Who owns the name of a place? On place branding and logics in two villages in Galicia, Spain

Abstract

This article deals with the marketing strategies employed to promote the name of a place in a global context of heritage propertisation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in two sites on the ‘Costa da Morte’ in Galicia, northwest of Spain, this article analyses the discourses and practices employed to commoditise place names and the strategies regarding place branding. In particular, two strategies are contemplated: first, the creation of a name to refer to a whole area, which is the case of the ‘Costa da Morte’, and, second, the name branding processes of two of the better-known villages on this coastline. Camariñas is developing a registered trademark for bobbin lace protection and the village of Finisterre is promoting the ‘End of the World’ as a tourist destination. This article focuses on the mechanisms by which place branding discourses and practices permeate various social agents and the naturalisation process of place branding structuring logics.

Emotional conflict and trauma: the recovery of stolen memory using a mixed-methods approach

“…The Way of Saint James is the main economic engine of the town, but it blocks the reconstruction of identity from an endogenous perspective in a context of depopulation and the absence of job opportunities. The area is progressively losing its distinctive activities and growing increasingly dependent on tourism and the commercialisation of culture, as occurs in other places which make their living from the Way (Jiménez-Esquinas and Sánchez-Carretero, 2018). The success of the Way has been accompanied by a certain degree of institutional abandonment and value is taken away from what is truly exceptional about Portomarín: its people and their memories.…”

Branding destinations: symbolic and narrative representations and co-branding

“…On the other hand, studies on the destination branding practices of towns and villages are scarce, with three exceptions. Jimenez-Esquinas and Sanchez-Carretero (2018) analysed the discourse and practices employed to commoditise place names and to study the strategies associated with place branding. Two strategies were employed: the creation of a name to refer to a whole area, 'Casa da Morte', and the name branding of two of the better-known coastal villages.…”

“…Both studies emphasize the importance of participation and the engagement of stakeholders as being of particular importance in the context of towns and villages. In addition, Fan (2014) and Jimenez-Esquinas and Sanchez-Carretero (2018) emphasise the importance of heritage in branding and marketing villages.…”

“…Verucchio (Italy), in Rabbiosi, 2016;Shanghai, in Larsen, 2018;and, European capitals, in De Rosae et al, 2019), that are usually nations, cities or regions. Over a decade ago, Hanna and Rowley (2008) pointed to the dearth of research into the branding of towns and villages, yet with only a few studies in the intervening years (Fan, 2014;Ntounis and Kavaratzis, 2017;Jimenez-Esquinas and Sanchez-Carretero, 2018), there remains a significant gap in knowledge relating to the branding of towns and villages. In addition, no previous studies have surveyed the branding practices of a range of types of destination entities.…”

Customer-based brand equity index of Kurukshetra

“…Valek (2017) explains destination awareness as a tool in attracting new visitors. Jiménez-Esquinas and Sánchez-Carretero (2018) analyze awareness as a promotional tool in a global context of heritage propertization. Brand image : The destination image is “an interactive system of thoughts, opinions, feelings, visualizations, and intentions toward a destination” (Tasci et al , 2007). Guzman-Parra et al (2016) present an analysis of the cognitive attributes of destination image by establishing the relationships between destination image tourist attributes, tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty.…”