Transcript Destination Brand Communication through the

Destination Brand Communication
through the Social Media. What Contents
trigger most Reactions of Users?
Assumpció Huertas and Estela Mariné-Roig
University Rovira i Virgili, Spain
[email protected]
http://www.urv.cat
University of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain
[email protected]
http://www.udl.cat/
ENTER 2015 Research Track
Slide Number 1
Project:
Influence of Communication 2.0 in tourism decision
making and destination brand image. Useful
applications for Spanish tourist destinations.
Supported by Spain's Ministry of Economy and
Competitiveness
https://comtur20.wordpress.com/
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Background
 The Social Media have revolutionised communication for
tourism and destinations.
 Opinions and appreciations of other users become largely
transmitted and credible.
 Given the importance of the social media as communication
tools for Destination Management Organisations (DMOs),
most of them have started to use them.
However, many destinations do not know very well
how to manage them in order to reach their target
publics, what communications strategies to follow or
what information to transmit
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Background
Destination brands:
 The social media have become key tools for the
communication of destinations’ identities and their brands.
 The tourists’ experiences and narratives in social media
spaces help to construct an online reputation and create
destination brands’ image.
 The active participation of users in the social media
increases the emotional attachment to the brand.
The destination brand identity must be a key aspect in
destination communication through the social media. A
destination brand generates identification with the
territory and distinguishes it from other destinations
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Background
Reactions and Interactivity:
 The social media are characterised by their interactivity, as
they enable the reactions of users and the establishment of
dialogue with them.
 Advantages of interactivity: greater surfing time and
implication of users, greater processing and impact of
information, creation of relationships with users and the
generation of a better destination brand image.
Users’ Reactions to contents are key items to measure
interactivity in social media and brand communication.
User reactions in Facebook :
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
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Background
Objective of the study:
 Some studies deal with how the interactivity and participation
of the publics generate better brand image (Munar, 2011) …
 … but not: whether brand communication, with its tangible
attraction factors and emotional values, generates more
reactions and interactivity.
Objective: what contents generate the most
reactions among users and if the communication of
brands and their emotional values also generate
reactions.
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Methodology
 Content analysis of several destinations’ top Facebook posts, in terms
of brand attraction factors and brand values.
 Assess which trigger most reactions: sum of likes, comments & shares
Sample of destinations
Located in 5 autonomous
communities
Different types
of destinations
37 Spanish destinations
Andalusia
Canary Islands
Galicia
Catalonia
Madrid
1. National destination (ND)
2. Autonomous community (AC)
3. Large Municipality (LM)
4. Large littoral destination (LLD)
5. Heritage City (HC)
6. Littoral destination (LD)
7. Inland destination (ID)
8. Medium-sized city (MC)
9. Mountain destination (MD)
 Analysis Database: 25 last top post in the official Facebook
Fanpages of these destinations (714 top posts in total).
 Period: Retrieved in April of 2014 (previous three months)
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Methodology
Destination brands, understood as identity, comprise two
dimensions: a cognitive and an affective; a functional or tangible and
an emotional; namely: Attraction Factors and Emotional Values.
A) Attraction Factors  Content analysis
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Nature (Nature and natural landscape, Rural landscape, Mountain, Ecotourism)
Tangible Heritage (Sites, History, Religion, Works of Art, Museums)
Cityscape (Architecture, Urban planning/landscape)
Intangible Heritage (Intangible heritage/popular culture/traditions,
Anthem/Flag/National Symbols)
Gastronomy (Food/Cuisine, Wine Tourism)
Leisure (Urban and cultural leisure/shows, Night life, Shopping);
Sun and Beach (Sea/Beach, Sun, Climate/Weather)
Business/trade
Sports (Hiking, Winter Sports, Water Sports, Adventure Sports, Elite Sports, Other)
Technology (Social Media/ICT, Technology, Innovation)
Services (Hotel/Accommodation, Transport, Other services)
Things to Do
Tourist Information/Agenda
Non-Tourist information/institutional
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Methodology
B) Brand Emotional Values
 Content analysis
We used an adaptation of the “Brand Personality Scale” by Aaker (1997),
which has been extended with other attributes and values relevant for
the analysis of tourist destinations.
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Sincerity: Down-to-earth (Family-oriented, Down-to-earth, Sustainable); Honest
(Calm, Real, Traditional, Honest); Wholesome (Original, Wholesome; Quality of
Life); Cheerful (Happiness, Sentimental, Friendly).
Excitement: Daring (Trendy, Daring, Exciting, Exotic, Fashionable); Spirited (Cool,
Spirited, Dynamic, Vital, Fresh, Young, Sensorial); Imaginative (Unique/different/
diverse, imaginative, creative); Up-to-date (up-to-date, independent,
contemporary, modern); Cosmopolitan (Cosmopolitan, Tolerant, Hospitable).
Competence: Reliable (Reliable, Hard-working, Secure/safe, rigorous/responsible/
Pragmatic), Intelligent (intelligent, technical, corporate, innovative); Successful
(Successful, Leader, Ambitious, Powerful).
Sophistication: Luxurious (Glamorous, Luxurious); Charming (charming/seductive,
smooth, romantic, magical).
