2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

1350-23IX Brand Management 113

www.palgrave-journals.com/bm/
Correspondence:
Angela K.Y. Mak
Wee Kim Wee School of
Communication and Information,
Nanyang Technological
University, 31 Nanyang Link,
637718 Singapore
E-mail: angelamak@ntu.edu.sg
the diversity of service provision ( Foley and
Fahy, 2004 ) as compared to typical goods
and services. Thus far, destination image
has been extensively studied ( Konecnik,
2004 ; Pike, 2007 ; Konecnik and Go, 2008 ;
Abubakar, 2009 ; Rosendahl, 2009 ; Pike,
2010 ) since the rst conceptual paper and
INTRODUCTION
Destination branding is an important area
of tourism marketing and management
because of the competitive market environ-
ment and need for product differentiation.
It can be said that destination brands are
less developed ( Goodall, 1990 ) because of
Original Article
An identity-centered approach to
place branding: Case of industry
partners evaluation of Iowa s
destination image
Received (in revised form): 16 th November 2010
Angela K.Y. Mak
is an assistant professor in the WKWSCI at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She received her PhD from
the University of Oregon. She worked for the public relations industry in Hong Kong and USA. She was former chair of
Research Committee for the IABC Research Foundation. Her research areas are organization-stakeholder relationship
in identity and identication, corporate social responsibility and cancer survivorship communication. She has won several
top public relations faculty conference papers and published in top tier journals.
ABSTRACT This exploratory study aims to adopt an identity-centered approach for
evaluating Iowa s destination image among industry partners, who are often seen as
a less-important stakeholder group in place branding research. Brand identity
attributes of the ongoing branding strategy, Iowa Life Changing , were rst identied
through a document analysis and an elite interview. A random stratied sampling
was then used in a telephone survey with 200 industry partners. Of the 114 valid
responses, the gap between the brand identity and brand image of Iowa as a travel
destination and respondents strength of identication with the Iowa Tourism Ofce
were measured. Specically, results showed a consistency and some dynamic linkages
among the three constructs. Practical implications and future research directions
on industry partners are also discussed.
Journal of Brand Management advance online publication, 28 January 2011;
doi: 10.1057/bm.2010.56
Keywords: brand identity ; brand image ; destination marketing / management
organization ; industry partners ; Iowa tourism ; place branding
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2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management 113 2
destination. The positioning strategy adopted
by the Iowa Tourism Ofce is based on
Iowa Life Changing essentially, the
Ofce wants to change the image of Iowa
from a farming state to an attractive place
to visit.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Branding literature
Most characterizations of a brand have
adopted Aakers (1991, p. 7) denition:
A distinguishing name / or symbol (such
as a logo, trademark, or package design)
intended to identify the goods and services
of either one seller or a group of sellers,
and to differentiate those goods from
those competitors.
Aaker (1991) further proposed a brand be
viewed from both the supply and demand
perspectives. One way to do this is through
understanding of the distinction between
the concepts of brand identity and brand
image ( Pike, 2004 ). In tourism context,
inputs from industry partners are critical
because their evaluations can be formed from
both perspectives. Unlike DMOs, industry
partners usually have no nal decision-
making power on tourism branding. How-
ever, they can elicit responses from travelers
for evaluating a destination image.
Aaker (1991) also dened brand equity
as brand assets and liabilities that add or
detract value to a rm and / or its compa-
nies. Keller (1993, 2003) identied the
sources of equity as comprising brand
awareness and brand image to form a
consumer s brand knowledge and develops
a consumer-based brand equity (CBBE)
model in which four hierarchical compo-
nents are identied, namely, brand salience,
brand association, brand resonance and
brand loyalty. For this article, brand sali-
ence and brand associations are used to
examine industry partners evaluations of
a destination brand image.
destination branding journal articles appeared
in 1998 ( Dosen et al , 1998 ; Pritchard and
Morgan, 1998 ).
