City Brands: Dealing with a lack of control

Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 2009

in Scotland. His work focuses on the theory and practice of place marketing and branding, and he has undertaken extensive research on the marketing efforts of European cities. His papers have appeared both in Geography and Marketing journals. ABSTRACT First, this article attempts to clarify certain issues involved in treating cities as brands, which have signifi cantly limited the application of city branding. Secondly, it draws from corporate-level marketing theories important lessons for cities, and, thirdly, it contributes towards a clear city branding framework that is evidently missing and required. The article directly addresses whether city brands should be treated as corporate brands. It then concentrates on the similarities between these two forms of branding and extracts major lessons from corporatelevel marketing concepts. Essential similarities are identifi ed, especially in their complex and multi-stakeholder character and their dependence on a wide cooperation that runs across a city or organisation. Corporate-level marketing is suggested as the closest that marketing theories have ever come to addressing the distinct demands of cities, not disregarding the need to fi ne-tune relevant tools. The article then compares several city branding frameworks found in the literature exploring their common ground, which leads to the identifi cation of eight components of an integrated city brand-management framework. The paper substantially contributes to the academic discussion on city branding and fi lls a signifi cant gap in the literature by bringing together the fragmented suggestions on how city branding should be implemented.

Regional Studies, 2016

Globalization affects urban communities in many ways. One of its manifestations is increased intercity competition, which compels cities to increase their attractiveness in terms of capital, entrepreneurship, information, expertise and consumption. This competition takes place in an asymmetric field, with cities trying to find the best possible ways of using their natural and created assets, the latter including a naturally evolving reputation or consciously developed competitive identity or brand. The Political Economy of City Branding discusses this phenomenon from the perspective of numerous post-industrial cities in North America, Europe, East Asia and Australasia. Special attention is given to local economic development policy and industrial profiling, and global city rankings are used to provide empirical evidence for cities' characteristics and positions in the global urban hierarchy. On top of this, social and urban challenges such as creative class struggle are also discussed. The core message of the book is that cities should apply the tools of city branding in their industrial promotion and specialization, but at the same time take into account the special nature of their urban communities and be open and inclusive in their brand policies in order to ensure optimal results. This book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners working in the areas of local economic development, urban planning, public management and branding.

The article analyzes the problems of socio-cultural sphere in the new economy, as well as the impact of socio-cultural sphere on the brand of St. Petersburg, paper also discusses possibility of evaluation of changes in brand strength due to socio-cultural impact. The proposed method of estimation of the strength of the brand is universal enough, but due to a pronounced specificity of various segments of the public sector it requires specifying when evaluating consumer interest in services for various types of organizations. In this paper, brand evaluation can not be based on the financial performance of organizations; we are not interested on the characteristics of brand equity, but on indicators of consumer preferences and the associated strength of the brand on the market. The proposed method can be adapted to different segments of the public sector (and their impact on brand site) that require adaptation indicators of demand and availability of the services of these organizations. It requires considering not only the classical estimation of the brand, calculated using the method of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) including adaptation of its indicators for socio-cultural sphere, and together with the emotional evaluation of brand strength by Keller (Keller, 2005) used to calculate the integral market power of the brand. Priority of emotional components is defined by specific traits of Russian market in general and the cultural market, in particular. The competitiveness of the regional institutions of socio-cultural sector and the strength of their brand directly affects the competitiveness of the region as such. The paper raises questions of so called " star " status and orientation on brands in risk conditions. Brand allows city to start the process of urban regeneration, become the basis of its development strategy, and to revive the use of vacant spaces as well. Branded cities attract not only tourists but also entrepreneurs in various industries, people who want to live interesting, in an unique location and have access to the benefits of modern goods, unique heritage, objects and experiences. Brand adds a certain " flavour " to the city. It can be promoted; it can attract the most qualified workers not only with competitive salary and benefit packages, but with a good place for work and for pleasures as well.

Michalis Kavaratzis studied business administration in Greece and marketing in Scotland. Since April 2003 he has been a researcher in the Urban and Regional Studies Institute (URSI) of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, focusing on the topics of place and city marketing. His particular interest is in place and city branding and he recently commenced work on a project which will investigate branding processes in major European cities. Abstract Cities all over Europe include more and more marketing techniques and methods in their administration practice and governing philosophy. The transfer of marketing knowledge, however, to the operational environment of cities proves a cause of difficulties and misalignments, mostly due to the peculiar nature of places in general and cities in particular as marketable assets. In this paper, city branding is suggested as the appropriate way to describe and implement city marketing. City marketing application is largely dependent on the construction, communication and management of the city's image, as it is accepted that encounters with the city take place through perceptions and images. Therefore the object of city marketing is the city's image, which in turn is the starting point for developing the city's brand. The most appropriate concept to understand marketing applicability within cities is the recently developed concept of corporate branding, which with the necessary modifications is applied to cities. The core of the paper is a theoretical framework to understand the city's brand and its management, which was developed through a review of the literature on both city marketing and the corporate brand. City branding provides, on the one hand, the basis for developing policy to pursue economic development and, at the same time, it serves as a conduit for city residents to identify with their city. In this sense the relevance of and need for a framework describing and clarifying the processes involved in city branding are equally strong for facing increasing competition for resources, investment and tourism on the one hand and for addressing urgent social issues like social exclusion and cultural diversity on the other. The framework focuses on the use of city branding and its potential effects on city residents and the way residents associate with and experience their city, and it is based on a combination of city marketing measures and the components of the city's brand management.

