TY - JOUR
KW - Brand associations
KW - Brands that do good
KW - City brand meaning
KW - City branding
KW - Intangible cultural heritage
KW - Survey translation
AU - Bill Merrilees
AU - Dale Miller
AU - Gloria Ge
AU - Charles Tam
AB - The idea of "brands doing good" is potentially intrinsic in all aspects of strategic and ethical branding. This study argues that city branding can be a site for "brands doing good". City branding is consolidating its position in the branding literature. Two areas remain underdeveloped: the role of culture and a comprehensive answer to the question of what does a place mean to its residents? This quantitative study addresses these two gaps in the literature. Hong Kong is selected as a thought-provoking context to investigate the research issues and enables more attention to Asian city brands. The results indicate that social bonding through friends and relatives is the dominant brand association shaping city brand meaning. Additionally, a three-pronged approach to culture elevates culture to an important role in understanding the residents  city brand meaning. The three prongs are: (1) inclusion of Confucius values as a brand association; (2) using intangible cultural heritage as a moderator in the model explaining city brand attitudes and (3) interpreting material lifestyle activities like eateries as an integral part of the city culture. The results suggest that the Hong Kong city brand does much good especially through strong social, cultural and community core brand values.
BT - Journal of Brand Management
DA - jan
DO - 10.1057/s41262-017-0073-1
LA - English
M1 - 1
N1 - Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
N2 - The idea of "brands doing good" is potentially intrinsic in all aspects of strategic and ethical branding. This study argues that city branding can be a site for "brands doing good". City branding is consolidating its position in the branding literature. Two areas remain underdeveloped: the role of culture and a comprehensive answer to the question of what does a place mean to its residents? This quantitative study addresses these two gaps in the literature. Hong Kong is selected as a thought-provoking context to investigate the research issues and enables more attention to Asian city brands. The results indicate that social bonding through friends and relatives is the dominant brand association shaping city brand meaning. Additionally, a three-pronged approach to culture elevates culture to an important role in understanding the residents  city brand meaning. The three prongs are: (1) inclusion of Confucius values as a brand association; (2) using intangible cultural heritage as a moderator in the model explaining city brand attitudes and (3) interpreting material lifestyle activities like eateries as an integral part of the city culture. The results suggest that the Hong Kong city brand does much good especially through strong social, cultural and community core brand values.
PY - 2018
SP - 14
EP - 26
T2 - Journal of Brand Management
TI - Asian city brand meaning: a Hong Kong perspective
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85029112351&doi=10.1057%2fs41262-017-0073-1&partnerID=40&md5=1810037e93c3a5840b6e3aa453717d91
VL - 25
SN - 1350231X (ISSN)
ER -