Ulla Hakala - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Ulla Hakala
Place branding and public diplomacy, Jun 15, 2024
Language & Communication, Dec 31, 2024
This article examines the pragmatics of Finnish municipality slogans by focussing on slogans tha... more This article examines the pragmatics of Finnish municipality slogans by focussing on
slogans that include a toponym, that is, a place name other than that of the municipality.
We approach our data of 51 slogans from the standpoint of translocal chronotopes – imagery of time, place and social life that connects the municipality with another place. We
demonstrate that toponyms position the municipalities geographically, culturally, socially,
historically, economically, and politically. We also analyse responses that the slogans evoke
in public online discourses. We argue that the interpretation of the slogan is affected by the
choice of toponym as well as by structural and interdiscursive choices. The findings are
discussed from the perspectives of discourse studies, onomastics, and place-branding
research.
Journal of business, communication and technology, 2024
The purpose of this multidisciplinary study is to investigate how municipalities position themsel... more The purpose of this multidisciplinary study is to investigate how municipalities position themselves in their slogans as unique places among competitors, namely other municipalities in their region or country. Empirically, discourse analysis was used to investigate the semantic features of municipal slogans in the context of place branding in Finland. The major findings demonstrate similarity in commonness rather than uniqueness: the slogans resembled each other thematically and did not distinctively differentiate places from one another. Academic research on slogans and their relation to linguistics and place branding is scarce. This study aims to narrow this gap. Nevertheless, further research is needed on slogans from different countries and languages. The study recommends that place managers should invest time and thought in the creation of slogans based on the factual attributes and values of the place as well as its strategies.
International Journal of Consumer Studies, Mar 1, 2010
The paper stresses the importance of listening to customers at university libraries and the need ... more The paper stresses the importance of listening to customers at university libraries and the need to move from a library-based view to a customer-based view. Largely on account of their public nature, academic libraries in Finland-where the study was conducted-have until recently, based their operations and development mainly on conventional procedures and library-based perspectives. However, in order to better serve their own clientele, as well as their parent organizations, they need to listen to the voices of their customers, the library users. One way of 'listening' is through a customer survey, in this case LibQUAL-a survey instrument developed in the US for libraries. It collects data on the quality of the services, thus enabling libraries to identify areas in which service levels should be improved.
Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Aug 1, 2013
Her research interests lie in marketing communications and branding. Lately, she has conducted re... more Her research interests lie in marketing communications and branding. Lately, she has conducted research on brand equity and top-of-mind awareness (TOMA), brand heritage and cultural heritage, city branding, country image, and cultural differences in brand perceptions.
The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Apr 21, 2016
Journal of Product & Brand Management, Sep 20, 2011
What makes a brand successful? The question has been covered extensively from the perspective of ... more What makes a brand successful? The question has been covered extensively from the perspective of consumer goods, but do the same rules apply to place brands? One of the challenges in the branding of places is the excessive number of stakeholders and too little management control (Skinner, 2005). The aim in this chapter is, from an integrative analytical perspective, to design a strategic communications framework that will enable cultural entrepreneurs to deal effectively with the problem of maintaining two-way communication in good times and bad. It is worth pointing out here that there are various rational, social, emotional and aesthetic strategies that cultural entrepreneurs can use to build a multiplex of identities, in other words identities with many facets that engage stakeholders in different ways cognitively, emotionally and aesthetically (Rindova, 2007: 169). This is where integrated communication (IC) may be of use. As compared to the familiar concept of integrated marketing communication (IMC), IC covers all strategic organizational communications (see e.g., Niemann-Struweg, 2014). This chapter discusses five key strategic requirements for communication — consistency, continuity, commitment, coordination and content — from the perspective of place branding. The assumption is that the strategic control and integration of the branding and IC processes via the 5Cs foster synergy, one-voice benefits and profitability.
Nordic Journal of Socio-Onomastics
Most municipalities in Finland have a slogan. At best, the slogan stems from the municipality’s s... more Most municipalities in Finland have a slogan. At best, the slogan stems from the municipality’s strategy and thereby conveys the mission of the municipality and strengthens both its image and its memorability. In our interdisciplinary project, we are analysing municipal slogans from both a linguistic and a marketing point of view, exploring their ability to promote the municipality’s reputation and visibility. Our analysis here is limited to slogans that include the name of the municipality; in these cases, the different linguistic ways in which the name of the municipality can function as a motivation are explored. The focus is on the syntactic position of the name and its discursive function, as well as on alliteration with the name in the slogans. Based on this linguistic analysis, the motivation for such slogans in municipalities’ marketing discourse is considered.
Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, Jul 1, 2016
This study concentrates on the opportunities of developing email marketing performance based on t... more This study concentrates on the opportunities of developing email marketing performance based on testing the design of an email newsletter. Drawing from existing literature, the paper presents a model for testing email newsletter design. The model consists of email marketing response process, factors affecting response, and corresponding metrics that are based on clickstream data. Multivariate tests were used to test permission-based newsletters sent by a European airline company regularly to its clients, verifying that the model has potential to be used in real decision-making situations. The paper shows how messages can be tested easily, accurately and objectively with retrievable results that are interesting from a marketing perspective.
Journal of Product & Brand Management, Jul 15, 2019
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine wellness as a means of self-branding. The phenome... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine wellness as a means of self-branding. The phenomenon is addressed through the introduction of a new concept – wellness branding – and by identifying those wellness practices that are currently most valued. Design/methodology/approach A series of focus group interviews were conducted in the USA and Finland. Altogether, 12 discussion sessions (N = 57) were carried out, 6 in each country. Findings Both wellness and self-branding represent current forms of identity and lifestyle construction and self-promotion. Moreover, they represent an entrepreneurial view of the self, which emphasizes self-governance. The findings indicate that wellness has moved beyond the merely physical dimension, to significantly involve emotional/mental, spiritual, social and intellectual aspects. This further strengthens the transformational nature of wellness and the increasing need for balancing one’s life in order to reach one’s optimal self. The logic of wellness branding involves the creation of one’s optimal, balanced self while communicating it to others. Research limitations/implications This paper makes insightful contributions to the branding literature by broadening the scope of self-branding to a new and timely context. The paper further adds to the consumer research literature by addressing wellness as a form of transformative consumption and an essential part of the current self-care culture. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to discuss self-branding in the context of wellness, introducing a new concept of wellness branding, thus offering a novel area for research.
The economy has an increasingly powerful role in the contemporary global world. Academic scholars... more The economy has an increasingly powerful role in the contemporary global world. Academic scholars who study names have recognised this, and, as such, onomastic research has expanded from personal and place names towards names that reflect the new commercial culture. Companies are aware of the significance of naming. Brand, product and company names play an important role in business. Culture produces names and names produce culture. Commercial names shape cultures, on the one hand, and changes in cultures may affect commercial names on the other. The world of the economy and business has created its own culture of names, but this naming culture may also affect other names; even place names and personal names are influenced by it. Names in the Economy: Cultural Prospects is composed of 20 articles that were produced from a collection of papers presented in 2012 at the fourth Names in the Economy symposium in Turku, Finland. These articles will equally be of interest to both academics and professionals. The goal of this book is multidisciplinary and theoretically diverse: it contemplates commercial-bound names from the viewpoints of linguistics and onomastics, as well as marketing and branding research. In addition to traditional onomastic standpoints, there are newer linguistic theories, sociological and communicational views, multimodality theory, and branding theories. The authors are scholars from three continents and from ten different countries.
European Advertising Academy, 2023
In a modern society, women's lives were not, however, private at all: women were conducted by men... more In a modern society, women's lives were not, however, private at all: women were conducted by men, being the private properties of men. The feminine-the consumer-was consumed, commodified, and objectified by men. Women were bombarded with demands regarding how they should look and behave. (Firat 1994, 212-213; Firat & Dholakia 2003, 18-19.) According to Barthel (1988, 1-2, 6-7), advertising is about creating a relationship between subjects and objects where the subjects (e.g. the creators of advertising) have traditionally been men but the objects (i.e. the targets, the consumers) have been women (see also Gunter 1995, 4-5). Particularly in the American society, the process of [especially household good] consumption was considered as women's work. Upon entry of women into the workforce, men have become increasingly involved in everyday consumption, and they have also been forced to take greater responsibility for domestic chores. In addition, the number of men living apart from women is increasing due to a number of reasons: the rise in the age of first marriage, the increase in divorce rates, the increasing number of students; overall, the amount of single households is proliferating. Advertisers have, thus, increasingly had to take into consideration also men as potential buyers, as the 'you's' they address to in their adverts. (Wernick 1991, 48-49.
