This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Pritchard, A. Articles by Morgan, N. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

'Mood marketing' — The new destination branding strategy: A case study of 'Wales' The Brand

School of Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism, Faculty of Business, Leisure and Food, Colchester Avenue Campus, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff CF3 7XR

Nigel Morgan

School of Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism, Faculty of Business, Leisure and Food, Colchester Avenue Campus, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff CF3 7XR

In the ever more competitive tourism marketplace, destinations — from resorts to countries — are increasingly adopting branding techniques in an effort to craft and differentiate an identity which emphasises the uniqueness of their product. This paper briefly discusses the role of branding in destination marketing and evaluates whether destinations can indeed be branded as other goods and services. It suggests that destinations seeking to brand themselves face three unique constraints — a lack of control over the total marketing mix, their relatively limited budgets, and often, over-arching political considerations. In such circumstances, some destinations are adopting strategies whose main goal could be described as the creation of brand saliency — the development of an emotional relationship with the consumer through highly choreographed and focused communications campaigns. To explore this strategy — which we term 'spiritual marketing' — the paper discusses a case study, evaluating how one destination is currently trying to brand itself, particularly in its prime overseas market of the USA. The paper concludes by arguing that such a targeted, multi-agency 'mood marketing' initiative is an effective and efficient way to overcome some of the problems facing destination marketers.

Key Words: destination marketing, fast moving consumer goods (fmcg), 'mood marketing' • 'spiritual marketing' • national agencies • Wales The Brand (WTB)

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. Govers, F. M. Go, and K. Kumar Promoting Tourism Destination Image Journal of Travel Research, August 1, 2007; 46(1): 15 - 23. [Abstract] [PDF]

				N. Morgan, A. Pritchard, and R. Pride Marketing to the Welsh diaspora: The appeal to hiraeth and homecoming Journal of Vacation Marketing, January 1, 2003; 9(1): 69 - 80. [Abstract] [PDF]