Branding a Small City in Tourism - Case Study Example

Branding a small in Tourism: Designing Savannah Graphic design has come a long way, and with geographical bounds becoming gradually less significant due to advancements in the internet it is certainly one of the key instruments that can be utilized to gain competitive advantage in tourism marketing. The image portrayed of any brand is possibly one of the strongest determinants of its success and this is precisely why graphic design assumes primary importance. It has such a powerful effect on how the public receives a certain city’s brand that many city officials are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on graphic design firms to do research and construct brands that will draw in tourists, new residents and the inevitable new businesses that will follow. The proper depiction of identity for a city is essential to make it lucrative as a tourist destination and thus is important enough for the development of the location to make or break the quality of life in the city. For example, very few would argue that only the functional identity cannot make an impression of a small city strong enough to draw in tourists. An attractive image of identity must encompass factors generating historical and emotional value along with functional ones so that an image at least at par with the true identity of the city is created. Asheville, North Carolina and Fort Myers, Florida would be two great examples of locations that developed an attractive image through effective designing and branding of their respective symbols. Savannah, however, has not been able to ensure proper communication with its present identity. Graphic design has established such a significant place in tourism marketing that it can successfully draw greater attention to a brand whether the crowd it draws is beneficial or not. Through assessing the failures and successes of resort regions like Asheville and small Southern regions like Fort Myers, this paper shall attempt to generate a clear blueprint regarding what may best work to market Savannah as a brand through utilizing the scopes provided by graphic designing. Introduction According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the 1990s saw international tourist arrivals growing at an average rate of 4.3 percent a year. In 2000 this rate was 7.4 percent. Further, in 2000 travel and tourism directly and indirectly accounted for 11.7 percent of global GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as well as 200 million jobs approximately. By 2020, the number of international travelers is predicted to surge to 1.6 billion, and further the revenue from tourism is forecasted to rise above US$2 trillion. This is big news for cities everywhere. From the perspective of tourism every city is already a brand. Progress and technology have evolved the identity of the city as a brand as it stands in the present day. Although conscious city branding has been around for over a decade, officials in most cities have now become aware that proper branding is evermore critical in tempting and persuading tourists. This boost in awareness is reflected in the fact that designing and marketing cities as brands has become a key part of the graphic design package. The hundreds of thousands of dollars city organizers shell out to these companies buys them more than just a flashy logo these days. However purchasing graphic designing services for city branding arguably is assuming greater importance for smaller and lesser known cities since the larger capital ones already have strong images historically. Many small cities like Savannah, Georgia have been promoting city branding to generate favorable images to encourage more residences and to appeal to a greater number of tourists. This study will be explore relevant theories on the subject while at the same time examining in detail the various hypotheses built on city branding and graphic design concepts. Here the city brand leveraging approach, city image and city personality approach would be considered in detail as the most appropriate theoretical perspectives for the purpose of this paper. This study further explores what graphically strong brands possess and what Savannah needs in order to brand itself successfully. Also, the study will show how Savannah can be portrayed as a place with more than just historical values through graphical initiatives. The appropriateness of various theoretical perspectives to evaluate the tenets of branding of locations via graphic design in tourism would be taken as the basis through this paper. Symbolic parameters in branding and graphic design shall be considered in detail. A city in order to be considered a good tourist destination must present organized visual information attractively. Thus an image that reflects the spirit of a city and inspires the travelers and the general populace becomes necessary. Graphic design can for starters bring together the best tourist attractions of any locality and this is generally the central focus of the process of branding a place. Graphic design thus occupies one of the most important positions in the process of branding places to generate customer loyalty. Branding through Graphic design is