Places of Phygital Shopping Experiences? The New Supply Frontier of Business Improvement Districts in the Digital Age

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) have flourished as local governance structures to foster the vitality and viability of traditional shopping districts that have struggled to adapt to retail changes. This paper examines the evolution of placemaking activities that former UK government-funded pilot BIDs have delivered over the last 15 years. Drawing on an exploratory sequential research design that combines a qualitative and quantitative thematic analysis of 72 BIDs’ business plans, the findings suggest that UK BIDs have described a non-hierarchical operational framework as services providers considering that: (i) elementary placemaking services, such as ‘clean, green and safe’, have regained thematic relevance due to recent environmental sustainability concerns; (ii) higher-tier lobbying and advocacy services have been an operational priority since BIDs’ inception; (iii) while consumer and place marketing/branding services have seen continual thematic reductions, digital presence and marketing services have emerged as a new category of operational activities. These results extend place management and BID-related literature by discussing the growing role that digital marketing services may perform in the management of town centers and high streets and are relevant to practitioners as it discusses how place management organizations should reposition their operational strategies towards the creation of places of phygital shopping experiences.

Tourism as a territorial marketing strategy: the case of the electric in the landscape of the city of Coimbra

The electric tram played an important role in people's lives, in their individual and collective experiences, becoming a symbol with cultural identity. It has a strong seductive power capable of changing the urban landscape, materializing into a geo-symbol and even transforming the use of new social spaces. The tram may be a heritage of extreme relevance in the (re) creation of new tourist territories through representations that are territorialized, as they change places and urban landscapes. On the other hand, territorial marketing is used as a strategy for planning, managing and promoting places with the aim of increasing attractiveness with internal and external audiences. The brand constitutes a core element, demonstrating the specificities of the process of building the territorial brand and it argues about its synergetic relationship with the attractiveness and competitiveness of places and explores the question of how the electric can be seen as an active capital of place marketing, but also as an attractive pole and recipient of tourism. The active capitals of places to position and communicate their attributes can present themselves as strategies at the service of place marketing, with the electric tram being a case in point.

STUDY OF THE MEGA EVENTS ORGANIZATION INFLUENCE ON REGIONAL RESIDENT'S LOYALTY AS AN ELEMENT OF PLACE MARKETING

Nowadays the organization of mega events is one of the strategic tools for place marketing that brings many tangible and intangible benefits for the places. Despite the growing interest in mega events as a tool for place marketing, there are still many questions regarding the impact of these events on the attractiveness of places. Many researchers around the world agree that the assessment of only economic effects is not sufficient, since it excludes the assessment of intangible benefits from the implementation of such events. The analysis of the impact of various mega events on the destination loyalty can become the basis for increasing the level of residents’ involvement in interaction with the place brands. The authors of this article analyze possible criteria of destination loyalty and state a hypothesis that the organization of the attractive mega events can become a tool for increasing destination loyalty. The authors propose a definition of destination loyalty in place marketing and substantiate the possibility of using Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a tool for assessing destination loyalty in place marketing. The article presents an empirical verification of the authors’ approach in assessing destination loyalty.

Influence of Marketing Strategies on the Performance of SMEs: Evidence from Abuja SMEs

Marketing strategy has been an operational focus and a method for achieving an all-inclusive business success. The aim of this scholarly work was to determine the influence of marketing strategies on the performance of SMEs in Abuja. Specifically, the objectives selected to achieve the aim of the study were to examine the influence of promotion marketing strategy on the business performance, assess the impact of price marketing strategy on the business performance of SMEs, determine the influence of place marketing strategy on business performance of SMEs, evaluate the effect of product marketing strategy on the business performance of SMEs in Abuja. Sample size of 339 was drawn from a population of 2825 which comprised of all the SMEs in Abuja registered by SMEDAN. Regression analysis was used and results presented in tables and figures. The findings obtained revealed that the most adopted marketing strategy was product strategy which contributed the most to the model. There was a positive relationship between the study variables,( promotion, pricing, place and product strategies), implying that the application of marketing strategies positively influenced SME performance in Abuja. The research concluded that the performance of SMEs in Abuja was positively influenced by marketing strategies. Recommendations were made which stated that SMEs should produce quality products, charge equitable price, position suitably, and promote extensively to the final consumers.