and ski festivals
are more than 20. However, publicity through various trade promotion activities and urban festivals
neither embody city’s features, tourist resources features and nor innovative marketing methods.
Moreover, due to lack of inherent organic unity, coherence and coordination among the various
marketing activities, frequently marketing effectiveness is not ideal. Creativity is the soul of the brand;
good creativity is the key to the success of the brand. In recent years, China's tourism brand planning is
lack of creativity and innovative ideas of city brand are very few. The planning of some city brand is old,
boring and identical with that of other cities. Such brand has no competiveness and could not produce
the brand benefits.
2.4 The lack of overall brand planning.
In the process of tourism brand-building, some cities has done a lot of effort, but often what comes to
mind is to be done and there is no comprehensive system of brand planning. Some people often
understand one side of the brand and they usually attach importance to one aspect of the brand, such as
advertising, packaging, channels and so on. They only pay attention to those aspects of the brand which
they believe to be important by themselves, thus they rarely consider all aspects of the brand. For
example, some cities have many valuable resources, forming a series of tourism products, but don’t have
outstanding brands. That result from lack of integration planning of tourism brand-building.
3 Measures in Brand Building of Tourism Cities
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In the era of market economy, the idea of running cities has been widely accepted and building tourism
city brand become an important part of urban operation and management. Whether brand building of
tourism cities is successful or not is directly related to the tourism industry development and the city's
overall development. A tourism city should combine its own characteristics of tourism resources, urban
resources, tourism and urban culture features to create its own unique brand of tourism city.
3.1 To highlight urban culture combined with advantages of tourism cities
It can be said that there is no brand without differentiation of the brand. To establish tourism city brand
is based on the existing and potential tourism resources of the city. Many factors will determine and
constitute the tourism resources, such as relying on natural and geographical environment of
Heilongjiang Province to build “Ice and Snow” brand, relying on social and historical cultures and
traditions of Shaanxi Province to build the world-class ancient capital brand, and so on. The natural
conditions like geography and resources of tourism cities are important, but the more important thing is
cultural connotation of tourism cities. The culture is a continuous integration process in the development
of tourism cities. As a tourism city, there is interaction communication between tourists and local
residents and this kind of communication will accelerate the invasion of local culture from the alien
culture, which will make the characteristics of local culture getting weak and lack of the city's
personality. Urban culture is the soul of the city brand and the external appearance of the city’s image.
The more abundant the city's culture is, the stronger the city's tourism attraction and competitiveness is
and the greater the value of cultural capital is [7].
Therefore, we must dig urban culture and use urban culture to build a tourism city brand. Based on the
unique culture of tourism city, this kind of culture can be strengthened and shaped from every aspect
such as natural environment, human environment, mental outlook, lifestyle and so on in order to form a
distinctive impression in the eyes of tourists. The brand rich in cultural connotation can better promote
the local tourist attractions and culture.
3.2 To position tourism city brand based on tourists’ demands
Tourist market is a heterogeneous market and tourists’ demands are various. On the tourist city brand,
whether to build a new brand or reprocess the original brand, tourism city brand must be able to adapt to
the needs of target market, which is helpful to determine the exact connotation of the brand [8].
If a tourism city is able to put itself in correct position in the brand building, never out of consumers’
demands, thus tourism city brand can not only win the market but also have the brand loyalty of its
target customers. For example, “A step stepped into the history, a day tour of China”, “You give me one
day, I'll give you the world”, the brands of Splendid China and Window of the World of Shenzhen reflect
the needs that foreigners want to know about China and Chinese people want to understand the world in
a short time. These tourism products have been introduced to better reflect the theme brand of Shenzhen.
After entering the new century, the needs of visitors have changed greatly; therefore, Shenzhen has
launched the theme brand of “Wonderful Shenzhen, Happy City”. “Wonderful Shenzhen” stressed the
unique resources advantages of Shenzhen in comparison with other tourism cities. While “Happy City”
is to meet the emotional needs of people, reflects a common strategy of today's brand competition –
which is customer-oriented, and truly understand and meet customers’ needs.
Therefore, the brand building of tourism cities should emphasized to follow the laws of the market, pay
attention to market research and pay attention to the new demands of customers. Through market
research, practical marketing strategies of tourism development can be planned and marketing activities
can be carried out step by step. The subjective-based, blind-based, random-based, monopoly-based
phenomena in brand building should be eliminated. In order to better the real competitive advantage of
the brand in the market, brand building of tourism cities should be based on the needs of tourists,
consider the psychological characteristics and behavior of different consumer groups, carry out targeted,
personalized services, and enhance the service level. So the market can be used to shape the brand city
and position accurately for tourism city brand.