In the past three decades, tourism
branding researchers, as well as industry
practitioners and destination marketers,
have put more focus on measuring a des-
tination s image ( Baloglu and McCleary,
1999 ). The central role played by Destina-
tion Management / Marketing Organizations
(DMOs) in shaping the place image is now
widely recognized ( Gunn, 1997 ; McQuaid,
2002 ; Caldwell and Freire, 2004 ; Hankinson,
2004 ; Kavaratzis, 2004 ). However, evalua-
tions of place image tend to be done from
the tourist perspective; the perspectives of
industry partners, one of the key stake-
holder groups for DMOs, have rarely been
studied in tourism brand evaluation. Part-
nerships come in many forms and embrace
a variety of practices, but an important
element common to all partnerships is the
need for compatibility some form of
synergy that leads to mutual benets
( Hankinson, 2007 ). Building a strong net-
work of stakeholder relationships in which
all share a common vision of the core brand
is key to successful destination branding
( Hankinson, 2004 ).
Coupled with the branding literature
( Aaker, 1991 ; Keller, 1993, 2003 ) as part
of the theoretical framework and adopting
an identity-centered approach of place
branding, this article is exploratory in nature
and aims to identify the identity ( Whetten
and Mackey, 2002 ) of Iowa as a destination,
evaluate the strength of identication
( Dutton et al , 1994 ) of Iowa s tourism
industry partners with the Iowa tourism
branding strategy, and measure the gaps
between the brand identity and brand
image of these key stakeholders ( Cai, 2002 ).
This article is written in the context of the
Iowa Department of Economic Develop-
ment s ongoing initiative which, since its
launch in 2005, has provided a framework
for branding and promoting Iowa as a
2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management 113
Industry partners and Iowa destination
3
Brand salience is the foundation of the
hierarchy, which represents the strength of
the destination s presence in the mind of
the target when a given travel context is
considered ( Pike, 2007 ). Salience concerns
unaided top of mind for a consumer, rather
than that which can be recalled or recog-
nized as a result of prompting such as point
of sale collateral ( Pike, 2010 ). Brand asso-
ciations, on the other hand, are anything
linked in memory to the destination ( Pike,
2007 ). This CBBE construct relates to one
of the destination objectives to educate the
market about things to do. Positive knowl-
edge and attitudes toward a destination
brand held by industry partners, therefore,
may help increase the intention to visit
among travelers.
Destination image
A destination image is dened as the sum
of beliefs, ideas and impressions that people
have of a place or destination ( Crompton,
1979 ). A destination s image has been rec-
ognized as a complex and important con-
cept in the destination-selection process
( Konecnik, 2004 ). A positive place brand
encourages inward investment; tourism is a
magnet for talent for professional jobs, and
if properly managed, can create a renewed
sense of purpose and identity for the inhab-
itants of the country, region, or city
( Anholt, 2004 ). Ritchie and Ritchie (1998,
p. 103) attempted to dene a destination
brand as:
a name, symbol, logo, word mark or
other graphic that both identies and
differentiates the destination; furthermore,
it conveys the promise of a memorable
travel experience that is uniquely associated
with the destination; it also serves to
consolidate and reinforce the recollection
of pleasurable memories of the destination
experience.
A branding campaign is part of the image
modication process ( Andersen and
Prentice, 2003 ) and a destination brand,
therefore, aims to shape public perception
and position the place as a desirable tourist
destination. State tourism ofces in the
Midwestern United States have a particu-
larly challenging task to present a unique,
appealing image of their states, which are
seen as predominantly agricultural and
lacking natural beauty, compared to states
blest with mountainous regions or ocean
shorelines. Many Midwestern state tourism
ofces have spent millions of dollars each
year in advertising trying to convey a state
image to the public. However, an effective
branding process for a destination involves
more than just producing a slogan or a
visual. The marketing function may be
interpreted narrowly as being concerned
with advertising, promotion and, to an
extent, price ( Ryan, 1991 ). This narrow
focus may not effectively serve tourist des-
tination marketers, who aim to bring the
destination brand to life, so that visitors
experience the promoted brand values and
feel the authenticity of a unique place
(Ritchie and Ritchie, 1998).