Developments in marketing science: proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science, Oct 21, 2015
Increasing competition for students, funding and support has made universities, MBA programs and ... more Increasing competition for students, funding and support has made universities, MBA programs and other educational parties realize a growing need to market themselves to their key stakeholders as well as to differentiate themselves from their competitors, i.e. to brand themselves. Discourse about branding higher education has emerged in marketing literature during the last few years but is still rather scarce and fragmented. This paper contributes to yet limited higher education (HE) branding literature, the purpose being to explore co-branding possibilities of a Master’s degree program, its host city and an annual international cultural event arranged in the city. The qualitative empirical data covers both interviews with the employees of the program and other stakeholders, as well as a survey among the students of the program. The results suggest that educational programs and institutions could obtain differentiation and brand synergy from related city and festival brands through close cooperation and networking with surrounding stakeholders, i.e. co-branding. Moreover, the results show that even if the host city is not considered a strong brand itself, it is possible to benefit from the place brand ‘entity’. Close cooperation is favourable to the host city and the cultural event, as well as to the program.
Journal of Product & Brand Management, Sep 14, 2012
European Advertising Academy, 2023
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Purpose – The paper discusses the management of corporate identity in a multinational company. Th... more Purpose – The paper discusses the management of corporate identity in a multinational company. The case company faces challenges in its global operations on account of the different cultures. Specifically, the aim is to identify the culturally significant attributes that tie employees to corporations. Employee interviews give an internal perspective on corporate-identity management with regard to two research questions. First, on the individual level what factors tie employees to corporations? Second, what are the cultural characteristics influencing the employee-corporation relationship that MNCs need to consider in managing their corporate identity? Design/methodology – An inductive, qualitative research approach was taken involving one multinational case company. In all, 232 semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with employees representing various organizational levels and departments, in four continents and ten countries: Chile, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, ...
Place branding and public diplomacy, Jun 15, 2024
Language & Communication, Dec 31, 2024
This article examines the pragmatics of Finnish municipality slogans by focussing on slogans tha... more This article examines the pragmatics of Finnish municipality slogans by focussing on
slogans that include a toponym, that is, a place name other than that of the municipality.
We approach our data of 51 slogans from the standpoint of translocal chronotopes – imagery of time, place and social life that connects the municipality with another place. We
demonstrate that toponyms position the municipalities geographically, culturally, socially,
historically, economically, and politically. We also analyse responses that the slogans evoke
in public online discourses. We argue that the interpretation of the slogan is affected by the
choice of toponym as well as by structural and interdiscursive choices. The findings are
discussed from the perspectives of discourse studies, onomastics, and place-branding
research.
Journal of business, communication and technology, 2024
The purpose of this multidisciplinary study is to investigate how municipalities position themsel... more The purpose of this multidisciplinary study is to investigate how municipalities position themselves in their slogans as unique places among competitors, namely other municipalities in their region or country. Empirically, discourse analysis was used to investigate the semantic features of municipal slogans in the context of place branding in Finland. The major findings demonstrate similarity in commonness rather than uniqueness: the slogans resembled each other thematically and did not distinctively differentiate places from one another. Academic research on slogans and their relation to linguistics and place branding is scarce. This study aims to narrow this gap. Nevertheless, further research is needed on slogans from different countries and languages. The study recommends that place managers should invest time and thought in the creation of slogans based on the factual attributes and values of the place as well as its strategies.
International Journal of Consumer Studies, Mar 1, 2010
The paper stresses the importance of listening to customers at university libraries and the need ... more The paper stresses the importance of listening to customers at university libraries and the need to move from a library-based view to a customer-based view. Largely on account of their public nature, academic libraries in Finland-where the study was conducted-have until recently, based their operations and development mainly on conventional procedures and library-based perspectives. However, in order to better serve their own clientele, as well as their parent organizations, they need to listen to the voices of their customers, the library users. One way of 'listening' is through a customer survey, in this case LibQUAL-a survey instrument developed in the US for libraries. It collects data on the quality of the services, thus enabling libraries to identify areas in which service levels should be improved.
Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Aug 1, 2013
Her research interests lie in marketing communications and branding. Lately, she has conducted re... more Her research interests lie in marketing communications and branding. Lately, she has conducted research on brand equity and top-of-mind awareness (TOMA), brand heritage and cultural heritage, city branding, country image, and cultural differences in brand perceptions.
The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Apr 21, 2016
Journal of Product & Brand Management, Sep 20, 2011
What makes a brand successful? The question has been covered extensively from the perspective of ... more What makes a brand successful? The question has been covered extensively from the perspective of consumer goods, but do the same rules apply to place brands? One of the challenges in the branding of places is the excessive number of stakeholders and too little management control (Skinner, 2005). The aim in this chapter is, from an integrative analytical perspective, to design a strategic communications framework that will enable cultural entrepreneurs to deal effectively with the problem of maintaining two-way communication in good times and bad. It is worth pointing out here that there are various rational, social, emotional and aesthetic strategies that cultural entrepreneurs can use to build a multiplex of identities, in other words identities with many facets that engage stakeholders in different ways cognitively, emotionally and aesthetically (Rindova, 2007: 169). This is where integrated communication (IC) may be of use. As compared to the familiar concept of integrated marketing communication (IMC), IC covers all strategic organizational communications (see e.g., Niemann-Struweg, 2014). This chapter discusses five key strategic requirements for communication — consistency, continuity, commitment, coordination and content — from the perspective of place branding. The assumption is that the strategic control and integration of the branding and IC processes via the 5Cs foster synergy, one-voice benefits and profitability.
Nordic Journal of Socio-Onomastics
Most municipalities in Finland have a slogan. At best, the slogan stems from the municipality’s s... more Most municipalities in Finland have a slogan. At best, the slogan stems from the municipality’s strategy and thereby conveys the mission of the municipality and strengthens both its image and its memorability. In our interdisciplinary project, we are analysing municipal slogans from both a linguistic and a marketing point of view, exploring their ability to promote the municipality’s reputation and visibility. Our analysis here is limited to slogans that include the name of the municipality; in these cases, the different linguistic ways in which the name of the municipality can function as a motivation are explored. The focus is on the syntactic position of the name and its discursive function, as well as on alliteration with the name in the slogans. Based on this linguistic analysis, the motivation for such slogans in municipalities’ marketing discourse is considered.
Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, Jul 1, 2016
This study concentrates on the opportunities of developing email marketing performance based on t... more This study concentrates on the opportunities of developing email marketing performance based on testing the design of an email newsletter. Drawing from existing literature, the paper presents a model for testing email newsletter design. The model consists of email marketing response process, factors affecting response, and corresponding metrics that are based on clickstream data. Multivariate tests were used to test permission-based newsletters sent by a European airline company regularly to its clients, verifying that the model has potential to be used in real decision-making situations. The paper shows how messages can be tested easily, accurately and objectively with retrievable results that are interesting from a marketing perspective.
Journal of Product & Brand Management, Jul 15, 2019
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine wellness as a means of self-branding. The phenome... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine wellness as a means of self-branding. The phenomenon is addressed through the introduction of a new concept – wellness branding – and by identifying those wellness practices that are currently most valued. Design/methodology/approach A series of focus group interviews were conducted in the USA and Finland. Altogether, 12 discussion sessions (N = 57) were carried out, 6 in each country. Findings Both wellness and self-branding represent current forms of identity and lifestyle construction and self-promotion. Moreover, they represent an entrepreneurial view of the self, which emphasizes self-governance. The findings indicate that wellness has moved beyond the merely physical dimension, to significantly involve emotional/mental, spiritual, social and intellectual aspects. This further strengthens the transformational nature of wellness and the increasing need for balancing one’s life in order to reach one’s optimal self. The logic of wellness branding involves the creation of one’s optimal, balanced self while communicating it to others. Research limitations/implications This paper makes insightful contributions to the branding literature by broadening the scope of self-branding to a new and timely context. The paper further adds to the consumer research literature by addressing wellness as a form of transformative consumption and an essential part of the current self-care culture. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to discuss self-branding in the context of wellness, introducing a new concept of wellness branding, thus offering a novel area for research.
