Branding Huntington Beach, Surf City USA®: Visitors, residents, and businesses

Abstract

This study examines the branding of surfing culture for tourism purposes in Huntington Beach (HB), Surf City USA®, since the early twentieth century. After discussing previous works on tourist area life cycles, this study taps into the place branding theory to show surfing integration within the local growth strategy of the city. Results suggest that stakeholders of tourism development not only aim at attracting visitors, but also residents and businesses, thus creating conflicts arising from the definition of the image of surfing, and from its commodification. This analysis is based on archival research of regional newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, as well as on 20 semi-structured interviews taped between 2010 and 2018 with the main stakeholders of surfing marketing and place branding. Stakeholders include elected local government officials, local surfers and residents, members of nonprofit sports organizations, board members of tourism businesses, as well as a global brand president of an action sports company.

Cette étude examine le marketing territorial de la culture surf à des fins touristiques à Huntington Beach (HB), Surf City USA®, depuis le début du XX^e siècle. Après avoir remis en question les travaux traitant du développement touristique en termes de cycle de vie, cette recherche s’appuie sur la théorie du marketing territorial et met en évidence l’intégration du surf dans la stratégie de croissance de la ville. Les résultats montrent que les parties prenantes du développement touristique cherchent non seulement à attirer des visiteurs, mais aussi des résidents, et des entreprises, ce qui donne lieu à des conflits quant à la définition de l’image du surf, et de sa marchandisation. L’analyze repose sur la consultation d’archives de la presse régionale, comme le Los Angeles Times, ainsi que sur la conduite de vingt entretiens semi-directifs enregistrés entre mars 2010 et octobre 2018 auprès des parties prenantes de la commercialization du surf et de la labélisation de la ville. Les parties intéressées comprennent des élus municipaux, des surfeurs et résidents locaux, des membres d’associations sportives, des membres de bureau d’entreprises touristiques, ainsi qu’un dirigeant d’une entreprise internationale des sports d’action.

Keywords:

• place branding
• tourism
• California
• lifestyle
• surfing

Mots clés:

• marketing territorial
• tourisme
• Californie
• mode de vie
• surf

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The origin of the brand Surf City USA® is credited to Dean Torrence, board member of the Huntington Beach Marketing and Visitors Bureau, for lobbying the moniker to the Huntington Beach City Council on 16 September 1991. As the official Destination Marketing Organization (DMO), the bureau submitted patent application in 2004 to copyright for the exclusive use of Surf City USA®. The legal trademark was granted two years later by the State of California, at the expense of the city of Santa Cruz.

2. For the purpose of this study, “[c]ommodification is the process by which objects and activities come to be evaluated primarily in terms of their exchange value in the context of trade” (Watson & Kopachevsky, 1994, p. 645).

3. Although George Freeth introduced surfing in Huntington Beach, Duke Kahanamoku was more symbolic because he is the best-known character of the surfing subculture, and embodies a convenient marketing tool to make standardized products look genuine.