Building strong and compatible
partnerships
The emphasis on advertising and promo-
tion ignores the fact that the tourism des-
tination product itself is made up of an
amalgam of tourism products, offering an
integrated experience to consumers ( Buhalis,
2000 ) of not only the service providers
hotels and guesthouses, restaurants and
travel companies but also the informal
contacts, such as with local residents in a
fast food restaurant or a gas station, when
asking for directions and so on. The images
of a destination held by travel intermedi-
aries, such as convention and visitor bureaus
and travel agents, are just as important
as those held by tourists ( Baloglu and
Mangaloglu, 2001 ). The efforts toward rela-
tionship building with current and potential
visitors, as well as other key stakeholders,
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2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management 113 4
partnerships effectively ( Hankinson, 2007 ).
There is evidence to suggest that poorly
managed partnerships lead to the adoption
of the lowest common denominator
approach to destination branding; this can
result in a limited focus on symbols, logos
and publicity ( Hankinson, 2001 ).
Identity-centered approach of
destination branding
Cai (2002) proposed a conceptual model of
destination branding that centers on building
a destination identity through spreading
activation theory ( Anderson, 1983 ). The
theory is useful to think of one s knowledge
structure or memory as a simple network
in which all elements or units are nodes
and the connections among them are links
( Anderson, 1983, p. 25 ). In essence, the
theory is used to understand the relevance
of spreading activation to branding, that is,
to identify and favor the processing of
information node(s) most related to the
source of activation ( Anderson, 1983 ). It
results from a logic of dynamic linkages
that emerge from the activation of the
brand element mix, subsequent image
building, brand associations and marketing
activities.
Another advantage of the model is that
it recognizes that image formation goes
well beyond the tourist-perception approach
to encompass the destination management
image as projected by the DMO. The gap
assessment between the brand image and
the brand identity provides an appropriate
input for building the desired image that is
consistent with the brand identity, which
organizes social, historical, cultural and
natural elements into a stream of impres-
sions ( Govers and Go, 2004 ). Neither
the model go into detail on how to build
and develop a brand identity for a specic
destination ( Konecnik and Go, 2008 ), nor
does it stress on the importance of strong
partnerships in building a destination
image.
are crucial to gain understanding or support
thereby, eventually, bringing more travelers
to a state.
According to Muniz and O Guinn
(2001) , a community is signied mainly by
three characteristics: members share an
intrinsic connection to one another; they
have shared rituals and traditions; and they
share a sense of moral responsibility. This
third characteristic, in the case of tourism,
comes to the fore in situations such as
industrial troubles or political lobbying, and
formulating industry standards or ethical
codes. Considering a generic industry as
analogous to a community, the tourism
industry is a new or extended community
that requires its own new sets of commo-
nality, values and moral responsibility
( Gnoth, 2002 ). Little research has been
done in identifying the community char-
acteristics among industry partners who
constitute the majority members of the
tourist industry community. A positive
brand evaluation among the industry part-
ners is especially valuable for the Iowa
Tourism Ofce because those partners are
ambassadors to help promote the state as a
favorable place to visit.
The organization of local government
can also make place marketing more dif-
cult by creating administrative overlap
that can lead to conicting-marketing
strategies ( Hankinson, 2007 ). For example,
there is evidence that conicting-brand strat-
egies between a regional authority, such as
a county, and a town or city council can
cause tourists to be confused about the
brand image. Such conicts between brand
strategies are frequently the result of weak
relationships between stakeholders ( Ashworth
and Voogt, 1994 ). The promotional effort
within the State of Iowa is currently not in
a concerted effort. For instance, there are
ve websites promoting Iowa as a whole
or regionally and without any unied
themes or slogans. The central issue for
DMOs is how to manage stakeholder
2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management 113
Industry partners and Iowa destination
5
The organizational identity literature is
particularly relevant to understand how to
build and evaluate a relationship between
a DMO and its partners. In general, the
concept of organizational identity refers to
how organizational members perceive and
understand who we are and / or what
we stand for as an organization. Albert
and Whetten (1985) dened organizational
identity as the organization s central, dis-
tinctive, and enduring aspects . This deni-
tion has been reiterated throughout much
of the organizational identity literature
( Ashforth and Mael, 1989 ; Dutton and
Dukerich, 1991 ; Fiol and Huff, 1992 ;
Dutton et al , 1994 ; Gioia et al , 1998 ).
