Master Thesis

Erasmus University Rotterdam

Faculty of Social Sciences
M.Sc. Management of Governance Networks (2015-2016)

Influence of Branding Strategies on the Effectiveness of

The Hague Brand “City of Peace and Justice”

Name: Vlada Kuznetsova

Student number: 428917
1st reader: Prof. dr. Erik-Hans Klijn
2nd reader: Dr. ir. Jasper Eshuis
Date: 10 August 2016
Word count (excl. references & appendixes): 32091
Summary

In the growing competition among the cities throughout the world for various kinds of
resources importance of city brands cannot be underestimated. Today cities with various
characteristics are applying branding strategies in order to create brands which will assist to
overcome problems of the city and improve its image and reputation by emphasizing
distinguishing characteristics. One city which employs branding strategies is a Dutch city Den
Haag (The Hague), which in 2006 introduced the brand “City of Peace and Justice”.
The aim of the present research is to study the influence of branding strategies applied in
The Hague case on the effectiveness of the city brand and determine which managerial activities
had an impact on the brand successfulness. Perceptions of one of the most important target
groups of The Hague brand – international organizations- were examined in terms of the present
study. Research encompasses both qualitative and quantitative approaches and evaluates three
indicators for the brand effectiveness: loyalty of the target audience towards the brand, level of
satisfaction with the brand and quantity of media coverage devoted to the brand. The study
comes to the conclusion that branding strategies (market research, brand construction and
development, communication, maintenance and assessment) have a strong impact on the brand.
The study also reveals the problems which the brand experiences in relation to several target
groups in the city. Although there were assessed three important indicators for the brand
effectiveness of The Hague brand “City of Peace and Justice”, further study of perceptions of
other target groups apart from the international organizations is necessary in order to confirm
findings

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Acknowledgement

I would like to take the opportunity to thank several people who greatly contributed to the
completion of my thesis.
First of all I would like to express my profoundest gratitude to my supervisor Mr. Erik-
Hans Klijn for his valuable advices and help and leading me to the accomplishment of the
present thesis step by step. In this new for me and very challenging process of conducting a
research, I sometimes was down in the dumps and was losing motivation from having no ideas,
but during every thesis circle Mr. Klijn was able to find words of encouragement and make me
believe in myself again. Without his enthusiasm and efforts this thesis would have never be
completed. Also, I am deeply thankful to Mr. Jasper Eshuis for the interest in my research,
provided valuable advice and knowledge, which helped me to improve my thesis.
Finally, I am so grateful to my parents for their unconditional love, support and
encouragement during this year. All my life they sacrifice themselves to provide me with good
education and although they could hardly understand my struggles during this year of studies and
thesis writing, they always prayed for me and believed in me. Even when we do not see for so
long, I always know that they are my pillars of strength. Thank you for teaching me to never be
afraid of knocking at closed doors! I am very lucky to have you to be my parents.

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Table of Contents

Summary ....................................................................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgement......................................................................................................................................... 3
List of Tables and Figures ............................................................................................................................. 6
I. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 7
II. Theoretical Framework ....................................................................................................................... 11
2.1. Defining the Concepts of City Brand and Branding ........................................................................ 11
2.2. City Branding Strategies .................................................................................................................. 15
2.3. Effectiveness of Brands: Indicators.................................................................................................. 19
2.4. Conceptual Framework .................................................................................................................... 23
III. Research Design, Methodology and Data Collection ..................................................................... 25
3.1. Research Design and Methodology.................................................................................................. 25
3.2. Operationalization of Variables ....................................................................................................... 26
3.3. Data Collection................................................................................................................................. 28
IV. Branding Process: Analysis of Branding Strategies ........................................................................ 30
4.1. Brand “City of Peace and Justice” ................................................................................................... 31
4.1.1. Identity .......................................................................................................................................... 31
4.1.2. Peace Palace as an Iconic Building ............................................................................................... 33
4.1.3. Associations .................................................................................................................................. 34
4.1.4. Personality of The Hague Brand ................................................................................................... 36
4.1.5. Message ......................................................................................................................................... 36
4.2. Market Research and Brand Creation .............................................................................................. 38
4.3. Stakeholder Involvement.................................................................................................................. 41
4.4. Brand Communication ..................................................................................................................... 45
4.5. Brand Maintenance: Assessment and Rebranding ........................................................................... 53
4.5.1. Brand Performance Monitoring .................................................................................................... 53
4.5.2. Rebranding .................................................................................................................................... 54
V. Effectiveness of The Hague Brand “City of Peace and Justice”: Analysis .................................... 63
5.1. Media Coverage Analysis ................................................................................................................ 63
5.2. Loyalty: Analysis of the Brand Usage by the International Organizations ...................................... 69
5.3. Understanding the Effectiveness of the Brand “City of Peace and Justice” by the Target Audience
................................................................................................................................................................. 72
5.3.1. Brand Effectiveness Perceptions ................................................................................................... 72
5.3.2. Perceptions on the Rebranding of The Hague ............................................................................... 74
5.3.3. Brand Performance Satisfaction (Questionnaire Results Analysis) .............................................. 76
VI. Main findings. Conclusions. Future Research................................................................................ 80
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 6.1. Main Findings .................................................................................................................................. 80
6.1.1. Branding Strategies ....................................................................................................................... 80
6.1.2. Brand Effectiveness....................................................................................................................... 83
6.2. Hypotheses Testing .......................................................................................................................... 85
6.3. Validity and Reliability .................................................................................................................... 86
6.4. Recommendations ............................................................................................................................ 87
6.5. Further Research .............................................................................................................................. 87
List of References ....................................................................................................................................... 89
Appendix 1: Interviewee Details ................................................................................................................. 93
Appendix 2: Interview Questions and Questionnaire.................................................................................. 94
Appendix 3: Media Coverage ..................................................................................................................... 98
Appendix 4: Usage of the Brand by IGOs and NGOs on their Official Websites (Loyalty) .................... 109

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List of Tables and Figures

Table 1: Operationalization of the Dependent Variable “Effectiveness”

Table 2: Operationalization of the Independent Variable “Branding Strategy”
Table 3: The Hague Peace and Justice Project: Activities, Target Groups and Objectives
Table 4: “City of Peace and Justice” and “Brand The Hague”: Comparison
Table 5: Branding Strategies: Summary of Performed Activities and Impacts

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework

Figure 2: Number of Publications in Newspapers and Magazines (2007-2016)
Figure 3: Number of Publications in Newspapers and Magazines by Countries (2007-2016)
Figure 4: Number of Publications in Newspapers and Magazines by Countries (%)
Figure 5: Usage of the Brand by IGOs and NGOs on their Official Websites
Figure 6: Brand Performance Assessment by the Brand-Makers and the International Organizations

