Assessing destination brand equity: An integrated approach

Abstract

Commonly, when referring to destination brand equity, four dimensions are taken into consideration; namely awareness, image, quality and loyalty. Building on product and corporate brand equity and the definition of destination branding, the present paper includes a marketing approach towards developing a structural model incorporating a fifth dimension; that of cultural brand assets. The proposed model, focused on cultural urban destinations, was tested from the perspective of international tourists visiting Rome. Findings indicate that the five dimensions are interrelated and important for the customers' evaluation of a cultural destination. Consistent with place and destination branding literature, the significance of specific cultural brand assets is emphasized. The study provides practitioners with a better understanding of the dimensions which may lead to favorable brand evaluations. Finally, it describes the structural relationships which are developed between assets, awareness, associations and quality, and links them with the intention to re-visit and recommend as outcomes leading to destination loyalty.

A social media approach to evaluating heritage destination perceptions: the case of Istanbul.

“…Besides, monuments and heritage sites are not necessarily an asset that, on its own, may enhance return visits and recommendation (e.g. Kladou and Kehagias, 2014). Additionally, another important dimension of the place brand hexagon refers to People and it is people who make a place (Fouts, 2010: 117).…”

Conceptualising tourist based brand-equity pyramid: an application of Keller brand pyramid model to destinations

“…However, in a cross-cultural set-up, the conditions for configural and metric invariances are satisfied whereas for scalar invariance are partially satisfied. Following the same line, Kladou and Kehagias (2014, a) also used Aaker (1991) and developed a five dimensional brand equity path model that was found significant in context of brand Rome. This work holds more importance to researchers and practitioners since the destinations brand value was assessed and measured also using the same (Giannopoulos, Kladou, Mavragani & Chytiri, 2012).…”

“…The framework is a complex of interrelated stages, with each stage being quite complex and deeply associated with others. Like any other marketing offering building destination based brand-equity involve sequence of vital stages (Kladou & Kehagias, 2014, a). The first stage relates to brand identity and use brand salience as a measure of the awareness of the brand and we renamed it as destination brand salience (Keller, 2008).…”

Impact of brand equity on customer purchasing behavior: A study of clothing industry of Iran

“…On the other hand, importing of Chinese products and also well-known western brands resulted in changes in customer's purchase behavior. Brand equity is one of the influential factors on purchase behavior (Aghaei, 2014;Kladou, S., & Kehagias, 2013;Aaker, 1991). According to literature review, brand equity constitutes of perceived quality, brand loyalty, brand awareness and brand association.…”