Ashforth and Mael (1989) wrote that
the distinctiveness of a group s values and
practices in relation to those of compa-
rable groups may also increase members
tendency to identify with the organiza-
tion. Measuring the congruency of Iowa s
destination brand individually among
industry partners may not accurately
reect their strength of identication
with a DMO; thus, this article will com-
pare the industry partners evaluations
of the brand-identity attributes at group
level. Whetten and Mackey (2002) added
some specicity to this denition in
calling for a conception of organizational
identity that is unique to identity and
uniquely organizational. This elaboration
conceives of identity as the categorical
self-descriptors used by social actors or
organizational leaders to satisfy their iden-
tity requirements, to distinguish the self
both from the other and in distinctive
comparisons. The two identity require-
ments are continuity and distinctiveness.
To examine the level of involvement of
an organizational member, organizational
identity scholars often study the concept of
organizational identication. Organizational
identication is the degree to which a
member denes herself or himself by the
same attributes that she or he believes
dene the organization ( Dutton et al , 1994 ).
Organizational identication is one form of
psychological attachment that occurs when
members adopt the dening characteristics
of the organization as dening characteris-
tics for themselves ( Dutton et al , 1994 ). The
strength of a member s organizational iden-
tication reects the degree to which the
content of the member s self-concept is tied
to his or her organizational membership.
When organizational identication is strong,
a member s self-concept has incorporated a
large part of what he or she believes is dis-
tinctive, central and enduring about the
organization into what he or she believes
is distinctive, central and enduring about
him / herself.
When applied to the tourism industry
context, the study of identity congruency /
dissonance and identication among industry
partners is crucial to manage a state s
tourism reputation. The industry partners
represent a unique stakeholder group
because they function as both internal and
external audiences of a state tourism ofce.
In the case of the Iowa Tourism Ofce,
industry partners represent a large part of
the tourism industry body. They have
direct experience with tourists, and there-
fore serve as ambassadors and opinion
leaders to help promote Iowa as a tourist
destination. They are the customers of the
Ofce s co-op advertising. They also serve
as members of the local community. As
industry partners perform both internal
and external stakeholder communication
behaviors, it is important to rst examine
their identity congruency / dissonance and
strength of identication with a state tourism
ofce, when assessing and managing a des-
tination brand.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
RQ1 What is the brand identity
projected by the Iowa Tourism
Ofce?
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2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management 113 6
To understand the brand identity of
Iowa as a tourist destination, an elite inter-
view with the Ofce s communication
manager was conducted to identify the
key identity attributes. The discussion with
the manager reects the branding and
industry relations strategies with local part-
ners. Also, document analysis was used to
validate the choices of brand attributes.
Specically, this study analyzed the Iowa
Travel Guide published by the Iowa Tourism
Ofce and the Iowa state quarter released
in 2005 by the US Mint. An ofcial travel
guide is similar to an annual report of an
organization in that the narratives are based
on the statement(s) or the claim(s) that
organizational members use to dene their
brand identity. The publication also serves
as a tool to communicate the projected
identity to external audiences. The design
of the Iowa state quarter best represents
the historical and cultural aspects of the
Iowa identity.
Four key identity attributes were identi-
ed and supported with specic quotes
from the travel guide to be used in the
questionnaire:
(1) Agricultural / dairy industry Iowa tops
the nation in food production. With
more than 93 000 farms, Iowa harvests
more grain than any other state. In
production, it ranks: First in egg pro-
duction, corn, soybeans, and hogs,
eighth in cattle and calves, as well as
twelfth in milk production .
(2) Small town living environment The small
towns in our 99 counties attract a lot of
people from the metropolitan areas of
our surrounding states to get away from
their city life in a weekend trip .
(3) Strong family values and good hospitality
Travelers experience the warmth
of Iowa s welcome regardless of the
season . In addition, numerous pictures
of family and young children were
used in the travel guide.
RQ2 What is the destination brand
image of Iowa among the industry
partners?
RQ3 Is there a gap between the brand
identity and brand image of Iowa
as a travel destination?
RQ4 How do Iowa tourism industry
partners identify themselves with
the Iowa Tourism Ofce?
METHODS
Iowa Tourism Ofce: The case study
The Iowa Tourism Ofce is a government
unit under the Iowa Economic Develop-
ment Department; its aim is to promote
the State of Iowa as a tourist destination.