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 I. Introduction

In the era of globalization and networks our world has become a highly competitive
environment, where cities are striving to attract investments and human capital. In order to do
this, governments develop city branding strategies which influence emotional perceptions and
aim to increase loyalty of people who start to associate city with the brand. Every day people
make their choices such as where to go for a vacation or an exchange semester, where to invest
capital and so on. A successful place brand becomes a valuable asset, because it can influence
perceptions and choices of people, foster competitiveness of the city and economic prosperity. It
is believed that creation of a strong brand can have influence on sustainable development (Jaffe
and Nebenzahl 2001), create a positive international image encouraging cooperation and allow
competing in the global level.
Although first studies on city branding came from marketing sphere, there are more and
more researches being conducted today on this topic in such areas as political science, public
diplomacy and international relations (Anholt 2003). Gertner (2011) argues that place branding
(city, region, nation etc.) “is not as novel concept as some might think”, because territorial
entities were always branding themselves throughout history. However, particular interest from
researchers and policy-makers to the concept of city branding was noticed in the last two
decades, when some of the European cities started to use various marketing techniques in their
governing practices. Even though there are a number of examples of eminent and efficient city
brands, there are still discussions going on which marketing techniques are a key to the brand
successfulness and if techniques used to brand different kinds of goods can be also used in city
branding.
One of the first definitions of place branding was introduced in 1994 by Gold and Ward
and states that place branding is a deliberate usage of publicity and marketing instruments to
transmit a specific message or images of a certain geographic location or area to a target
audience. In our complex world people do not have time to go into details about certain issues to
form a complete picture and they are more likely to perceive short and simple messages and
clichés, which become a background of their opinions (Anholt 2007). Therefore brands are
useful because they are easily recognized by people and can allow a city to form a positive
reputation to be competitive in the international arena. Another point to be made is that place
branding is about measuring identity of a certain place, indicating its strengths and weaknesses
and building winning characteristics (Anholt 2009). Anholt also claims that modern world
resembles one immense market, where cities compete with each other for everything from
consumers, investors, students, cultural and sport events to the attention from the media and
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respect (2007). This is the reason why it is relevant in terms of public administration to study the
process of city branding because brands can contribute to the economic development and solving
social issues in the city by drawing attention of actors with valuable resources and knowledge
and attracting them to the city. Additionally, brands assist to create a feeling of attachment to the
city, binding, activating and motivating different actors (Eshuis and Klijn 2012, p. 68) as well as
to encourage pride.
One city which applies city marketing activities is a Dutch city Den Haag (The Hague),
which will be the case of this research project. Formation of identity of The Hague as an
international “City of Peace and Justice” started as far back as the the end of the nineteenth
century when the first Hague Peace Conference took place in 1899. After that there was the
Permanent Court of Arbitration established which started operating in the building called the
Peace Palace in 1913. After the World War II in 1946 United Nations International Court of
Justice was initiated in The Hague after what it started to be associated with peace, diplomacy
and international law. Today this city in the Netherlands is known worldwide as a ‘Legal Capital
of the World”1 and hosts more than hundred sixty international organizations2 where tens of
thousands of people are resolving conflicts daily for the more peaceful, safe and just world. Also,
The Hague is a place where a number of conferences and important international meetings take
place and political leaders from all over the world meet here to discuss questions of high policy.
Government of the Netherlands was realizing that it is important to host international
organizations not only because of prestige but also because of economic effects which come
directly and indirectly: in a way of a faster infrastructure development, employment, tourists
flow growth and so on. In 2007 there was launched a city branding strategy in The Hague to
emphasize uniqueness of the city and posing it as a city of Peace and Justice what is supposed to
foster positive image, keep and attract residents and tourists as well as investors, embassies, non-
governmental organizations and other institutions to the municipality. The Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and the City of The Hague initiated the brand while Bureau City Branding is the
Department which was and continues to be engaged in creation of the brand, development and
implementation of the branding strategy which is considered as a long-term and open-ended
process.3 A number of branding strategies were applied by the brand-managers to develop image
and identity of the brand of The Hague “City of Peace and Justice” and make it more
recognizable and effective.

1
http://www.denhaag.nl/en/residents/to/The-Hague-International-City-of-Peace-and-Justice.htm
2
Ibid.
3
http://www.eukn.eu/e-library/project/bericht/eventDetail/the-hague-international-city-of-peace-and-justice/

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 Due to the fact that the city is already proud of the results which were achieved in the last
years it is particularly interesting to have an in depth look at the successful branding policy and
study the meaning-making process and the main activities performed to make The Hague into
the city attracting more and more international organizations and hosting them good. The goal of
this master thesis is to add to the formation of theory on the city branding by testing which
branding strategies in The Hague case took place. In addition, this study attempts to measure
effectiveness of The Hague brand “City of Peace and Justice”, by exploring perceptions of the
target group of the brand about it as well as by assessing media coverage and its usage of the
brand by the international organizations on their official websites.

The research will be framed around a broad question:

What is the influence of branding strategies on the effectiveness of The Hague brand
“City of Peace and Justice”?

Sub-questions which are necessary to approach the main question of the present research
paper will be formulated as follows:

1. What is the image of The Hague brand “City of Peace and Justice”?
2. Which stakeholder groups are involved in the development of the brand and
implementation of branding strategies and how?
3. Which brand management strategies can be recognized in the branding of The Hague
as a “City of Peace and Justice”?
4. Does the brand of The Hague “City of Peace and Justice” fulfill its functions
successfully and can be perceived as an effective brand?

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Master thesis proceeds as follows:

Introduction. Problem discussion. Research question.

Literature review. Conceptual farmework. Hypothesis formulation.

Research disign. Operationalization of variables. Methodology.

Empirical data collection.

Analysis of empirical data.

Main findings. Conclusions. Future research.

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 II. Theoretical Framework

This chapter is a representation and discussion of theories and concepts on which research
is being based. The chapter concludes with the development of hypothesis and conceptual
framework illustrating correlation among the core research variables.

