The relevance of cultural production – Pori Jazz – in boosting place brand equity

This article uses the case study design to unpack the cultural production that occurs in relation to the Pori Jazz Festival in Finland. The research on this topic lies in theoverlap between three knowledge domains –brand identity formation, marketing and media content analysis. Although closely related these fields have developed separately, resultingin equivocality, a core problem in sense making, which in turn constrains efforts to reduce uncertainty. This case provides insight into what happens when the aspirations embedded within the identity of Pori, a relatively small community, interact with the realities of international marketing decisions. Although appropriate for assessing consumer purchase behaviour, marketing is outside-in-oriented and overlooks the role of the cultural context, particularly the community identity embedded in social networks. The purpose of this articleis to examine, from a brand equity perspective, the impact of the context on the content of the Pori Jazz Festival in relation to the city and the audiences on three distinct levels.