Local Heritage Products

A local heritage product is a product or service, specific to a given place or region, which is not mass-produced, but makes use of local natural resources and is environmentally friendly. Local heritage products build an association with the specific and unforgettable character of a region by involving local people in their manufacture and sale and as a means of promoting local enterprise. (Local Heritage Product according to the Polish Environmental Partnership Foundation)

Local heritage products generate environmental benefits (use of local natural resources), economic benefits (new business initiatives, additional income for local residents, higher tax income for the municipality, revitalization of local economy), social benefits (new jobs, interesting activities, fulfilling life-styles, improved quality of life and stronger links to the region). Local heritage products provide an opportunity for economic improvement in the region, while contributing also to environmental and social benefits. Thus, they are a means for achieving sustainable development.

Local heritage products are associated inextricably with those who make them, and who realize through them their passion for cultivating family and local traditions. At the same time new jobs are created, along with new opportunities for additional income generation. Creating jobs through promotion of local heritage products requires generating interest among potential buyers. Competition nowadays is so great that a decision to buy a local heritage product is not just a matter of price and quality, but also additional information and values evoked by the heritage product.

Local brands

One of the tried and tested ways of promoting and selling local heritage products is linked to building a local brand (a brand associated with a region).

Products and services offered to potential buyers under a local brand are associated with local heritage values and this distinguishes them from the many products available. A local heritage brand associates a product or service with the following:

region or locality of origin,
local environmental values,
contributions to local jobs.

These three features shape the characteristics of producers, products and buyers, helping also to create a local heritage brand, which serves to distinguish the region, its products and potential customers.

The strength of a local brand is based on the products made and sold in the region with which it is associated. The local brand generates a value-added - positive connotations with the place or object. In this way, the brand provides a recommendation for local products and builds a positive image among buyers interested in the region and among local artisans.

Building a local heritage brand is linked to building a regional identity based on the area's natural and cultural values, distinguishing features or specifics, with which local people can identify. Information about the region provides the key to what is communicated through the brand. The brand name and logo help people build their own vision of the region and of the products associated with that region. It's worth, therefore, ensuring that the brand is associated with the region's most positive features.

Examples of local heritage brands along Polish Greenways:

‘Necklace of the North' Local Heritage Brand (Necklace of the North Greenway)
‘Babia Gora Brings Us Together' Local Heritage Brand (Amber Trail Greenway)

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