2.1. Defining the Concepts of City Brand and Branding

Apparently in the last decades there was noticed an increased competition among the cities
what made governments all around the world realize that brands are necessary to make a city
salient and recognizable. Therefore governments started to apply methods used in marketing
sphere in order to attract investments, residents and tourists. In 1990s such practice got its own
name - place branding, which aim was to make cities more distinguishable from other cities by
creating favorable image and identity (Twitchel 2005). Place branding was becoming a widely
used practice of application of marketing tools in order to foster social and economic
development of territorial entities: cities, regions, countries. Lucarelli and Berg (2011) claim that
there was a rapid growth in the number of articles on place branding happening since 1990s and
now place branding can be regarded as an independent and solid academic domain.
Today cities are branded worldwide and city branding can be regarded as a long term
deliberate process of “designing, planning and communicating the name and the identity in order
to build and manage reputation” (Anholt 2007, p. 4) creating unique set of associations in the
minds of the target groups (Kavaratzis and Ashworth 2005, p. 2). Skinner is defining place
branding as: “a place’s promotional activities, contextualised in the domain of marketing
communications, marking the place with a distinct identity in the minds of the various target
groups targeted by the incorporated place, from an inside-out approach, assuring the place’s
multiple stakeholders, in partnership, manage and communicate the place’s brand identity to a
wider world as they wished it to be presented” (2008, p. 923). Cities are becoming distinctive
and competitive as brands emphasize their physical and psychological attributes which cause
specific sets of associations and through this process add value and meaning to the branded
territorial entity (Ashworth and Kavaratzis 2010, p. 4).
Eshuis and Klijn in their book “Branding in Governance and Public Management” (2012)
focus on brands which are being created and applied in governance processes. Scholars associate
brand with symbol and view it as a: “symbolic construct that consists of a name, term, sign,
symbol, or design, or a combination of these, created deliberately to identify a phenomenon and
differentiate it from similar phenomena by adding particular meaning to it” (Ibid, p. 19).

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 There can be distinguished four important characteristics of brands (Eshuis and Klijn
2012). Firstly, brands are able to give meaning to the object by way of constructing associations
with the target audience. Secondly, brands can increase the value of the branded object. Thirdly,
they are making branded object more salient and distinguishing compared to competitors.
Finally, scholars claim that brands have to be visibly demonstrated as a sign, name or design
which purpose is to gain attention and differentiate the object, for instance, city from similar
cities (Eshuis and Klijn 2012).
However at the same time particular brand can be perceived by various people differently
according to which associations, memories and what relationship they have already obtained
with the brand (Anholt 2007, p. 5-6). There are four aspects of brands emphasized: identity,
purpose, image and equity (Ibid., p. 5-7), whereas the present research will particularize more on
the first two dimensions.
Brand identity can be defined as a core concept of the product in a concrete form, visible
and clearly understandable to people (Anholt 2007). According to Lynch (1960), identity is
about extent to which people recognize place as being different from other places, this is a
distinction which is clearly visible and can be constructed with the aid of a logo, a slogan or a
design of the branded object. Riza et al. (2012, p. 294) emphasize that identity has to be
exclusive and distinguish the city obviously and visibly at first sight. Hence identity is crucial for
the external representation, reputation and image and hence its elements have to be elaborated
meticulously to avoid alteration of them in future, because it can then become problematic to
deliver a coherent, sustainable and successful brand to target audience. It is assumed by Wheeler
(2009, p. 4) that identity is capable of fueling recognition and “makes big ideas and meaning
accessible” to target audience. Identity differentiates cities by emphasizing their distinctive
image, fosters awareness, recognition and encourages perceptions about the branded object.
Hospers (2010, p. 32) states that cities which possess distinctive features or “physical objects”
(Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House, Rio de Janeiro Carnival) are easier to brand and promote,
because those tangible attributes evoke associations easily.
Brand image is described by Anholt as a perception which can be formed in the mind of a
person including feelings, emotions, associations and expectations. According to Martin and
Egorlu (1991, p. 194) image can be considered as a sum of “descriptive, inferential and
informational beliefs” which individuals can have about the place. Images may have a striking
influence on the behavior of people and even manipulate the choices of the target audience
especially if they touch feelings. Brand image can also be identified with reputation, therefore
strong and seductive notions are able to create an image of a special place to live, visit or make
business (Ashworth and Kavaratzis 2010, p. 90). Moreover, images are able to transmit and
12
shape expectations (both explicit and implicit) about the experience certain actors are going to
have with the branded object (Ibid, p. 91). Therefore positive brand image allows to veil small
drawbacks and problems of the city and on the contrary negative image tends to emphasize and
dramatize weak points. For those cities which were having bad image for decades, it will be
nearly impossible to alter it and only in the long-term perspective (Baker 2007, p. 43). Image of
the city is also demonstrating its identity showing the values which different target groups will
get once they are connected to the city through the introduction of stereotypes and myths
reflecting main city characteristics. Therefore, user determined city images are unstable and have
to be adjusted throughout the time to present the territory favorably at every particular period
(Ashworth and Graham, 2005).
Moreover, balance between communicated characteristics of the city and factual
characteristics of the city is desired, in order to guarantee that internal identity is congruent with
the external image and avoid not justified expectations of the target group (Baker 2007, p. 29). If
such dissonance exists, there have to be applied branding strategies which allow to overcome this
gap, because they assist cities to present themselves consistently and clearly.
Brand purpose is explained by Anholt as an internal brand image, which comprises
shared values, spirit which is felt by everybody and common goal of the branding strategy
realized not only by the brand makers but also by the stakeholders involved in the process.
Purpose of brand can create a strong relationship between the involved actors and their
willingness to achieve the goals of the brand.
Brand equity is about creating a value in the process of earning favorable reputation.
Powerful and strong brands are as a rule a source of economic income, which is going to grow if
the target audience is loyal to the brand. Thus, Aaker (2014, p. 10-11) emphasizes three assets of
brand equity – awareness, associations and loyalty – which have to be considered in the process
of brand building and developing. The first dimension – brand awareness – is known to affect
perceptions of people, because they tend to think positively about the things they are familiar
with. The fact that brand is recognized can be a sign of brand success and commitment of
consumers. The second dimension – associations which brand elements (design, product
attributes, innovativeness) trigger are capable of connecting the brand target group to the brand
and influence on their relationship and experience with the brand. During the process of brand
management it is crucial to decide which associations have to be developed and how to connect
them with the brand and foster. The last mentioned by Aaker (2014, p. 11) dimension is loyalty,
which is persistent over time once it was achieved and then the goal of the brand- makers is only
to make this loyalty attachment even stronger, more intense, rich and relevant.

