Kommunikation komplexer Markenarchitekturen: Eine Analyse am Beispiel der Marketingkommunikation von Schweizer Tourismusdestinationen

Abstract

The term brand architecture describes the organising structure of a brand portfolio and specifies the nature of relationships between brands (Aaker/Joachimsthaler 2000). The brand architecture of a tourism destination communicates the relationship between the individual local destination (e.g. St. Moritz), the region (e.g. Engadin) and a nation (e.g. Switzerland). For example, the destination brand of glamorous St. Moritz activates different associations when communicated on its own as compared to being a part the Swiss Alps. The communicated brand architecture influences their perception by target groups. Notwithstanding its importance, the communication of brand architectures in the context of tourism destination management has not yet been analysed systematically. Therefore, the following basic research questions apply:

• 1 How is the brand architecture of tourism destinations communicated in practise?

• 2 What are the challenges for communicating brand architectures in the context of tourism destinations?

The question regarding the challenges for communicating brand architectures has been analysed on the basis of an extensive literature research. The literature holds that the communicated brand architecture must be in line with the intended positioning, the brand image of the involved brands, the requirements and expectations of the target groups. The question of how the brand architecture is communicated in practise is addressed with a content analysis of the marketing communication of 23 selected Swiss tourism destinations. From the analysis a number of types of specific brand architectures emerge. Challenges for the communication of brand architectures of tourism destinations are developed on the basis of the research findings.