Marketing landscapes

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Landscape and Urban Planning 114 (2013) 92– 101

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Landscape and Urban Planning

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Research paper

Marketing landscapes: The use of landscape values in advertisements ofdevelopment projects

Tseira Maruani ∗, Irit Amit-CohenDepartment of Geography and Environment, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel

h i g h l i g h t s

� This paper presents a semiotic quantitative analysis of real estate advertisements.� Prestige and landscape values were found to be leading themes in public preferences.� Landscape values are appreciated both for their own merit and as symbols of prestige.� Our findings seem to express a universal trend.� We expect minor differences in other places due to cultural heterogeneity.

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 14 July 2012Received in revised form 18 February 2013Accepted 27 February 2013

Keywords:Real estate advertisingOpen spaceCultureSignsSemiotic analysisIsrael

a b s t r a c t

Advertising acts as a mirror of society, reflecting its values, norms and preferences. Therefore, thewidespread use of signs and symbols that represent landscape values in advertising may be regardedas expressing prevailing preferences of the public. This paper examines evidence supporting this claim,based on a study of 85 full-page promotional advertisements of development projects in Israel. Weanalyze the components of a typical advertisement, showing the various signs and forms that expresslandscape as well as other values. We then present a comparative semiotic quantitative analysis of theadvertisements, focusing on one specific component: the project name. Four main themes were identifiedin project names, defined as prestige, landscape, heritage and developers’ credibility. Representations ofprestige and landscape appeared in project names much more than the other two, implying the attrac-tiveness of landscape features to prospective real-estate buyers, both for their own merit and as symbolsof prestige. These preferences are responded by profit-maximizing motivated private developers thatprovide their projects with landscape amenities such as large man-made parks. However, this trend alsoincreases pressures on natural landscape resources that attract development.

© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Israel, and especially theTel Aviv metropolitan region (TMR) at its core, has been experi-encing accelerated development due to significant shifts in landand planning policies (Maruani & Amit-Cohen, 2010). Most of thenew development projects were erected on agricultural lands thathad been converted for building and infrastructure purposes. Theinflux of planning and building during the decade 1990–2000resulted in many development projects, mostly residential, thatwere ready to be marketed toward the end of the 1990s and thebeginning of the 2000s, competing for potential buyers’ attention.As an outcome, aggressive advertising campaigns were launched,

∗ Corresponding author at: P.O. Box 1015, Ramat-Gan 52110, Israel.Tel.: +972 3 6312021/50 7843270; fax: +972 3 6315961.

E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Maruani).

in measures unprecedented in Israel until then. These campaignsmainly used means such as advertisements in newspapers, largeroadside billboards, designated publications and special promo-tional real estate supplements that were distributed along withdaily newspapers. Quite remarkably, many of these campaigns andadvertisements made use of signs that expressed and representedlandscape values in diverse forms, some of them highlighting therural or agricultural character of the site while others emphasiz-ing adjacent natural landscapes, cultural or historical values, orman-made parks within the project. In this context, ‘landscape val-ues’ express a social construction of human-landscape relationship,implying the importance attached to landscape aspects that sym-bolize and reflect human socio-cultural needs, desires, ideas andconcepts (see also Stephenson, 2008).

The use of landscape values in real estate advertising is not spe-cific to Israel (see e.g., Collins & Kearns, 2008; Eyles, 1987; Perkins,Thorns, & Newton, 2008). This is not surprising given that land-scape features are generally perceived as appreciated assets by the

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T. Maruani, I. Amit-Cohen / Landscape and Urban Planning 114 (2013) 92– 101 93

public (Jim & Chen, 2009; Kaplan & Austin, 2004), which isexpressed, among others, by willingness to pay higher pricesfor properties with scenic views either of natural landscapes orurban open space (Bengochea Morancho, 2003; Crompton, 2001;Geoghegan, 2002; Jim & Chen, 2006, 2009, 2010; Luttik, 2000;Portnov, Odish, & Fleishman, 2005; Tyrväinen & Miettinen, 2000).Moreover, similar findings keep on piling (see e.g., Larson &Perrings, 2013; Melichar & Kaprová, 2013). Developers are awareof this preference and use it for promoting their projects. In otherwords, the use of landscape values in advertising reflects the attrac-tiveness of landscape features to prospective real estate buyers.

In this paper we present evidence supporting this claim, basedon a study of 85 promotional advertisements of developmentprojects in Israel. The paper begins by introducing the essence ofadvertising, the use it makes of symbols and signs to represent soci-etal values and conventions, and basic concepts of semiotics andculture. Next are described the objectives and the methodologyof the study, followed by a detailed analysis of a typical full-pageadvertisement and the various options and forms in which its com-ponents may represent and reflect landscape values. We then focuson one specific component – the name of the project – to demon-strate a detailed quantitative case study based on a comparativesemiotic analysis of project names and the values they reflect,thus providing insights regarding public preferences and attitudestoward landscape as well as other values. The paper ends with adiscussion of the results and consequent concluding remarks andimplications.

