Place marketing and place based loyalty schemes

Abstract

The place marketing literature is explicit and consistent; place branding is absolutely necessary (Allen 2007, Gertner 2011, Kavaratzis 2004) in the management and marketing of the place (Kavaratzis and Ashworth 2008, Wahlberg 2016). The importance of place branding is increasing as a result of growing competition amongst places (Medway and Warnaby 2008) and the importance of location as seen by consumers (Allport 2005) and businesses (Di Gregorio 2017). The debate however really commences when the question moves from ‘whether’ to ‘how’ to place brand. There are different strategies presented in terms of place branding for tourism (Boyne and Hall 2004, Dinnie 2004), economy (Allen 2007, Konecnik Ruzzier and de Chernatony 2013, Zhao et al. 2015) and retailing (Heaps 2005, Demirbag Kaplan et al. 2010, Dobson 2012, Stocchi et al. 2016). There is, though, no consensus about any preeminent solution, causing problems from the point of view of practice and place managers (e.g. Boisen et al. 2018, Eshuis et al. 2018, Kavaratzis 2009, Warnaby 2019). Our research contributes towards bridging this gap from ‘whether’ to ‘how’, by considering place based loyalty schemes as a potential mechanism.