| Abstract [eng] |
The main point of the master’s thesis is to analyze country as a tourism brand emphasizing its emotional element. Country brand is one of the many brand types and belongs to the group of destination brands, which is oriented to the tourism sector. Country brand differs from other brand types and is characterized as being global, functional, social, multiple, substitute, emotional, and durable. In relation with economical, political or social changes re-branding process is needed in order to shape or even recover country image. In this work the list of most popular recommendations for successful country brand creation or re-branding is proposed some perceptions of tourist’s needs, motivations and travel behavior are also given. While analyzing the perception of emotions the difference of the main terms is described: “emotions” reveal the emotional reactions and the “affect” has the meaning of the emotional experience. There are several types of emotions: one classifies them into inherent, intrinsic and incidental; the other classification notes emotions being positive, negative and bi-directional. Conception of involvement includes marketing communications, advertising, consumer behavior and shows the strength of the emotional relation with the country brand. Previous empirical research of destination branding has proved importance of stressing its representational aspect. This can be done through the emotions evoked. For this reason another research was initialized to investigate emotions which are provoked by country ads also forms an attitude towards the country brand. It was tried to find out which ad and logo characteristics evoke particular affects. The focus group interview took place in Denmark and was organized among international English-speaking students. During this research following 6 hypotheses were set. The first one was set to prove that depending on the type of emotions particular attitude towards country brand is formed. The second hypotheses set to prove if affectionate and good quality country ad positively effects person’s decision to visit the country. High intensity of emotions shows high involvement of the country brand. Positive emotional relation is formed only when there is no previous experience or attitude towards the country. Video clip makes greater impact on the attitude towards the country, than country logo can do. These are the points that were also questioned in this research. Finally, it was hypothesized that synthesis of affective experience and rational thinking is important while building an attitude towards the country brand. This master thesis is unique because it combines branding country as a tourism object and also postulates impact of emotional evaluation. It also proposes new definitions of this topic in Lithuanian which still has no antecedent. |