2. Advertising and the use of signs

The essential purpose of advertising is to persuade prospec-tive customers to buy a certain product or service (Hayes, Alford,& Cappella, 2008; Lee, 2010; Mick, 1986; Pinson, 1998). In ourcontemporary consumerist society, the advertising industry playsan important role in the economy. Despite the costs involved inadvertising we are exposed to numerous advertising campaignsthat make use of various means and devices, and associate theadvertised products with socially desirable values and preferencesin order to influence potential customers and draw their atten-tion (Harms & Kellner, 1998; Hayes et al., 2008). The power andomnipresence of advertising is so great that some researchersbelieve that advertising may impact prevailing values and inspirenew trends, thus affecting and directing consumers’ behavior. How-ever, studies have shown that advertising is more likely to act as amirror of society, reflecting its existing values, norms and prefer-ences (Agam-Dali, 2010; Lee, 2010; Weimann, 1984).

A great deal of advertising appears to convey no direct cred-ible information about product qualities (Kihlstrom & Riordan,1984). Instead, it uses signs to represent ideas, values and pre-vailing conventions that convey the desired message and highlightthe attractive attributes of the advertised product in a tempt-ing and persuasive manner (Eyles, 1987; Harms & Kellner, 1998;Hayes et al., 2008; Perkins et al., 2008). Signs are used in variousforms, depending on the media. In printed advertisements, signsmay appear as textual or graphic elements (or a combination ofboth). Textual elements are letters, words or phrases, while graphicelements may include size, colors, fonts, shapes, illustrations orphotographs. Either way, in semiotics – the study of signs, whichevolved mainly from the writings of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand deSaussure and the American philosopher Charles S. Peirce – a sign isanything that stands for something else, or, in Eco’s words, “every-thing which can be taken as significantly substituting for somethingelse” (Eco, 1979:7). Saussure defined the sign as an entity thatis composed of a signifier, the form which the sign takes (i.e. itstangible presence), and the signified, the object or the concept it

represents (i.e. the meanings and ideas that the sign stands for)(Berger, 1999; Chandler, 2009; Moriarty, 2002). According to Peirce,however, a sign stands to somebody for something in some respect;that is, between the sign (the signifier) and the object (the signifiedconcept) there is what Peirce called the interpretant, the expres-sion of the meaning that is contained in the concept as decoded bythe interpreter, which may itself be a sign and so on ad infinitum(Eco, 1979). In linguistics the relation between the signifier (theword) and the signified (the concept) is always arbitrary. Peirce, onthe other hand, identified three major patterns of relation betweenthe signifier and the signified: iconic, indexical and symbolic. Anicon is similar to or imitates the signified (such as a drawing of awoman or a man to indicate public toilettes). An index is directlyconnected or related to the signified, generally by causality (suchas the connection between smoke and fire). A symbol is a conven-tional and arbitrary representation of the signified, and therefore isnot self-evident, and its meaning has to be learned (such as trafficlights). Therefore, while Saussure’s approach is useful for analyzinglanguage-based signs, Peirce’s approach that acknowledges diverseforms of signification is preferable for analyzing nonverbal or mixedsignification systems. Furthermore, Peirce’s focus on the concept ofinterpretation is the key to making sense of visual signs (Moriarty,2002). Yet, whether the sign is iconic, indexical or symbolic or all atthe same time depends on the way in which it is used, on the contextand on the way meaning is created through decoding by the inter-preter (Berger, 1999; Chandler, 2009; Eco, 1979; Moriarty, 2002;Pinson, 1998; Sebeok, 1994). This means that in order to commu-nicate properly, signifiers need to lean on values and conventionsthat are shared by those who receive the message, which leads usto the concept of culture.

Culture is a complex and contested term, and one that is difficultto define (Norton, 2000). A possible approach is to regard cultureas the entire collection of values, beliefs, norms and conventionsas well as tangible and material assets that characterize a certainsocial group. Signs represent objects and meanings that are part of agroup’s cultural identity, and thus reflect the values and norms thatare typical of this group and shared by its members. Moreover, cor-rect interpretation of signs and what they stand for – especially inthe case of symbols, which are arbitrary by definition – will requirethe understanding of the specific culture of the receiving group,i.e., the target population. Thus, as Eyles (1987) points out, effectiveadvertisements must build up significance from signs and elementsof an understood and shared meaning system or cultural code (seealso Frith & Wesson, 1991; Frith, Shaw, & Cheng, 2005; Karrh, Frith,& Callison, 2001). In other words, the use of signs in advertising isculturally dependent. It is also time-dependent, as cultural valuesmay change with time (Cheung & Ma, 2005).

Advertisers carefully select the signs to be used in their pro-motional campaigns in order to convey a certain desired imageto the relevant target population, in a concise and brief form, andthus create effective and persuasive advertisements. For this pur-pose, advertisers invest in market surveys and other means thathelp them achieve relevant information concerning the needs andvalues of their prospective customers (Perkins et al., 2008). Thisacquired knowledge is then used to design advertisements thatreflect those needs and values either in a bold and overt, or moresubtle, manner. We may therefore conclude that advertisementsreflect prevailing cultural values and preferences of their targetpopulation.

