Food-branding places – A sensory perspective

TLDR

Food, meals and gastronomy are commonly used in place branding, yet how and why this occurs remains poorly understood. The study aims to identify and describe how food, meals and gastronomy contribute to the direct and indirect branding of places, and to propose a conceptual framework viewing places as sensescapes. The authors clarify key concepts and methodology, conduct a multisite field study of large metropolitan cities to document how food is used in place branding, and show that food shapes spatial configuration, time‑space flow, and iconography of place‑sensescapes. The study concludes that a place’s character both influences and is influenced by food and gastronomy, which directly and indirectly shape the place’s brand image.

Abstract

This article takes as its starting point the observation that food, meals and gastronomy are frequently used in the branding of places. The knowledge of how and why this takes place is, however, rather limited, and the aim of this article is thus to identify and describe the role of food, meals and gastronomy in the direct and indirect branding of places. The article contains three main sections, where the first is a clarification of key concepts and the methodology applied. The second part is an account of the ways in which food is used in branding places, based on the observations we have made as part of a multisite field study of large metropolitan cities. The third part of the article is a tentative and illustrated conceptual framework, based on the assumption that places can be seen as sensescapes. Food, meals and gastronomy contribute to the spatial configuration (sensory topography), time-space flow (orchestration) and iconography (sensory mapping) of these place-sensescapes. The conclusion of the article is that the character of a place does not only affect the experience of food and gastronomy in that place, but also that food and gastronomy is – directly and indirectly – affecting the character of the place and its brand-image.