The future pathways of place branding – Brazilian landscape

Abstract

"Which Place?" All places, far and near, large, and small, highly developed or on a development path, are looking for the best solutions and practices to fulfil the needs and ambitions of their internal and external stakeholders. Place branding is an approach that supports places in these efforts, strategically and interactively. As Kavaratzis and Florek (2021) claim, “in the near future, the global place branding scholarly community will need to address a series of challenges and questions that remain unsolved and unanswered, with implications for both the theory and the practice” (p.28). At the same time, scholars and practitioners need to consider the regional and local dissimilarities. The Brazilian perspectives, possibilities, and conditions are no exception.

This first edition advances the understanding of this boundless, imperative, and interdisciplinary field of knowledge. We are grateful to the Brazilian Journal of Marketing editorial team, all the authors and reviewers who have contributed to this Special Issue on place branding (Appendix I. Thank-You Note).

Contextually, according to an international literature analysis of the geographical locations stated in the articles on place branding, covering 2014-2018, Europe is the dominant area in the studies, followed by Asia and North America that have also attracted significant attention from scholars (Lu et al. 2020). In South America, specifically in Brazil, academic publications on marca de lugar (place brand), gestão de marketing de marca de lugar (place marketing) and gestão de marca de lugar (place branding) are still scarce. Hence there is an urgent need to properly understand the place branding phenomena and disseminate knowledge of it which is often overtaken by practice, causing all sorts of problems and disappointments. Without a solid scientific base, place branding will become and remain merely a response-based tactic.

Therefore, in this Special Issue, we would like to highlight the potential of scientific achievements of academics in Brazil, and to advance the discussion among Brazilian researchers and practitioners. As revealed by Artêncio, Mariutti and Giraldi (2020), a thematic panorama of academic-scientific nature concerns works presented at the main Brazilian Administration conferences: SemeAD, EnANPAD (Marketing Division), and EMA for the last twenty years (1999-2019). With a total of 5,706 studies, only 18 articles address some issues related to place branding or marketing, with the focus mainly on the country level (14), and a few on cities (2) and regions (2). Based on the review of studies’ titles, the abstracts, and the keywords identified in the conferences’ annals, only three works were identified as revolving around a conceptual designation of place marketing, on presented in SemeAD 2016 and at one EMA 2018; and one of place branding presented at EMA 2018. Notably, the studies are specific to some aspect of place brand (place of origin, identity, image, reputation, and culture to name a few).

In view of this scientific portrait, several conclusions can be drawn.

Firstly, in Brazil research at the national level, place branding studies are certainly evolving. And it needs such a national insertion since the place brand can be used as an instrument in strategic spatial planning to support a structural change in places by contributing to the improvement of the economic and social structure of places and reshaping responses to contemporary challenges faced by the places. Regarding the brand positioning or brand management of a place, a space or territory is not an absolute concept, it is always related to a sphere of social-human application or economic-political structure, which is potentially developed through processes – possibly contested – of producing, maintaining, and assigning meaningful spaces, reinforces Warnaby (2018).

Secondly, there is a need of theoretical and empirical development of the concepts of place brand, place marketing and place branding, not only based on studies on Brazilian cities, states (counties), and regions, but also on other places in the country like airports, avenues, beaches, city squares, industrial and other clusters, museums, parks, theatres, etc. Since diverse locus is recognized in a large country like Brazil, providing research questions about the spatiality in marketing literature is key as emphasized by Giovanardi and Lucarelli (2018), Oliveira (2015), and Warnaby (2018).

Thirdly ontological and epistemological advancement of research areas within place branding is necessary to provoke reflections and directions for theoretical advancement, particularly in Brazilian research groups. As Govers (2021) claims, “The funding agencies and governments that appreciate that place branding is of strategic, long-term, and crucial importance are, unfortunately, in a tiny minority” (p.338). With this in mind, we hope to draw attention of Brazilian universities, researchers, and policy makers to the importance and relevance of place branding. Thus, “Place branding has been used to foster economic restructuring, social inclusion and cohesion, political engagement and participation, place identification, and the general well-being of citizens”, states Oliveira (2015, p.18).