3. Objectives and methodology

The topic of advertising has been quite intensively researched.However, only relatively few studies have been dedicated toaspects of place and real estate in advertising. These few tended to


94 T. Maruani, I. Amit-Cohen / Landscape and Urban Planning 114 (2013) 92– 101

concentrate on qualitative aspects, such as the representation ofplace in advertisements (Agam-Dali, 2010; Cheung & Ma, 2005;Fleming & Roth, 1991) or their meaning for locality image creation(Cheng, 2001; Eyles, 1987; Mills, 1993; Perkins, 1989; Perkins et al.,2008). Collins and Kearns (2008) went a little further by makinga comparative analysis of newspaper advertisements, including aquantitative comparison of some parameters. Yet, their main con-cern was with the visual and verbal tropes – mainly the coastalscenery – deployed to sell private coastal property in New Zealand.The present paper offers a new approach to the study of real estateadvertising, which consists of a comparative quantitative semioticanalysis of advertisements.

The study presented here aims to identify the preferences ofthe Israeli public in regard to real estate and reveal the relativeimportance of landscape values in this context, by drawing onthe text-interpretive approach as defined by McQuarrie and Mick(1999). Our objectives were defined as follows: (a) to provide amore comprehensive insight as to the forms in which landscape val-ues are reflected in development advertisements and (b) to quantifythe attractiveness of landscape features compared to other values,based on a semiotic quantitative analysis of the advertisements. Forthese purposes, we examined 85 advertisements, each presentinga specific development project (i.e., 85 projects). The advertise-ments were selected according to the following considerations:(a) the sources were real estate supplements of popular Hebrewdaily newspapers in Israel, i.e., they all addressed the general IsraeliJewish population, thus minimizing biases due to cultural hetero-geneity; (b) the supplements were all published during the year2002, thus eliminating deviations due to differences in timing, sincecultural values and conventions are time-dependent; (c) the year2002 was chosen because it followed a “boom” period of planningand building in Israel (see Section 1 above), which brought aboutmuch advertising activity that provided a large sample of suitableadvertisements; (d) the selected advertisements were all full-pagesize, generally having a typical format combining text and illustra-tion (see the next section), thus using diverse forms of signs (incontrast to smaller advertisements that are composed mainly ofshort text, occasionally accompanied by a small insignificant illus-tration).

4. Components of a typical advertisement

Signs communicate in diverse verbal, vocal, visual and othersensory ways. They may include words, music and sounds, odors,gestures, pictures and paintings, clothes, colors, etc. (Berger, 1999).Printed advertisements, naturally, use mainly signs in textual orgraphic forms. Graphic signs are especially effective in this con-text, since printed matter communicates mainly visually. Thereforeconsiderable thought is dedicated to graphic aspects of the adver-tisements, such as color, font type, size or the use of variousillustrations.

Fig. 1 shows one of the advertisements in our study, promoting anew urban development of about 800 dwelling units, most of themin apartment buildings of seven and nine stories high. The adver-tisement demonstrates a typical format of a full-page real estateadvertisement and its main structural components, using both tex-tual and graphic elements. We will present these components andwill then show some of the meanings and values that they signifyin this specific advertisement.

The full-page advertisement usually contains a graphic illustra-tion (1), which is visually very dominant, typically covering halfor more of the advertisement’s area. In a typical advertisementthere is also a heading (2), which may be a slogan that accom-panies the given campaign all along, or a catchy phrase that wasdesigned for the specific advertisement. Another component that

Fig. 1. Advertisement of a project in Ness Ziona.

is an integral part of such real estate advertising is the logo of theproject name (3). The typical advertisement also contains: a shorttext (4) describing the project’s advantages, the developer’s nameor logo (5) and contact details (such as telephone number, addressor website) of the sales office (6).

Let us now have a look at the messages that this advertisementis intended to deliver and the values it reflects, starting with thevery dominant illustration, which in this example is an aerial pho-tograph of the project site and its surroundings. The site is seenlocated amidst agricultural fields (7), on the margins of an existingneighborhood of detached single-family houses. This neighborhoodis part of Ness Ziona, a small town of about 40,000 inhabitants,located on the outskirts of the Tel Aviv metropolitan region (TMR).Ness Ziona, although now completely urbanized, was established in1883 as a Moshava (plural – Moshavot), i.e., an agricultural settle-ment modeled after a typical European village, where each farmercultivated his privately owned land. Moshava-type settlementswere established toward the end of the 1800s and the beginning ofthe 1900s by Jews that came to the Land of Israel with the first sig-nificant Zionist-oriented immigration wave from Eastern Europe.The Moshavot played a distinct role in the history of Israel and Zion-ism, and although most of them have since undergone urbanizationprocesses, they are still part of the Israeli collective memory, ladenwith heritage, ideological and sentimental values. Moreover, NessZiona was not just one of the first Moshavot but one that kept onnurturing its image as a Moshava, i.e., an historical rural settlement,long after its urbanization. This is expressed, among others, in theslogan it has adopted since the 1990s, which describes Ness Zionaas a “city with a heart of a Moshava”.