The economy has an increasingly powerful role in the contemporary global world. Academic scholars... more The economy has an increasingly powerful role in the contemporary global world. Academic scholars who study names have recognised this, and, as such, onomastic research has expanded from personal and place names towards names that reflect the new commercial culture. Companies are aware of the significance of naming. Brand, product and company names play an important role in business. Culture produces names and names produce culture. Commercial names shape cultures, on the one hand, and changes in cultures may affect commercial names on the other. The world of the economy and business has created its own culture of names, but this naming culture may also affect other names; even place names and personal names are influenced by it. Names in the Economy: Cultural Prospects is composed of 20 articles that were produced from a collection of papers presented in 2012 at the fourth Names in the Economy symposium in Turku, Finland. These articles will equally be of interest to both academics and professionals. The goal of this book is multidisciplinary and theoretically diverse: it contemplates commercial-bound names from the viewpoints of linguistics and onomastics, as well as marketing and branding research. In addition to traditional onomastic standpoints, there are newer linguistic theories, sociological and communicational views, multimodality theory, and branding theories. The authors are scholars from three continents and from ten different countries.
European Advertising Academy, 2023
In a modern society, women's lives were not, however, private at all: women were conducted by men... more In a modern society, women's lives were not, however, private at all: women were conducted by men, being the private properties of men. The feminine-the consumer-was consumed, commodified, and objectified by men. Women were bombarded with demands regarding how they should look and behave. (Firat 1994, 212-213; Firat & Dholakia 2003, 18-19.) According to Barthel (1988, 1-2, 6-7), advertising is about creating a relationship between subjects and objects where the subjects (e.g. the creators of advertising) have traditionally been men but the objects (i.e. the targets, the consumers) have been women (see also Gunter 1995, 4-5). Particularly in the American society, the process of [especially household good] consumption was considered as women's work. Upon entry of women into the workforce, men have become increasingly involved in everyday consumption, and they have also been forced to take greater responsibility for domestic chores. In addition, the number of men living apart from women is increasing due to a number of reasons: the rise in the age of first marriage, the increase in divorce rates, the increasing number of students; overall, the amount of single households is proliferating. Advertisers have, thus, increasingly had to take into consideration also men as potential buyers, as the 'you's' they address to in their adverts. (Wernick 1991, 48-49.
Developments in marketing science: proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science, Oct 21, 2015
Increasing competition for students, funding and support has made universities, MBA programs and ... more Increasing competition for students, funding and support has made universities, MBA programs and other educational parties realize a growing need to market themselves to their key stakeholders as well as to differentiate themselves from their competitors, i.e. to brand themselves. Discourse about branding higher education has emerged in marketing literature during the last few years but is still rather scarce and fragmented. This paper contributes to yet limited higher education (HE) branding literature, the purpose being to explore co-branding possibilities of a Master’s degree program, its host city and an annual international cultural event arranged in the city. The qualitative empirical data covers both interviews with the employees of the program and other stakeholders, as well as a survey among the students of the program. The results suggest that educational programs and institutions could obtain differentiation and brand synergy from related city and festival brands through close cooperation and networking with surrounding stakeholders, i.e. co-branding. Moreover, the results show that even if the host city is not considered a strong brand itself, it is possible to benefit from the place brand ‘entity’. Close cooperation is favourable to the host city and the cultural event, as well as to the program.
Journal of Product & Brand Management, Sep 14, 2012
European Advertising Academy, 2023
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Purpose – The paper discusses the management of corporate identity in a multinational company. Th... more Purpose – The paper discusses the management of corporate identity in a multinational company. The case company faces challenges in its global operations on account of the different cultures. Specifically, the aim is to identify the culturally significant attributes that tie employees to corporations. Employee interviews give an internal perspective on corporate-identity management with regard to two research questions. First, on the individual level what factors tie employees to corporations? Second, what are the cultural characteristics influencing the employee-corporation relationship that MNCs need to consider in managing their corporate identity? Design/methodology – An inductive, qualitative research approach was taken involving one multinational case company. In all, 232 semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with employees representing various organizational levels and departments, in four continents and ten countries: Chile, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, ...