Correspondence: João Ricardo Freire, Edificio Conçalves Zarco, Doca de Alcântara, 1350-352 Lisboa, Portugal. E-mail: freire@ecoterra.co.uk

¹João Freire is a brand consultant at Brandia Central, a branding consulting firm based in Lisbon. João holds a PhD in Marketing from London Metropolitan University, where he is also a guest lecturer in Marketing. He is also the founder of Ecoterra, a company specialised in the marketing of natural food products.

Received 2 April 2007; Revised 2 April 2007; Published online 17 May 2007.

Abstract

Branding has become one of the most powerful tools in marketing strategy and its application has reach undreamed of areas. There has been a general agreement among academics and practitioners that places can be branded in the same way as consumer goods and services. Place branding is, however, a relatively new concept and there is a lack of empirical academic research on the topic. It can be assumed that place brands will have some unique characteristics that are quite different from products or services. This exploratory research reveals that local people are relevant and important for a destination brand-building process. Consumers use this factor to evaluate differences in destinations and to support their decisions about tourism consumption. It can be concluded that much of a place's image is likely to be created by stereotyping the 'typical' local people.