Repositioning Gold Coast: A Place Branding Perspective

Abstract

Internationally recognised as a tourist destination, the City of Gold Coast has developed place branding initiatives to express a transformational shift in the local economy towards a reputation of a global city and to ensure strong presence that reinforces the competitive attributes that build its identity. Repositioning Gold Coast was based on the concept that the city is a business environment full of opportunities inspired by its residents’ lifestyle, aiming to boost innovation and entrepreneurial culture without losing its destination branding features important to tourism and hospitality stakeholders. However, the intention to communicate to different markets simultaneously may lead to the risk of the message becoming abstract and not appealing to any audience, similar to other competing places or oriented only to a particular target profile.

This case study fosters an understanding of place branding as a long-term planning strategy approach to support the growth of a diversified and sustainable economy. The readers are invited to discuss the possible outcomes of repositioning Gold Coast and develop suitable strategies to achieve effective communication results.

Appendices

Appendix 26.1 Additional Readings

Gold Coast official documents
1. Australian Bureau of Statistics – 2013
2. Benchmarking Report 2015 – Australian Trade Commission
3. City’s Centre Improvement Program (CIP)
4. Data Alert 2015 – Australian Trade Commission
5. Destination Tourism Management Plan 2014 – 2020
6. Doing Business 2014 – World Bank and International Finance Corporation
7. Draft City Plan 2015
8. Economic Development Strategy 2013 – 2023.
9. Economic and social values of beach recreation on the Gold Coast – 2008
10. Estimated Resident Population (ERP)
11. Frequently Asked Questions – City Brand 2013
12. Gold Coast Brand Story
13. Gold Coast City Transport Strategy 2031.
14. Gold Coast Sport Plan 2013-2023
15. Gold Coast WorkForce – Development Framework 2014 – 2023
16. National Institute of Economic and Industry Research 2013
17. National Workforce Development Strategy – 2013
18. NGCBPS Northern Gold Coast Beach Protection Strategy 1999- 2000
19. Nature Conservation Strategy 2009-2019
20. Ocean Beaches Strategy 2013 – 2023
21. Tourism Research Australia – National Visitor Survey (NVS)/International Visitor Survey (IVS)

• The City of Gold Coast – long-term programs to enhance the city resources in the fields of public administration, urban planning, economic growth, sustainability and tourism. Link: https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/site-map-74.html

• The Place Brand Observer – the leading library of research and collection of case studies on place branding with lively expert interviews and reflections on the latest trends, ideas and opportunities. Link: https://placebrandobserver.com/

• Place Brandingand Public Diplomacy – pioneering journal focused on the application of marketing, brand strategy techniques and disciplines for the socio-economic, political and cultural development of cities, regions and countries. Link: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/41254

• Journal of Place Management and Development – this journal brings together research from several areas to advance the understanding of management and development of places in a scenario of economic uncertainty, demographic changes and technological innovation. Link: https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/1753-8335

Teaching Note

Repositioning Gold Coast: A Place Branding Perspective

Case Summary

Repositioning Gold Coast allows learners to reflect on and discuss the global integration of places and the way this phenomenon has shifted cities in the search for their own position in an emerging, hierarchy of places. Place branding encompasses concepts of brand identity and brand image, and these are essential to provide the bases of repositioning in terms of strategic place brand management and offer learners fundamental tools to apply theory in the context of a real case. In this sense, Gold Coast identity and image were described along the case providing substantial information to students, which are expected to develop suitable place brand management analysis and strategies towards effective results within the different city targets. This framework helps conduct a proper achievement and full understanding of outcomes in repositioning Gold Coast and its dilemma.

Teaching and Learning Objectives

• 1. Apply concepts of brand identity and brand image for place brand management in the context of a real case.

• 2. Discuss the possible outcomes of repositioning Gold Coast on its different markets and develop suitable strategies to achieve effective communication results.

• 3. Work on building sub-brands to support Gold Coast place branding initiatives among its stakeholders .

• 4. Increase an understanding of place branding as a long-term planning strategy and promote its expansion into broader and diversified fields that can benefit from its knowledge.

Target Audience

Graduate-level and MBA Students.

• Courses: Business and Public Management; Marketing; Branding; Tourism & Hospitality.

Class from 15 to 45 students.

Local Government Officials – may be offered in rounds of seminars and workshops.

• Audience Note: Place branding is a multidisciplinary field of investigation, and its contributions include areas of public and private administration; economy; marketing, communication and branding; tourism and hospitality; engineering, architecture, urbanism and sustainability.

Teaching Approach and Strategy

• Class 1

  • Previous case reading is necessary.

  • Case presentation: outline main topics on the board – Time: 15 min.

    • (a) Warm Up Questions – Time: 25 min.

      • How can residents and different local business sectors of the city be influenced and benefit from Gold Coast brand repositioning?

      • What are the possible outcomes on the tourism and hospitalityindustry by shifting the image of Gold Coast brand from a tourist destination spot to a wider variety of targets?

    • (b) Role Playing – Time: 45 min.

