Abstract
Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to report on a special session entitled “Place branding: Are we wasting our time?”, held at the American Marketing Association’s Summer Marketing Educators’ conference in 2014.
Design/methodology/approach: – The report details the outcome of an Oxford-style debate with two opposing teams of two persons – one team supporting and one team opposing the motion. The opening speaker of each team had 10 minutes to put their case across, and the closing speaker had 8 minutes. Teams took to the stand alternately, matching up against each other’s arguments.
Findings: – The outcome of the debate points towards a need for place brands to develop as more inclusive and organic entities, in which case it may be best for place practitioners to avoid creating and imposing a place brand and instead help shape it from the views of stakeholder constituencies. This shifts the notion of place branding towards an activity centred on “curation”.
Originality/value: – The use of a competitive debating format as a means for exploring academic ideas and concepts in the place management field.
Design/methodology/approach: – The report details the outcome of an Oxford-style debate with two opposing teams of two persons – one team supporting and one team opposing the motion. The opening speaker of each team had 10 minutes to put their case across, and the closing speaker had 8 minutes. Teams took to the stand alternately, matching up against each other’s arguments.
Findings: – The outcome of the debate points towards a need for place brands to develop as more inclusive and organic entities, in which case it may be best for place practitioners to avoid creating and imposing a place brand and instead help shape it from the views of stakeholder constituencies. This shifts the notion of place branding towards an activity centred on “curation”.
Originality/value: – The use of a competitive debating format as a means for exploring academic ideas and concepts in the place management field.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Place Management and Development |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Pages (from-to) | 63-68 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| ISSN | 1753-8335 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |