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BRANDING FINLAND on the INTERNET Images and Stereotypes in Finland’S Tourism Marketing

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BRANDING FINLAND on the INTERNET Images and Stereotypes in Finland’S Tourism Marketing BRANDING FINLAND ON THE INTERNET Images and Stereotypes in Finland’s Tourism Marketing Master’s Thesis Carolin Winter Intercultural Communication Department of Communication University of Jyväskylä August 2009 2 JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO Tiedekunta – Faculty Laitos – Department FACULTY OF HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION Tekijä – Author Carolin Winter Työn nimi – Title BRANDING FINLAND ON THE INTERNET Images and Stereotypes in Finland’s Tourism Marketing Oppiaine – Subject Työn laji – Level Intercultural Communication Pro Gradu -thesis Aika – Month and year Sivumäärä – Number of pages August 2009 122 + 3 appendices Tiivistelmä – Abstract This study links intercultural communication to country branding by show- ing theoretical connections between stereotypes and country images . Due to the largely overlapping definitions of stereotypes and country images found in literature, it is proposed to use the combined term of stereotyped images. The aim of this study is to explore what images o f Finland are presented in tourism marketing activities and how marketing specialists evaluate the im- age of Finland. In the empirical part of this study, using qualitative content analysis it was investigated which pictures of Finland were presented on the website www.visitfinland.com of the Finnish Tourist Board. Furthermore, a qualita- tive expert survey with employees of the Finnish Tourist Board (FTB) was conducted, asking them to evaluate the image of Finland and the importance of the website www.visitfinland.com. In the content analysis it was found that most of the pictures on the website fell into the following categories: Helsinki, winter activity, na- ture/landscape/animals, and Finnish design/art/symbols. This showed that all together Finland is presented as a winter destination, a country of contrast between urban and rural, and a centre of design and arts. It also became ob- vious that the picture selection varied between the different target countries of the website (e.g. Australia, China, Russia, Sweden, etc.). The expert survey with employees of the FTB sho wed that the image of Finland was generally evaluated as weak. Although the respondents criti- cised Finland’s lack of unique attractions, most of them stressed as special- ties the country’s natural beauty, lakes, purity, Lapland, and contrasts. Ac- cording to the respondents, the FTB mostly promotes Finland as winter and nature destination following the 4C-core values of the FTB: credible, crea- tive, contrasting and cool. Asiasanat – Keywords Stereotype, image, tourism, destination/country branding, Finland Säilytyspaikka – Depository University of Jyväskylä, Tourula library Muita tietoja – Additional information 3 You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements. Norman Douglas (1917: 62) 4 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES FIGURE 1. STAGES OF DESTINATION IMAGE FORMATION, BASED ON GUNN (1988) 16 FIGURE 2. COLLECTIVE AND INDIVIDUAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY, BASED ON PETKOVA (2005) 18 FIGURE 3. THREE LEVELS OF UNIQUENESS IN MENTAL PROGRAMMING (HOFSTEDE, 2004: 4) 20 FIGURE 4. THE "ONION": MANIFESTATIONS OF CULTURE AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DEPTH (HOFSTEDE, 2004: 7) 21 FIGURE 5. THE BRANDING ICEBERG (ACCORDING TO DAVIDSON, 1997) 30 FIGURE 6. COMPONENTS OF DESTINATION IMAGE (ECHTNER & RITCHIE, 1991) 36 FIGURE 7. THE "NATION BRAND HEXAGON" BY ANHOLT (GFK, 2000) 38 FIGURE 8. OVERLAPPING OF IMAGE AND STEREOTYPE 49 FIGURE 9. GENERAL WEBSITE STRUCTURE 64 TABLE 1. IMAGE CATEGORIES, BASED ON MITCHELL (1986: 10) 12 TABLE 2. DISTINCTION BETWEEN CONCEIVED AND COMMUNICATED IMAGE 15 TABLE 3. IMAGES OF NATION-STATES DEPENDING ON ASPECTS OF THEIR INTERGROUP RELATIONSHIP, BASED ON ALEXANDER ET AL (1999; 2005) 24 TABLE 4. COMPARISON BETWEEN CLASSICAL BRANDING AND COUNTRY BRANDING (PAPP-VÁRY & FERENC, 2007) 34 TABLE 5. OVERALL RANKING OF THE NATION BRAND INDEX 2008 (GFK, 2008) 37 TABLE 6. THE FIVE MOST FREQUENT ASSOCIATIONS WITH FINLAND ACCORDING TO COUNTRIES, TRANSLATED FROM SARANIEMI & KOMPPULA (2003: 37-39) 53 TABLE 7. ANALYZED WEBSITES SORTED BY NUMBER OF PICTURES 63 TABLE 8. CODE BOOK 70 TABLE 9. IDENTIFIED THEMES OVERALL 73 TABLE 10. THEMES IDENTIFIED BY WEBSITE (MAIN PAGE AND OTHERS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER) 74 TABLE 11. SEASONS AND PEOPLE IDENTIFIED IN ALL PICTURES 76 TABLE 12. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SEASON, PEOPLE, AND THEME CODES 76 TABLE 13. FUNCTIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS ACCORDING TO SARANIEMI AND KOMPPULA (SARANIEMI & KOMPPULA, 2003: 80, OWN TRANSLATION) 92 TABLE 14. COMPONENTS OF THE COGNITIVE IMAGE OF THE DESTINATION (ALCAÑIZA, GARCÍA, & BLAS, 2009: 718) 93 TABLE 15. THEMES BY GEOGRAPHICAL REGION: EUROPE, ASIA, NORTH AMERICA AND CANADA 95 5 CONTENT LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES 4 1. INTRODUCTION 8 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 11 2.1 IMAGE AND COUNTRY IMAGE 11 2.1.1 Defining Image 11 2.1.2 Conceived and Communicated Image 13 2.1.3 Image Formation 15 2.1.4 Image and Identity 17 2.1.5 Representation, Culture and National Identity 20 2.1.6 Image Theory 23 2.2 COUNTRY BRANDING AND IMAGE MEASUREMENT 26 2.2.1 Country Branding 26 2.2.2 Tourism 27 2.2.3 Brand, Branding and Image-Building 29 2.2.4 Classical Branding and Country Branding 33 2.2.5 Components and Measurement of Country Image 34 2.2.6 The Nation Brand Index 37 2.3 STEREOTYPES AND STEREOTYPED IMAGES 40 2.3.1 Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination 40 2.3.2 Classifying Stereotypes 41 2.3.3 Formation of Stereotypes 43 2.3.4 Function of Stereotypes in Intercultural Communication 45 2.3.5 Stereotyped Images as a New Concept 46 2.4 IMAGES OF FINLAND IN EARLIER STUDIES 51 2.4.1 Finland in Literary Representations 51 2.4.2 The Image of Finland as Travel Destination 52 2.4.3 Japanese Stereotyped Images of Finland 55 2.4.4 Finland’s Nation Brand Index 2008 57 6 3. METHOD 59 3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 59 3.2 DATA COLLECTION 61 3.2.1 Selecting Pictures 62 3.2.2 Email Survey Design and Participants 64 3.3 DATA ANALYSIS 67 3.3.1 Content Analysis of the Pictures 67 3.3.2 Analysing the Email Survey 71 4. RESULTS 72 4.1 IMAGES OF FINLAND IN THE WEBSITE PICTURES 72 4.1.1 Country Specific Layout Specialties 72 4.1.2 Themes Identified 73 4.1.3 Seasons and People 75 4.2 SURVEY RESULTS 77 4.2.1 Creation of the Country Portal Website 77 4.2.2 Evaluations of Finland’s Image 78 4.2.3 Evaluations of the Country Portal Website 80 5. DISCUSSION 83 5.1 OVERALL THEMES OF THE PICTURE ANALYSIS 83 5.1.1 Helsinki and the Cathedral 84 5.1.2 Winter Activities 85 5.1.3 Nature and Northern Lights 85 5.1.4 Finnish Design, Art, and Symbols 86 5.1.5 Other Pictures 88 5.1.6 Themes Identified as Components of Finland’s Image 91 5.2 THEMES ON THE DIFFERENT WEBSITES 94 5.2.1 Main Webpage 96 5.2.2 Australia 96 5.2.3 China 97 5.2.4 France 97 5.2.5 Germany and Switzerland 97 5.2.6 Hong Kong 98 5.2.7 India 99 7 5.2.8 Italy 99 5.2.9 Japan 99 5.2.10 Netherlands and Belgium 100 5.2.11 Russia 100 5.2.12 South Korea 101 5.2.13 Spain 101 5.2.14 Sweden and Norway 102 5.2.15 United Kingdom and Ireland 102 5.2.16 United States and Canada 103 5.3 FINNISH TOURIST BOARD: FINLAND’S IMAGE AND COUNTRY PORTAL 104 5.3.1 Creation of the Country Portal Website 104 5.3.2 Evaluations of Finland’s Image 104 5.3.3 Evaluations of the Country Portal Website 107 5.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 108 6. CONCLUSION 110 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY 114 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Analyzed Websites in Alphabetical Order Appendix 2: Questionnaire in English and Finnish Appendix 3: Survey Responses 8 1. INTRODUCTION In today’s globalized world, countries compete on all levels and especially economically. In this global competition a positive country image is essential for success. Therefore, most countries actively shape their image in order to be recognized and appreciated abroad. These image-shaping activities can be summarized under the term ‘destination branding’, which is a rather young and still somewhat ambiguous field of study. It has been found that depending on the market, up to 70 percent of the earnings can be attributed to the brand (Lindemann, 2004). Moreover, scholars widely agree that a positive country image not only influences economic factors such as incoming tourism, sales of national products, direct foreign investment, and immigration of skilled work- force to the country, but also enhances the identity of the population and pro- motes cultural exchange. In this study, I will look at destination branding in the context of tourism, although it is intertwined also with other fields such as politics, inter- national relations, and product marketing. Tourism is one of the biggest eco- nomic factors for countries and Morgan, Pritchard and Pride (2004: 4) argue that “choice of holiday destination is a significant lifestyle indicator for today's aspirational consumers, and the places where they choose to spend their squeezed vacation time and hard-earned income increasingly have to have emotional appeal, high conversational capital and even celebrity value”. Ac- cording to the World Tourism Organization, the twenty-first century might see the rise of tourist destinations as fashion accessories. This includes the notion that tourism destinations are becoming brands with an emotional loading. The aim of this study is to explore what images of Finland are pre- sented in tourism marketing activities and how marketing specialists evaluate the image of Finland. More specifically in this study I examine photos of the website www.visitfinland.com of the Finnish Tourist Board to discover their main themes.
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