Peer-to-peer branding co-creation: the salient attributes of ski resorts in Argentina
Marina Zanfardini, Pilar Agustina SustersicPurpose
This study explores how electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) contributes to the co-creation of Argentine ski resort brands by identifying salient attributes and examining how they are articulated in tourists' online discourse within a competitive snow-tourism market.
Design/methodology/approach
Using 1,750 Spanish-language Google Maps reviews from seven leading ski resorts (2015–2022), the study applies text-mining techniques, including term frequency analysis, n-gram extraction, word co-occurrence networks and clustering, to uncover salient attributes and the patterns connecting them.
Findings
The findings show that attributes related to snow quality, resort services, scenic views and landscape dominate tourists' e-WOM. Beyond their individual relevance, these attributes are interconnected through recurrent co-occurrence patterns, revealing how brand meanings emerge relationally across experiential dimensions and are collectively reinforced through shared online discourse.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis is limited to Spanish-language reviews on Google Maps; future research could extend the approach to other platforms, languages and stakeholder groups.
Practical implications
Destination managers can strengthen brand positioning by amplifying the attributes most frequently articulated by visitors and aligning service improvements with tourists' own language and narratives.
Originality/value
By integrating Brand Co-Creation Theory and Product-Attribute Theory within a snow-tourism context, this study demonstrates how peer-generated discourse functions as an active mechanism of brand co-creation and offers a reproducible methodological approach for analysing destination branding through large-scale e-WOM.