In practicing Marketing 3.0, profit comes from the appreciation of the business contribution to the community well-being, and so the destination’s intended impact on the stakeholder community has to be at the core of its positioning strategy, being perceived as a positive force in addressing the communities concerns and aspirations. This entails addressing functional, emotional and spiritual needs, for these have to be regarded when proposing the set of brand values.
The positioning strategy consists of defining how the destination wants to be perceived by its stakeholders: its unique value proposition and its core values, as the main institutional standards of behavior. Such standards have to be embedded into the executives’ leadership style to transmit them to the employees and partners to ultimately spread them throughout the whole stakeholder system.
In defining and implementing the positioning strategy, brands have to care about the three key points:
- Brand identity: defining a unique value proposition in terms of functional needs to position the brand in the minds of the stakeholders.
- Brand image: defining values that appeal to the emotional needs of the stakeholders.
- Brand integrity: establishing trust through the consistent delivery of the brand promise in order to fulfill their human spirit.
In marketing 3.0 only originality, authenticity and honesty are effective, because the community members are actually those who do the marketing of the destination through telling stories about the experiences they have lived. The destination has to focus its efforts on being authentic, delivering the brand promise and facilitating the connection between tourists to let them share their experiences.
Beyond cultural transformation, mission accomplishment –brand promise delivery- and adequate communication –through horizontal storytelling-, do you think there is any other necessary mean to convey the integrity of the brand positioning?
