Bodil Stilling Blichfeldt

One Clear Image? Challenging Simplicity in Place Branding

Unique selling points! Simplicity sells! One clear identity! One clear image! These are some of the place branding mantras of today. In this paper, this “simplicity trend” is critically examined and challenged by raising the question whether clear images and simplicity are truly the only options in destination branding. After a short introduction and discussion of the underlying assumptions of destination branding strategy, an illustrative case is used to demonstrate how tourism stakeholders create several different “versions” of the tourist destination through a multiplicity of discursive, performative and socio-material practices at the tourist destination. Based on these findings, place marketers are encouraged to embrace and benefit from the multiple destination rather than seeking to reduce its multiplicity. It is argued that diversity branding might actually be deployed, strategically, in order to create more refined points of difference rooted in a richer and more complex understanding of destination identity(ies) and image(s).

Mussels, Tourism and Community Development: A Case Study of Place Branding Through Food Festivals in Rural North Jutland, Denmark

Abstract Rural areas are facing prospects of marginalization and peripherality in an age of globalization where the attention of governments and media focuses increasingly on the (lack of) competitiveness of urban and metropolitan regions in Europe. Many rural areas have, therefore, searched for ways to improve their position vis-à-vis other localities by mobilizing local resources and employing policy tools that are believed to foster indigenous social and economic development, including place branding. Unsurprisingly, using food as a means to profile rural localities has become widespread, with branding efforts revolving around local food festivals that commodify local cultural resources. The article attempts to illuminate the challenges faced by branding processes in rural areas through a case study of Løgstør, a small rural town in North Jutland, Denmark, which builds its branding efforts around an annual mussel festival. The analysis focuses on the relationship between stakeholders and branding strategies, and in particular aims to uncover the role of the food festival in aggravating or alleviating inherent tensions between different stakeholders and target groups. It is argued that in the case of Løgstør making a food festival pivotal, a signature event for the place branding efforts has been created, which appeals to both external and internal audiences, and that this may hold wider lessons for place-branding initiatives in other small towns across Europe.

Destination leadership and the issue of power

Purpose – Studies of destination management and leadership may over-emphasize unity and collaboration, thus producing romanticized accounts for such processes. This paper discusses destination leadership from a less romanticized perspective – pointing to the various ways in which it intertwines with power. Design/methodology/approach – The authors focus on the relationship between destination leadership and power networks offering a fresh look at the reality of collaborative processes in destinations. By exposing the latent or manifest networks of complex power relations in destinations, the authors disentangle the analysis of destination management and leadership from romanticized perspectives. A non-conventional vignettes approach is applied. Findings – The concept of power offers more realistic descriptions and “thick” conceptualizations of destination leadership. Moreover, the predominance of more inclusive and bottom-up approaches to destination development necessitates advances in understandings of ...

On the development of brand and line extensions

Although manufacturers of consumer non-durables rely on established brands when introducing new products, the implications for product development activities have not received much attention from academics. This paper seeks to increase an understanding of product development in those situations in which companies wish to extend brands to incorporate new products. Thus, drawing on a theory-building multiple case study (including 14 Danish companies and supplementary interviews with retailers and advertising agencies), this paper investigates how the focal companies actually manage development of brand-/line-extending new products. The empirical study suggests that although all of the companies rely on brand-/line-extending new products, they differ in their management of product development activities. Thus the study identifies three clusters of companies: clusters emerging on the basis of (1) whether companies ‘enact’ and ‘think’ brands in the course of product development or whether predominantly they think products, and (2) whether companies rely on the introduction of line extensions or whether they also engage in the development/launching of brand extensions. This paper discusses managerial implications for each cluster of companies and, especially, it suggests how top management and marketing managers should ‘enact’ their positioning within clusters. Although the study is qualitative and thus findings do not generalise across populations of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturers, it suggests that academics should acknowledge that some companies ‘think’ brands while others do not. The key contribution of the paper to extant knowledge is that it suggests actual management of line-/brand-extending product development neither corresponds well with new product development (NPD) theories nor with branding theories across all FMCG brand companies.