Going back to the illustration in Fig. 1, the agricultural fieldsshown were cultivated – prior to the development project – byNezer Sereni, the adjacent Kibbutz. A Kibbutz (plural – Kibbutzim)is another type of agricultural settlement, where public land is heldand cultivated collectively by the Kibbutz members. The projectpromoted by this advertisement was made possible by convert-ing the agricultural land for building purposes, a practice which



was made available in Israel – and used abundantly, especiallyin the TMR – since the beginning of the 1990s, due to shifts inland policies that have undermined the former strict agriculturalland preservation policy (Maruani & Amit-Cohen, 2010). Moreover,in many cases, rural settlements cooperated with nearby urbanmunicipal authorities to promote profitable development on agri-cultural land (Razin, 1998). Thus, the picture chosen to illustrate theadvertisement portrays an image of rural surroundings, implyingto the potential buyers that they will have a view of open agricul-tural landscape from their windows, although in reality most ofthis agricultural landscape will no longer exist once the project iserected. The rural image of the project is further reinforced by theslogan that appears in large letters on the green background of thefields in the illustration (2), which reads: “living between a Kibbutzand a Moshava”. A smaller text, which appears under the bunch ofsmall flowers in the middle (7) that indicate the development site,says: “your dreams are realized here”. All this points to the under-lying message intended to persuade prospective buyers that thisproject will fulfill their dream to live in a rural lush and green land-scape, away from crowded and noisy urban surroundings, a dreamwhich seems to be shared by many people world-wide (see e.g.,Breuste, 2004; Crow, Brown, & De Young, 2006; Kaplan & Austin,2004; Perkins, 1989).

The logo of the project name (3) – on the left of the advertise-ment, below the aerial photo – also contributes to the rural imageboth in text and in graphics. The name of the project literally means“the Savyons of Nezer Sereni”, thus referring to the nearby Kibbutz,i.e., a rural settlement, although the project lies within the bound-aries of the town Ness Ziona. Savyons (singular – Savyon) are verycommon annual plants with small yellow flowers (Senecio vernalis,known in English as Eastern Groundsel), which are representedby the yellow flowers in the logo. The background of the logo isgreen, a color which conventionally symbolizes nature, natural orrural surroundings and open spaces in general. This symbolizationrepeats itself in the advertisement, from the very green agriculturalfields’ illustration through the logo, to the small map on the bot-tom right, where Ness Ziona is marked in green, and down to thebackground color of the sales office’s telephone number (6). Theshort text underneath the illustration reinforces this message ofrurality by stating that the new neighborhood integrates the pro-gressive cultural, social and educational life of Ness Ziona with theKibbutz pastoral way of life. To summarize, the advertisement inFig. 1 creates and accentuates the rural image of the project througha combination of textual and graphic signs. This may lead us toconclude that, at least in the advertisers’ minds, the rural image isattractive to potential buyers. In other words, the advertisementreflects the public’s appreciation and demand for rural landscapes.

The advertisement reflects additional values as well, even if lessconspicuously. For example, the main developer of the project isthe Africa-Israel Company (AIC), which is identified with Savyon,its first, and very successful, project. Savyon – a small suburban set-tlement of detached family houses in the TMR – is widely knowntoday as one of the most prestigious dwelling places in Israel, pop-ulated by many affluent and famous persons. Consequently, the AICuses the name Savyon in various combinations in its new projects,as in our case (the Savyons of Nezer Sereni), in order to convey amessage of prestige and success. The use of the name Savyon alsopoints to the credibility of the AIC, which had already proven itselfin the past by establishing and building such a prosperous projectas Savyon. Another expression of credibility is the small table whichappears on the bottom center of the advertisement in Fig. 1, citingthe results of a survey that confirmed the AIC as the best and mostreliable developer in Israel.

Two additional notions emerge from the analysis above. One isthe polysemic nature of some signs, which may carry more than onemeaning. Such is, for instance, the case with the terms “Savyon” and

“Moshava” in our example. Savyon represents an element of nature(the flower Savyon), yet it also symbolizes prestige (by reference tothe wealthy and prestigious settlement Savyon) and implies credi-bility (of the AIC – the developer who built Savyon), while Moshavasuggests both rurality and heritage values. The other notion isthat of resonance, the doubleness of signs, which exists when acertain meaning is conveyed or echoed by more than one sign(McQuarrie, 1989). In our example this is demonstrated by the reit-eration of green color in several components of the advertisement,the iconic representation of landscape elements (fields, flowers),and the drawing of yellow flowers which echoes the name Savyon.The textual and graphic signs that constitute this advertisement,with their polysemic and resonant meanings, combine to createan intricate multi-faceted message, in which landscape values andrural character of the advertised project are visually predominant,yet they are creatively intertwined with motives of prestige, her-itage and developer’s credibility in varying proportions.

We wish to conclude this section by drawing attention to thefact that the advertisement described here, like many others in ourstudy, does not portray the project itself as it is going to look likein reality, nor does the text underneath the illustration. Instead, itoffers its audience the vision of this vast rural-agricultural land-scape, entailing the promise and fantasy of peacefulness, freshnessand pastoral nature, contrary to urban surroundings. The image ofrurality and greenery, the allure of a dream come true, is intended toinvoke emotional response and persuade prospective buyers (seealso Fleming & Roth, 1991).

5. Analysis of project names

In the former section we demonstrated how various compo-nents of a commercial real estate advertisement signify and reflectmessages and values that the advertisers wish to convey to theirpotential customers. While in our example landscape values werepredominant, we could also identify signs that reflected addi-tional values that seemed to be important to the Israeli public,including prestige, heritage and developer’s credibility. In otherwords, advertisements may reflect various sets of values; some ofthem may be more prominently expressed than others, and can beregarded as leading themes in the specific advertisement. Our pur-pose was to identify such leading themes in the advertisementsand quantify their relative importance. Such quantification mayencounter difficulties stemming, among others, from the varietyof components and signs – which may be diverse in essence andcharacter (e.g., textual vs. graphic) – that constitute an advertise-ment. Moreover, one or more of the component types describedin the former section may be missing in a specific advertisement.Therefore, in our pioneering attempt to quantify the values that areportrayed in the advertisements, we chose to focus on the textualsignificance of the project name, a component which appears inevery advertisement.

