A brand so bad it’s good: The paradoxical place marketing of Belfast

AbstractAccording to O’Driscoll (2008), paradox characterises marketing in the ‘after modern’ epoch. This is certainly true of place marketing, which is often described as a paradox-rich domain (Dinnie, 2011). Drawing upon the results of a novel, culture-based research procedure, this paper describes the paradoxical outcomes of an urban branding exercise in Belfast, one of the world’s most infamous cities. Albeit dismissed by local worthies as a futile attempt to ‘put lipstick on a gorilla’, this paper argues that Belfast’s branding is not only far from futile but a perversely paradoxical form of marketing that’s so bad it’s good.Keywords: city brandingBelfastliterary analysisparadoxical marketing Notes1. 1Hollister, the hugely successful subsidiary of Abercrombie and Fitch, offers yet another variation on this paradoxical apparel proposition. Its stores are notoriously dark and gloomy, which makes it almost impossible to see or scrutinise the merchandise. Retail store designers, as a rule, do not recommend this practice.2. 2There is a sizeable literature on the outsider as savant (Mathews & Wacker, Citation2002). A prime marketing example is No Logo by Naomi Klein, a campaigning journalist whose critique of contemporary branding has had more impact than anything written by the academic community.3. 3Only authoritarian political regimes, as Anholt (Citation2007) wryly acknowledges about the analogous issue of nation brands, are in a position to impose one of Western democracy’s greatest achievements (i.e. the branding concept) on their downtrodden people. He further adds that semi-independent terrorist networks provide an apt administrative model for place marketing best practice. If that’s the case, then Belfast is indeed the ultimate exemplar!4. 4Of course, most of today’s tourists/consumers want and expect the comforting consistency of clean hotels, safe taxis, convenient ATMs, and familiar brand names – or so Ritzer’s (Citation2010) McDonaldisation thesis suggests – but they simultaneously expect to see something completely different, such as the one and only Eiffel Tower or the incontestably singular Sydney Opera House (Urry, Citation2002). This is one of the paradoxes of tourism (Hospers, Citation2011).5. 5In this regard, it is noteworthy that Raymond Chandler, the legendary chronicler of L.A.’s mean streets, took great pains to collate the slang expressions that fellow Angelinos employed, in order to make the dialog in his novels ring true. He abandoned the attempt, however, when he realised that people’s phraseology was largely derived from pulp magazines and gangster movies (Hiney, 1998, p. 73).6. 6This ‘sample’, of course, is not systematically drawn, since there is no comprehensive list of books set in Belfast. It is, nevertheless, a fairly representative selection of the city’s representations in recent literature (i.e. post-Craig, Citation1999).7. 7New Criticism is arguably the preeminent school of twentieth-century literary theory. It predominated prior to the deconstructive era of Derrida and company. As Eagleton (Citation1983) explains, the New Critical method focussed on paradox and ambiguity – ‘The language of poetry’, Cleanth Brooks (Citation1968, p. 1) famously announced, ‘is the language of paradox’ – hence its appropriateness for the present study.8. 8McGivern (Citation2006) reports that there are at least 55 separate bodies with an interest in Belfast’s strategic direction. The city, she declares, is ‘over-administered, over-institutionalised and over-governed’ (p. 336).9. 9Interestingly, Lennon and Foley (Citation2000) date the beginnings of ‘dark tourism’ to the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, though it has taken Belfast the best part of a century to monetise its most important thanatic asset.10. 10Belfast’s a metropolis, according to Craig’s (1999) literary anthology, whose blackness is repeatedly referred to by visitors and locals both. It’s a black city at the black heart of the black north, where the Black Mountain looms large, the Blackstaff River runs sluggishly, the Black Man statue occupies a prime central site, black sheets of rain cascade incessantly, black taxis ply their trade to suburban black spots, police officers are colloquially known as Black Bastards, and Black Bush is not only the whiskey of choice but often accompanied by a pint of the black stuff.11. 11With its world-renowned Guggenheim museum and eye-catching bridge by Calatrava, Bilbao is the poster child of urban rejuvenation (Vegara, Citation2001). Its astonishing turnaround is particularly pertinent to Belfast (Neill, Citation2010), since they are similarly sized ‘northern’ cities with massive industrial/shipbuilding legacies and, not least, share a history of separatist political activities promulgated by brook-no-opposition organisations (ETA in Spain, the IRA in Ireland).12. 12Curiously, Belfast’s Be-based campaign coincided with a similar campaign in a similar pariah city, Berlin. The Be Berlin campaign also began in 2008, and, clearly, there is scope for a comparative analysis. However, as the parallels between Belfast and Berlin have already been explicated at length (Neill, Citation2001), any twin-track study would suffer somewhat by comparison.13. 13Ever since Aristotle argued that authentic heroes are characterised by hamartia, a fatal flaw in their make-up, the strengths of weaknesses have been recognised and lauded, paradoxical though this appears to be (Lloyd, Citation2011).14. 14Lynx’s paradoxical strapline undoubtedly owes a debt to that of another Unilever brand, Persil, which has contended that ‘dirt is good’ since 2005.Additional informationNotes on contributorsStephen Brown Stephen Brown is professor of marketing research at the University of Ulster. His research achievements are modest; his publications languish unread; and he has received more brickbats than awards. However, he ploughs on regardless …Pierre McDonagh Pierre McDonagh is a senior lecturer in marketing at Dublin City University Business School, Ireland. He serves as associate editor for the Journal of Macromarketing and on the advisory committee for Transformative Consumer Research within the American Association for Consumer Research. He was, in 1997, along with Andrea Prothero (UCD), one of the first academics to edit a text on “Green Management” now published with Thomson Learning. In his work he argues that marketing should take a proactive role in enabling the process of sustainable communication. He has published a number of articles primarily on marketing’s interconnections with nature. He is also interested in dark marketing, branding and consumption studies. He holds a PhD from Cardiff University and has held lecturing posts at Queen’s University Belfast, Cardiff University, University of Stirling, Sheffield University, DIT and spent a sabbatical at Arizona State University in 2002.E Pierre.McDonagh@dcu.ieClifford J. Shultz II Clifford J. Shultz II is professor and Charles H. Kellstadt chair of marketing in the Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago. He received his PhD from Columbia University. He has published widely on the topics of marketing, socioeconomic development and consumption in devastated and recovering economies. Dr Shultz served two terms as editor of the Journal of Macromarketing, served as President of the International Society of Markets and Development, and currently serves on several editorial and policy boards. He has received several awards for his scholarly contributions, including Fulbright appointments in Vietnam and Croatia, numerous research grants, best paper and outstanding scholar awards, and he has been invited to lecture or to make research presentations at universities, businesses, government agencies, and research institutes on six continents. See also www.luc.edu/gsb/cjsE cjs2@luc.edu