Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 32.1
Authors of the brand (source: Holt 2004).
culture is dialectically constructed through an iterative and continuous action. Holt (2004)
further develops brand meaning as being multi culturally authored by the narratives from brand
owners, consumer, stakeholders and popular culture. This research seeks to understand the
cultural richness of a destination brand through the eyes of one particularly infl uential group of
employees within an organization, seasonal snowsport workers. We acknowledge that seasonal
workers represent only one group of actors out of the many who create brand meaning.
Seasonal snowsport workers provide a rich context to study their role in the creation of brand
cultures, they are not brand owners but they are part of the organization that owns the
brand (normally the lowest status and least remunerated members of staff), they are consumers
(with high cultural capital) but not paying consumers, drawing upon and refl ecting popular
cultural in the process of brand culture creation. Duncan's (2008) research found seasonal
snowsport workers commonly used the phrase 'living the dream' to describe their lifestyle.
This perception of having 'the ultimate lifestyle, being paid to ski' was shared by them, their
family and friends and is strongly rooted in popular culture. Therefore this group represent three
of Holt's (2004) four authors of brand meaning merged within one group.
Seasonal snowsport workers
Seasonal snowsport workers interact with brand culture in two specifi c ways. Firstly they use the
existing brand meaning as part of their personal identity projects, which increasingly use highly
symbolic consumption forms to create visible and unique identities. These seasonal workers have
typically moved many thousands of miles to do very poorly paid work. Interaction with the
destination brand must create rich and highly valued meaning for them to offset these negative
aspects. They will draw upon the history of the brand and create new meaning and symbolic
value based upon their interaction during their engagement with the destination brand.
Secondly they are actors engaged in the interpretation and production of the brand culture
(Bengtsson and Ostberg 2006).
From the management perspective, these seasonal workers produce most of the human
generated brand culture available for consumption by paying guests arriving at the ski area. They
will be greeted at the car park, buy lift tickets from, be instructed and served food by seasonal
workers. If management are able to facilitate or infl uence the growth of a brand culture that
values interactions with customers, a competitive advantage is obtained as aptly described by Jon
Reveal, General Manager of Aspen Snowmass: 'every ski area has lifts, parking lots, restaurants
and machinery, yet one is more successful than the next because of the way its management