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 According to Kotler and Gertner (2002), these days competition among cities is rising due
to the dramatic changes in technology and globalized environment replacing the local one, what
makes strong brands extremely important because they can make cities attractive. It is also
necessary to update contemporary cities continuously (Riza et al. 2012, p. 294), by using
branding strategies to advertise and “sell” them. Construction of effective brands allows cities to
articulate in the globalization era.
Apart from allowing to compete with other cities in the international arena for useful
resources, there are other important functions of place brands distinguished by Ashworth et al.
(2015, p. 4). They are significant during the planning process of city development and can serve
as a guidance indicating and inspiring future scenario and measures which will help to
implement it. Thus, place brands can improve opportunities for the cooperation of stakeholders,
as they start to have common goal uniting them and which they are striving to reach together. In
addition, brands help to solve city problems, by drawing attention to the issues and attracting
stakeholders to invest funds into the development of the city. Furthermore, brands can act as
maximizers of positive experience, shaping expectations and perceptions of consumers what
leads to an increase in the satisfaction level. Strong and effective brands catch attention and
cause respect towards the city and therefore more people and businessmen are interested to visit,
live, invest and develop it. A key to a success of brands is a representation of a clear image of a
city and easily understandable values, beliefs and purposes, because the present world is very
dynamic and people do not have time to comprehend complicated but prefer short messages
rather emotional then rational. As a rule branding endeavors to create mental images which
determine people’s perceptions of a place in a way which is beneficial for the current state of
affairs and future city plans (Ashworth and Kavaratzis 2010, p. 93).
Merrilees, Miller and Herington (2009) assume that place branding is about ways and
means by which territorial entities market themselves. Governments of the cities are trying to
create identity and perform promotional activities internally and externally to attract consumers
(Kavaratzis & Ashworth 2005) and convince them that the city can offer better opportunities and
services rather than competitors. Kotler claims (Kotler et al. 1999) that identities and values of
cities can be designed and marketed like products. As a rule, specific advantages of places are
being promoted, those main things that people should know about a city (Unsworth 2008).
According to Zhang (2009, p. 248) city brand is about promotion of culture, history, social and
economic achievements, unique architecture, infrastructure and so on which make up a complete,
unmistakable picture which appeals to people and attracts capital to the city.

14
 Such seemingly easy process is in fact characterized by high level of complexity, multiple
interdependencies, long-term orientation and consequently demands development of elaborate
branding strategies to manage it.

2.2. City Branding Strategies

It is a matter of fact that application of branding strategies by city governments has

become a common practice all over the world. If such promotional activities for the creation of
an attractive city image are a success they can ensure sustainable development of territorial
entities. In most cases implementation of city branding strategies results in the creation of city
logo and slogan, but Ashworth and Kavaratzis (2009, p. 522) claim that apart from that branding
strategies should imply a number of continuous public relations, advertising, marketing tools and
activities which decrease a risk of a brand failure. Although this promotion process can be very
expensive and require lot of efforts from government, successful branding campaign may bring
certain advantages which might outweigh the expenditures. For instance, outstanding branding
strategies in New York (I ♥ NY) and Amsterdam (I amsterdam) lead to the increase in tourism,
investments, event numbers and contributed greatly to the economy of these cities (Wahyurini
2012, p. 80). Another point to be stated is that brands have to answer the wants and needs of the
target audience, and act not mostly by persuading but rather responding to the demands of
stakeholders (Eshuis et al. 2013, p. 508).
According to Eshuis and Klijn (2012, p. 101) due to the unstable nature of brands they
have to be constantly managed in order to reinforce their elements as well as city image and
identity. Baker (2007, p. 30) outlines a few conditions under which relevant branding strategies
are employed: necessity to overcome outdated or incorrect image, developing infrastructure,
inconsistency in the messages city is communicating and so on. Also because of the changes in
the contexts where interactions between multiple actors on various levels occur, brands have to
be maintained, adjusted to keep them effective in the altering environment of governance
processes. While managing the brand it is important to take into consideration the
interdependencies among the actors and include the most influential actors in the process of
brand creation to ensure that the brand will be appealing to them and they will show support for
the branding strategy in future. Involvement of strong actors in the creation of brand may help to
avoid negative attitudes and resistance in the process of its implementation. The process of brand
creation is particularly difficult because actors participating in the process as a rule have
divergent interests, perceptions and goals associated with the brand. This is why it is important to