Stakeholders per se, who are co-creators in the place branding process (Kalandides, Kavaratzis, & Boisen, 2012; Mariutti & Giraldi, 2021) should be involved in the management of public and/or private places, strategically aligned with place branding activities to enhance the value of a place (Mariutti & Giraldi, 2021). Tracing the scope of research along this path establish connections between practice and theory and offers insight into the future directions for specific places, hidden or forgotten in Brazil.

To address the above contexts together with the Brazilian academic setting, we report that 27 papers were submitted during the six-pandemic months (February to August 2021); they were carefully reviewed and analysed. Also, the best studies selected by the track leaders from the Place Branding Track at the Marketing Meeting - EMA 2021 (by Fabiana Mariutti and Mihalis Kavaratzis) and at the EnANPAD Conference 2021 (by Fabiana Mariutti and João Freire) were invited for submission in the regular evaluation process by Brazilian Journal of Marketing. Both conferences are organized by ANPAD – the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Administration). For the first time, a place branding track took place at Brazilian conferences. Hence, based on the reviewers’ evaluations and research domain comprehension, decisions were taken by the journal’s guest editors and editors-in-chief. Finally, nine manuscripts were chosen for publication.

Robust contributions emerged from this pioneer collection. The following systematically chosen papers illustrate some frameworks and insights for place branding research to be conceivably enhanced in national literature.

The Issue starts with a paper by Carniello and dos Santos who analyse branding as a territorial development strategy, discussing the convergence between city branding and a municipality master plan in the case of São Paulo city. Convergence has been identified between the pillars of the brand and the contents of the master plan, especially the communication as a key element for the social and management propositions. A strategic perspective of place branding is therefore postulated using a qualitative approach, with documental design.

The subsequent paper, by Kamlot and Santos Vieira de Jesus, discusses the core of branding process, mainly, city brand identity. The article contributes to the exploration of the physical and symbolic dimensions of Rio de Janeiro’s brand identity and to detailed interpretation thereof, considering the city’s recent evolution. Adopting qualitative method to document analysis, the dataset was combined by research papers, e-mails, newsletters, companies and government reports, newspaper articles etc. This study provides important advice on how to design public policies based on the understanding of a city's identity.

The next paper analyses the feelings accompanying content generated by users on Instagram, expressed in hashtags linked to the Pernambuco brand (capital of Recife State). Results of this mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) research into Lima, Pessanha, Araújo, Alves, and Cesário suggest that studies using sentiment analysis of user content in social networks can be used by public managers to understand residents, tourists, and potential visitors’ behaviour through action research, preparing and better adapting the city.

Beck and Ferasso in turn, analyse the reflection of brand identity, namely the image of cities. In this study, a systematic literature review was used to analyse the content of literature about urban image in the context of Southern Common Market (MERCOSUL). The paper demonstrates that the urban image management can lead to how cities can overcome socio-economic disparities, well-deploying an efficient project of urban image in order to foster a prosperous urban development.

Monte, Pompeu, and Holanda describe an interesting thematic-exploratory qualitative approach to a forgotten property – corporate museum – as a business and cultural space which influences the image of a place. The authors trust that the corporate museums an important cultural asset in promoting the place brand, yet they claim that these museums belong not only to the company but also to the city, region, and country where it is located, attracting tourists and investors, and fostering a sense of belonging among the residents. The study, which was presented at the Place Branding Track at EMA 2021, demonstrates an explanatory and theoretical model of how a place brand (city, region, or country) can be boosted by means of a corporate museum. 

Another business standpoint was taken by Munaier, Rocha, and Portes as they investigated the impact of the business headquarters location of a physical education service provider on the clients' brand trust. Social exchange theory and brand trust were theoretical foundations for the hypotheses of this quantitative study using multivariate statistical techniques. By realizing that the headquarters location influences the clients' brand trust, the authors suggest that the choice of a location is a complex process that companies should manage carefully; at the same time, places can use these relations for branding purposes.

The measurement issues of the place branding process are discussed by Cunha, Luce, and Rovedder; they have developed and tested the stakeholder-based place brand equity (SBPBE) measure of the Vale dos Vinhedos, a wine region in Southern Brazil. Based on this quantitative research results from the respondents’ profiles, the authors demonstrate that the more people’s displacements and activities in a place, the more positive their evaluation of the place brand equity tends to be. The outcomes of this research, which was presented at the Place Branding Track at EnANPAD 2021, support a measurement proposition to evaluate these multiple stakeholders on place brand equity based on behavioural data. 

