Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
32
'Living the brand'
The evangelical experiences
of seasonal snowsport workers
Shelagh Ferguson and Amy Bourke
Introduction
In this chapter we contribute towards the current debate surrounding destination brand
experiences. This research adopts the perspective of the workers as brand authors (Holt 2004)
and fl eshes out the role they play in the brand experience, in particular how employees represent
and co-create brand experiences with and for consumers. The structure of the chapter is
as follows: fi rstly traditional destination brand literature is considered before drawing from
Consumer Culture Theory research that illustrates how brand experiences are personally and
individually constructed and may differ from the intention of the brand's owners. Services mar-
keting literature is also discussed as the brand experience has been richly explored within that
context but dominantly from a consumer perspective.
Thus this chapter aims to understand the cultural richness of a destination brand through the
perspectives of seasonal snowsport workers, as the group of employees who predominate in
customer interaction at the snowsport destination. Having established a knowledge gap, Holt's
(2004) brand authorship model identifi es three ways that seasonal snowsport workers contribute
to brand experience knowledge; although not brand owners they are the critical customer facing
aspects of the destination brand experience; they are also consumers of the destination brand
and they both draw upon and refl ect popular culture meaning in the process of destination
brand culture creation. Utilizing a qualitative approach, this research explores how seasonal
workers interact with and refl ect upon the destination brand of Cardrona, New Zealand.
Holt's model (2004) is used as a framework to discuss the research fi ndings and implications for
destination branding.
Destination brand authorship and culture
The concept of destination branding has been subject to growing interest in the Tourism
Marketing fi eld with Morgan, Pritchard and Prides' (2002) book and a special issue of the
Journal of Brand Management (Hall 2002) demonstrating an emergent body of management
orientated research, which has since developed into a signifi cant stream of research and is
addressed in other chapters of this topic. Destination branding builds upon the traditional
Search WWH ::




Custom Search