15
create a concept which will answer to the numerous demands without losing its core functions
and initial idea. Thus, managerial efforts are extremely important to overcome tensions between
actors and create a brand which will on the contrary bind and activate them around certain issues
and will become a base for cooperation (Eshuis and Klijn 2012). Another point to be stated is
that these days it is not enough just to create a brand, but essential to enhance it, protect it from
negative coverage and change it according to the needs of the target audience and characteristics
of society where it functions.
City branding is a complex process involving various branding strategies, which can differ
according to local conditions, although the major steps usually stay the same. For example,
Moilanen and Rainisto (2008) emphasize that branding process starts with the initial idea,
selection and organization of involved parties and continues with the research of the environment
where the brand will function. On the next stage of the branding process parties form brand
identity and make up and administer the procedures which will be implemented and followed-
up. Baker is focusing on destination brands but introduced by him the 7A model for the branding
process is also applicable to this research. His model consists of seven stages, namely: 1)
Assessment, 2) Analysis, 3) Alignment, 4) Articulation, 5) Activation, 6) Adoption, and finally
7) Action and follow-up (2012, p. 88-89). According to this scheme, brand-makers are
examining how the place is being perceived at the moment, which strong and weak points are
associated with the city image; studying this information they design articulated and relational
elements of the brand which have to be developed, and determine which steps have to be taken
to promote the brand. Also, brand-mangers have to decide which stakeholders will be involved
in the process of brand construction and implementation and plan the future actions concerning
the future of the brand and its development. Another approach by Kavaratzis (2009) implies that
place branding process should start from a formation by brand-makers of a future concept of the
city for different target groups: residents, tourists, investors and so on. Further in the branding
process there have to be determined actions which will help to achieve this objective, such as
“infrastructural projects, landscape interventions, and incentives and opportunities for several
audiences” (Kavaratzis and Hatch 2013, p. 72). The next step in the branding process according
to Kavaratzis (2009) is a communication of those actions. Researchers (Ibid., p. 72) also claim
that “there are no “one-size-fits-all” branding processes” because all cities are so different. This
paper will focus on branding strategies emphasized by Eshuis and Klijn (2012, p. 109) and which
are similar to approach by Baker (2007, p. 35).
The researches state that within the first strategy actors participating in the creation of
brand have to conduct a market research to get to know better the needs of the target audience,
their values, views and concerns (Kottler et al. 1999). Baker (2007) claims that market research
16
is a basis for the successful branding process and although this first phase takes up a lot of time
and efforts to review and analyze the environment where the brand will operate, it is crucial for
the creation and development of an effective brand. It allows to understand which images and
slogans will persuade stakeholders, what has to be done to reach them and sell the brand faster.
Obtained information is useful in the process of brand planning, because it increases likelihood
of creation of the brand to which audience will be loyal. Moreover, if market researches are
conducted regularly, it is possible to see the alterations in the beliefs of the target group and this
information brand makers can use in their interest.
The second strategy implies the development of the winning characteristics in the
process of brand construction and product development. In this creative process, in order to
develop a successful brand it is necessary to choose the right product design, generate suitable
slogan, logo and visual image, color which will be representing the brand. These elements of the
brand have to reflect the ideas and values behind the brand and at the same time be capable of
catching attention of the target groups, evoke positive unique and strong associations and create
trust. Meanwhile associations have to be congruent with the brand, so that people could easily
understand the purpose of the brand, as not congruent associations make a brand weak or
incomplete (Eshuis and Klijn 2012, 119). Core message and identity are constructed in this
process in order to trigger associations of stakeholders. Brand equity becomes a goal of the brand
construction process which is based on brand benefits (functional, experiential and symbolic)
and brand attributes (Ibid, p. 114) which together have to inspire brand values.
Furthermore, branding process can be instrumental (created by one actor) or interactive
(created in the interactions between stakeholders). If there are many stakeholders involved in the
process brand managers become highly dependent on them (Klijn et al. 2012, p. 5). Levels of
participation of stakeholders can differ depending on the activities they perform. Eshuis and
Klijn (2012, p. 115) identify the following levels of participation: informing, consulting,
advising, co-designing or co-producing. Brand managers can also facilitate brand construction
process by fostering participation of other stakeholders and organizing events and discussions for
them to give an opportunity to voice their views and ideas, engage in the brand and co-create it
as well as to make it more visible. Klijn et al. (2012) argue that stakeholder involvement in the
branding process is supposed to have a positive effect on the brand and its effects. Successful
brands are being created in the interactions between the stakeholders who are expected to have
benefits from the brand in future and therefore they are ready to be ceaselessly involved in the
process of the brand construction, implementation and maintenance (Hankinson 2004, Klijn et al.
2012). Moreover, Houghton and Stevens (2010, p. 48) argue that there are more chances to
construct strong and distinctive brand when more people, communities, organizations and
17
stakeholders will participate in the brand concept development and will reflect their ideas and
perceptions about the city in it.
In addition, resources of influential actors are vital for the brand to be able to achieve
desired effects. There are not only financial resources emphasized but also their specialized
knowledge and unique information they possess which can become crucial in the decision-
making process (Klijn et al. 2012, p. 6). Moreover, stakeholder involvement can have an impact
on the ability of certain actors to exercise veto power and hence reduce it and also to foster
parties to exchange information (Eshuis et al. 2014, p. 155). Another important point to be stated
is that involvement of stakeholders can lead to the creation of the brand which fits their ideas and
beliefs and to which they are loyal, which triggers right associations and consequently
stakeholders start to obtain robust relationship with the brand (Ibid., p. 6).
The third strategy which Eshuis and Klijn (2012, p. 110) outline deals with the
communication of the brand, what means sharing values and ideas which the brand stands for
and enhance support for it transmitting the main characteristics to the audience, with the aim to
strengthen brand associations and toughen customer relationship (Aaker 2014, p. 13). Messages
about everything what city comprises, what it is doing and what is happening communicate the
city brand (Kavaratzis 2005, p. 337).Within this strategy brand has to be communicated not only
to the involved actors and encourage their support for the brand (internal branding) but also to
the external environment including external stakeholders and media, by way of publicity,
pseudo-events, press releases etc. (external branding). The aim of this strategy is to attract more
attention of public to the brand and form positive perceptions by way of communicating a
consistent message to various stakeholders through different channels. So, managers are
responsible for determining communication plan, deciding on the message content and
communication channels and further coordination, facilitation and enhancement of
communication activities and their monitoring (Ibid, p. 125-126). The actual situation in the city
and occurring changes can be communicated to emphasize advantages of the city.
The last introduced strategy is about maintenance and reproduction which assists to
keep the strength of the brand over time. Society and political system in general are very
susceptible to the dynamics of the world and people tend to change their opinion about issues
fast: the brand which is convincing, trustable for them today may be not important and not
popular in a while. For this reason brands have to be maintained, evaluated, renewed and adapted
according to the needs of target audience and the changing realities. In addition, if brands are not
changed in the course of time they can become outdated and not attractive anymore. Research
and assessment of the perceptions of the target audience, as well as performance monitoring are
vital at this phase of the branding process in order to understand what particularly has to be done
18
about the brand in future (Aaker 2010, p. 189). Also, Prophet (2006, p. 7) stresses that
assessment of the effectiveness of the brand and its impacts is a crucial element of the branding
process which assists to ensure that the progress of the brand is positive and that it fulfills its
aims fruitfully. This strategy also involves protection of the brand from wrong interpretations
happening in political disputes and conflicts where brands can be damaged. In this case among
the activities of managers there should be involvement of all stakeholders in discussions to
decrease a chance that they will later be critical to the brand, control of rumors and gossips and
not taking criticism seriously and continuing with the previously determined branding strategy.
To sum up, brands have a fragile nature and they have to be managed continuously to
ensure that they do not weaken and transmit the right message and desired idea and fit with the
environment where they function. Brand management strategies represented above introduce
activities which are performed by managers to keep the brands effective while facing numerous
challenges.

2.3. Effectiveness of Brands: Indicators

Although literature ascribes numerous benefits and positive impacts of branding strategies
on the effectiveness of the brand, it is not easy to measure actual impacts due to the lack of
reliable and representative indicators which are capable of measuring progress in certain aspects
of political, social and economic life. There is little attention addressed to the assessment of
effectiveness of the brand and its performance both in theory and practice. So far there is no
universal measurement system of city brands and assessment criteria have to be individual and
selective according to the goals, functions of the brand and characteristics of a place (Anders-
Morawska 2015, p. 190). Anders-Morawska (2015, p. 192) claims that in the design process of
the assessment system there have to be considered both facets of the brand: tangible (branding
programme and infrastructure) and also intangible (concerning image, perceptions, associations).
Also, it is argued that while measuring the effectiveness of the brand both internal and external
stakeholders have to participate in this process. Hankinson (2015, p. 26) assumes that
effectiveness of the brands can be measured by different stakeholders from different perspectives
and cannot be accumulated. Scholar (Ibid., p. 26) provides an example that in order to assess
brand effectiveness governments prefer measuring growth of tax income, hotels – occupancy
rates while residents - improvements in public services. Although city brand’s measurement of
effectiveness is a complicated procedure, it is crucial in the modern world. Another point to be
made is that the process of branding cities more resembles a marathon, than a sprint and that the