Names belong to a special class of signs that are used to denotesingular individuals or places (Sebeok, 1994). Places are spatial geo-graphical locations, such as settlements, neighborhoods, streets,etc. Place names provide spatial order and orientation, and facilitateadministrative efficiency (Vuolteenaho & Ainiala, 2009). However,from a semiotic perspective they are also cultural expressions ofsocial, economic and political forces, as revealed by the grow-ing corpus of research in toponymy, the study of place naming,especially since the 1980s (Rose-Redwood, Alderman, & Azaryahu,2010; Vuolteenaho & Berg, 2009). As cultural expressions they mayreflect dominance and power relations, commemorate persons andevents that are part of national or local history or denote localgeographical characteristics and attributes (Azaryahu, 2009; Rose-Redwood et al., 2010; Vuolteenaho & Ainiala, 2009; Vuolteenaho



& Berg, 2009). In the postmodernist neoliberal age place namesare also used as vehicles for branding and promoting places, byaccentuating market-responsive desirable local or exotic attributes(e.g., implying “southern” exoticism by using terms like “sun” and“hot” for naming places in a cold northern region like Helsinki,Finland) (Vuolteenaho & Ainiala, 2009). Similarly, the names ofreal estate projects in our study are prominent representative fea-tures of the projects’ image, and play an important role in theirpromotion and marketing (Anon., 2005a). Therefore we assumedthat meanings conveyed by project names are significant and maybe regarded as leading themes (see also Eyles, 1987). Such lead-ing themes represent values, i.e., social constructions that expressthe importance of the valued objects or concepts as perceived bythe relevant socio-cultural group (Stephenson, 2008), which in ourcase is the target audience of the advertisements. A comparison of85 full-page advertisements – all of which appeared in real estatesupplements of popular daily newspapers in Israel during the year2002 – revealed four predominant themes, that were textuallyembedded in the project names: prestige, landscape, heritage andcredibility.

5.1. Prestige

Prestige is associated with high social status and wealth, whichin turn are related to luxury, well-being and the good life. It bringsto mind images of success, achievement and quality which gener-ally are subjects of desire and aspiration (see also Harms & Kellner,1998; Lee, 2010). Projects that are conceived as prestigious or arelocated in prestigious neighborhoods will probably be more attrac-tive to potential buyers and will sell better, i.e., sell faster and forhigher prices. It is, therefore, not surprising to find a variety of signsthat give a prestigious flair to advertised projects (see also Eyles,1987; Cheng, 2001; Mills, 1993; Wu, 2010). Textual signs that rep-resent prestige include, for example: (a) terms that imply height,such as tower, top or heights; (b) terms that express uniqueness andabove the regular, such as exclusive, spectacular or luxurious; (c)terms that stand for housing types that are connected with nobil-ity or richness, such as palace or manor; (d) reference to existingprestigious settlements or neighborhoods (such as Savyon in theexample presented earlier); and (e) the use of exotic or foreignterms or a foreign language, such as using English letters – or evenEnglish words or names of foreign places – for the project namein an advertisement addressed to a Hebrew speaking populationin Israel (such a phenomenon was found also in other non-Englishspeaking countries – see for example, Cheng, 2001; Vuolteenaho &Ainiala, 2009; Wu, 2010).

Textual signs that imply prestige may appear in various compo-nents of the advertisement, but are most likely part of the projectname, the heading (or slogan) or the textual description of theproject’s advantages. Since in this study we focused on projectnames, we present here some examples of names that signify pres-tige (reference to prestige is in bold letters):

• Beverly Hills – a new neighborhood of detached family housesin a small and relatively remote suburban settlement;

• Rehovot Heights – high-rise buildings in the city of Rehovot, nearthe Weizmann Institute of Science;

• Terraco Exclusive – apartment buildings in the city of PetahTikva;

• Sea & Sun (written in English, see Fig. 2) – a seaside project in TelAviv;

• Almog Tops – apartment buildings in the city of Netanya;• Giron Manor – a new neighborhood of detached family houses

in a small suburban settlement.

Fig. 2. Sea & Sun – a seaside project in Tel Aviv.

Fig. 2 presents for example an advertisement that promotes aseaside project in Tel Aviv. Housing prices in Tel Aviv – the coreof the TMR and the focus of demand – are about the highest inIsrael, and apartments by the sea are especially attractive and con-sequently more expensive and prestigious. The project name inEnglish – Sea & Sun – and the reference to the sea accentuate theprestigious allure for prospective affluent buyers. Moreover, thetextual signs embedded in the project name are often reinforced bygraphics. Thus, in our example the desired proximity to the sea isemphasized by illustrating the sea (which in itself is a distinctivelymuch desired landscape feature) as viewed from the future house,with the heading underneath that says: “from my house one canhear the whisper of the waves”. In other words, the advertisementin Fig. 2 exemplifies the use of landscape to symbolize prestige.

