Foreword [:] Cultural heritage: the missing‘‘link’’ in the place marketing literature ‘‘chain’’

Place Branding and Public Diplomacy [JB emphasis] (2017) 13, 101–106. doi:10.1057/s41254-017-0057-7

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Excerpt:

[T]he components of the Italian cultural heritage image play a fourfold role with respect to national products and services: (1) a general umbrella role across different categories of products and services characterized by similar core benefits (in this case the item aesthetics and beauty serves as an umbrella for products and services characterized by a highly aesthetic consumption experience such as tourism, arts, clothing, shoes, cars, etc.); (2) a specific endorser role for certain types of products or services that are more directly connected to certain cultural heritage components (such as the combinations painting and sculpture [;] fashion; architecture [;] design and furniture); (3) a product brand role for product categories that are perceived as‘‘direct components’’ of the national cultural heritage (such as food, which is not only a pro-duct category but also itself part of the Italian cultural heritage); (4) a potential co-branding role within advertising strategies connecting national products or brands with specific heritage attractions (as in the case of Fendi’s recent breathtaking couture show staged at Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain, with models walking over the emerald green water on a plexiglass runway stretched a few inches above its edge). ...