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This paper aims to investigate place marketing and branding at the micro-place scale through the case study of St Christopher’s Place in London (UK). This study illustrates the distinctive differences of micro-place marketing, in comparison to city and country levels.

An exploratory case study was conducted through a sequential mixed methods approach involving direct observation, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and social media analysis. Analysis of data was performed by using thematic analysis and triangulation of quantitative measures collected through the questionnaire and social media analysis.

Analysis of data illustrated noticeable differences of place management at the micro-place level compared to city or country scale of place marketing and branding. The function of emotional marketing leading to value co-creation is more effective at this level, establishing close and personal ties between occupiers and customers. Yet, measurement of micro-place marketing and branding value creation is difficult to achieve.

This study draws attention to the unique value and benefits of place branding at smaller spatial scales. Findings contribute to the place micro-brand concept by adding knowledge of micro-places through place management activities comparing them with city and country scales, and emotional marketing value co-creation practices, including challenges relating to measurement.

This study aims to examine the public’s acceptance of film-induced tourism and develops the relationship among placement marketing, involvement, place attachment and travel intention. The film Your Love Song shot in the Hualien and Taitung regions in Taiwan was selected as the case study.

An online sample survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire, and statistical tests and overall structural equation modeling analysis using the SPSS and AMOS statistical software packages, respectively, were performed.

This study results demonstrate that destination placement marketing has a significant positive effect on the level of destination involvement, place attachment and travel intention of viewers. Moreover, the level of involvement has some intermediary effect on the interrelationship between placement marketing and travel intention. Hence, this study suggests that relevant government agencies and tourism operators should promote local tourism through films and television shows and attract more tourists by retaining the original shooting scenes.

While previous studies have only analyzed two or three of the four concepts of film-induced tourism, placement marketing, travel intention, involvement and place attachment, this study completely integrates these four concepts and proves the correlation between them.

Calls for empirical and theory-based outcome measures in the place marketing literature are made more pressing as policymakers manage post-COVID high street recovery. This study aims to evaluate how knowledge of repeat buying established in the consumer marketing domain might be adapted to benchmark place marketing effectiveness, applying the Law of Double Jeopardy to capture the predictable relationship between footfall and visit frequency on competing high streets.

The authors match footfall and survey data collected simultaneously on nine local high streets in one London borough to ask if a predictable Double Jeopardy relationship exists. The authors then test the theoretical assumptions of independence that underpin the Law in patterns of switching; the predictable distribution of regular, infrequent and new visitors; and the absence of user segmentation.

The authors observe that Double Jeopardy constrains behavioural outcomes, that a simple model fits high street footfall data well and that its theoretical assumptions are supported.

This paper makes several practical and theoretical contributions. The authors demonstrate a method to model expected repeat visit frequency from footfall density and elaborate footfall data into its frequency classes. The authors also locate the effects of loyalty over time within existing knowledge of spatial competition for high street patronage and demonstrate how place marketing insights can be derived from applications of this useful law.

The present chapter aims to assess how digital transformation impacts current trends in city branding, to analyze the role of digital communication in the branding of selected cities, and to compare the level of exploitation of digital communication for city branding between European and Slovak cities. We conducted empirical research in several phases, and the overall sample consists of 155 cities in Europe and Slovakia. The results of our research showed that European and Slovak cities use to some extent all the investigated tools of digital marketing communication in city branding with a dominant position of social media, both in terms of exploitation and importance for city branding in European and Slovak cities. European cities score significantly better than Slovak cities in all elements of the City Brand Hexagon, as well as in the overall city brand index. Therefore, city branding strategies in the best European cities can serve as a good practice example or inspiration for Slovak cities. Cities with lower rankings and scores on city branding should focus on strengthening their city branding or strengthening their digital communication. The possible trajectory is also the concerted strategy for the branding of the city and its digital communication.

The purpose of this introductory paper is to outline the theme of – and introduces the papers comprising – this special issue on post-Covid place marketing.

A brief literature review outlines some of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on places and also for place-bound and spatially oriented industry sectors (particularly retailing and tourism and hospitality, which are often the focus of place marketing initiatives) before describing the papers constituting the special issue.

