On the marketing implications of place narratives

Abstract

Acknowledging that ‘locals’ are recognised as an important (yet neglected) dimension of place marketing and following critiques of places as ‘products’, the purpose of this paper is to give voice to ‘local people’. Drawing on local narratives of Santorini, Greece, we call attention to places as culturally significant and discursively produced and consumed. Local narratives provide multiple meanings constructed around the diverse and contested experiences of living and making a living in a place. Our analysis employs the metaphors of ‘harsh beauty’, ‘service business’ and ‘home’ to capture these perspectives. The paper has implications for the development of generative metaphors of ‘place’ and ‘local’ within place marketing and contributes to the dialogue over the continued relevance of our discipline to the public sphere.

Keywords:

• critical marketing
• local people
• place
• narrative

Notes

¹ It consists of a series of islands: Thera, Therassia (little Thera), Aspronissi (white island), Palaia (παλαιά = old) and Nea (νέα = new) Kameni (burned). Thera, Therassia and Aspronissi form a ring enclosing the gulf of Santorini, which has been described as one of the greatest and most impressive calderas in the world (Marinos & Marinos, 1978). The two volcanic islets of Kamenae (Palaia Kameni and Nea Kameni) emerged from the centre of the caldera (Marinos & Marinos, 1978). Only Thera and Therassia are inhabited.

² Including, for example, cartographers and geologists as well as members of monastic orders and later, in the nineteenth century, sightseers (Delendas, 2001).

³ Associations of the area with Atlantis first appeared in the late nineteenth century. The archaeological findings of Akrotiri, a ‘marvellously’ preserved (Palyvou, 2001) settlement of the Bronze Age and the renewed associations of the island with Plato’s Atlantis created international publicity for Santorini.

⁴ According to volcanologists and geologists, it is estimated that over the last 400,000 years, 12 enormous eruptions took place every 20,000 years (Vouyoukalakis, 2001).

⁵ Odysseas Elytis (1911–1996) was a Greek Nobel-awarded poet.

⁶ A verse from Odysseas Elytis’ poem ‘To Axion Esti’ (‘Worthy It Is’).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Lichrou

Maria Lichrou is a lecturer in the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Limerick. Her research interests lie at the intersections of consumer culture, tourism and place marketing. Her research has appeared in Tourism and Hospitality Planning & Development, the Journal of Strategic Marketing and Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. She is on the editorial board of Tourism and Hospitality Research.

Lisa O’Malley

Lisa O’Malley is the head of Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Limerick. Lisa has published widely on marketing and consumption, and her work has appeared in the Journal of Business Research, Marketing Theory, The European Journal of Marketing, Service Industries Journal, Journal of Marketing Management, and The Journal of Strategic Marketing. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Marketing Management and Marketing Theory.

Maurice Patterson

Maurice Patterson is a lecturer in the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Limerick. Research interests centre on consumption and embodiment, although he has been known to write papers on marketing management, direct marketing and branding. His publications have appeared in Marketing Theory, The European Journal of Marketing, Consumption, Markets and Culture, the Journal of Marketing Management and a variety of other scholarly outlets. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Consumer Behaviour.