What to do on Our Holiday: The Case of in Situ Decision-Making

ABSTRACT The majority of research on vacation decision-making focuses on decision-making processes that take place prior to the actual vacation (i.e. need recognition; up-front information search; choice of destination, accommodation and/or mode of transportation as well as actually buying the vacation product). However, vacation decision-making differs from decision-making relating to traditional products insofar vacation decision-making encompasses both decision-making prior to and during the vacation, in order to contribute to our understanding of vacation decision-making, this paper draws on in situ qualitative interviews with 126 informants, who account for the extent and nature of vacation decision-making during their vacation. Although both extent and nature of vacation decision-making during the vacation differ profoundly across the informants, a key finding is that, to some tourists, many decisions—and especially those relating to sightseeing and other experience offers—are not taken before the informants arrive at the destination and furthermore, the end result of such decisions often is to choose ‘to do nothing’. Hence, we need to take these kinds of decisions into account if we wish for satisfied tourists and thus, for our destination to prosper.

Intergenerational relationships and food consumption: the stories of young adults leaving home

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the meaning of food consumption practices in maintaining intergenerational relationships between young university students and their parents. Design/methodology/approach – Student food consumption has been mainly studied through quantitative methods, treating students as a homogenous group, more or less living in a vacuum, and often with the focus on nutrition. This paper gives voice to young adults to unpack the significance of cooking and food consumption in relation to maintaining or changing family ties. The study is based on 12 qualitative interviews, five focus groups and a workshop, with Danish and international students in Denmark. Theoretically, the study draws on family, consumption and transition research. Findings – The authors identify four realms of intergenerational relationships in the context of food. The relationships range from a wish either to maintain the status quo in the relationship, or to change and rethink the relationship, and im...

Vacability and Sociability as Touristic Attraction

Researchers sometimes portray the tourist as someone who travels the world searching for authentic experiences and scorns both ‘being a tourist’ and other tourists. However, in drawing on two studies of seemingly mundane kinds of holidays, this article points to two under-researched dimensions. The first dimension is ‘sociability’ and relates to the skill or tendency of being social during the holidays. This dimension covers tourists’ searches for meaningful social interactions with other tourists and how some tourists, instead of scorning other tourists, actively and deliberately go on holiday in order to ‘be’ with other tourists. The second dimension is labelled ‘vacability’ and is defined as the quest to truly ‘vacare’ and to the tourists’ ability to be vacant. This dimension relates to some tourists’ wish to be ‘freed from experiences’ during the holidays and how the choice of a seemingly mundane type of holiday may prove superior in making the tourist able to indulge in vacability.

‘I am very straight in my gay life’ Approaching an understanding of lesbian tourists’ identity construction

Studies of gay tourists predominantly focus on gay men. On the basis of an exploratory qualitative study, this article offers knowledge on lesbian tourists and how they differ from more traditional conceptions of gay tourists. Although a very heterogeneous group, the lesbian tourists partaking in the study are less likely than gay men to visit gay destinations and gay spaces and have in many ways more in common with other female tourists than with gay male tourists. ‘Reasons to go’ for the studied lesbian tourists are constituted by a diversity of cultural, nature-based and hedonistic experiences, and lesbian bars, events and communities appear only to be a supplement to the other more central holiday experiences. This contributes with new knowledge to the existing literature. The article discusses these issues and how the multiple identities of these lesbian tourists, for example, being a woman; a mother; a partner; a particular type of tourist; and gay, are all important for their holidaying.

‘We have not seen the kids for hours’: the case of family holidays and free-range children

The purpose of this paper is to explore what ‘children having a good time’ means in the context of a mundane type of holidaying, namely caravanning. Focusing on families, this paper draws on 210 qualitative in situ interviews with 437 people spending the holidays at 5 different Danish caravan sites.The study points to ‘family time’ and childrens ‘own time’ as interdependent entities that allow for the balancing of social identities (pursued through family time) and more individual interests (pursued through own time). Compared to extant theory, caravanning seems to allow for more ‘own time’ and ‘spouse time’ for adults, because children have extraordinary opportunities to engage in ‘own time’. Furthermore, the study suggests that ‘real, quality family time’ is best achieved insofar one ‘has not seen the kids for hours’ in between the precious moments of thick sociality and family togetherness that involve all family members.

Sustainability in coastal tourism development: an example from Denmark

Denmark’s coastlines have been protected from tourism development and construction for more than 80 years. In 2014, the Danish politicians opened up for softer regulation of the coastlines and invited proposals for tourism development projects within the hitherto protected coastal zone. The call explicitly requested nominations for sustainable tourism projects. A comparison between academic sustainability discourse and the approved projects suggests that tourism actors do not address sustainable tourism development as a holistic concept. Long-term perspectives are largely absent, whereas economic benefits are emphasized. Key findings also indicate weak political leadership in the envisaged transfer towards sustainable tourism development.