The Aspects of Brand Identity and Marketing Communication in the Tourism Industry - Essay Example

According to Kotler (2002) brand is referred to as a name, sign, term, design or symbol or a combination of all of them intended to identify the services and goods of one seller so as to differentiate them from other sellers. Place branding, also known as destination or place promotion is about combining all things associated with place (i.e. its services and products from various industry such as tourism, arts, agriculture, education, sports, technology and investment) that collaborate under one brand. Its main aim is to capture the essence of the destination in a uniform way and can be consumed simultaneously at an experiential and symbolic level (Kotler, 2002). It does not only involve creating a slogan or a logo, it’s about capturing the distant elements of the destination in that brand and communicating these elements through the brand’s components which are identity, personality, characters, essence and culture. The process of managing these components so as to create a unique position of a destination in the customer’s mind is known as positioning. A destination brand can be accomplished by coming up with a new product under the same umbrella name to increase the consumer base and by co-branding (Kotler, 2002). Despite being known for naturally attractive destination, these countries are not listed among the most visited destination in the world (World Tourism Organization, 2008). One can argue that other factors other than natural beauty can make a tourist destination desirable; these factors may include cultural diversity, political stability and economic development. It is also seemingly absurd that naturally attractive sites are not even named in these tourism “gatekeepers” as their top-of-mind tourism destinations. In contrast, other tourist destination in developing countries such as phuket beach in Thailand, Bangkok and Bila in Indonesia enjoy very high degree of brand awareness. This reality raises the question of place branding and space branding. This essay will focus on why and how a tourist destination is more attractive and more frequently visited than other. More importantly, how good destination branding can make difference to a tourist destination. Many developing countries are well known for exotic beautiful landscape. However, although natural beauty is the major factor that influence tourist destination, there are many other factors that determine the attractiveness of a tourism destination including, historical prominence, shopping facilities, attitude of the local authority and residents towards tourists and infrastructure (Gearing et al., 2009). These three determinants of brand destination are trying to show that developing country have been be a fantastic tourist destination under the condition of being less advantageous than other developed countries in term of finance capacity to support tourism promotion campaigns, infrastructure and economic development. Two samples of developing countries, that is Thailand and Vietnam will be used because they are nearly similar in population, infrastructure, geography and the level of economic development. According to Han (2005), push and pull effects are the factor influencing travel decision. Push factors are associated with the wants and needs of the tourist which includes; demand for relaxation or rest, motivation for discovery and so on; and pull factors refers to the features and attributes of the destination itself. Also, destination marketing activities is decided by the extent of congruence between authorities’ projected image and customers’ perceived image (Taci & Kozak, 2006). While National branding is aimed to assist the nation to sell its places and products, the important issues for nations is not only on what natural beauty they possess but what attitudes citizens in each nation have towards their country’s natural resources in terms of preservation as well as exploration. Vietnamese citizens are proud of their landscape Ha lond that is positioned first among the recent ranking of new world wonders (New7wonder, 2008). The Vietnamese authority and citizen have payed attention to this wonderful landmark. In contrast, Thailand tourism authority value quality tourism that is concentrate on responsible utilization and education of natural resources which have help them to prioritizing high tourism number (Kittikanya, 2006). Both countries have used these resources towards tourism business and also use them to illuminate the high gap of attractiveness. The other aspect of brand identity in brand destination is the role of individuals involved in delivering tourism products to potential visitors as customers tend to perceive the image of a place via the characteristics of not only that place but also the citizens who live there as well. In this regard, the professionalism and behaviour of tour agents, authority, tourist agent and the local residents in these developing countries is a big issue. For example, immigration officers in Thailand