Tourism is a US $ 6.3 billion industry in the
state, but the Iowa Tourism Ofce only
has a $ 5million advertising and promotion
budget, which is very limited compared to
surrounding states. The Ofce, therefore,
relies heavily on its industry partners sup-
port to reach out to current and potential
visitors. The target markets of Iowa s
tourism industry are mainly people from
the Midwest, including Iowa (50.3 per cent),
Illinois (10.9 per cent) and Nebraska
(8.8 per cent) ( Travelscope, 2009 ).
This study adopts a case approach as it
enables the understanding of a contextually
contemporary phenomenon ( Yin, 2003 ).
In this article, it allows the researcher to
examine the dynamic relationship between
the Iowa Tourism Ofce and its industry
partners in destination branding develop-
ment. It is also appropriate and timely to
conduct a case study, since no branding
research studies have been done from
industry partners perspective. A mix of
research tools were used to gather informa-
tion in answering the research questions,
namely, elite interview, document analysis
and phone survey, to triangulate the nd-
ings of the study.
2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management 113
Industry partners and Iowa destination
7
(4) Pride in education Iowa takes pride in
education. Three world-class state uni-
versities, more than 30 private colleges
and universities, and 15 community
colleges offer excellence in education
as well as public, cultural and sports
events . In addition, the design of the
state quarter is based on Grant Wood s
Arbor Day painting with the tagline
Foundation in Education .
Telephone survey among industry
partners
A random stratied sampling was used to
draw a sample of 200 telephone numbers
of industry partners listed on the travel
guide contact pages. The industry partners
include people who work or run their busi-
nesses in hotels, motels, bed and breakfast
inns, restaurants and attractions, as well as
members of the Chamber of Commerce
and the Convention and Visitor Bureau
(CCCVB) in the State of Iowa. Hence,
the four selected industry sections were
lodging, attraction, restaurant and business
organization (including CCCVBs of the
99 counties).
To measure the brand salience, respond-
ents were rst asked to list the items / issues
that came to mind when they thought of
the State of Iowa (that is, the brand image);
they were asked to rate those listed items /
issues in terms of signicance to the success
of the Iowa tourism industry (yes, so-so or
not at all). A coding scheme was created to
categorize the unaided open-ended answers.
Besides the author, a research assistant who
is a native Iowan and has been working in
the advertising industry was asked to be
the second coder to categorize the brand
image attributes. They managed to achieve
a Krippendorf s alpha of 0.92 for the inter-
coder reliability.
After free elicitation of brand association
from the industry partners, brand identity
was then measured. In particular, respond-
ents were asked to rate the extent to which
the four key identity attributes described
the State of Iowa on a 7-point Likert scale
(1 = least describe; 7 = best describe), and
the strength of those attributes identica-
tion with the Iowa tourism industry on a
5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree;
5 = strongly agree). Unlike the previous
step where respondents voiced their own
perception of Iowa tourism without any
prompts, the four attributes based on elite
interview and documents analysis were
provided for participants to rate in these
measures. The questions of strength of
identication scale were adopted from Mael
and Ashforth (1992) , a seminal organiza-
tional identication study in organizational
management. Some demographic informa-
tion such as gender, age, years of residency
in the state and working experience was
also collected.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Of the 144 respondents, 41.7 per cent are
male and 58.3 per cent are female, which
generated a 72 per cent response rate. The
respondents represent the three tourism
regions in Iowa: Western Iowa (30.4
per cent), Central Iowa (31.3 per cent) and
Eastern Iowa (38.3 per cent). Characteris-
tics of participants, which are shown in
Table 1 , fairly represent a mix of industry
partners in Iowa.
Among the brand image attributes, six
themes emerged: farming (for example,
agriculture, dairy industry and farmers),
small town (for example, tranquility, simple
life, peaceful and relaxing), values (for
example, family, good hospitality, friendli-
ness and work ethics), education (for
example, pride in education, and founda-
tion in education), tourism (for example,
attraction, activity and natural beauty), and
other positive and negative associations.
The images that came to respondents minds
when they thought of the State of Iowa
were closely related to the Iowa branding
identity and the industry environment.
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2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management 113 8
products, such as attractions and natural
beauty.