19
effects of the branding strategies become visible and measurable only in a while. It is also
necessary to realize the goals of the branding strategies clearly to be able to assess if the
objectives were achieved and to what extent.
Literature review showed that there were a few models of evaluation of the brand’s success
developed, where there were adopted various indexes and variables. Lucarelli (2012) provided a
categorization for the indicators of brand effectiveness subdividing them into three groups:
identity-image, socio-political and economic impacts. To the first category there were referred
results and effects of branding strategies concerning identity and image of the city such as
attitudes of residents, tourists’ perceptions, public opinion about the change of the city image,
internal stakeholder perceptions, sense of place by local residents and other indicators. For the
second category – social and political consequences “in relation to the effects of city branding on
the city in general or the brand in particular” (Ibid., p. 239) – there were mentioned such positive
indicators as increase in political consensus, involvement of local community, appropriation of
the values of the brand and brand policies as well as negative indicators, for instance, local
tensions, opposition to branding attempts, introduction of new norms and values and
gentrification in the city. The last category encompassed economic impacts which are noticed
after the application of branding strategies namely levels of investment, tourist turnout, GDP,
longevity of small business, price for real estate and rental, alterations in consumer behavior and
so on.
Brand Orientation Model introduced by Hankinson (2012) also emphasizes factors which
have to be considered to estimate effectiveness of the brand in a particular place or city: brand
communication, stakeholder partnership, brand culture, brand reality and departmental
coordination (Hankinson 2012). Such criteria are valuable because they emphasize complexity of
place branding in general and internal managerial activities which were discussed in the previous
chapter.
Popular method to measure effectiveness of the brand is benchmarking –assessment of the
same performance indicators of different cities and their comparison and ranking according to
the assessed criteria. The most outstanding example here is an Anholt-Gfk Roper City Brands
Index which aim is to measure the image of 50 cities from all around the world with respect to
six dimensions: presence (status of a city), place (physical city attributes, transport), people
(diversity, hospitality, friendliness), pulse (if the city is perceived to be exciting, events occurring
there), potential (economic sector characteristics and educational opportunities) and pre-
requisites (basic necessities, amenities, accommodation price, cost of living). In order to obtain
data there are conducted online interviews with people from each of 25 countries which
represent examined cities. However, point of criticism concerning this approach is that it does
20
not take into account unique characteristics of each city when cities with considerably different
parameters, for instance size and population, are being investigated and compared equally. Also,
there is a view, that this assessment method is too simplistic and makes the complex processes
happening behind those indicators vague and insignificant (Casey, 2011).
Other indicators for the measurement of effectiveness found in the literature are customer
equity introduced by Rust et al. (2004) and satisfaction regarding place (Insch 2010). In our
view, it is nearly impossible to measure financial value of public brands such as The Hague
“City of Peace and Justice”, so this indicator will not be contemplated in this research. As for the
second mentioned indicator, it is decided to assess the level of satisfaction of the brand makers
with the brand, by interrogating them about the process of application of the branding strategies
and the achieved results. In addition, perceptions and satisfaction level of one of the target
groups of the brand- international organizations- can be explored to assess brand effectiveness.
Satisfaction with city brands is so far hardly touched in place marketing literature (Insch and
Florek 2010, p. 191) although it is indisputably an essential indicator for the effects of place
branding strategies. Satisfaction can be defined as a degree to which expectations of individuals
who had experience with the brand were met. Selnes (1993, p. 21) claims that satisfaction can be
regarded as a “post-choice evaluative judgement of a specific transaction”, which can be
measured as an overall feeling about certain object or issue, which is necessary to ensure at high
level, maintain over time and constantly monitor.
Another concept which will be measured and analyzed and which is chosen as an indicator
for the brand effectiveness in the present paper – loyalty towards the brand. Loyalty according to
(Anders-Morawska 2015, p. 199) is about inclination of people to visit, participate in events,
invest or involve in the long-term relationship with the city. Jacoby (1971) is emphasizing that
loyalty is a behavioral response which is a result of psychological process when individual
becomes committed to the brand and prefers namely the branded object even when there are
other alternatives. Loyalty in behavior, awareness and attitudes of consumers towards corporate
brands were researched by Broyles, Schumann and Leingpibul (2009). Their research indicated
that strong brands are perceived as more effective and reliable and that better perceptions of the
activities of the company reflect in an increase in loyalty, revenue, attracted investors and so
forth. Talking about city branding, loyalty can be evaluated by examining perceptions of the
citizens, stakeholders and in The Hague case perceptions of numerous international
organizations based in the city about the brand. Getting to know their impressions of the brand, if
they consider it useful or useless, important or unimportant, creating positive or negative image,
well-known or known only in the particular professional circles, recognizable, impressive and
like will allow to compare these perceptions with the initial goals of the brand and make a
21
conclusion about its effectiveness. Another way to assess loyalty level is to monitor internal
usage by companies and organizations based in The Hague, which are the target audience of the
brand “City of Peace and Justice”, of the elements of the brand in order to reinforce the image of
their own company/organization. Moreover, audience which is loyal to the brand (in our case-
international organizations) tends to express its support for the branded object and communicate
its advantages and their positive experience to other people, which is known to be a very
powerful source of persuasion and mean of brand promotion (Selnes 1993, p. 21). Successful
city branding will lead to an increase in loyalty level and such benefits as a growing number of
consumers, capital, respect, investments and attention (Anholt 2006) and can become a driver for
the development of the city. Whereas bad perceptions about the city are going to have negative
effects on the evolution of the city such as decrease in investments, tourists inflows because of
loss of attractiveness.
Next indicator for the measurement of the effectiveness of the brand is a quantity of
media coverage dedicated to the brand in a given period, which is one of the four weighted
factors used by Jeremy Hildreth (2008) in Saffron City Brand Barometer along with the ability of
people to tell a city from a postcard without description provided, value of visiting the city in
social situations and finally a number of positive characteristics associated with the city. Such
criteria were used to evaluate strength of 72 European city brands and each criteria made up one
fourth of total score. Increasing publicity, number of articles, messages and reports worldwide
are recognized to be a reliable and objective indicator of the effectiveness of international brands
such as the “City of Peace and Justice”. Via monitoring of the quantity of media coverage of the
city in the media (the Internet, newspapers, magazines), it is possible to reveal if there are more
positive or negative associations and perceptions about the brand in particular country. It is also
possible to examine whether media coverage invigorates the brand or on the contrary prevents it
from fulfilling its functions effectively and weakens it through negative coverage.
It is intricate to estimate effectiveness of city brands systematically and coherently,
because different actors have different perceptions and images connected with the brand what
makes it complicated to figure out average opinion about a variety of the brand facets. Baker
(2007) specializing in destination branding claims that for every specific city set of indicators
has to be chosen individually taking into account the phase of implementation and level of brand
development because branding is known to be an ongoing process. According to Klijn, Eshuis
and Braun (2012, p. 6) it is not easy to assess effectiveness, as this concept depends on the
associations and perceptions of numerous actors involved in the process. Nevertheless, it is
believed that measurement of such indicators as satisfaction, loyalty and amount of media
attention as determinants of brand effectiveness can give an answer to the questions if The
22
Hague “City of Peace and Justice” is a successful international brand and which challenges it
faces and also study perceptions, associations and concerns of its target groups about it.