The last two papers discuss the research recommendations and directions for future developments in the place branding research domain.

Based on a systematic literature review using Methodi Ordinatio, Campos, Galina, and Giraldi establish the guidelines for cross-disciplinary future research into soft power, analysing its intertwinement with creative industries and place branding. After adopting the content analysis with oblique approach, it was identified six relevant areas with short description and oblique references in their substantial research: psycho-sociology, labour mobility, urban planning, arts diplomacy, gastro-diplomacy, and geographical indications. It is demonstrated how soft power and place branding reveals an explicit relationship with each other theoretically, strategically, and politically.

Ocke and Platt put forward an inviting research agenda providing some advice for scholars, branding practitioners, and marketers taking place from the brand management scope – identity, image, and reputation of a place. By adopting bibliographic material, under a nation branding overview with its economic, political, and cultural-critical orientations, significant proposals for Brazil are suggested to effectively manage place brands, including: (i) appointment of a formal body to coordinate the actions and actors recognizing the role of stakeholders in the decision-making stages; (ii) cooperation between governors and leaders to achieve common goals under a unique umbrella branding program that benefit different sectors of the economy; (iii) the conquer of market opportunities by competitive identity assets such as the green place brand orientation; and (iv) application of integrated methods to measure and evaluate the results of place branding efforts.

With this Special Issue, entitled “Which place? The Future Pathways of Place Branding”, we hope to encourage actions and stimulate a debate on how place branding can effectively make Brazilian places improved and how the knowledge offered by the academic community can prepare any type of places for the forthcoming challenges. “What comes next?” In consideration of the future role of place branding in Brazil, our recommendations for future studies highlight themes regarding the current status quo of the country, the post-pandemic times, the human re-integration into places, and, indeed, sustainability issues. Research into place branding requires additional integration of disciplines, international partnerships research groups, professional interchanges, public-private initiatives, clusters mapping, geomarketing analysis, and more sophisticated methods of critical appraisal along with well-established instigating research problems.

Appendix I

Thank-You Note

We appreciated the endless support by the Editor in Chief Prof. Dr. Julio Carneiro da Cunha.

We are grateful to following Reviewers, who neatly contributed to our special call:

Dr. Antônio Azevedo - Universidade do Minho, Portugal

Dra. Beatriz Casais - Universidade do Minho, Portugal

Dra. Caroline Finocchio - Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Dra. Cecilia Pasquinelli - Università degli Studi di Napoli Parthenope, Italy

Ph.D. Candidate: Donizete Ferreira Beck - Universidade Nove de Julho, SP, Brazil

Dr. Eduardo de Paula e Silva Chaves - Universidade de São Paulo & Instituto Federal de São Paulo, Brazil

Dra. Fernanda Scussel - Universidade de Santa Catarina, Brazil

Dr. Glauber Eduardo de Oliveira Santos - Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

Dr. João Ricardo Freire - Universidade NOVA de Lisboa & Universidade Europeia, Portugal

Dr. Julio Araújo Carneiro da Cunha - Universidade Nove de Julho, SP, Brazil

Dra. Marina Lourenção - Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

Ph.D. Candidate: Mateus Artêncio - Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

Dra. Mariana Sutter - Toulouse Business School, France

Dr. Marco Ocke - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, SC, Brazil

Dr. Mihalis Kavaratzis - University of Leicester, England

Dra. Mirna de Lima Medeiros - Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa, PR, Brazil

Dra. Monica Franchi Carniello - Universidade de Taubaté, SP, Brazil

Dr. Rafael Barreiros Porto - Universidade de Brasília, D.F., Brazil

Dr. Ricardo Limongi - Universidade Federal de Goiás, GO, Brazil

Dr. Robert Bowen - Swansea University, Wales, United Kingdom

Dr. Roberto Flores Falcão - Centro Universitário FECAP, SP, Brazil

Ph.D. Candidate: Sergio Czajkowski - UNICuritiba, PR, Brazil

Dra. Suzane Strehlau - Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing, SP, Brazil

Dra. Thaysa Nascimento - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Dra. Virginia Castro - Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana, PR, Brazil

Dra. Vivian Iara Strehlau - Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing, SP, Brazil

Dr. Wesley Moreira Pinheiro - Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, SP, Brazil