In some cases, the prestigious image implied by the projectname may be regarded as an attempt to raise the perceived aswell as the economic value of the project against unfavorable real-ity. For instance, the project Neve Savyon, initiated by the AIC, islocated in Or Yehuda, a small town that is ranked low on the Israelisocioeconomic scale. In this case, in addition to the reference tothe well-known wealthy and prosperous settlement Savyon, whichwas meant to upgrade the project’s image, the location within thetown of Or Yehuda was not mentioned in the project’s advertise-ments, thus trying to avoid its potential negative effect on theprestigious image that the advertisers aspired to create.

5.2. Landscape

Landscape is the physical feature, the panorama one seesfrom a vantage point. The dictionary offers several definitions



of “landscape”, almost all of them regarding landscape as aview, vista or scenery, although in practice the concept oflandscape has evolved to encompass diverse values, meanings andinterpretations (Abrahamsson, 1999; Meinig, 1979; Stephenson,2008). As mentioned earlier, many studies around the world havealready proven that scenic landscape attributes have positive eco-nomic effects on development projects, with people willing topay higher prices for properties with views of open landscapeor landscape elements. Abrahamsson (1999:60) quotes a studyof the Wilderness Society in Idaho, which affirmed the view thatunspoiled scenic beauty contributes greatly to the quality of peo-ple’s recreational experience and to the quality of life that attractnew residents and businesses to the region. This is reinforced byBrown and Raymond (2007), who found that the esthetic (i.e.,visual) aspect not only was perceived by residents and visitors ofa place as the most important out of 12 types of landscape val-ues, but it also was the value most associated with special placedesignations. Therefore, in this paper we refer to landscape froma scenic esthetic perspective, as viewed from the individual house,within the neighborhood or its surroundings. This includes sceniclandscape attributes that are associated with nature and natu-ral sceneries, rural areas (both agricultural and non-agricultural),parks and gardens or related elements such as plants, animals orwater bodies (for some examples see, Bastian, McLeod, Germino,Reiners, & Blasko, 2002; Cho, Poudyal, & Roberts, 2008; Lansford &Jones, 1995; Sander & Polasky, 2009).

Textual and graphic signs that represent landscape may be usedin various components of an advertisement. Graphic signs that mayimply landscape are: (a) all shades of green color used in fonts,illustrations, background of text, etc.; (b) graphic icons and sym-bols that represent features of landscapes and open spaces (such asmountains, sea coast, lakes and rivers, animals, trees or flowers);and (c) illustrations and photographs that portray views of sceneryor landscape features. Textual signs that represent landscape mayinclude: (a) terms that refer to landscapes and landscape featuresin general, such as green or tree; (b) terms that refer to specificlandscape features, such as mountain, lake or river; (c) terms thatrefer to agricultural elements, such as vineyard, orchard or citrus;(d) terms that refer to rurality in general, such as village, or to spe-cific rural settlement types, such as a Moshava; (e) terms that referto landscape visually, such as panorama, view or vista; (f) termsthat refer to man-made open space, such as park or garden; and (g)terms that refer to a specific place or region known for its landscapevalues, such as the Sharon region in Israel, which was known for itscitrus orchards.

Here are some examples of project names in our study thatexpress landscape values (reference to landscape is in bold letters):

• Asherman on the Park – apartment buildings in the city of Herz-lyia;

• Rasco’s Vineyards – apartment buildings in the city of RishonLe’Zion;

• Reut View – apartment buildings in the city of Modi’in, near thesuburban settlement of Reut;

• House in the Garden – apartment buildings in the city of Netanya;• The Moshava Garden – apartment buildings in the city of Petah

Tikva;• North of the Moshava – high-rise buildings in the city of Petah

Tikva (see Fig. 3);• Sharon’s Front – apartment buildings in the city of Netanya (the

largest city in the Sharon region).

Many of the advertisements while conspicuously portrayinglandscape values tend to avoid showing the project itself. For exam-ple, the advertisement in Fig. 3 – promoting a project named ‘Northof the Moshava’ in Petah Tikva – says in large white letters: “Open

Fig. 3. North of the Moshava – a project in Petah Tikva.

a window. . .”, thus implying the view of the rural lush greenlandscape that the buyer will supposedly enjoy, as shown in thepredominant illustration, with the garden chairs waiting for him torelax in, amidst all this green. The project itself, which consists of 4high-rise buildings, is represented by a much smaller illustration,next to the project logo in the middle left.

Landscape features are also expressed graphically in many ofthe project logos (for some examples see Fig. 4). Thus, a logo mayrepresent landscape either textually or graphically or both.

5.3. Heritage

Cultural heritage is associated with places, events or personsthat have played a distinctive role in the history of the land (or of aspecific region or settlement) and are today part of the national orlocal collective myth and memory. In many cases cultural heritagevalues are also an integral part of ongoing culture or subculturesin society. References to cultural heritage attributes contribute totheir commemoration, ensure their place in the collective mem-ory and culture, and empower communal identity and cohesion.Textual signs that represent heritage may be: (a) terms that referto types of historic places or events, such as Moshava or Kibbutz;(b) terms that refer to specific historic places, events or persons,such as Em Ha’Moshavot (literally meaning “the mother of theMoshavot”), which is the well-known nickname for Petah Tikva,the first Moshava that was established in 1878, but which has sincedeveloped into a large city with over 200,000 inhabitants; and (c)terms that refer to features that are part of local historic traditionor prevailing material culture, such as vines (or vineyards) that



Fig. 4. Graphic icons of landscape elements in project logos.

are associated with the seven plant species the Land of Israel wasblessed with according to the Bible.

