Media reinforcement of architectural perceptions for place branding

Abstract

Throughout the past, architectural icons including heritage structures are served as references to create visual identity for any place branding which would reach either by books or news to the public. The mechanism of place branding is developed by every nation for its economic growth, social development, and infrastructure. A very strong strategy called media communication or advertisement leads to attitudinal effects of improved tourism, increased investors or citizens by reaching the target market. Recently media has captured our minds and is proved to be a very strong tool in reinforcing perceptions for almost every activity or routine work. However, people are misguided by their perception related to place branding due to the lack of awareness, authentic sources for information gathering and media’s projected influence on their psychology. Media and advertisement has a huge impact in creating perceptions for any place in the world which need not to be proved authentic always. This study intends to address parameters that have an impact on place branding with a larger focus on iconic architectures. Study objectives include, a) proposing a conceptual framework on place branding by synthesizing literature, and b) preliminary empirical analysis to determine negative and positive implications of place branding on travelers’ guided perceptions. The study uses quantitative method for primary data collection through focused group/survey, data analysis is performed in Predictive Analytical Software v. 20. Findings of the study concludes that place branding (iconic architectures) is reinforced by the media, enabling formation of perceptual influences (positive or negative experiences) – significantly correlating with tourists informed (confident) decisions to visit a destination or not.