Respondents were then asked to rate
whether those brand image attributes listed
down were important to the growth of the
industry. A signicant difference was found,
F (5) = 42.95, P < 0.05. Table 2 shows that
many respondents believed strong family
values and good hospitality (68.8 per cent)
were the most relevant identity attributes
for the tourism industry, besides those
tourism-related items / issues. Small town
living environment (57.9 per cent) came
second. More than half of respondents
(54.5 per cent) agreed that pride in educa-
tion was an important factor to the growth
of the Iowa tourism industry. Almost
70 per cent of respondents believed that
the agricultural / dairy industry was not
attractive to tourists.
Overall, the brand image among the
respondents was highly consistent with
the brand identity developed by the Iowa
Tourism Ofce. Specically, most respond-
ents regarded the four key brand identity
attributes as highly characteristic. They
gave high ratings on agricultural / dairy
industry ( M = 6.27; SD = 0.90), small town
living environment ( M = 6.00; SD = 1.02),
as well as strong family values and good
hospitality ( M = 6.17; SD = 0.97). Pride in
education was rated slightly lower than the
other three attributes ( M = 5.67; SD = 1.23).
One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)
was performed to check if there were any
differences in the brand identity attributes
among the respondents in different industry
sections. No differences were found in the
agricultural / dairy industry identity attribute,
F (3, 134) = 1.70, P = 0.170, and the small
town living identity attribute, F (3, 134) =
0.70, P = 0.555. A signicant difference was
found in their evaluations on the strong
family values and good hospitality attribute,
F (3, 134) = 3.77, P < 0.05. A post hoc test
Fishers Least Signicant Difference (LSD)
showed that restaurant partners had lower
More than half of the items / issues were
about Iowa s image: farming (28.4 per
cent), small town (7.4 per cent), strong
values (10.6 per cent) and education
(7.7 per cent). About 30 per cent of the
items / issues were related to tourism industry
Table 1 : Characteristics of participants
N Valid %
Gender
Male 60 41.7
Female 84 58.3
Total 144

Age
18 24 26 18.1
25 34 22 15.3
35 44 25 17.4
45 54 45 31.3
55 + 26 18.1
Total 144

Region
Western Iowa 44 31.3
Central Iowa 45 38.3
Eastern Iowa 55 57.6
Total 144

Position held
Managerial 83 57.6
Non-managerial 61 42.4
Total 144

Industry section
Lodging 54 37.5
Attraction 34 23.6
Restaurant 29 20.1
Business
organization
27 18.8
Total 144

Year of residency
< 5 10 6.9
6 10 8 5.6
11 15 13 9.0
16 20 23 16.0
20 + 90 62.5
Total 144

Working experience in Iowa tourism
< 5 61 42.4
6 10 31 21.5
11 15 27 18.7
16 20 8 5.6
20 + 17 11.8
Total 144
2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management 113
Industry partners and Iowa destination
9
mean ( M = 5.76, SD = 0.83) than lodging
partners ( M = 6.43; SD = 0.77). A signi-
cant difference was also found in
the education attribute, F (3, 134) = 4.07,
P < 0.05. A post hoc test (LSD) showed that
restaurant partners had lower mean
( M = 5.03, SD = 1.48) than lodging partners
( M = 5.96; SD = 1.05) and attraction part-
ners ( M = 5.85; SD = 1.26).
ANOVA was used to see if there were
any differences in the perceived identity
among the respondents with short- and
long-term Iowan living (less than 20 years
versus more than 20 years). No differences
were found in the agricultural / dairy
industry identity attribute, F (3, 142) = 1.30,
P = 0.257, and the small town living iden-
tity attribute, F (3, 142) = 1.05, P = 0.308.
Signicant differences were, however,
found in the family values and good hos-
pitality attribute, F (1, 142) = 9.77, P < 0.05,
and the pride in education attribute,
F (1, 142) = 3.94, P < 0.05. Post hoc tests
(LSD) showed that short-term Iowans had
lower means when evaluating these
attributes than long-term Iowans.
Table 3 summarizes the means and
standard deviations of each of the items
of the organizational identication scale.