and China airports always smile at visitors. Professor Quelch, an associate Dean of the Harvard school was very happy with the hospitality of the Thai land citizen and in an interview with Vietnamese electronic newspaper; he said that Vietnam people are also very hospitable (Quelch, 2010). The citizens of Vietnam thanked the professor for his good comment this would since it increased the number of tourist visiting the city due to its strong brand name. In the perception of the international tourists, every country has both positive and negative images. For example, Thailand is famous for the attractive images of the best place of ship or for Thai people’s magnificent hospitality, this nation is also known for taking advantage of sex tourism to attract international visitors. Likewise, Vietnam is known for its fabulous natural beauty with magnificent tourist attraction like beaches and Ha long. However, low level of professionalism of tourism related citizen have made tourist not to come back. The two countries have reinforced their positive perception by deflecting attention away from the negative aspects. Thailand has tarnished their negative image by overwhelming the target customers with positive image. To make sure that the unique beauty of Ha long will not be overshadowed by negative images, Vietnam has priorities on correcting the negative image and publicized its positive image to the international visitors. In relation to marketing communication in the tourism industry, developing countries such as Thailand apparently they are less financially capable in comparison with developed countries. However, to Thailand, the huge money required for advertising is not always necessarily for a country brand to successes. According to TCAC organized by Business-In-Asia in 2010, the gap between Thailand and Vietnam is very small. However, Thailand along with destination such as Phuket beach and Bangkok has a very strong brand image of friendly people, fun and exotic, this nation has attained higher level of brand awareness among counter workers in 190 travel agents worldwide as compared to other famous tourism destination like Hawaii, U.S, Tokyo and Australia (Rod, 2002). Surely, this indications shows that the success in place branding does not come from finance superiority used for costly promotion campaigns and advertising since Thailand has gain destination brand through unique image that have created an emotional appeal for being chosen over the others. As a way increase its destination branding, Vietnam embarked on an advertising program on CNN which will running in the next 13 weeks. In contract to Vietnam, Thailand is a successful sample of a good image. The attractiveness of slogan is not attained in isolation from integrated marketing communication factors. In conclusion, the success of place braining, mostly for developing countries has been primarily enhanced by their ability to accentuate the positive as well as to address the negative images; the congruence of the projected, actual and perceived images; and by the awareness of their country’s identity. The reality is that these countries have outdone countries such the U.S, France and Austria in marketing destination in inferiority over these factors provided that it can capitalize on the country advantages to create a distinctive image in perception of international tourists References Vietnamnet, 2007 Can Vietnam’s tourism catch up with Thailand’s? Retrieved on 1st August from  http://english.vietnamnet.vn/reports/2007/09/742097/ Kotler, P, Hamlin, M, A, Rein, I, and Haider, D, H 2002 Marketing Asian Places: Attracting Investment, Industry, and Tourism to Cities, States, and Nations John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte, Singapore New7wonder, 2008, New 7 wonders of natural nominees, Retrieved on 1st August from, http://www.new7wonders.com/ Kartajaya, H 2007 “What Asian needs to learn from China” Retrieved on 1st August 2011 from http://hermawan.typepad.com/blog/2007/week13/index.html Quelch, J (2010) Marketing Vietnam’s images to the world Retrieved on 1st August 2011 from http://english.vietnamnet.vn/news/2005/02/374120/ Rod, D (2010), Branding Asian Tourist Destination, Retrieved on 1st August 2011 from http://www.asiamarketresearch.com/columns/tourism-branding.htm The Thailand Authority of Tourism, (2008) TAT to launch “seven amazing wonders” of Thailand campaign Retrieved on 1st August 2011 from http://www.tatnews.org/tat_release/3442.asp The Thailand Authority of Tourism, (2010) Marketing “amazing Thailand” to The world: Thailand Branding Retrieved on 1st August 2011 from, 2008 http://www.tatnews.org/tat_corporate/3489.asp The World Tourism Organization, (2010), The most visited destinations, Retrieved on 1st August 2011 from http://www.unwto.org/index.php Vincente, J, D (2004) State Branding in the 21th Century. The Fletcher School Tourism market guide the Asian Market, (2006) Vietnam Human Resource Development in Tourism Project Vietnam National Administration of Tourism in Partnership with the European Commission Read More