BRANDOPIA

World Travel Market 04 - London - Part 1

Q&A Session on The Hierarchy of Destination Brands by Alan 'Brand' Williamson, Destination Brand Developer, and Richard Tibbott, Chairman - Locum Destination Consulting

Q: What about the physical manifestation of brands? Do you think diversity is an advantage?

A: Richard quoted the example of SpainMarks, where each region is connected with a specific brand idea and where partnership between the country and the regions is the basis of the branding strategy.

About the graphic unity of a brand, Richard answered that diversity was fine, as long as there was no confusion in people’s minds concerning the relationship between the destination brand and its core product. People have different cultures within one country. As a consequence, brands can also be diverse within one country, which often results in a number of sub regional brands.

Alan gave the example of France. This destination is always associated with food and wine. However, some regions have a stronger impact than the France brand, in the wine sector for instance: the Champagne region actually transcends the national brand, so does Medoc or Camembert.

Q: Could you give an example of a brand that creates too big a discrepancy between reality and promise?

A: Alan took this question and quoted India as just one of many examples throughout the world. The current brand proposition is 'Incredible India'. This just doesn't make any sense, as the brand proposition does not capture the essence of the country and the nation which is based on 'spirituality'.

Richard added the example of Southeast England where 76 different brands exist, 20 only have enough marketing resources to become destination brands and only 5 manage to exploit these resources. Indeed, the competition between brands in this part of England is played out primarily at a local level and does not expand to the global marketplace. (Margate competes with Hastings...). So few people know about these destinations apart from the locals.

World Travel Market 04 - London - Part 2

Q&A Session on The Hierarchy of Destination Brands by Alan 'Brand' Williamson, Destination Brand Developer, and Richard Tibbott, Chairman - Locum Destination Consulting

Q: Alan asked what image delegates had of the Caribbean?

A: Jamaica - Tropical Islands - Beaches - Sailing - Carnival - Music - Sunshine - Hurricanes

Most of the Caribbean countries lack differentiation and tend to get lumped together within the 'white sands-palm trees-turquoise waters' of the Caribbean image. These destinations need to find their own unique brand identities to drive their economic futures.

British Virgins - Alan then talked about the British Virgin Islands whose first problem was its name - it was very similar to its next door neighbour, the US Virgin Islands. Yet within the sailing fraternity, the country is positioned as The Yachting Capital of the Caribbean - a position which could be exploited globally by targetting mega-rich yachties (and those who aspire to that lifestyle). However, the country brand focus does not prevent sub-brands for the various islands and resorts within the group from developing - Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Road Town etc - to deal with secondary strengths such as watersports, diving, even offshore financial services.

Initialitis - The other point Alan made was the problem of initials. Some countries with fairly long brand names try to establish themselves with initials because they think they can adopt the same naming strategy used by economically larger countries such as America (USA and US) and Britain (GB and UK). However, these big names are under the constant attention of the world's media who over the years have driven their names along with their initials into the minds of a global audience. Media does not constantly mention smaller countries such as the British Virgin Islands. So, outside the Caribbean, BVI is rarely associated with the British Virgin Islands. Nor is TCI associated with the Turks & Caicos Islands. Short of changing its name - a political hot potato - the British Virgin Islands should rather look for a short nickname, just as Australia is often shortened to Oz.

Q: Alan then asked delegates what Brand America represented for them?

A: Marlboro Country (Cowboys) - Commercialism - Stars & Stripes - Liberty - Freedom - American Dream.

The essence of Brand America - Land of the Free, Home of the American Dream - is the big brand idea that drives the American economy, not just tourism but also inward investment and exporting. Brand America, in exporting freedom and democracy to Iraq using military might, may have gone a bit too far.

Bringing the discussion to the state level, Alan suggested that most people think of New England as one of the American States, when it actually is a loose confederation of six different states.

Q: Alan then asked what image they had of New England?

A: Leaves in the fall - Freedom tree - European America - Heritage

In fact, the New England brand image is so powerful that its brand identity has transcended to life-style products such as paints, wallpapers and soft furnishings.

Compass Names - Alan then recommended avoiding compass names such as Northeast England, South of France, and Western Australia. New England could have been branded Northeast America but it would never have had as powerful an impact that a proper brand name would have.

Massachusetts - Alan then talked about the idea of re-branding Massachusetts, one of the six states within New England, as the world's intellectual (knowledge) capital. Indeed the first and third ranked universities in the world are located in the state - Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This would give Massachusetts a bi-focus - locally as the Bay State and globally as the World's Knowledge Capital. This is what Brussels did - locally as the Capital of Belgium, but globally as the Capital of Europe against strong competition from France's Strasbourg.

Q: Alan asked the audience how they would generate tourism in the World's Knowledge Capital?

A: Intellectual capital conferences - Heritage tours - Develop VFR (visits from friends and relatives of students) - Alumni re-unions

Q: Alan then asked how Oxford (No.5) and Cambridge (No.6) could be turned into brand leaders within the university league table?

