Defining Your Tourism Experience

Defining Your Tourism Message
What makes you….
Different.
Worth the trip.
You build your brand
through the product,
not marketing.

What experience are you selling?
The Destination
The LURE: the experience that motivates the visitor to actually
come to your destination.

DIVERSIONS: things visitors can do closer to home but will
do in your destination because they are already there.

AMENITIES: Things that make the visit a comfortable one

AMBIENCE: historic buildings, public art, street entertainers,
etc.

(SEE YOUR GLOSSARY)

What do you think the Pendleton Roundup is?

Tongass Nat’l Forest
12
Bend, OR

17 Park City, Utah
Bend, OR

Sonoma County
18
Juneau, Alaska

What experience are you selling

Exercise:
Destinatio
n
Evaluatio
n

“First Impressions Are
Lasting Impressions”
Approaches to the town
• Don’t announce the destination until they are there.
• That’s what gateways are for
• Connect the dots. Use kiosks and outdoor maps to
direct visitors to other nearby attractions and places to
spend money.

The way-finding components
– Directional signs
– Gateways
– Kiosks
– Pole banners
– Map Stands

Wayfinding Signs are not gateways

Downtown Next Exit


GDS

Gateways say “You’ve arrived”

Connect the Dots

Businesses
Product or Service Appeal
• Lead with the benefit (remember the visitor
point of view)
• Name the company second
• What are you? Lure, diversion, amenity or
ambiance.
• Are you part of a larger niche or destination
brand?
• Who does your product or service appeal to?
Do you understand your customer profile?

Retail Signs

Store Fronts

Pike Place Market, Seattle
54

Discussion.
What is Your
Business?

Positioning & Branding
What branding IS NOT!
• A logo
• A slogan
• A marketing campaign
• Geography

A Brand is a promise of what you are going to deliver.
Positioning is how you describe what you are selling.
Destination Branding is directed toward the outside
visitor or investor. Its focus is on luring new cash into
the local economy.
Community Branding is directed at reflecting the
internal community’s perception of themselves. Its
focus is on creating a self identity of the residents.

(A good reference book is “Destination Branding for Small Cities”
by Bill Baker.)

Product and Services Branding
• Follow the branding principles
• Tie in with a destination brand when possible
• Become known for something special

• If the product is not unique, make the service special

Example: Greasemonkey Bike Shop

Montreal:
Service
Cool Location
Espresso
All the parts

Example: The Bike & Trike Shop

Rock Springs:
Service
Cool Location
Espresso
All the parts

Successful Brands follow these rules:
1. Brands are what people thing of you – NOT what
you think of yourself or what you say in the
market place.
Brands are determined by your customers, so deliver
what you promised, or more.

2. Branding is the art of differentiation. Setting
yourself apart from everyone else.
Be unique, or be the best.
This matters only within your intended market area.

3. Brands are specific.
The narrower the niche the better.
Stay focused.
Offering everything or many things, dilutes your brand.
Become known for ONE THING. Then add to it.

4. Brands are built on products or services, not
marketing. Marketing is use for positioning.
Many businesses and destinations fashion a new
marketing campaign, logo or slogan and wonder why it
did not work. Because brands are a promise, they only
become valuable if the product or service delivers.
Focus on a superior product and your marketing
becomes easier.

5. Brands are earned through performance. You
don’t roll out a brand like it’s a campaign.
Creating a successful brand takes a long time. The value
of the brand grows with positive experiences of the
visitors.

6. Tourism brands must be experiential. That means
activities, not things to look at.
Location-based branding is dead, unless you are Mt.
Rushmore or the Grand Canyon. Visitors choose what
they want to do, THEN where to do it.
History is not a good basis for a brand because it is
difficult to make experiential.

The exception to rule #6.

7. Position your brand through public relations.
Word of mouth and third party testimony is
essential. Use advertising to maintain your
position.
Remember, your brand is not what you say it is, so
advertising does not build brands.
More than ever, because of the internet, travelers can get
third party opinions about your product or
destination.

8. Build your destination brand on feasibility, not
sentiment or public consensus.
Successful destination brands must lure visitors and
investors. Publicly developed brands usually fail when
they focus on things that are not important to the
visitor, but rather to the resident. They often are not
specific enough, different from other towns, or
experiential.

9. Build your destination brand from the grassroots.
Destination branding efforts that are forced from the
top down by municipal governments or DMO’s don’t
succeed as often as those developed by a handful of
local “champions” and “doers” who work tirelessly to
engage all the many participants necessary to make a
brand pervasive throughout a community.

10. Even if you do nothing, you still have a brand. It
just may not be the one you want.
Because consumers decide what your brand is, your
product, service or destination has a brand.
Do you really know what your brand is?
Are you managing your brand?

The brand feasibility test
1. Are you specific enough to be noticed?
2. Is it something your market will not find closer to
home?
3. Will you have wide enough appeal to attract the
number of customers you need to be successful?
4. Do you offer an experience (even if you are selling a
product)?
5. Can you afford it?

The brand feasibility test - continued
6. Will it work year round?
7. Does it have legs? (is it possible to extend the core
brand once it is developed?
8. Will the community buy into it? (for destinations)
9. Can it be shown through the whole community? (for
destinations)

A word about Logos & slogans
Logos & slogans have value when they:
- reinforce what someone already knows about your
brand.
- communicate what your product or service is.

Logos & slogans


Case Study – Angels Camp, CA


• Historic Gold Rush town
– population 3,400
• In Calaveras County,
foothills of the Sierra
Nevada Mountains
• Adjacent to Stanislaus
National Forest
• Abundant outdoor
recreation year-round


• Made famous by Mark
Twain – “The Celebrated
Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County.”
• Annual Jumping Frog
Jubilee
• Frogs, frogs, frogs


Primary Markets:
• Sacramento
• Stockton
• San Jose
• Greater Bay Area

Brands Considered:
• Gold rush/western
theme
• Antiques/art
• Mountain sports
• Golf
• Culinary/wine

Brand Statement:
Angels Camp is the capital of and place to be based for
mountain sports in the Sierra Nevada.
LURE: The one place where visitors can find a
concentration of support services for their mountain
sports experience, from outfitters, specialized retailers,
lodging, dining and after hours entertainment.
DIVERSIONS: Experiences in the downtown that the
visitor might find closer to home.

Keys to Success:
• Local commitment and enthusiasm
• Already has the accommodations – motels, b&bs, etc.
• Needs to recruit outfitters, specialized retail, restaurants,
pubs to downtown core.
• Create amenities and ambiance.
• Branded product development and marketing.
• MOST IMPORTANT: Deliver on the promise.


Tagline: “Redefining the Rush”

Defining Your Tourism Experience

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