Greece has been building its image in a systematic way since the founding of the Greek National Tourism Organisation (henceforth GNTO) back to the late 20’s, when tourism began to evolve into a strong pillar of the Greek economy. Through the typical advertising as well as the online campaigns the GNTO has launched over the past 60 years, it has decisively shaped the country’s personality and formed its brand identity, and it has used the country’s symbols to reflect its brand values for many years. In the realm of destination branding, a destination brand is often built in accordance with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a pyramid-like formation which takes us upwards from the satisfaction of basically physiological needs to self-actualization ones. At the top level, travel is precisely found, seen as an activity through which people fulfil their need for self-actualization. From the bottom all the way up to the top the destination’s personality is being built and shown, while at the same time the destination becomes itself a kind of synonym with people’s basic needs, and high aspirations. In this paper, we use this pyramid-shaped methodological tool to introduce the brand building methodology into the creation of the e-branded content of the GNTO. Social media posts, and e-newsletter teasers are created to promote Greece all over the world and help build the country’s identity. Using pyramids for every type of tourism established as part of Greece’s overall marketing and branding plan (nautical, seaside, nature, culture, etc.) and placing a different tourism sector at the bottom of the pyramid, we analyse Greece’s assets in accordance with each sector, till we reach the top where the brand essence is formed. In doing this, we map destination branding characteristics with pieces of e-branded content, that is: “features” are the country’s assets depicted in photos, where the visual elements of nature (e.g. sea, sun, mountains, etc.) prevail. “Attributes” are qualities given to these characteristics where verbal elements interact with pictures as regards image-text interaction and in terms of page layout and design. “Benefits” and the pyramid-level of imagery create the emotional attraction or appeal which aims at the heart and mind of the potential visitor. This visual and textual imagery creates dreams and anticipates the most inner desires. We end up showing that images and texts work together in order to lure the potential visitors and to make them feel that what is being shown as a tangible asset, and then described as a quality, now starts to be woven into an experience, a feeling or a wish. From this point upwards, all the promotional material used serves the sole purpose of helping visitors reach the top of the pyramid, and conquer the “destination’s brand essence.”

1. Greece as a dreamy destination through the
creation of e-branded content: The case of the
GNTO
#IACuDit_2019
Dr Elli Vazou, PhD
Directorate of Tourism Promotion
@VisitGreece

2. in this presentation, we are discussing…

3. we are talking about a content that:
is being created in the “World of Tourism”,
representing | visualising experiences
uses a variety of semiotic resources, such as
language, image, colours, music, which
interact in this ever-changing electronic
landscape of communication
highlights the values of the destination in
order to address the emotional values of the
potential visitor
it transforms the destination’s tangible (and
intangible) characteristics into a unique
brand essence…
…so as this essence becomes a symbol for a
dreamy, heavenly-like place.

11. we are climbing up a pyramid…

12. …based on the following theoretical tools:
destination branding (Anholt, 2010•United Nations World
Tourism Organisation and European Travel Committee [UNWTO
& ETC], 2010• Morgan, Pritchard & Pride, 2010), and its
methodological tool in building up a country’s brand:
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
tourism on the Internet (Buhalis et al., 2011• Tussyadiah &
Fesenmaier, 2007• Tussyadiah & Fesenmaier, 2009• Tussyadiah &
Zach, 2011• Neuhofer, Buhalis, & Ladkin, 2013)
tourism discourse (Thurlow & Jaworski, 2010•Dann,2001
[1996]• Daniels & Cosgrove, 1998)
digital discourse (Baron, 2011•Herring, 2011, 2012• Crystal,
2011• Androutsopoulos, 2011• Herring, Stein & Virtanen,
2013•Πολίτης, 2013)
multimodal discourse analysis (Bateman, 2008• Bateman,
2015• Kress, 1998• Iedema, 2003• Kress, 2010)
brand semiotics (MacCannell, 1989•Kawama, 1990• Mick,
D.G., & Oswald, 2006•Mangiapane, 2015•Mangano & Marrone,
2015)

13. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is…
Due to the experience-based way of
travel, and the travellers’ ever-changing
needs, a destination brand is often built
in a pyramid where the constituents of
the essence of a destination’s brand are
depicted, and its personality is being
built and shown (UNWTO & ETC, 2010).

14. The brand pyramid

15. pyramid’s levels explained (a)

16. pyramid’s levels explained (b)
Here a simple phrase or a short
statement distils the brand’s distinctive
meaning. It is presented in the form of a
condensed experience at the peak of
this pyramid climbing.

17. explaining the mapping process
The constituents of brand pyramid
levels (as designed as a conceptual tool
in DB) are placed in correspondence (in
a one-to-one relationship) with the
constituents of each multimodal
artefact (i.e., teasers or posts).
Constituents are features, attributes,
benefits etc. on the one hand, the
modes we talked about earlier: visual
and written (photos and written text),
on the other.
Thus, along with the country’s identity
a branded content is also built up.

18. what is really happening here?
Keep calm and put some colour in your
world! #VisitGreece #Greece #Amorgos

19. let’s ascend some more…
#Greece #VisitGreece

20. hang in there…we are near the top
Level five: The threefold imagery
functions in a holistic way, and a fully-
blossomed experiential content is
created. At this penultimate level, modes
and sub-modes, branded discourse
strategies, and symbolic signs come
together to form a semiotic ensemble,
which soon is about to dissolve (or
compress) into…
Level six...the top: Greekness. The
freedom and independence of qualities,
and feelings, the sensation of having only
one thing occupying our thoughts and
permeating our consciousness; we are so
mesmerized that we are not even aware
of anything else (according to the Peircean
categorisation of thought).

21. an example of the max-and-mix process
In Crete again, or haven’t left yet?
Who says that during your summer
holidays all you can enjoy is sun-
kissed beaches and water sport
activities? Well, in Crete at the same
time you can enjoy night life to its
maximum, live for a while like
millionaire, sunbathe with the beau
monde and find peace of mind on
a serene island teeming with history
that has inspired best-selling famous
writers. Try some of the things on
offer, or why not? Try them all!

23. climbing down and reflecting upon this experience…
As we climbed up the pyramid the sense-of-
place became stronger and stronger. We
experienced an empowerment in meaning-
making, in adding values and crafting
experiences. Much more effort, much more
delight, much more dream making.
The destination’s concrete offerings became
an overwhelming feeling.
Thus, these pyramids as micro-content
creations are spread throughout the Internet
representing every micro-essence of Greece,
capturing micro-moments of reader’s life as
they come across a social media post, a
enewsletter or blog content item | material.

24. climbing down and reflecting upon this experience…