A: Delegates automatically answered 'Europe' or 'by taking away America'. (Currently, seven of the top ten world-ranked educational establishments are American universities). Re-defining one's league is a powerful brand strategy because the top two brand leaders tend to attract the best students, the best tutors and the best donors.

Stanford University - Alan then discussed how California's Stanford (No.7) re-positioned itself into becoming a brand leader. Stanford looked at its curriculum and found that IT was its primary strength, so in conjunction with high-tech companies and venture capitalists, it opened an industrial park; then with the help of a journalist, a virtual or cluster destination brand was created called Silicon Valley. Not only does this brand generate IT inward investment, jobs and exports (there are Silicon Valley clones located around the world) but also business and leisure tourism.

World Travel Market 04 - London - Part 3

Q&A Session on The Hierarchy of Destination Brands by Alan 'Brand' Williamson, Destination Brand Developer, and Richard Tibbott, Chairman - Locum Destination Consulting

Q: London tries to attract everyone with different brands causing confusion. Can it re-focus itself with just a handful of brands?

A: Alan and Richard agreed that London as a world-class city needs a single big brand idea to drive its future, just as New York City has done with its world's capital strategy. (Manchester, according to Richard, has managed to join-up most of its sub-brands in a consistent way).

London needs to see itself as part of a hierarchy of brands from Europe to Britain to England to London to Notting Hill to Oxford Street. People must be aware of the difference between the brand and the marketing campaign. A brand must represent a balance between the different segments targetted by the marketing campaign. For instance, whilst New York City's strategy is the world's capital, for theatregoers, Broadway is the sub-brand. In London, the business sub-brand is The City whose global strategic focus is Europe's Financial Capital.

Q: Could not a matrix rather than a funnel be a better representation for the brand hierarchy?

A: Richard and Alan conceded that the funnel was too simplistic to explain the whole destination branding hierarchy concept, as many regional, sub-regional and local brands punch-above-their-weight such as The Tower of London, Portugal's Algarve region, and the Sandals resorts in the Caribbean.

Q: How can the Lake District brand be promoted if the resources can only be attributed to Cumbria or Windermere?

A: Richard admitted that the problem funding agencies are facing is the lack of resources to promote every single brand. They have to choose the most significant ones. For example, only the east of Northern Ireland is promoted because of the limited budgets. Funding agencies lost patience with parochialism.

World Travel Market 04 - London - Part 4

Q&A Session on The Hierarchy of Destination Brands by Alan 'Brand' Williamson, Destination Brand Developer, and Richard Tibbott, Chairman - Locum Destination Consulting

Q: Should Australia and New Zealand co-brand?

A: As a potential virtual super-brand, why not? Many markets tend to lump them together naturally. Witness Oceania as a possible co-branding opportunity.

Q: How long does it take to establish a brand?

A: It depends on many factors. The first variable is the big brand idea you want to develop. Next, do you want to go global or local? Finally, how much can you invest in terms of time and money?

Q: Which places do you see as the next big destination brands?

A: Richard wished the Mediterranean could come up with a meaningful brand concept that would get the differentiation right.

Alan considered Greece the destination brand of 2004 thanks to the success of the Athens Olympic Games and the winning Greek football team at Euro 2004 in Portugal. However, Greece needs to exploit the momentum created. Use it or lose it!

The new Eastern European countries are virgin territory chock-full of tourism attractions. According to Richard, the Croatian strategy is excellent, very efficient but under-financed. Poland also has high potential but it needs to find its unique brand proposition.

In the far east, China could also become a mega-brand.

In Africa, Namibia and Mozambique have unspoilt tourism assets that people want to experience. According to delegates from the Namibia Tourist Board, it is important to have a brand with a unique advantage that you can sell and go on selling.

The Australian sub-brands such as the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, as well as the wine regions such as Margaret River have enormous potential.

A journalist made a vital point that the media are primarily interested in what's new...which is why you need a big brand idea with a future-focus - so the PR possibilities are almost endless.

Concluding remarks:

"As you leave here today, do so with the confidence that destination branding is moving into a new era - and we as brand developers and consultants and you as brand managers and custodians - together - we can help to make that vision a reality. Richard and I look forward to discussing your destination brand strategies both with your own organisations and your key stakeholders. And perhaps when we meet again - in conference rooms like this - around the world - it would give us enormous pleasure to be able to showcase your destinations as prime examples of brands that have entered this new era.

Thank you very much and good luck. "

• A big thank you to Coralia Galtier for recording and transcribing this Q&A Session. Originally from Paris, France, Coralia is a Research Consultant with UK-based Locum Destination Consulting
• Our thanks also go out to Graeme Barnett and Paula Rigelsford of Reed Travel Exhibitions, the organisers of London's World Travel Market.