not limited to creating impressive city graphics. It essentially encompasses everything that is associated with creating a favorable image of the city. It occupies a significant part of the cultural city plan. Savannah is an up–and– coming city that is yet to be developed significantly as a brand. It is really sad that Savannah does not yet have an image that portrays historical values through artistic scenes. Old is just old and the heritage values are not depicted effectively. There is scope to provide strong and unique visual information following aesthetic and creative norms to create the image of a great artistic historical tourist attraction. Rather than developing the image of a place through conservation of history, the conceptualization of an identity Is Important and this appeals to the emotional aesthetic functions of consumers. Portrayal of the environment and culture is thus central to the development of the very first systemic face. Graphic design is part of this aspectual conceptualization paradigm and is determined by a process of aesthetics development and dynamic perspective positioning (www.entrepreneur.com) (PLEASE NOTE THAT THE REFERENCING IS IMPROPER HERE…IT MUST BE CORRECTED BY PUTTING IN THE NAME OF THE AUTHOR, DATE ETC). Graphic design aspect of the branding process is associated with concentrating on the distinguishing features of any city so that it stands apart from a variety of similar features possessed by other cities which compete for symbolic authentic identity on an equal footing. Visual aesthetics plays a pivotal role in tourism or place marketing through its appeal to Human senses. Especially through appearing attractive to the sense of sight determines the extent to which a city could appeal to the average tourist and the average individual’s senses of aestheticism. There are only a few city branding success stories in the world today due to the fact that many beautiful small cities have not yet considered the feasibility of branding their beauty to the outside world so seriously. Local authorities in many cities the world over, have been actively promoting the city as a tourist place to the local tourists. In order to understand many implications of city branding, graphic design ought to be explained in detail first. It is not mere physical aspect of design that matters here (Donald and Gammack, 2007). Visual aesthetics associated with a tourist place such as Asheville, North Carolina is determined by factors which can be divided into the following two groups of dynamic functional factors and non–dynamic or constant factors. Dynamic functional factors include transient physical features of the place, e.g. seasonal variations in atmosphere and variations in physical properties such as the change of colors of the mountains. These dynamic functional features were the common signature imagery of the place in the past. However, there are very versatile efforts on the part of city authorities to create benchmarks in branding and even novelties such as proto–branding in which structural and design aspects are deliberately shrunk to bring out only the original qualities of the place with the architectural legacy with the modern conviviality of the impression and emotion of the place. Such designing and branding strategies would transform cheerless climes into delightful oases. Graphic design strategy of the city authorities is dictated by the need to redefine its qualitative aesthetic appeal in a way that would recommend it to the external world. The identity of Asheville came out after the conceptual appearance of the city as a center for art for the region. After re–branding Asheville, it has been recognized as one of the best cities to live in by various noteworthy sources (Subman, 58). As the graphic symbol of the city identity, Asheville is home to one of the most prominent collections of Art Deco architecture in the country and is a popular destination for tourists. Graphic design is also associated with individual design efforts in branding a city as a symbolic tourist place of attraction. The scenic canyons, wind–shaped buttes and dramatic sandstone towers of Sedona in Arizona, graphically symbolize the rugged essence of the West. Many tourist resorts have made use of this strategy by focusing the attention on the city’s physical characteristics, infrastructure such as the access roads, architectures and environmental features. While such physical functions would be at least minimally available in every city, there is very little that city authorities can do by way of advertising such common functional factor. It is very rare for city planners to think of superior aesthetics and structural design of its physical factors. For instance Fort Myers in Florida has also dynamic functional factors as much as Asheville has; such as, various weather, the change in the tide and the ebb and structural changes in the environment, e.g. makeshift structure coming up on the beach during the summer and disappearing in other season. Also, the place is one of famous tourist resort. The Fort Myers identity just contains all of their superior features and their conceptual aspects. The authorities combined the functional and emotional theories on their creation - there is fulfillment of imagination and thus susceptibility for their consumer. Similarly, another successful story of branding cities is San Francisco. Physical infrastructure has been utilized to augment what’s lacking in symbolic graphic design. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is an engineering marvel. However, the design aspect is determined by how best such infrastructural facilities could be aesthetically designed to attract the attention of the average visitor. The symbol is a more abstract scene of the bridge surrounded by nature. The authorities focused more on experimental factors based on functional factors, and it emphasized a higher impact on sensation. Savannah was the first city in the state of Georgia. It attracts millions of visitors annually and has been one of the most discussed features in holiday columns of newspapers and magazines throughout the world. Also, Savannah, Georgia, had created a success story of graphic design by its own transient qualities. Savannah’s identity in graphic design was essentially developed through the proactive branding and symbolic design philosophy of the local authorities. The symbol of Savannah focused upon the public squares lined by huge oaks and scented magnolias that dot the landscape in Savannah. Spanish moss in Pulaski Square typifies the glorious past of heroism of a people that inhabit the southern regions. However, the problem in the identity is that it depicts everything as it is. There might be some reason the authorities (designers) created it on some purpose. However, the deeper aesthetic Implications are not effectively conveyed and there is lack of communication between created design elements and the potential consumer. The square shape is obvious, and the Implication of nature through the greens Is also evident but those are just functional factors and the metaphors are not expanded at all. Moreover, from the tourism perspective, the Savannah Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) initiated a new branding campaign for Savannah in which they dropped their old slogan of “Savannah, Georgia’s First City” established in 2001 and replaced it with the brand promise of “Savannah Est. 1733,”, largely due to the fact that the bureau believed this brand campaign was more in line with what studies showed as the perception most people had of Savannah, as they noted, “During recent research in several cities, we learned that just mentioning Savannah evokes many positive associations (Backus, p.1).” The concept of embedded historical value is the most popular impression of Savannah which is most keenly marketed on many web pages and billboards throughout Savannah by promoting the Ghost walk tours (Roberts, p1). It is estimated that nearly half of all tourists that go on tours throughout Savannah go on the ghost walk tours. Savannah has developed a dual marketing campaign that involves one set of graphics that project images of fine cuisine and modern architecture intermingled with old southern styled forms, while at the same time they have darker Gothic imagery to promote their ghost tours. There has been an annual Halloween event that has been very lucrative for Savannah tour companies for decades, but it has found even more success through advancements in the internet. “Ghost tourism is an important yet grossly under-analyzed aspect of the larger phenomenon known as ‘‘dark tourism,’’ which refers to the transformation of death and disaster into saleable tourism-based commodities (Gentry, p223)” The dark tourism market is a major aspect of Savannahs appeal and the use of graphic images featuring ghosts and ancient Gothic designs implies a romantic appreciation for the past that has shown major growth in Savannah’s tourism expansion since 2005 (Gentry, p225). In this point of view, most tourists imagine Savannah, Georgia as a historical city, but they remember almost only ghost tour after trip to the place. No one remembers what the first face of the city ‘Savannah’ is. The problem with this is that although it appeals to tourists with preferences for such romanticism, the image lacks appeal to the general mass of tourists. Besides the existence of the square logo and tourism campaigns focused on the ‘Ghost Tour’, Savannah has another problematic that makes the citys identity somewhat unattractive to the consumers. The Gothic style of the campaign and modernized logo style prevent presenting the magnificence of Savannah. Also, Savannah has information boards everywhere as one of famous tourist destinations. In the information board, there is another city identity which contains the city hall in a circle shape. It is possible a city can have different versions of identity on purpose such as using for specific organizations and events. However, use of various versions of identity should connect each other and have consistence together. But In case of Savannah the main square logo and another logo in the information board have no connections and no communication that may coherently relate one to the other and thus create a complete and attractive picture. Despite the functional and the emotional factors, theoretical empirical perspectives on place branding create loyalty on the place personality. Fort