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on places are identified, relating to both economic and more phenomenologically oriented impacts, and the implications for place resilience are considered. The papers comprising the special issue are grouped into two main themes relating to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on retailing and the impact of the pandemic on place marketing processes.

Notwithstanding the burgeoning literature on the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts, the papers comprising this special issue focus on specific place-oriented marketing (and retailing) implications, providing potential avenues for future research.

Charity shops have met a number of challenges in light of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper aims to explore the economic and social impact of charity shops and reviews the transformative impact they have on place, the experience of place and the social environment.

The paper conducts a review of the extant literature in the field of charity shop retail. Considering the issues that are raised, the article proceeds to discuss the opportunities that arise for place marketing efforts and charity shops in the retail environment, the wider sector, the high street and as a positive, key component of place(s).

The paper provides novel sectorial insights and recommendations that can be adopted by charity retail outlets. This includes discussion on transformative place marketing, the experience of place and the charity shop’ role in the social environment beyond the existing references to charity shops in place(s) and the high street.

Charity shops play a vital role in society and yet they are an under researched field. The paper contributes knowledge on the role of charity shops in transforming and experiencing place. The paper concludes with observations made from the discussion on charity shops, and states areas for future research regarding the role of the charity shop and place marketing, place identity and transformation.

This editorial introduces a special issue of the Journal of Services Marketing, dedicated to papers discussing the effect of the physical context on customer experience. This study aims to identify diverse areas of extant knowledge, upon which researchers might draw when investigating the effect of the physical context on customer experience, to inform future research agendas.

Drawing on available literature, the authors argue that, as prior studies in diverse scholarly fields have explored the physical context, these bodies of knowledge may offer theories and constructs that meaningfully inform explorations of the effect of the physical context on customer experience.

The authors identify five marketing subdisciplines and six nonmarketing disciplines, each offering theories, constructs and perspectives which researchers might draw upon in future studies of the effects of the physical context on customer experience.

The authors develop a novel map which depicts the field of study of the effects of the physical context on customer experience, which scholars might use to inform future research design. In addition, the authors suggest several directions for future research.

This paper aims to delve into the interdependent connection between place branding and social capital, specifically focusing on how it contributes to uniting a city’s recovery efforts during times of crisis. By using the theoretical frameworks of social capital and cultural intermediation, the case study of Vilnius, Lithuania, exemplifies how cities can navigate through turbulent periods by prioritising the work of place marketers and their relationships in their strategic approach.

A qualitative, mixed method case study approach used four different methods of investigation, drawing on multiple sources of evidence, including a mix of interviews with key actors, content analysis, netnography and participant observation.

Go Vilnius, in collaboration with the City of Vilnius Municipality, leveraged existing stakeholder relationships and a strong common identification among political actors, promotional intermediaries, residents and city institutions to not only adapt to the unfolding crisis but to evolve its marketing, place-making, tourism and community engagement strategies to emerge as a more resilient, dynamic and animated city after the pandemic.

This case study demonstrates that a “network constellation” approach centralised around key stakeholder relationships held by marketing, tourism and promotional professionals is a crucial component in urban post-pandemic and emergency planning.

By placing marketing professionals at the heart of crisis planning, cities can capitalise on the inherent social capital that is their key occupational resource and leverage their relationships with residents, the business community, international collaborators and the media for swift and maximum impact.

By identifying the “network constellations” that facilitated the institutionalisation of place branding activities in the face of both a local and global shutdown, this paper positions place marketers, acting as cultural intermediaries, at the centre of crisis planning and prevention strategies for anti-fragile cities of the post-pandemic future.

The aim of this paper is to explore the role and potential of lived experiences in informing and shaping the formation of place identity within the sphere of the production and consumption of craft objects.

This paper is part of a larger funded research project and focuses on Manchester’s Craft and Design Centre. It draws upon a series of in-depth interviews conducted with craft makers and visitors.

The analysis and interpretation of textual data help to theorise an experiential identity of place, which revolves around the fusion of the cultural heritage and lived insideness of the physical setting; activity spaces and the micro-encounters of craft-making; and conflicting meanings and attachments to the Craft and Design Centre.

This study provides a novel perspective on the understanding of place identity in the context of craft-making by focusing on the lived experiences of various stakeholders and acknowledging the multi-faceted, dynamic and processual nature of place.