Destination logos recognized by visitors? : An empirical study with challenging results
Type
presentation
Date Issued
2014-08-26
Author(s)
Abstract
While there is still an ongoing debate in marketing research on what logos and brands are really for, research on destination branding has adopted a rather wide interpretation of the construct. Consequently, destination branding processes have acquired different meanings and interpretations; one of those is the belief that destination logos are a powerful instrument to catch (potential) tourist's attention and to even support destination choice processes.
Since particularly in practice, the creation and usage of destination logos has become an important aspect of overall destination branding, we ask whether destination logos really get recognized by visitors. A representative study for the tourist destination logos of St. Moritz, Zermatt, Luzern, and Bern reveals among others three findings: (1) Visitors are likely to recognize logos when they are at the destination and (2) if the destination's logo is displayed at different places (touch-points). (3) Respondents were likely to guess the wrong logo when they said to have seen it on online and offline media outside of the destination.
The study concludes with some quite dramatic implications for the usefulness of logos and with a new meaning of ‘destination branding'.
Since particularly in practice, the creation and usage of destination logos has become an important aspect of overall destination branding, we ask whether destination logos really get recognized by visitors. A representative study for the tourist destination logos of St. Moritz, Zermatt, Luzern, and Bern reveals among others three findings: (1) Visitors are likely to recognize logos when they are at the destination and (2) if the destination's logo is displayed at different places (touch-points). (3) Respondents were likely to guess the wrong logo when they said to have seen it on online and offline media outside of the destination.
The study concludes with some quite dramatic implications for the usefulness of logos and with a new meaning of ‘destination branding'.
Language
English
Keywords
regional development
tourism development
institutionalization
innovation
governance
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Event Title
AIEST Conference
Event Location
Plzen, Czech
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
236339