Here are some examples of project names in our study that implyheritage (reference to heritage is in bold letters):

• The Moshava Garden – apartment buildings in the city of PetahTikva;

• Nili Manor – a project of detached family houses in the townof Zichron Ya’akov (“Nili” commemorates a small undergroundorganization that was founded in Zichron Ya’akov during WorldWar I in order to help the British conquer Palestine from Ottomanrule);

• North of the Moshava – high-rise buildings in the city of PetahTikva;

• Rasco’s Vineyards – apartment buildings in the city of RishonLe’Zion (a large city that began in 1882 as a Moshava, focusing onthe culture of vineyards);

• Orchard’s Heart – a new neighborhood of detached family housesin Tel Mond, a small suburban settlement in the Sharon region(see Fig. 5).

The advertisement shown in Fig. 5 was designed to promote‘Orchard’s Heart’ – a project in the Sharon region, which until the

Fig. 5. Orchard’s Heart – a project in the Sharon region.

1990s was known for its citrus orchards that served as its maineconomic base for settlement in the 1920s and 1930s. In this casethe term ‘orchard’ is used both to commemorate cultural heritageand to represent the typical agricultural landscape of the region (seealso Amit-Cohen, 2012; Egoz, 1996). The message is reinforced bygraphic signs – an orange fruit illustrated above left and the use ofgreen and orange colors.

5.4. Credibility

A project name that includes the name of the developer impliestrust in the developer’s credibility. The underlying message is thatthe developer has proven himself as reliable, and the projects hehas built in the past are known for their quality of planning andperformance. The message of credibility is often reinforced by addi-tional signs, as with the example of the AIC, that for many yearsused to present itself as “the company which built Savyon” – thesettlement Savyon being a symbol of social status and wealth –and it now uses the name “Savyon” in various combinations in itsnew project names to signify its credibility. Messages of credibilityare also often accentuated by headings or slogans that accompanythe project logo. For example, one of the slogans declares: “beforeyou buy an apartment make sure it has parents”, meaning that theproject is in the hands of a reliable developer that one can counton to complete the building and handle any problem that arises tocustomers’ satisfaction.

Here are some examples of project names in our study thatimply developer’s credibility (reference to the developer is in boldletters):



Fig. 6. Occurence of themes in project names.

• Dankner in the Sharon – apartment buildings in the city ofNetanya;

• Asherman on the Park – apartment buildings in the city of Her-zlyia;

• Rotem Shani towers – high-rise buildings in the city of Ra’anana;• Luki Gates (written in English) – high-rise and apartment build-

ings in the city of Modi’in.

In many cases project names are polysemic, that is, they maycarry more than one meaning or message. In the list above, forinstance, the first two examples express both credibility and land-scape (the rural Sharon region in the first, and the reference to thepark in the second). Similarly, the other two examples express bothcredibility and prestige. Sometimes even the same word may beinterpreted in more than one way. For example, “Rasco’s Vineyards”combines the credibility of the developer (Rasco) with heritage andlandscape values that are both embedded in “Vineyards.”

6. Results and discussion

Fig. 6 presents the occurrence of each of the four themes inproject names in our study.

Assuming that developers and advertisers know what theirprospective customers are looking for, we can conclude that thepriorities of the Israeli public in the year 2002, as reflected by theseresults, are very clear, with prestige being the most appreciatedfeature of housing projects out of the four identified themes, andlandscape ranking almost as high, second to prestige. Credibility, onthe other hand, ranks much lower, and heritage values rank least ofall. The combined occurrence of the two leading themes – prestigeand landscape – is three times greater than that of credibility andheritage.

These findings are reinforced when examining mixed themesin project names (Fig. 7). Again the combination of prestige andlandscape in one name was much more frequent than any othercombination.

However, heritage and credibility should not to be disregarded,despite their inferiority compared to prestige and landscape values.

Fig. 7. Mixed themes in project names.

On the contrary, their symbolic presence in project names indi-cates their significance over other possible values that were notidentified in our study. Heritage, particularly, probably ranked lowbecause a relative large proportion of the Israeli population con-sists of immigrants who are not fully acquainted with local historyand do not share collective memory (see, for comparison, Eyles,1987). Nonetheless, recently heritage values are gaining attentionin Israel (Amit-Cohen, 2005), and we expect to find their relativevalue increasing in the coming years.

The demand for landscape features in housing projects hasalready been established by previous research. However, thepresent study is the first to quantitatively indicate the relativeimportance of landscape compared to other values in the context ofthe real estate market. Our findings match previous studies, whichhighlight what Cséfalvay (2011) calls the “eagerness for prestige”.Such eagerness is evident in various countries despite cultural andgeographical differences, and is reflected in many ways, includ-ing: processes of gentrification (Mills, 1993), development of gatedcommunities (Cséfalvay, 2011; Polanska, 2010; Wu, 2010), imita-tion of western architecture and style in eastern cultures (Cheng,2001; Wu, 2010), the use of foreign language or foreign place names(Vuolteenaho & Ainiala, 2009; Wu, 2010), and of course real estateadvertisements that address prospective buyers by creatively usingvarious symbols of prestige (Cheng, 2001; Collins & Kearns, 2008;Eyles, 1987; Mills, 1993; Wu, 2010). Prestigious housing is a socialstatus marker, it is the dream that buyers aspire to pursue. In thiscontext landscape values are often used as symbols of prestige(see e.g., Cheng, 2001; Collins & Kearns, 2008; Mills, 1993; Perkins,1989; Wu, 2010). Landscape values are conceived as contributingto leisure, well-being and the good life in general. In other words,while the pursuit of prestige plays a leading role in the real estatemarket, landscape values are also there, both for their own meritsas well as for their contribution to the prestigious image. Moreover,based on continued observation of real estate advertisements overthe years, our impression is that this link is increasingly becomingmore obvious. Thus, for example, a project that is currently underconstruction in the city of Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, is marketedunder the slogan “green prestige”.

