Westwood 1999

Branding the package holiday--The role and significance of brands for UK air tour operators

Excellent Piece - strong links to the adventure market - in a sense applying what ought not be done in the soft-adventure market.
Talks about 'dissonance reduction' as a way of lookoing at the issue - need to investigate further.
Points to the limited success of branding in UK TOs.
Role of emotions in attachment to a brand.
Idea of sticking with the same brand to avoid perceived risk.
Lots of intangibles - our beliefs/feelings/emotions
Look up de Chernatony and McDonald.
Why would people care about the 'brand' of a holiday? You go away, you come back - people ask how your holiday was - do they care which company you went with? Do they care which luggage tag you have? nope.
Mathieson and Wall sequential model of consumer decision making - pre-consumption, experience, post-consumption. We look at post-consumption stage.
At the post-consumption stage the consumer is left with largely intangible, emotional elements - memories, photographs, and souvenirs of the experience. ' travel satisfaction evaluation' takes place now - appraisal and reappraisal of the entire experience - which, as Mathieson and Wall state, ahs a strong infleence on subsequent decisions - allegiance to the brand manifesting in brand loyalty, repeat purchase and recommendation to friends, relatives and colleagues.