Ruggedness: Outdoorsy (Outdoorsy, Get-away, Recreational); Tough (Tough,
Rugged, non-conformist).
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Methodology
• The team of researchers classified the posts’ content
manually and assessed the consistency of coding.
•The analysis measured:
• Average reactions to top posts per destination type.
• Most mentioned themes and brand values and the
themes and brand values triggering more reactions in
general.
• Themes and brand values which generate most
reactions per destination type.
•
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Results
Average reactions to top posts per destination type
Destination type
Total posts
Avg. Likes
Avg. Comments
Avg. Shares
ND+AC
178
1437.6
35.4
248.1
LM
104
153.7
4.9
25.1
LLD
128
25.4
0.7
3.6
LD
40
48.4
1.3
3.8
HC
119
60.3
3.0
7.0
MC
63
36.0
1.2
35.6
ID
56
19.8
0.4
2.3
MD
26
29.6
0.7
0.8
Likes, Comments and Shares present high
correlations between them, higher than 0.8
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Results
Average reactions to top posts per themes
Nature
Tang. Heritage
Cityscape
Intang. Heritage
Leisure
Sun and Sea
Business/Trade
Sports
Technology
Services
Agenda
Institutional
Non-Tourist Info
ND+
AC
106
105
51
41
24
69
4
9
8
2
24
10
4
LM
LLD
LD
HC
MC
ID
MD
13
38
31
18
30
18
2
13
10
3
25
11
15
53
20
6
28
15
85
5
21
4
9
60
4
9
13
9
3
8
14
16
0
4
0
3
30
4
3
25
65
30
22
35
16
2
12
7
5
44
19
24
9
40
24
29
46
10
1
5
3
0
38
4
0
5
20
8
13
35
3
0
3
0
0
29
7
4
23
1
0
0
4
1
0
6
0
0
5
2
13
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Av. Av.
Lik Com
767
19
725
16
842
19
224
7
263
7
662
16
54
3
287
7
209
8
45
2
70
3
73
4
43
3
Av.
Sha
125
125
156
49
19
107
7
23
78
7
16
30
7
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Results
Average reactions per theme
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Results
Brand attributes and average reactions
Down-To-Earth
Honest
Wholesome
Cheerful
Daring
Spirited
Imaginative
Up-To-Date
Cosmopolitan
Reliable
Intelligent
Successful
Luxurious
Charming
Outdoorsy
Tough
ND+
AC
21
69
25
26
19
30
47
4
18
4
12
17
5
28
29
2
LM
LLD
LD
HC
MC
ID
MD
22
60
22
19
10
15
26
3
8
3
4
5
0
6
17
5
20
61
26
18
11
13
44
0
10
2
13
12
18
22
36
2
14
20
5
9
3
6
8
1
4
3
0
0
2
4
5
0
18
46
14
19
18
21
28
1
15
3
1
6
3
15
23
1
2
6
0
0
0
2
2
0
2
3
2
3
0
1
0
0
18
18
9
3
2
4
12
0
1
2
1
0
0
1
19
0
3
2
1
1
3
5
2
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
6
0
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Av.
Lik
315
420
370
458
524
532
2258
919
329
233
561
922
80
662
319
572
Av.
Com
8
10
7
10
13
12
58
19
8
6
13
23
3
16
8
13
Av.
Sha
49
64
54
64
61
73
387
168
47
42
148
199
15
107
41
153
Slide Number 14
Results
Average reactions per brand value
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Slide Number 15
Results
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Slide Number 16
Conclusions
 Themes that generate most reactions are usually unique or
characteristic attributes of the destinations  highly
imageable
 According to results, DMOs should mainly communicate
differential attributes, although generic themes should also
be communicated in a lesser proportion.
 Lack of congruency between the most mentioned contents
and those which trigger most reactions in all destination types
 Destinations should consider the communication of themes
that generate most reactions among users to achieve more
interactivity, engagement, navigation time and positive
attitudes
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Conclusions
 Brand Values that generate most reactions also emphasise
uniqueness, originality and traditional values. They are related
to leisure and to family values. However, the values transmitted
by the different types of destinations are indistinctive.
 Communication of distinctive emotional values of the
destinations’ identity generates most user reactions, but usually
do not coincide with the values most mentioned by destinations
 Although destinations need to know which values generate most
reactions, we do not think that DMOs should communicate the
values that generate most reactions, but those that identify and
differentiate their place brand and that are according to their
strategies as complex entities.
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Slide Number 18
Conclusions
 The analysis method was useful to provide information about
the themes and emotional values that trigger most reactions,
and can be adapted to other types of destinations.
 Research had previously shown that greater interactivity
entailed a better brand image for tourist destinations (Munar,
2011). But this study’s results also assess the inverse
relationship: that the communication of emotional brand
values also entails more reactions and greater interactivity.
 Thus, we conclude that their communication is
recommendable and necessary for effective and excellent
communication of territories through the social media.
ENTER 2015 Research Track
Slide Number 19
THANKS FOR YOU ATTENTION!
https://comtur20.wordpress.com/
[email protected]
[email protected]
ENTER 2015 Research Track
Slide Number 20