Place Branding, 2006

Cities throughout Europe are increasingly importing the concept and techniques of product branding for use within place marketing, in pursuit of wider urban management goals, especially within the new conditions created by European integration. However, there is as yet little consensus about the nature of city branding, let alone its role in public sector urban planning and management. This exploratory paper will first, use contemporary developments in marketing theory and practice to suggest how product branding can be transformed into city branding as a powerful image-building strategy, with significant relevance to the contemporary city. Second, it will define city branding, as it is being currently understood by city administrators and critically examine its contemporary use so that a framework for an effective place branding strategy can be constructed.

Ecoforum, 2017

Brand strategies are becoming more and more common to all of us, irrespective of the field we carry our day to day activities: trade, politics, sports, art, education, fashion, everything is branded. This paper proposes an analysis of city branding process as a response to the local versus global debate, highlighting the city branding status in Romania, from the European perspective, as a first step, and further as an opportunity of accessing global community. In reaching this point, the paper provides a broader examination of city branding process, focusing on few successful city branding stories. The paper uses the experience of other Central Eastern European cities with which Romania shares the same (at a certain degree) political, social and economic background, to notice the similarities or differences between the cities of Romania and other countries’ strategies. Second data analysis will offer supplementary information about the effectiveness of city brand strategies. Accor...

ЗБОРНИК РАДОВА ЕКОНОМСКОГ ФАКУЛТЕТА У ИСТОЧНОМ САРАЈЕВУ, 2017

Thanks to the mobility of the population and the development of economy, nowadays much more attention is payed to the competitiveness between nations, regions and cities. In the early 90s, a special marketing trend appeared, known as "Place branding" which allows cities, regions and nations to differentiate themselves from others (competitors). Nowadays, the "city marketing" approach is a well-established practice which is widely applied by many cities all around the world. During the past 30 years, when the competition between cities became bigger and more important, city marketing approach comes to the fore more and more. Although cities can be too complex for branding or to be treated as products, however, city branding has become a widely applied practice in the past years, ever since cities began to "fight" for: tourists, residents, prestige, wealth, power, commerce, entertainment,etc. By "too complex for branding" we mean that by impleme...

Advances in Hospitality, Tourism, and the Services Industry, 2017

Local governments provide a range of local services, preserve the life and liberty of residents, creating space for democratic participation and civic dialogue, supporting market-led and environmentally sustainable local development. City branding supplies the principles for the city developing policy to sustain the local development. In other words, city branding means being powerful to face the increasing wild competition for resources, investment and tourism facilities, both for addressing crucial social issues and cultural variation. The main objective of this study is to highlight the role of local governments and to emphasize the various destinations “bodies” used in the branding process in different administration systems. Although there are many different destination branding strategies over the world, the city branding success cannot be performed without the strong participation of the local governments.

The hereby paper discusses problems referring to city brand in relation to local development. The introduction presents an attempt to define local development putting particular emphasis on an approach aimed at mobilization and coordination of local resources and energy. Next selected brand definitions are presented as well as the role of local community and self-government authorities in local development processes. Emotional dimensions of the city brand in the context of such development are discussed in a complex and structural manner. Ideological, psychological, sociological and cultural dimensions are also characterized. Within the framework of each dimension key components are listed as well as their relation and influence on local development. Finally, these potential benefits for local development are emphasized which result from having a strong city brand and presented in division to economic and social sphere.

Journal of Intercultural Management

The article analyses theoretical aspects of a city brand definition, applying cases of various brands of Lithuanian cities. A brand is any sign or symbol which helps to distinguish goods or services for one person from the goods or services of another, and which may be represented graphically. The brand can be a variety of symbols, their combination, and other visual manifestations of information, such as words, names, slogans, letters, numbers, drawings, emblems; or spatial characteristics of the product itself – its image, packaging, shape, color, color combination or a combination of all these. City development usually includes an image dimension. The common ground for this is that a well-known toponym often generates events, investments, etc. Many cities are actively positioning and promoting their strategic intentions. Often times a city brand is associated with its fight for investment, tourist numbers, or successful businesses. Objective: To scrutinize relevant theories appli...