Cities with personality and villages with enchantment

Year

2015 – 2016

Client

Catalan Tourisme Agency (Spain)

Applied services

Consultancy

The project

The defining and development of the criteria, system of evaluation, structure and functioning of the new brands and tourism certifications of the Agencia Catalana de Turismo: “Cities with personality” and “Villages with enchantment”.

The challenge

The Marketing plan 2013-2015 of the Agencia Catalana de Turismo (Catalan Tourism Agency) established the foundations of the upgrade both in its offer as well as in the “shape” and manner of developing the added value and differentiation, with the aim of arriving more easily at the demand in question.
On one side, it proposes the creation and implementation of a new system of links with the sector, based on an Affiliation with the ACT and a structure of brands, stamps, endorsed products and rankings.
On the other hand, the assessment of the “Cataluña Experiencial”, that exceeds the organization of the offer on the basis of the traditional product, has the intention of developing the conceptual scene’s tourism experience from different angles and viewpoints.
In this brand, the Marketing Plan targets two lines of development: a reference to medium-sized cities and another orientated to towns with enchantment.
In both cases, the desire is to give an adequate and specific answer to the necessities of the advertisement of these typologies of places, whilst ensuring the preservation of its heritage and surroundings and advancing the local economy.
In the development and implementation context of this new Marketing Plan, the global challenge of this project is to define and equip it with content, as much the internal structure as the functioning and the communicative and promotional projections in these two new accreditations established by the ACT; the Brand “Cities with personality” and the Stamp “Villages with enchantment”.

Actions taken

The identification and benchmark analysis of 22 existing models and of relevance and/or reference, at an international level, in regards to the association and network of medium-sized cities and small towns with the aim of joint collaboration and promotion.
The definition of the concepts of “city”, “type”, “town” y “appeal” as a part of the developing project brand “Marca y Sello” (trademark).
The establishment and definition of the requirements and criteria that candidates of “cities” and “towns” will have to contend with in order to enter into forming part of the trademark.
The design and definition of the process of accreditation and admission of the cities as members of the Brand.
The structuring of the Brand’s composition.
The creation and development of a database with the identification and invention of the cities and towns susceptible to it to form part of the trademark.
The definition of the Recruitment Plan of Associates.
The definition of the positioning of the trademark within the Catalonia brand.
The establishment of an Action Plan for the communication and promotion of the trademark.
The structuring of a possible catalogue of the trademark.
In regards to the project brand, interviews with directors of the Tourism Patronage of the Councils of Lleida, Barcelona and Tarragona have been undertaken, as well as contacts with the IDESCAT and Senior Management of the Catalan Government Patronage.

The result

The models of the Brand “Cities with personality” and the Stamp “Villages with enchantment” are perfectly defined in its structure and internal functioning, criteria evaluation system and communicative and promotional projection.