The scale had a Cronbach s alpha of 0.80
that is considered very reliable. The six
items of the scale then formed a composite
variable labeled identication . The mean
score is 3.67 (SD = 0.77).
ANOVA was used to see if there were
any differences in the brand identity evalu-
ation among the respondents who had
strong or weak identication with the Iowa
tourism industry. The identication com-
posite variable had a mean range from 1.33
to 5.00 and respondents were divided into
low- and high-identication groups via a
median split. Respondents were then split
into two groups in the cut-off point 3.50:
weak identication (53.1 per cent) and
strong identication (46.9 per cent). No
differences were found in the agricultural /
dairy industry identity attribute, F (1, 142) =
0.055, P = 0.815, and the small town
living identity attribute, F (1, 142) = 1.81,
P = 0.181. Signicant differences were,
however, found in the family values and
Table 2 : Brand image evaluation toward the growth of Iowa tourism industry
Farming Small town Values Education Tourism Other
Yes 25 11 22 12 68 37
30.9 % 57.9 % 68.8 % 54.5 % 75.6 % 74.0 %
So-so / No 56 8 10 10 22 13
69.1 % 42.1 % 31.3 % 45.5 % 24.4 % 26.0 %

Total 81 19 32 22 90 50
100.0 % 100.0 % 100.0 % 100.0 % 100.0 % 100.0 %
Table 3 : Strength of organizational identication with
the Iowa tourism ofce
Identication statement M SD
a. When someone criticizes the
state of Iowa, it feels like a
personal insult.
3.71 1.06
b. I am very interested in what
others think about Iowa
tourism industry.
3.76 1.06
c. When I talk about Iowa
tourism, I usually say we
rather than they .
3.67 1.19
d. Iowa tourism industrys
successes are my successes.
3.67 1.14
e. When someone praises Iowa
tourism, it feels like a personal
compliment.
3.73 0.98
f. If a story in the media
criticized Iowa, I would feel
embarrassed.
3.45 1.13
(1=strongly disagree; 5=strongly agree).
Mak
2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management 113 10
attached to the Ofce. Small town living
environment, strong family values and good
hospitality and pride in education were the
key messages projected to tourists. Through
the unaided recall, the majority of the
brand-image attributes listed by the respond-
ents was tourism related and also reected
the brand identity of Iowa as a tourist des-
tination.
Such high correlations also demonstrate
a strong link between brand association
and brand salience. According to the CBBE
model for a destination proposed by Pike
(2007) , brand association and brand salience
are crucial to create awareness, knowledge
and liking to tourists that will lead to pur-
chase and preference. The positive evalua-
tions from industry partners will affect the
overall branding equity of Iowa as a favo-
rable destination because they are the
ones who have direct communication with
target consumers.
Although the agricultural / dairy industry
was the top-of-the-mind association among
the respondents, the other three identity
attributes were also considered by the
industry partners to be part of the collective
identity. In fact, more than half of the
respondents believed that the agricultural /
dairy industry was not an attractive attribute
to promote the state s tourism. Since the
State of Iowa decided not to emphasize
Iowa as being a farming state in the new
quarter design, this move might gradually
inuence Iowans to detach their strong
association with the agricultural / dairy
industry. Moreover, the Iowa Tourism
Ofce has been effectively communicating
such branding strategy through newsletters
and seminar talks since the launch of the
Iowa Life Changing campaign, by rein-
forcing the importance of the non-farming
attributes to the growth of the tourism
industry. In recent years, the State of Iowa
has been signicantly downplaying the
farming image across various promotional
materials; it is currently hard to nd any
good hospitality attribute, F (1, 142) = 14.00,
P < 0.05, and the pride in education
attribute, F (1, 142) = 5.59, P < 0.05. Post hoc
tests (LSD) showed that those who had
weaker identication with the Iowa tourism
industry had lower means when evaluating
these attributes than those who had stronger
identication.
The identity dissonance may be partially
explained through the demographic char-
acteristics of the respondents in relation to
their strength of identication with the
Iowa tourism industry. Signicant differ-
ences were found in the industry partner
attribute, F (3, 133) = 3.15, P < 0.05, the
short- and long-term Iowan living attribute,
F (1, 141) = 4.32, P < 0.05, and the short-
and long-term working in Iowa tourism
industry attribute, F (1, 141) = 6.23, P < 0.05.
