The crisis and media strategies for marketing places – Part Three

Marketing is a universal process that can be applied to developing and promoting many entities, including products, services, experiences, places, persons, properties, ideas, causes, and information.

Since the early 90’s there has been increasing interest in place marketing, place image and place branding. The number of countries taking part in the global economy and global tourism is increasing, accompanied by a parallel process whereby worldwide transportation and communication have grown. They are speedier, easier and the barriers between East and West are fading and getting cheaper (low cost carriers e.g.). However, if some place grows, another decreases in the attraction cycle. For example, today Paris does not compete just with other cities in Europe, but with other global cities, trying to win international tourism and important conferences. Global competition for tourism and investment has always existed, but today visiting foreign parts or investing abroad is much simpler, cheaper and safer, thanks to the communication progress. Avraham & Ketter (2008) and White (2006), indicate the best strategies, in particular communication and promotion strategies, to improve the place´s image in the crisis´ context. To help the place’s image and the place’s attraction in the decrease of the attention context, the decision makers have to choose a suitable “package” for marketing the place competitively.

Avraham & Ketter (2008: 4), according to Felsenstein (1994) identifies four economic strategies that can be used by governments to improve their image:

i)       “Developing local economy by attracting large-scale industries;
ii)     Attracting small-scale businesses in the fields of private or public services;
iii)   Political participation in the line for national budgets, and
iv)   Encouraging local businesses to expand their activities, essentially try increase your external products flows.”

The literature extensively refers to crises in general and, in particular, the role of the media in such context. White (2006) states that the, “media effect on crisis situations is so marked that it has been claimed that the crisis was actually created by the media”, the media amplifies the perception of the crisis emerge. In related literature (Avraham & Ketter, 2008) we will find two concepts:

i)       “Crisis management;
ii)     Crisis communication.”

The contribution of Avraham & Ketter (2008), help us to gain a better understanding of what is the best media strategies for territories, such as, countries, regions, cities and other destinations in a crisis context to prepare in advance for a crisis situation.

Coombs (1999: 92) identifies seven communication strategies for the place in crisis:

i)       “Attacking the accuser;
ii)     Denial;
iii)    Excuse;
iv)    Justification;
v)     Ingratiation;
vi)    Corrective action;
vii)   Full apology.”

Coombs (1999: 92) suggests that effective use of crisis communication should include two key elements: i) information and ii) compassion.

According to Glaesser (2006), crisis management is the constant practice of avoiding and containing crisis. In terms of consumer behaviour and perceptions – crisis management – is a means to control, run and operate a sudden extraordinary event.

The challenge to the place marketer, place marketing researchers, decision makers and other important stakeholders, are pro-active management approaches, in an ethically and environmentally sustainable perspective with creative media strategies. All place stakeholders need to find the best strategies to minimize the consequence caused by an unstable financial system, the economic instability and the natural events in the place´s image and in the decrease in the flow of people and capital.

In the end, I want to share my inspiration for this post and other interesting reads on the place marketing and place branding topic with all readers:

- Avraham, Eli & Ketter, Eran (2008), Media Strategies for Marketing Places in Crisis. Improving the Image of Cities, Countries and Tourist Destinations. Great Britain, Elsevier Inc.
- Coombs, W. T. (1999), Ongoing crisis communication: planning, managing and responding. California, Sage.
- Moilanen, Teemu & Rainisto, Seppo (2009), How to Brand Nations, Cities and Destinations. Great Britain, Palgrave Macmillan.
van Gelder, Sicco & Allan, Malcolm (2006), City Branding – How cities compete in the 21st century. URL: http://www.placebrands.net/reading/citybranding.html
- White, C. M. (2006), “When the media are used to create a crisis: lessons in what not to do”. Paper presented in ICA, Dresden, Germany.

Note: This post was written by Eduardo Oliveira, one of the participants of the 13th World Business Dialogue. He has a degree in Geography, a post-graduation in Tourism from the Portuguese Catholic University and is a Marketing Master Student at the University of Minho, Portugal. He has been working as a research assistant in the School of Economics and Management of University of Minho.  He develops a blog about marketing research and networks which you can find under New World Research.