      One group represents interests related to Gold Coast Tourism and Hospitality Industry – hotels, bars and restaurants, attractions and tourist facilities – and should be in favour of increasing investments on Gold Coast tourism destinationbranding.

      Another group represent interests from other sectors – companies, universities, industries, clusters, retail and services – and should state arguments in favour of increasing investments for repositioning Gold Coast brand so that a wider range of targets may be reached.

    • (c) Highlight findings at the end of the class – Time: 15 min.

      Total Class Time:100 min.

• Class 2

  • (a) Warm Up Questions – Time: 15 min

    • Should promoting images of common interest across distinct functional areas focus on a unifying strategy that leads to a shared vision of the city?

    • Should efforts and investment be focused on branding fragmented actions to meet different target markets?

    • Would work on building sub-brands to support Gold Coast place branding initiatives among its stakeholders be useful?

  • (b) Group Work: set four teams – Time: 10 min

    Each team is responsible for building a sub-brand – such as the place of origin and the power of its industrial production – place of originbranding; set of companies and their business relations – clusterbranding; city culture and entertainment offerings – cultureand entertainmentbranding; promotion of tourist destination – destinationbranding. It is expected that the Gold Coast brand subdivisions count on its own visual identity, slogan and a set of messages maximising the city’s brand presence in different promotional activities.

  • (c) Research: https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/site-map-74.html

    Items: public and private services; equipment and tourist attractions; economic development and investment attraction programs; urban planning; sustainability, among others.

    Teacher Mentoring for groups research – Time: 15–20 min each.

    Total Class Time:100 min.

• Class 3

  • (a) Group presentation and teachers’ feedback – Time: 100 min

    It is expected that each team presents an overview of one Gold Coast brand subdivision, including its own visual identity, slogan and a set of messages maximising the city’s brand presence in different media and promotional activities. Place branding initiatives must include evaluating metrics based on the objectives proposed by the programs, examining the possibilities of cooperation among players to achieve common goals. The sub-brand building should list key components for each activity, including a matrix of responsibilities, ways of operating and implementing action plans, operating costs and execution schedules. Over time, it is hoped that the new brand can be used by businesses and other local institutions to generate a broader cultural change and not just in the public administration sectors.

Analysis – Sample Answers

• Class 1

  • Warm Up Questions and Role Playing

  • Reasons not to shift:

    • Brand repositioning seeks to build a reputation of a continually growing economy and opportunity environment, shifting from an established international tourist destination image and reducing its dependency relationship with the city of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. However, the Gold Coast is considered one of Australia’s most popular tourist destinations and the fourth largest tourism economy in the country. With an international airport, a wide range of hospitality and attractions, the city receives an average of over 11 million leisure and business visitors each year.

    • The decrease in visitation has been observed in three of Gold Coast’s largest markets – New Zealand, Japan and the United Kingdom. Even so, international tourism increased by about 35% between 2010 and 2020, driven by strong growth in Asian markets.

    • Destination Tourism Management Plan set the goal to increase the length of stay and average visitor spending through a broader and more varied range of products and experiences. These will contribute significantly to the local economy. In addition, another major contributor to the program will be the increase in international visitors, maintaining market share in traditional international markets in Europe, Japan and New Zealand and ensuring higher growth rates in Southeast Asia, China and emerging markets like India.

  • Reasons to shift:

    • Industry growth over the past years in value-added terms has resulted in a change in the economic structure of the place, where, although important and traditional, the manufacturing, construction, tourism and hospitality sectors have declined, while health, education and other professional services sectors are increasing their contribution each year.

    • The provision of retail services and the solid tourism market has resulted in overconfidence in generating growth in the economy. However, the cyclical nature of these industries has left the city vulnerable due to the influence of external variables over the years.

    • It is intrinsic to the concept of place branding the need to shape a strategic vision to meet challenges through market-driven planning. Places need to diversify their economic and develop mechanisms to adapt flexibility to conditions, fostering and cultivating entrepreneurial characteristics, including greater private sector participation. All competitive advantages of a place must be effectively communicated to build and manage a solid image that is in accordance with its attributes and aligned to the specifics of its audiences.

• Class 2 and Class 3

  • Warm Up Questions and Group Work: mentoring and presentation feedback

    • The sub-brand should be anchored in the core brand, present its competitive identity and project a series of coherent and consistent images for its audiences.

    • The brand should enable the city to achieve competitive value, greater projection and notoriety, better conditions for setting strategic partnerships, capitalisation of investments, increased protection against competition and power of supply.

    • Programs must consider the tangible and intangible manifestations of their reality, as conveyed through their attributes and attractiveness vectors so that they can be perceived by a wide range of audiences. However, there are differences in how these elements are perceived across them.

    • Promoting images of common interest across distinct functional areas should focus efforts on a unifying strategy that leads to a shared vision of place rather than fragmented actions that disperse investments.

    • Communication axis that interests different target markets simultaneously leads to the risk of the message become scattered and abstract, which corresponds to a non-brand.