How to boost place branding leveraging on community relations

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to explore the relationship between community relations (CR) and the concept of place branding (PB) by analysing several companies in a developing sub-Saharan country – Ghana, and developing a framework that links the selected concepts together. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides an analysis based on a multiple case study approach, with an interpretivist analysis of secondary and primary data derived from archival documents and in-depth interviews of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and brand managers from purposefully selected cases of private financial institutions. The data gathered were qualitatively analysed to identify and interpret common themes about CR, PB and other relevant factors such as culture. Based on analysis of the qualitative data, a comprehensive framework for CR and PB was formulated. Findings Findings show that in the developing sub-Saharan country Ghana, the process of establishing a place brand is complex because of influences exerted on CR practices by culture, management agenda of private organisations, government intervention and the fragmentation of efforts to generate a coherent dialogue with numerous stakeholders. Practical implications The study shows that managers can leverage on an array of CR elements, including moral and ethical obligations of the company, provision of economic benefits, integration, common goals between the corporation and its communities, responsibility to stakeholders, proactive action, partnerships across sector lines and active leadership, to boost PB. Thus, this research will help policymakers, country brand managers and communication professionals in structuring a proper PB starting from the efforts made in the CR field. Originality/value This research can be considered one of the few studies undertaken with a view to understanding and developing a CR framework that links with PB in a developing country. The study identifies several important moderators of PB and factors influencing CR. All issues are approached from the study of PB that promotes economic, commercial and political interests at home and abroad.

Marketing bank services to financially vulnerable customers: evidence from an emerging economy

“…As there are a limited number of commercial banks in Nigeria, the case study research strategy allowed for an empirical investigation of a specific context with a small number of units and an in-depth exploration of a specific subject matter in its naturalistic setting (Farquhar, 2012; Farquhar and Michels, 2015; Yin, 2015). Though the case study methodology is limited due to the vast amount of data available, it is still beneficial in understanding complex inter-relationships and facilitating the exploration of the unexpected and unusual findings (Hodkinson and Hodkinson, 2001; Palazzo et al , 2020). It must be noted that the data are often from one case study and it is based on the analysis of qualitative (i.e.…”

“…Case study methodological approaches have now been adopted in business and management studies, such as place branding and community relations, in Ghana's banking sector, in banks' corporate social responsibility (CSR) and in the creation of online communities and their development (Palazzo et al , 2020; Deigh et al , 2016; Farquhar and Rowley, 2006). Multiple sources of data were generated during the period of the study, comprising semi-structured interviews and a review of various media and documents, all of which were put into a research database (Yin, 2015).…”

“…We also questioned the managers and sought evidence regarding how the banks are creating awareness about their products and services to FVCs. Further questions were prompted during the interview based on responses from informants (Palazzo et al , 2020). Seven top managers responsible for the oversight of marketing financial services to financially excluded people were interviewed.…”

“…The interview length varied between 50 and 85 min. The data obtained from these interviews were complemented with memoranda, notes and images (Palazzo et al , 2020). The recorded interviews were transcribed and exported to NVivo 12 for thematic analysis.…”

The evaluation of the impact of innovation management capability to organisational performance

“…The qualitative analysis involved the transcriptions of the recorded interview which was read twice. We designed codes by addressing the research questions, problem areas and/or the key patterns in the texts, which are appropriate to the related literature (Deigh et al, 2016;Palazzo et al, 2020aPalazzo et al, , 2020bPalmer and Gallagher, 2007). The researcher then coded and categorised the data to make it easier to search and make comparisons.…”