Searching for effective place marketing

1. Searching for effective place marketing Dr Maria Rybaczewska, University of Stirling Prof. Leigh Sparks, University of Stirling

2. Plan of the presentation: Introduction Research Questions Development Methodology Findings and Discussion Conclusions and Implications

3. 1. Introduction • The main message of the place marketing literature is explicit and consistent – place branding is absolutely necessary (e.g. Allen, 2007; Gertner, 2011) and has to be applied while managing and marketing the place (town) (Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2008; Wahlberg, 2016). • The debate over these issues really commences when the question moves from ‘whether’ to ‘how’. • Our research contributes towards bridging this gap by introducing to this debate the analysis of practitioners’ perspectives on applying loyalty schemes into place branding i.e. place based loyalty approaches.

4. 2. Research Questions Development 2.1. Place marketing - relationships perspective This research aims to explore and improve the potential of a place by considering the key stakeholders’ (including business managers and place managers) preferences for increasing variety in the most efficient way.

5. 2. Research Questions Development 2.2. Place marketing - loyalty schemes perspective Place based loyalty schemes enable mutual support between the brand of the place and individual businesses. This corresponds with the necessity to link retail and place (Bennison et al., 2010). RQ1: How do place based loyalty programmes affect the place marketing?

6. 2. Research Questions Development 2.3. Place based loyalty scheme - key stakeholders’ perspective There are three key groups (consumers, business managers, place managers) and place based schemes need to try to maximise the benefits for all stakeholders. Such a goal requires disentangling the complexity and constraints resulting from different characteristics and priorities of these groups… RQ2: How can place based loyalty programme be beneficial for local businesses?

7. 3. Methodology The current research project expanded the scale and scope of a prior proof of concept with the aim to provide a solution analysing transactional data at the independent business level and aggregating this analysis to provide intelligence to inform town and city centre policy and management. Addressing both the relationship between the place based loyalty programmes and place marketing and the potential benefits of such a programme for local businesses (RQ1 and RQ2) we conducted a three-stage research project (Hultman et al., 2016).

8. 3. Methodology

9. 4. Findings and Discussion 4.1. Quantitative data analysis The extended data set reveals a continuing demand for the product from both consumers and the three independent businesses. The unsupported proof of concept scheme continued to operate and collect data for two years beyond the initial project.

10. 4. Findings and Discussion 4.2. Qualitative analysis There is a real interest in the development of a place based loyalty scheme. There are, though, concerns/differences over who/which businesses should be included in such a scheme (e.g. type (national/independent), reputation, BID member). Awareness of potential data issues is high, but so is the awareness of potential benefits. There are differences amongst and within groups concerning the willingness to share data to gain benefits.

11. 4. Findings and Discussion 4.2. Qualitative analysis The outcomes of the key qualitative element (semi structured interviews with the place and business managers were analysed using Miles and Huberman’s reduction logic and matrix approach (Miles & Huberman, 1994).

12. 4. Findings and Discussion 4.2. Qualitative analysis Results demonstrate that the benefits are inadequately perceived by some respondents leading to concerns over ongoing costs and return on investment. Moreover, the place based nature of the scheme and the different backgrounds and contexts of place managers mean perceptions and attitudes vary, with some being more positive and other seeing difficulties with maximising the benefits.

13. 5. Conclusions and Implications Answering the first research question (RQ1)… …we identified tensions between the willingness to encourage the marketing value and attractiveness of the place as a whole (emphasised primarily by place managers) or of the particular sector/branch, sometimes even individual business (underlined mainly by business managers focused on competitive advantage).

14. 5. Conclusions and Implications Second research questions (RQ2)… …proved that the local businesses are aware of the whole variety of potential benefits of a place based loyalty scheme implementation but put those in the context of possible costs, effort and competitive advantage.

15. 5. Conclusions and Implications Both research questions revealed a need of difficult consensus on data management issues, connected to both privacy/confidentiality and ownership/access (also in the context of competing businesses).

16. 5. Conclusions and Implications Practical implications belong to the priorities of this project i.e. creating the specific tools to enable real-time analysis of consumers’ retail behaviour, linking geography, demographics and spend. Our project showed that the needed compromise between the key stakeholder groups is possible and needed, but still not fully operationalised.

17. 5. Conclusions and Implications - Acknowledgements This study was financially supported by Data Lab UK and preceded by the proof of concept project funded by Innovate UK. The authors would also like to thank Miconex Ltd, Perth and Kinross Council, Stirling City Council and all place/business managers for their valuable contribution.