Myers, Florida has most empirical factors on their identity. Their city identity is composed of captures of city images, and the components are experimental factors. Also, the empirical factors that contribute to the city identity of Asheville, North Carolina stands out on its use of the graphic logo. They apply their signature symbol to the festival events and souvenirs (www.ashevillefilmfestival.com). On the other hand, though Savannah could have the empirical factor that appeals, it does not effectively enough. In fact the city identity portrayed is often ignorable as a symbol because it doesn’t have any experimental personality that implies uniqueness. There is no use of the symbol except on web–sites and small brochures. If there is some usable system just like Asheville’s, results would certainly have been better. Also, if the functional factors contain such experimental factors, unacceptable rotation of the logo ruins the empirical personality of the identity. When prospective visitors were asked to say what Savannah meant to them, a significant majority answered ‘hospitality’ or ‘heritage (Backus, p.1).’ In the symbol of Savannah, there is no hospitality and neither was heritage. Conclusion Overall graphic design dimension in city branding and marketing efforts in a small city requires a highly considerable constructive approach. Digging and sticking on just one perspective is not fitting to the fast changing modern age. Our society is more complex, and requires diversified visual communication. Graphic design is primarily important as it is first step of the whole project of the branding and marketing a place. A good brand or logo can lead a city to having more residents, tourists, business, and economic development, virtually changing the face of the city itself. Whether true or not, if the public buys into the image depicted by the brand then the city can potentially become the brand (www.placebrands.net). In this sense, graphic design controls the whole of the city development. Graphic design can be carried out with special identity enhancing efforts (Kozak nd Andreu, 2006). The uniqueness of the identity of a place is as important a determinant as is the cultural stamp and graphic design has a pervasive influence on the potential tourist. Thus branding a small city to achieve favorable outcomes in tourism promotion has to be based on the policy of targeting a particular class of tourists according to their personal characteristics and placing the brand at an appropriate level or scope. Thus city image with personality are the basic ingredients of destination branding efforts of a small city. Savannah has had much improvement on their branding system, but still has a weak identity. Inappropriate functional logo system and unorganized random identity use systems are the major problematic on city development. To conclude, Savannah may have to reassess their newly found brand and change it up with one that accounts more for function based on real, communicated emotional atmosphere and empirical component, and those are the key focus areas that if satisfied can lead to rapid tourism growth and thus rapid development of the locality itself. REFERENCES Avraham, Eli, And Ketter Eran. Media Strategies for Marketing Places in Crisis: Improving the image of cities, countries and tourist destinations. Oxford : Butterworth-Heinemann, 2008. Baker, Bill. Destination Branding for Small Cities. Oregon: Creative Leap Books, 2007. Bosselmen, Fried, Peterson Craig, And McCarthy Claire. Managing Tourism Growth: Issues And Applications. Washington: Island Press, 1999. Chon, Kye-Sung. “The role of destination image in tourism: A review and discussion.” The Tourist Review Vol.45. Issue 2(1990): pp.2-9. Donald, Stephanin, and Gammack John G. Tourism and the Branded City: Film and Identity on the Pacific Rim. Herfordshire: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, 2007. Drucker, J. Who’s afraid of visual culture? [exhibitions: The American century; art and culture 1900-1950, and Graphic design in the mechanical age]. Art Journal v. 58 no. 4 (Winter 1999) p. 36-47 Erica Backus, Director of PR. Savannah Convention and Visitors Bureau Adopts New Brand Promise, 2006. http://www.savcvb.com/media_pr.asp?id=33. Gentry, Glenn W. Southeastern Geographer, Volume 47, Number 2, 2007:pp220-230. Gnoth, J. “Leveraging export brands through a tourism destination brand. “ The Journal Of Brand Management Vol.9. No.4 (2002): pp.262-280 (19). Healey, Matthew. What is Branding? (Essential Design Handbooks). East Sussex: RotoVision, 2008. Kolb, Bonita. Tourism Marketing for Cities and Towns: Using Branding and Events to Attract Tourists. Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2006. Kozak, Metin, and Andreu Luisa. Progress in Tourism Marketing. Oxford : Butterworth-Heinemann, 2006 Park, Sun-Young, and. Petrick James F. “Destinations’ perspectives of branding.” Annals of Tourism Research Vol. 33. No. 1(2006): pp. 262–265. Pike, Steven. Destination Marketing: An Integrated Marketing Communication Approach. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2008. Placebrands. “why brand places?” http://www.placebrands.net/ www.ashevillefilmfestival.com http://www.entrepreneur.com/ Read More