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“This City is absolutely Fun and Trendy” A Destination Brand Personality Analysis in a

Web 2.0 Setting

Astrid Dickinger & Lidija Lalicic

MODUL University Vienna, Austria

astrid.dickinger@modul.ac.atlidija.lalicic@modul.ac.at

www.modul.ac.at/tsm

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Agenda

• Introduction • Literature Review • Study Objectives• Method • Results • Conclusion

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Introduction

• New generation of Web 2.0 tools have revolutionised the way destination image is projected (Camprubí, Guia, & Comas, 2013).

• DMOs are realizing that actual costs for a destination occur, when unsatisfied tourists share their experiences in Web 2.0 platforms

DMOs need to perceive social media spaces as: • a new opportunity to reach out on the marketplace • as a mechanism to learn about tourists’ opinions about the

destination (Boulin, 2008).

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From Functional to an Emotional Orientation

• The functional attributes of tourist destinations alone no longer help destinations to attract travellers (Pike & Ryan, 2004; Usakli & Baloglu, 2011)

• Positioning a destination around the feelings it generates

• Giving visitors unique experiences, relationships, meanings and self-expressions (Papadimitriou, Apostolopoulou, & Kaplanidou, 2013)

DMOs needs thus: • to understand what associations of a brand are advantageous over

competitors (e.g. points of difference)• to strive to develop a distinctive destination personality that meets

travellers actual and symbolic needs

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Destination Branding

• Branding a destination is like a hands-on marketing tool for DMOs to coordinate the different stakeholders in one theme (Ritchie-Brent and Ritchie, 1998)

• Using a brand for a destination enables the tourist to make the associations between the different attractions, services and agglomeration services (Munar, 2010; Hankinson, 2010)

• A destination brand is a way to communicate a destination identity uniquely by differentiating a destination from its competitors (Qu, Kim, & Im, 2011)

• Branding a destination is more than creating a catchy advertisement, slogan or logo >> establishes deeper connections with travellers’ values and self-concept (Ekinci, Sirakaya-Turk, & Baloglu, 2007)

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Destination Brand Personality“the set of personality traits associated with a destination”

(Ekinci and Hosany, 2006, p.127).

• Personality is defined as enduring traits that differentiate individuals (Murphy, Moscardo, & Benckendorff, 2006).

• People have the need to anthropomorphize objects in order to facilitate interaction with the nonmaterial world (Murphy, Moscardo, & Benckendorff, 2009)

In tourism: • Representation for building destination brands for understanding tourist

perceptions of the destination (Caprara, Barbaranelli, & Guido, 2001; Ekinci & Hosany, 2006)

• Explicitly illustrate tourists’ attachment to a destination (Morgan & Pritchard, 2004).

• The formation of emotional relationships between customer and destination can increase customer loyalty (Palmatier, Dant, Grewal, & Evans, 2006)

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Brand Personality Scale in Tourism Studies

• Aaker (1997) developed the Brand Personality Scale (BPS)– five personality dimensions based on sources of personality scales from

psychology were selected: competence, excitement, ruggedness, sincerity and sophistication

• Growing research on brand personality of the tourist destination (i.e. Hosany and Prayag, 2007; Moscardo et al., 2007; Ekinci and Hosany, 2006)

• No valid instrument for measuring tourism destination brand personality (TDBP)

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DMOs Social Media Strategies

• Can copy the style and e-culture of social network sites to create their own website (Munar, 2010)

• Can monitor and regulate their online reputation (Marchiori et al.,2012)

• Can transform UGC into strategic knowledge by examining, selecting, classifying, monitoring and evaluating (Marchiori, Pavese, & Cantoni, 2012; Munar, 2010).

• This can support a DMO’s understanding of image formation for their destination (Marchiori, Pavese, & Cantoni, 2012; Morgan, Pritchard, & Pride, 2011)

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Objectives of the Study

(i) To explore the destination brand personality of Vienna expressed by tourists in social media spaces

(ii) To compare the results with tourist connotations with Vienna from a conventional survey for a more holistic view

(iii) To provide recommendations how Vienna as a tourist destination can develop emotional attachments

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Method Sample: Social Media Spaces• TripAdvisor reviews: accommodation, sights and restaurants• 1092 TripAdvisor reviews collected in April 2014 with quota sampling technique• The same numbers of reviews range between negative, average and positive scores

Online Survey • Survey for visitors of the city of Vienna • Two open ended questions connected to the connotations of a traveller with the city of

Vienna (Költringer, 2012)• 599 respondents

Comparison Goal • Users report about their experiences in a destination may differ when provided in an

anonymous social media platform as compared to an online survey• Fundamental, not all of brand experiences may not be covered by conventional survey based

research

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Analysis • Computer-assisted content analysis• Dictionary-design based upon Aakers (1997) 5 brand personality

dimensions • 555 words spread across the five dimensions with an average of 20%

Competence Excitement Ruggedness Sincerity Sophistication

Reliable Daring Outdoorsy Down-to-earth Upper-class

Hard-working Trendy Masculine Family-oriented Good-looking

Secure Spirited Though Small-town Charming

Intelligent Cool Rugged Honest Feminine

Technical Young Western Sincere Smooth

Corporate Imaginative Original

Successful Cheerful

Leader Sentimental

Confident Friendly

Real

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Results • Differences between Social Media and Survey BPS dimensions

Brand personality dimensions

Social Media % Survey % P-value

Sincerity 39.9 56.1 0.000

Sophistication 20.6 17.0 0.000

Excitement 18.8 16.4 0.000

Competence 12.7 10.6 0.000

Ruggedness 7.9 0.2 0.000

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Results • Differences Social Media and Survey per service setting

Social Media Survey Brand personality dimensions

Restaurants Sights Hotels P-Value Connotations with Vienna

Sincerity 40.7 27.3 47.4 0.000 56.1

Sophistication 20.5 26.8 16.8 0.012 17.0

Excitement 17.7 25.6 15.2 0.001 16.4

Competence 12.4 11.6 13.6 0.000 10.6

Ruggedness 8.7 8.7 6.9 0.192 0.20

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Conclusion Brand Personality • Tourists do feel and mention that brand personality dimensions are an integral part of their

experiences

• The confirmation of emotional experiences

• Significant difference between sights, restaurant and hotels setting

• BPS can function as an important part of DMOs marketing strategies (i.e. achieving higher levels of consumer satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth and future intentions)

Method• Experiences expressed in social media spaces is often not in line with the language imposed

by measurement theory.

• Theoretical concepts have to be transferred to new contexts such as social media with caution

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Future Research • The study illustrates that by the use of innovative methods a diversity of

information can be retrieved from and about consumers

• A qualitative perspective would enrich the understanding how the different brand personality dimensions are exposed in social media spaces

• Marketers need to consider different research approaches that enhance the understanding of consumer behaviour

• Integrate the concept of consumer engagement

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Thank you for your attention!

Questions and comments are welcome.

“This City is absolutely Fun and Trendy” A Destination Brand Personality Analysis in a

Web 2.0 Setting

Astrid Dickinger & Lidija Lalicic

MODUL University Vienna