Although the link between prestige and landscape values is veryclear from our findings in Israel, it is probably a much more univer-sal phenomenon. Further research may reveal differences in therelative importance of themes due to variability in geographicallocation, local cultural conventions and preferences and sharedvalues, and the specific time phase. Interestingly enough, how-ever, similar trends developed in diverse places at about the sametime, despite circumstantial differences. For example, in Israel pol-icy shifts and consequent development patterns were triggeredmainly by mass immigration from former communist Soviet Unioncountries (Maruani & Amit-Cohen, 2010), while in Helsinki, Finland,similar market-led trends in place naming were due to economicdepression (Vuolteenaho & Ainiala, 2009). This similarity may bethe result of the involvement of private developers in both exam-ples.

Moreover, the Israeli case, where – especially since the shiftsin land policy at the beginning of the 1990s – most local develop-ment plans are initiated by private developers that are motivated byprofit-maximizing (Maruani & Amit-Cohen, 2011), bears significantimplications for open space planning in general and conservationof natural landscapes in particular. Since the 1990s developmentprojects in Israel are increasingly responding to public demandfor landscape values by incorporating landscape and open spaceamenities, which in many cases were expressed by constructinga large park as the focal feature of the project (see for example,Anon., 2005b; Petersburg, 2002; Stuzky-Beer, 2007; Yoels, 2003).However, this trend also increases pressures on publicly shared nat-ural landscape resources that attract development, such as forests,



nature reserves and, most of all, the seaside (especially, though notexclusively, in the TMR) (see also Maruani, 2011).

There is another point worth noticing. Attempts to quantita-tively assess and evaluate the demand for landscapes and landscapevalues in housing developments so far have relied on several meth-ods, including: hedonic price method (Bengochea Morancho, 2003;Geoghegan, 2002; Irwin, 2002; Jim & Chen, 2009, 2010; Poudyal,Hodges, & Merret, 2009; Sander & Polasky, 2009; Tyrväinen& Miettinen, 2000), contingent valuation (Chen & Jim, 2010;Dachary-Bernard & Rambonilaza, 2009; Rambonilaza & Dachary-Bernard, 2007; Sayadi, González-Roa, & Calatrava-Renquena, 2009;Waltert, Schulz, & Schläpfer, 2011), attitude surveys and photo-questionnaires (Austin, 2004; Jorgensen, Hitchmough, & Dunnett,2007; Kaplan & Austin, 2004) or the Delphy method (Damigos &Anyfantis, 2011). Although all these methods may yield quanti-tative results as to the value attached by the public to landscapefeatures in proximity to a housing development, none of them isaccurate, due to biases that are inherent in each method. Conse-quently, their results may be regarded as indicators of the relativevalue of properties rather than accurate evaluations. Our studyoffers a new innovative method for assessing the relative value oflandscapes in this context.

7. Conclusion and implications

The study presented above provided new insights in severalaspects. First and most of all, we gained initial quantitative infor-mation as to the relative importance of landscape values in theeyes of the Israeli public, based on the interpretation of develop-ment project names. However, there is place for further research.For example, a comparative analysis of other components inproject advertisements may provide additional evidence and val-idate our preliminary findings. In addition, it will undoubtedly beinteresting to reveal differences between the Israeli public andother cultural groups and societies in this matter, by replicatingthis study in other places and cultures. Moreover, since valuesand preferences may change with time it would be advisableto repeat the study after a period of 15–20 years; this will cer-tainly provide somewhat different findings, expressing possiblefuture shifts in the prevailing preferences of the studied popula-tion.

Second, our study suggests an innovative method, based oncomparative semiotic analysis of real estate advertisements, toeffectively evaluate the importance of landscape values in relativequantitative terms. This method has two main advantages com-pared to customary methods like the hedonic pricing method orcontingent valuation. One is that data (i.e., advertisements) arereadily available and of low cost to collect in terms of time andmoney invested. The other is the ease and efficiency of the analysisprocess.

Third, this paper has demonstrated the use of commercialadvertisements as simple and accessible research means in gen-eral. A systematic semiotic analysis and interpretation of theircomponents may yield qualitative and quantitative findings,which eventually will lead to new understandings. The insightsregarding public preferences, as emerged from our study, sug-gest practical implications for planners, planning institutions,decision makers and developers. In the case of Israel, a smalldensely populated country, where natural landscape resourcesare increasingly threatened by market-responsive private devel-opment initiatives, planning institutions must take care to protectthe public interest in the process of approving development plans,by preserving scarce natural resources, while providing elsewhereprojects that respond to common demand for landscape val-ues.

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