Abstract

۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Literature review

۳٫ Methodology

۴٫ Theoretical model

۵٫ Analysis and results

۶٫ Discussion and conclusion

۷٫ Implications

۸٫ Limitations and future research directions

References

Abstract

Purpose – A place brand is a culmination of its exclusive history, people and traditions that affect customer and community experiences. Place branding has become increasingly important for collective heritage brand strategy, as stakeholders undertake efforts to create an aura of a distinctive geographic location. Though place branding has received considerable scholarly attention, there is a lacuna: the role of residents as cocreators of a place and its heritage. Accordingly, this paper aims to develop a “bi-directional participatory place branding” model by applying the stimulus–organism–response approach grounded theory.

Design/methodology/approach – A grounded theory approach with multi-sited ethnography, personal interviews (with residents and city leaders) and observational techniques were adopted in a UNESCO world heritage city of India, Ahmedabad. Findings – The findings indicate that the people (residents) aspect of place branding is associated with their life stories, past experiences, feelings and aspirations. However, the place acts as a nostalgia enabler, disseminating symbolic and heritage metaphors to residents and visitors as place brand ambassadors. When the place and people components are perceived positively, residents participate involve themselves with the place and thus, in turn, become the place ambassadors.

Originality/value – No prior studies have analyzed the association between residents, the place where they reside and the resultant behavior toward the place. The unique contribution is the bi-directional participatory place branding model, especially involving a UNESCO world heritage city rather than solely a site.

۱٫ Introduction

The democratization of economic development and urbanization aspects among people has led to competition across places, countries, cities and associated government investment in the last few decades (Ma et al., 2019; Han et al., 2019; Ma et al., 2020). These efforts have led to increased visibility of place and development of branding practices that facilitate making a place unique and accessible to people. A consequence has been acute research attention in the domain of place branding (Ma et al., 2019; Rebelo et al., 2019). Place branding has been defined as “the current episode of place marketing development” (Kavaratzis and Ashworth, 2008) and is focused on effectively creating and launching strategies that help hone the place’s image (Rebelo et al., 2019).

Places often strive for awareness and attention to stay competitive and achieve broader economic, political, and social objectives and become corporate and community brands (Kavaratzis and Ashworth, 2005). Over the past 40 years, implementation of place branding has become markedly focused, integrated and strategically oriented, thus creating cultural meaning (Pedeliento and Kavaratzis, 2019; Ma et al., 2020).