Here, There, and Everywhere: Place Branding and Gastronomical Globalization in a Macromarketing Perspective

Abstract

In this article, the authors discuss the role branding can play in regional development in the context of the global cultural economy. They base their discussion on a set of studies of various initiatives having in common the aim of establishing the island of Funen, Denmark, as a region of particular gastronomic quality and competence. The article illustrates how processes of globalization not only result in the dissolving of local cultures by homogenizing forces but also enable the construction of places by way of marketing. In that way, the authors show that marketing not only represents a homogenization of culture through global corporate business but also that the principles of marketing and branding can be used in the service of creating sustainable small-scale production-consumption relations and, therefore, local cultural sustainability.