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Credit: Dr. Eli Avraham, Eran Ketter
Entitled "Would you take the risk?," Columbia's new ad campaign opens with scenes taken from Hollywood's version of Colombia—movie clips of drugs, gangs, violence and terror. The ad then proceeds to issue a mock travel warning, inviting potential visitors to "Take the risk to enjoy its people's kindness and hospitality, their customs, their food, their passion, and their beautiful women; After all of these risks you will know that every thing you heard about Colombia must be happening in the Columbia [of the movies]."
Using humor to ridicule the negative stereotypes harming a place's image has also been used in recent years by Poland, whose sexy plumber assures nervous Frenchmen that he is not about to invade their country and take local jobs, and Mississippi -"Yes, we can read. Some of us even know how to write".
These are among the many examples of place marking illustrated and analyzed in Media Strategies for Marketing Places in Crisis: Improving the image of cities, countries and tourists destination, recently published by Butterworth-Heinemann.
Tourism promoters around the world attempt to use the media to alter negative images that result from both sudden crises—9/11, epidemics, the Indian Ocean tsunami—and prolonged deterioration. Some are successful; many aren't. What makes the difference? Which methods work best for which types of crisis and which type of place?
The answers are presented in a clear, easy to follow format valuable to promoters of countries, cities, and tourist destinations around the world, as well as academics. The authors, Eran Ketter of the University of Haifa and Dr. Eli Avraham, currently a Schusterman visiting professor at the University of North Texas, researched hundreds of case studies, analyzing what methods were used and in what circumstances. They found three media strategies used by place promoters to restore their images: those focusing on the source of the negative message, usually the mass media; those focusing on the message itself; and those focusing on the target audience.
The authors use their findings to offer an innovative, holistic model to restore a positive image by choosing the correct strategy. It walks place promoters through an analysis of the characteristics of their particular crisis and helps them select a strategy that will best dispel a negative media image. The book also presents an analysis of Israel's marketing strategy in order to examine the model and contains detailed suggestions for improvements to strengthen Israel's public and media image.