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3.3 To establish a perfect marketing system of tourism city brand
The marketing of tourism city brand is very important, and it can be related to the consumers’ awareness
of tourism products, and ultimately affect the brand-building effect, therefore, a perfect marketing
system of tourism city brand should be established.
3.3.1 Integration of the current marketing tools. At present, marketing tools are more and more diverse.
For example, we can use some traditional marketing methods to design manual prints with the image of
the tourism city in order that tourists can easily get them free at the city's airports, train stations, bus
stations, various newspapers and periodicals retail outlets and hotels, and so on. Moreover, neon signs
and other large advertising media with city’s image can be used to publicize the city’s image in the
landmark buildings of tourism city, the city's main entrance, the mobile bus, roads and other spots. A
new marketing technology, online marketing technology is also used to market the tourism city. Many
cities create their own web sites and promote tourism city brand, slogan, logo and content. Furthermore,
the newest changes of the tourism city are released on the web site regularly and detailed travel
information and common sense are provided on the web site to deep understanding of tourism city brand
for people. Or the festival tourism can be used to market the tourism city. Some cities can host
international major events, various exhibitions, fairs, fairs, academic exchanges, sports competitions,
cultural exchanges and cultural performances and other activities to spread themselves [9].
Contents affecting a tourism city brand are various, so brand marketing of a tourism city need many
kinds of work to do. Therefore, the concept of integrated marketing can be used to integrate all kinds of
marketing tools. Through integrated and coordinated marketing of various forms of communication,
information of the tourism city can be disseminated better. We can use radio, television, newspapers,
magazines, internet, large-scale activities and all other means of communication to market tourism city
brand and to achieve communication objectives of the brand.
3.3.2 Innovation of marketing contents. In the marketing strategies of tourism city brand, a number of
traditional marketing propaganda effects are not very obvious. Therefore, in order to achieve better
marketing effects of tourism city brand, brand planning and brand contents need innovation. For
example, the use of celebrity advertising on the planning and promotion, in order to surprise the people
with grand production and dissemination of ideas, will create a strong brand image advantage. Take
Guilin as an example, a famous film director Zhang Yimou direct tourism image commercials
“Mountain Chapter • Water Chapter • Sea Chapter”, as well as innovative and unique form of
performance as propagate Guilin. After that, a landscape virtual performance “Impression·Liu San Jie”
created a new tourism brand for Guilin. This kind of marketing innovation with celebrity can play a
huge role in advertising communication and is an important way to innovate tourism city brand.
Innovative activities to market tourism city brand planned by the famous celebrity enhance the
reputation and values tourism city brand and will receive better brand communication effects.
3.4 To plan tourism city brand comprehensively
The process of creating a strong brand of a tourist destination is a process to establish a comprehensive
image of a tourist destination in a region. Tourism industry is involved in many areas and industries,
therefore, urban brand building is also involves many departments and a wide range of content. So, the
overall planning of tourism city brands will better shape the tourism city brand. First, to plan brand
image of the tourism city. To investigate the target market of tourism city and subdivide the target
market according to various standards, we can understand perceptions of the brand image in target
market and further determine the tourist city brand image. Secondly, to plan and design the visual image
of the tourism city brand. Visual design of brand image has a unique role in shaping brand image of a
tourist destination. A large part of the content of external information obtained by the people is through
the visual, visual image is the most intuitive information that tourists can feel; at the same time, the
ways of visual transmission are the most extensive and flexible. Visual planning and design includes the
name of the tourism city, the city's logo design and so on. Third, to plan the tourism city brand. That it to
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draw up the overall program of tourism city brand, which includes detailed promotional phases,
promotion means adopted in each phases and what effects should be got after the promotion of each
stage. Finally, to plan the monitoring program of tourism city brand. Once a tourism city brand is shaped
and propagandized in the market, a series of changes will be caused. To ensure that the brand building of
tourism city go smoothly, it is essential to monitor market conditions of the tourism city brand. Usually
there is still a wide gap between the tourism planning and marketing. Therefore, according to a specific
embodiment of the target market and constantly modify the planning program to enhance brand value.
Conclusion
Brand is a huge intangible assets of a tourism city, is potential to stimulate sustainable urban
development of a tourism city. Whether brand building of a tourism city is successful or not is not only
related to the measures mentioned above, but the more important thing is the participation of all the
people. Urban residents is the most direct contact between tourists and the city, if a tourism city brand is
recognized by the majority of urban residents, they will establish brand awareness and concepts in their
daily work and life, which can directly affect the visitors’ experience in the local tourism and affect the
quality of the in-depth understanding and wide dissemination of the tourism city brand [10]. Thus, in the
process of creating and maintaining the tourism city brand, public opinions and suggestions should be
respected and listened to. Thus we are able to create a more distinctive tourism city brand and maximize
the effects of tourism city brand.
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