2.4. Conceptual Framework

This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the city brand of The Hague “City of
Peace and Justice”, taking into account factors which were explored in branding and marketing
literature.
Dependent variable of our research is effectiveness, which will be measured by
calculating media attention to the brand and the city since the branding process started in 2007
and comparing it to the rates of the recent years. Another approach to measuring effectiveness
which will be applied in the research is investigation whether international organizations based
in The Hague are using the brand or particular brand elements on their websites, what will show
the level of loyalty of the target group towards the brand. Another indicator is a level of
satisfaction of the brand-makers with the brand. In order to contribute to the validity of research
results concerning satisfaction, the target groups of the brand will be interrogated to reveal
whether they are satisfied with the results of the branding strategies. Thus, there are three
dimensions of effectiveness which can be indicated namely: quantity of media attention in a
given period, level of satisfaction of the brand makers and target group and finally level of
loyalty of the target group towards the brand. Apart from that, it is important to investigate the
ways in which branding strategies discussed in the second part of this chapter are being
implemented and how they influence the brand and its outcomes. In addition, it is assumed that
branding strategies have influence on the effectiveness of the brand and it is decided to examine
and analyze this relationship. The conceptual model is illustrated in Figure 1.

23
 Branding
Media Coverage
Strategies

market research Brand Effectiveness

Satisfaction of
brand creation Brand-makers
communication and Target
Brand
Image and Group
maintenance
Identity
assessment Loyalty

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework

These considerations and correlations bring to the formulation of four hypotheses:

H1: The more branding strategies are employed by the brand-makers, the better image the brand
will have.
H2: The more branding strategies are employed by the brand-makers, the more clear and
distinctive identity the brand will have.
H3: The more branding strategies are employed to enhance the brand, the more effective it will
be.
H4: The better image and clearer identity the brand has, the more effective it will be (more
media coverage, higher levels of loyalty and satisfaction with the brand).

24
III. Research Design, Methodology and Data Collection

The following chapter will introduce and motivate methods which were applied in order
to gather necessary data and analyze it and will represent operationalization of the core
variables.

3.1. Research Design and Methodology

Research design is a planning process determining which methods, procedures and what
kind of data has to be collected and used in the investigation. The choice of the case study as a
research methodology was defined by research question and problem of this study. The case
study was accomplished based on obtained data, namely transcribed interviews and official
documents and represents identity, image and message of The Hague brand and how they were
constructed and developed as well as how the communication, maintenance, evaluation of the
brand performance and rebranding were taking place. The purpose was to study influence of
branding strategies employed by the City of The Hague on the effectiveness of the brand “City
of Peace and Justice”. In order to access richer data and be able to analyze it efficiently it was
decided to use both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Thus, it was considered that the most appropriate research strategy to gather primary data
for the research are in-depth interviews with brand-makers (Bureau City Branding and
Department of International Affairs), important stakeholders involved in the branding process as
well as representatives of the target group of the brand - international organizations, in order to
find out more about the employment of branding strategies from both sides of the process and
their perceptions about the brand and achieved results. Furthermore, face-to-face interviews
provided an opportunity to get to know more about perceptions of actors about the brand, their
associations, capture their feelings and emotions about it when sensitive topics were touched
upon and consequently to find out more about their levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with
the brand.
The interviews were designed in order to obtain qualitative primary data while respondents
were answering open-ended questions. Due to the fact that the questions were open-ended,
respondents were rather free in their replies what made interviews more flexible. Another point
to be made is that interviews were interpreted and coded to measure influence of branding
strategies and effectiveness of the brand. This leads to the problem of misinterpretation and bias
which was attempted to avoid by recording and quoting interviewees’ speeches. Additionally,

25
respondents after the interviews were suggested to fill in short questionnaire forms concerning
their satisfaction level to support research results. It was decided to use Likert scale for the
answers to the questions in the questionnaire which was useful for the measurement of positive
and negative attitudes towards certain issues. However, there are also limitations of this method
as it was not possible to examine perceptions of all actors involved in the brand-management
activities as well as each of slightly more than 160 international organizations (only most
important from the author’s point of view), what means that results do not represent the entire
picture around The Hague brand.
Secondary data was also employed in the analysis mainly branding policy documents and
reports which contributed to validity of results and enriched the research. In addition, part of
information which is available in the Internet especially on the websites dealing with The Hague
brand promotion was used to support obtained primary information.
There was also quantitative approach applied while collecting and analysing data
concerning quantity of media coverage and loyalty towards the brand. Today image of the brand
heavily depends on the media attention to it and media perceptions about it and therefore
quantity of media coverage in articles of newspapers, journals and periodical magazines was
selected as a representative indicator for the brand success. In order to measure this indicator the
author addressed to Lexis Nexis database, complied search for particular word combination (See
Table 1) and counted amount of times the brand was mentioned in a given period of time.
Another indicator – loyalty of the target group, was measured by monitoring particular word
combination’s usage (See Table 1) on the websites of the international organizations based in
The Hague. Received numerical results were analyzed.
Thus, the present study was adopting qualitative and quantitative methods, encompassing
both descriptive and analytical approaches.

3.2. Operationalization of Variables

In order to be able to measure the effectiveness of The Hague brand “City of Peace and
Justice” the following indicators of effectiveness were operationalized: quantity of media
coverage in a given period, satisfaction and loyalty by translating these abstract concepts into
measurable, material and valid terms (Cozby 2009). Additionally, independent variable –
branding strategies - was subject to operationalization. Table 1 and Table 2 represent definitions
and criteria.

26
Table 1: Operationalization of the Dependent Variable “Effectiveness”

Definition Criteria
Media coverage – presentation of  Number of media coverage devoted to the brand
particular information piece in the (percentage)
newspapers and magazines  Quantity: number of times search term was mentioned in
the articles within particular timeframes
 Search term: “City of Peace and Justice”
 Placement: international newspapers and magazines
(Source: LexisNexis)
 Country
 Context
 Language of articles: English
Satisfaction –overall opinion about  According to the answers on the interview questions
the brand and branding campaign Dimensions: implementation of branding strategies and
achievement of brand goals
 Rated with short closed questionnaire (Likert 5 point scale:
from 1- strongly disagree to 5- strongly agree)
Dimensions:
1. brand concept and identity
2. contribution to the city image
3. correlation with perceptions about the city
4. contribution to the international reputation
5. appropriateness for the city
6. consistency of brand idea with the strong city points
7. enhancement of the city image
8. extent to which the brand answers to the needs of the
city
9. importance for the city
10. satisfaction with the brand performance
Loyalty - behavioural response;  Percentage of NGOs and IGOs which use The Hague brand
demonstration of commitment to elements to promote themselves
the brand by using it or its elements  Number of times search term was mentioned on the
to promote own interests websites of international organizations based in The Hague
 Search term: “City of Peace and Justice”

