Brands image management: Perceptions of European tour operators in single tourism market concept

Abstract

Companies in any industry aim at responding to the expectations of different types of consumers. For this purpose, companies are eager to leave their mark on a specific field and set an impact on their products. The single market trend in all industries has caused an enormous market competition worldwide. One of the most notable results of this trend is branding and imaging projection. Depending on the industries' structures, these efforts could be either on product or on brand image. Consolidating the products' and brands' image with the single market concept has given rise to two more popular terms - global company and global product. The brand image in the tourism industry is a common issue since tourism shows service industry characteristics, such as intangibility and perishability. Furthermore, the profit margins in the holiday tourism market are diminishing constantly in the homogeneous-like market. Therefore, the larger companies in the tourism industry would like to extend their brand images in order to compete in ruthless market conditions. The aim of this study is to highlight brand imaging perceived by European tour operators (ETOs) which were categorized according to their working domains, branding and integration strategies. Significant differences were forthcoming from the results. This outcome emerged when companies were grouped into domestic-international, single branded-multi branded, non-vertically integrated, and vertically integrated. Although, in general, it seems that companies believe in brand imaging and its positive effects, some companies may keep applying traditional developing strategies according to their integration policies.