Putting sense of place at the centre of place brand development

ABSTRACT

Developing a place brand involves highlighting the distinctive attributes of a place that could be used to enhance its attractiveness. This study is in line with recent literature where the concept of place identity is being replaced by sense of place, which provides an holistic view of a place by integrating all users’ experiences and feelings. Through a qualitative study involving 31 individual interviews with users and meetings with managers of a French coastal area, this paper proposes a five-dimensional definition of sense of place and its use as a tool for developing a place brand in 3 ways: defining the place brand concept, bringing together the internal stakeholders and invoving users in brand building.

KEYWORDS:

• Place branding
• place identity
• sense of place
• place meaning
• qualitative research

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Syndicat Mixte Grand Site Gâvres-Quiberon under Grant €23,000.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Pseudonyms used

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Syndicat Mixte Grand Site Gâvres-Quiberon under Grant €23,000

Notes on contributors

Agnès François Lecompte

Agnès François Lecompte is lecturer in the Department of Marketing at University of South Brittany. Her research interests include socially responsible consumption, environmental labelling, sustainable tourism, and place branding. She has been a visiting professor at the Observatory of Responsible Consumption at UQAM University (Canada) where she is working with colleagues in the areas of collaborative consumption and responsible consumption.

Magali Trelohan is a PhD student at University of South Brittany. Her research focuses on social marketing, non-profit brand and place branding. She is particularly interested in the application of persuasive communication in the promotion of sustainable behaviours.

Michel Gentric is lecturer in the Department of Marketing at University of South Brittany. His research interests embrace environmental labelling, place marketing, and place branding. He is interested in territorial marketing brand developments and has conducted several research projects for French area brands.

Manuelle Aquilina is a lecturer in the Tourism Department of West Catholic University. The focus of her research is on tourism communication, the historical aspects of tourism places, and public as private tourism project management.