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Place branding lies at the intersection of tourism geography and marketing Contemporary place branding requires the use of hardware, in the form of servicescapes and designscapes that are developed via architecture, design, and heritage; and software, in the form of branding, marketing, and promotion. Both hardware and software are studied in the case of the South of Litchfield development project in Christchurch, New Zealand. The study highlights the way that aesthetic and consumptive practices are used to appeal to specific lifestyle groups. At a meta-theoretical level the study indicates that the study of hegemonic cultural processes needs to be extended beyond that of brands to note the way that design ideas, such as "new urbanism," are applied in local contexts. It is concluded that while places use branding and design to differentiate themselves the uncritical adoption of top-down design ideas via real estate and design agents only served to homogenize place and deny authenticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses examples of problem gambling and help seeking among Chinese international students in New Zealand to demonstrate place identity transformation. Two-wave narrative interviews were conducted with 15 Chinese international students. Place identity among participants is shown to be a process that features the transformation of participants' identity. While the casinos in which the Chinese international students gambled gave rise to negative place identities, positive place identities facilitated the participants to change their problematic gambling. Through the investigation of place identity transformation, this article promotes a strength-based, non-labelling approach to intervention for people who are concerned about their gambling behaviours., (© The Author(s) 2015.)