Producing and consuming the painter Raphael’s birthplace

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to draw upon Johnson’s “Circle of Culture” to develop a cultural approach for studying place marketing’s internal audience. A research project on the small Italian Renaissance city of Urbino explores how a number of marketing events dedicated to the painter Raphael, who was born there, have been produced and then received among different urban “populations” (dwellers, commuters, students, etc.). The second part of the paper conceptualizes events as both “inward” and “outward” forces and compares the Raphaellian events with some of Urbino’s traditional festivities. Design/methodology/approach – This is a qualitative study that applies discourse analysis to media texts, official documents and 42 in-depth interviews held with both local officials and internal place consumers. Findings – The inquiry reveals a predominance of discourses in support of the events: civic pride, identification, and economic benefits. What is more striking is that some participants not only appreciated the marketing events but “went beyond” by producing discourses in support of a more intensive exploitation of Urbino’s cultural and heritage resources. Research limitations/implications – Quantitative research is recommended to generalize evidence stemming from ethnographic inquiry and to measure “the magnitude” of the different discourses produced by the people. Originality/value – This paper contributes to overcoming the materialist perspective which underpins a consistent part of literature by showing a new (counter)example of the “non-oppositional voices” of place marketing. Moreover, it sheds more light on how “tertiary communication” takes place and how it can be properly investigated. Keywords Festivals, Cities, Italy, Heritage, Place marketing, Place branding Paper type Research paper