1. Is there a home within online place branding for
dementia-friendly communities?
Aled Singleton, Swansea University

2. This presentation
1. Place branding: emergence from tourism and marketing
2. Blurring of ‘brand management’ roles and new opportunities
3. Considering place-based research: introducing three cases

3. 1. Terminology and its development

4. • “Place brands are thought to shape the
expectations people have of a place and
thus their experience, which, in turn, is
thought to lead to increased satisfaction
that people derive out of such
experience.
• This makes place brands useful in
managerial effort to align the
expectations people have of a place with
the actual place reality.”
(Kavaratzis, Warnaby, & Ashworth, 2015, p. 4)
Place branding definition

5. A timeline of recent research
Opportunities for new research in 2016
Many rethinking place branding to consider the
internet (Kavaratzis, Warnaby, & Ashworth, 2015)
Sense that ‘place branding’ separates itself from
‘tourism’ in practice (Ashworth & Kavaratzis, 2010)
Research links words like ‘destination’ to ‘place’ and
‘image’ to ‘brand’ (Hanna & Rowley , 2008)

6. 2. The opportunity for the internet

7. • “The state or region is generally responsible for
the overall place image, leaving the marketing of
specific services to the end-user to private
operators. If the private operators are the dots,
the job of government is to join them up in the
end-user’s mind.”
- Anholt (2010, p. 3)
Brand managers

8. • Questions posed about the authority of brand managers,
arguments made for people who live in places to have
voice and consider that place branding [and place
branders] can estrange people from their home towns.
- Sevin (2011, p. 156)
• Consider the ‘holistic’ social construction of places to
include role of the internet also
- Hankinson (2015, p. 13)
Challenge status quo

9. • Specific focus on the impact of the internet on place
brands
• Proposals for methods include content analysis
followed by interviews
- Hanna & Rowley (2015)
Questions for research

10. 3. Some specific places

11. “We found that what is good for people
with dementia is good for everybody.
Places and neighbourhoods that provide
good housing, transport and facilities
will not only become more dementia-
friendly, but will also make life easier for
everyone.”
- Crampton & Eley (2013)
Dementia-friendly York research

12. Debenham,
Suffolk
Debenham is a large village in
Suffolk in the east of England. In
the 2001 census the population
recorded was 1,728. There is a
strong dementia-friendly
movement in this village.

13. Brecon,
mid Wales
Brecon is a historic rural market
town in Powys, Mid Wales, with a
population of 8,250 at the 2011
Census. This has one of the
leading dementia-friendly
communities in Wales.

14. Peckham,
south London
Peckham is a district 3.5 miles
south-east of central London. The
Census of the Peckham ward of
the London Borough of Southwark
shows a population of 11,381. It
has a very diverse population and
is one of the fastest-changing
parts of the UK.

15. Changing
perceptions
Reviews such as this one about
Peckham are found in magazines
such as Time Out and blogs as
well as sources for the established
brand managers such as Council
New content feeds brand
development
Place brand perceptions can change quickly

16. Final points
1. The internet is important for the social construction of place image or brand
2. Size does matter: scale of places from Debenham to Peckham
3. How to understand role that individuals and groups have on place brands

17. References
• Anholt, S. (2010). Definitions of place branding – working towards a resolution . Place Branding and
Public Diplomacy, 1-10.
• Ashworth, G., & Kavaratzis, M. (2010). Towards effective place brand management: branding
european cities and regions. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
• Crampton, J., & Eley, R. (2013). Dementia-friendly communities: what the project “creating a
dementia-friendly york” can tell us. Working With Older People,17.2, 49-57.
• Hanna, S., & Rowley, J. (2015). Towards a model of the place brand web. Tourism Management, 48,
100-112.
• Hankinson, G. (2015). Rethinking the place branding construct. In M. Kavaratzis, G. Warnaby, & G.
Ashworth, Rethinking place branding: comprehensive brand development for cities and regions (pp.
13-32). Springer.
• Kavaratzis, M., Warnaby, G., & Ashworth, G. (2015). Rethinking place branding: comprehensive
brand development for cities and regions. New York: Springer.
• Sevin, E. (2011). Thinking about place branding:ethics of concept. Place Branding & Public
Diplomacy, 7, 1 55– 164.

18. @aledsingleton
878524@swansea.ac.uk
ESRC PhD, Swansea University