In terms of strength of identication,
restaurant partners had a lower mean
( M = 3.29; SD = 0.83) than lodging
( M = 3.80; SD = 0.64) and attraction part-
ners ( M = 3.80; SD = 0.76). Short-term
Iowans had a lower mean ( M = 3.51;
SD = 0.77) than long-term Iowans
( M = 3.76; SD = 0.76). Respondents who
worked in the Iowa tourism industry for
less than 10 years had a lower mean
( M = 3.55; SD = 0.82) than those who had
longer experience ( M = 3.88; SD = 0.63).
The results are consistent with the previous
ndings in identity congruency / dissonance
among the respondents, regarding their
industry sections and number of years living
in Iowa.
CONCLUSIONS
The above results indicate some strong and
dynamic linkages between the brand iden-
tity and brand image of Iowa as a destina-
tion and the strength of identication
among tourism industry partners. That is,
industry partners in general believe who
they are as dened by the Iowa Tourism
Ofce, are mostly in line with how the
Ofce brands Iowa as a destination, and are
2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management 113
Industry partners and Iowa destination
11
license plate or state-level promotional
materials using the corn state as a catch
line.
The historical identity of small town
living environment, strong family values
and good hospitality, and pride in educa-
tion was consistent with the collective
perception held by the industry partners.
Overall, results show that the identity dis-
sonance between the brand identity and
the brand image held by the respondents
was low. However, those who had lived
in Iowa for a shorter period had weaker
identication with the Iowa tourism
industry; those who worked in restaurants
had a bigger identity gap with the strong
family values and good hospitality, and
pride in education identity attributes. These
results provide specic directions for the
Iowa Tourism Ofce to strengthen the
relationships with identied key industry
partners.
In this study, brand image did play a
central role in identity dynamics. It is espe-
cially important to consider the consistency /
dissonance of destination image from the
industry partners perspective as the focal
point of destination branding because of
the unique characteristics of the industry
partners to the Iowa Tourism Ofce. In
tourism industry, partnerships have become
a key planning and implementation mech-
anism in the branding of cities ( Warnaby
et al , 2002 ). There have been examples in
which leading tourism organizations have
resisted the imposition of brand strategies
developed solely by DMOs ( Curtis, 2001 ).
The key role of the DMO is to manage
the conicting interests of partners and
to accommodate their needs ( Hankinson,
2007 ).
A further issue of importance which has
to be addressed is the need to engage with
the plethora of small businesses, which pro-
vide many of the services that make up the
destination product. These businesses are
independent and are not owned by large,
powerful conglomerates. Evidence suggests
that small businesses prefer to be part of a
cooperative organizational network that
provides a forum in which experiences and
concerns can be shared. By providing such
an arena, DMOs would increase the likeli-
hood of an interactive process that leads
to fulllment of the destination brand s
promise ( von Friedrichs Grangsjo, 2003 ).
For example, through the ongoing com-
munication effort, the Ofce placed less
focus on the farming image when formu-
lating its branding strategy because the
industry partners did not favor it to pro-
mote the tourism industry. As a result,
many photos in the travel guide were
emphasized on science and technology
education, which was relevant to the foun-
dation in education theme of the new
quarter design.
The interrelationship and interactions
between the industry partners and Iowa
Tourism Ofce may bias the industry part-
ners evaluations of Iowa as a destination
in this study. For example, the view of the
industry partners may be biased positively
because of prot reasons. It may have been
useful to interview a sample of tourists to
the state to gain the neutral perspective on
this group s brand image, so that a com-
parison could be made, and the industry
partners views may be put into perspective.
Likewise, the positive brand evaluation
by the industry partners must be counter-
balanced by the contribution that these
same organizations have on the experience
of these customers.
One might argue that the interchangeable
use of Iowa Tourism Ofce and Iowa
tourism industry in this study was invalid
to measure identity and identication.
However, all the industry partner respond-
ents worked within the system and sub-
systems of the Iowa tourism industry. The
Iowa Tourism Ofce does not produce
Iowa as a tourist place; its role is as a liaison
between the state government and its
Mak
2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management 113 12
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