27
Table 2: Operationalization of the Independent Variable “Branding Strategy”

Definition Criteria
Branding Strategy - brand- Was/were branding strategy/s employed? – yes/no
manager’s techniques and activities Dimensions:
to promote a city to the target  market research – activity of gathering information about
audiences the needs, values, preferences and views of the target
audience
 brand construction– practice of creation of the name,
design, symbol, logo which identify and distinguish the
city
 communication – combination of activities aimed at
sharing ideas and values for which the brand stands for in
order to influence perceptions of the target group
 maintenance – combination of activities aimed at
sustaining the strength of the brand overtime
 assessment –act of judgement and measurement of the
brand performance

3.3. Data Collection

The starting point of the research process was finding the key persons who are responsible
for the creation and management of The Hague brand “City of Peace and justice” since 2006
when the branding process started, until today when “City of Peace and Justice” is being actively
rebranded and supported with such elements as “City by the sea”, “Residence of the royal family
with regal allure”, “Leading companies and institutions” and “Seat of government”. Almost all
the important stakeholders of the branding process were reached and agreed to be interviewed.
Representatives of the Department of the International Affairs could not find any time for an
interview during two months’ period due to the workload. As for the interviews with the
representatives of the target group of the brand - international organizations- concerning their
satisfaction with the brand, usage of it in their work, on the official websites and for self-
promotion, it became apparent that organizations have a very busy schedule and not enough
capacity to devote their time (even 20-30 minutes) for my research. Thus, out of 19 contacted
organizations (those which foster the image of the city as being a center of excellence in peace
and justice throughout the world) only 7 could actually find an opportunity to be interviewed and
28
for a few of them it took nearly two months to find a time slot for a short conversation.
Representative of the European Juridical Network explained in the email that their staff in The
Hague (7 people) do not employ the brand in their work. Participants of the branding process and
international organizations were contacted via e-mails and phone calls. Empirical data was
collected with interviews in person, via skype, over the phone and twice via e-mail. In total there
were conducted 12 interviews. Interview details are represented in the Appendix 1. During the
interviews previously prepared questionnaire was used like a guideline (Appendix 2). Interviews
were recorded in order to get the answers carefully, with the exception of one, during which
notes of important answers were taken. Interviews with the participants of the branding process
lasted in average 55 minutes and with the representatives of the international organizations 29
minutes. Data attained during the interviews was transcribed and subject to analysis. It was also
classified in different categories in order to study received information concerning each indicator
separately.
Another point to be made is that to the interviewed actors there was suggested a short
closed questionnaire consisting of ten questions (Appendix 2) to fill out regarding their opinion
about the brand performance, but it was only possible to receive 10 of them filled out. The low
number of the respondents can be explained by the workload of the interviewed actors.
Data for the research and analysis of Media coverage was collected using the LexisNexis
Academic database where there was conducted a search for the term “City of Peace and Justice”
in the articles of the international newspapers and magazines since 2007 to 2016.
Data for the indicator “Loyalty” was gathered using the Google website search tool. As
there are more than 160 international organizations in The Hague (including intergovernmental
organizations, non-governmental organizations, knowledge institutions, journalist’s institutions
and private sector organizations) there were randomly chosen 91 organizations using the
information from Guide to the International Organizations in The Hague (2013).

29
IV. Branding Process: Analysis of Branding Strategies

This chapter attempts to describe discussed earlier branding strategies which were
employed in the branding process of The Hague as a “City of Peace and Justice” in the period
from 2006 when the brand was officially established and until today. The chapter consists of 5
sections.

City branding is a process aimed at improving perceptions of the city’s stakeholders and
customers which are important for the sustainable development of the city, by creating and
managing the brand concept, values, images and associations. Although the branding process is a
very time-consuming activity, its importance cannot be underestimated. In order to develop a
successful city brand consistent and integrated vision and strategy are crucial. There can be
recognized four major branding strategies: market research, brand creation (formulation of
identity and core message), brand communication and brand maintenance. Before the creation of
the brand information from the environment where brand will exist has to be gathered in order to
know the needs, values and preferences of the target group. After the first step identity which is a
key element in the brand management has to be carefully formulated taking these perceptions
into account. Identity determines brand success and therefore it has to be clear and detailed,
emphasize winning characteristics of the city, distinguish it and be appealing to the target
audience. The next step is to persuade target audience and set a relationship between it and the
brand, by performing various marketing activities communicating the brand message.
Furthermore, as brands exist in evolving environment where needs and values of the target group
can change overtime, the brand has to be adapted to keep it working and continuing to enhance
the image of the city. On this stage constant monitoring and measurement of the key indicators is
pivotal. Employment of each branding strategy has to be conducted to ensure sustainability of
the brand and its advantageous position compared to competitors. The objective of this research
is to study which branding strategies were applied in the branding process of The Hague as a
“City of Peace and Justice” and find out how each branding strategy contributed to the success
and effective fulfillment of the brand’s functions. Data on management of The Hague brand
“City of Peace and Justice” was collected via interviews with participants of the branding
process and official documents. Results of the data analysis are important as they will allow to
detect strong managerial activities which have positive effect on the brand which have to be
applied more often as well as those which impair the brand strength and how they can be
improved.

30
4.1. Brand “City of Peace and Justice”

4.1.1. Identity

Strong brand is impossible without powerful identity, image and associations which it
conveys. Clearly determined identity is vital because it determines which image of the city will
be promoted what will consequently shape associations appearing in the minds of people.
Identity is focusing on the unique characteristics of the city in combination with the needs and
expectations of the target audience. It is a representation of a value which consumer will get and
also an indication of what in fact stands behind the brand. Moreover, deep and detailed identity
is able to provide credibility and essentially differentiate the city from other cities.
For already many years The Hague is positioning itself as a “City of Peace and Justice”.
Formulation of the identity of The Hague brand was encouraged by The Peace Palace which was
constructed in 1913 after the two Peace Conferences in 1899 and 1907 and also by the peace and
justice institutions based in The Hague today, such as The Hague Institute for Global Justice,
United Network of Young Peacebuilders, Amnesty International, Global Human Rights Defense,
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization and others, which serve as the main basis for
the identity of the brand “City of Peace and Justice”. Increasing number of international
organizations in The Hague enhances the key positioning of the city and asserts its
internationally important role. Also image of The Hague is being stimulated by the activities
performed by several tribunals based in the city, namely International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Iran-United States Clams Tribunal and Special Tribunal for
Lebanon, what encouraged international publicity and fostered the awareness of the city.
Furthermore, there are many embassies situated in The Hague and were taking place significant
events and important international conferences which were attended by the world leaders such as
The Nuclear Security Summit in 2014, the World Foresight Forum in 2011 and the International
Afghanistan Conference in 2009, which enhanced the identity of the city.
Positioning of The Hague as a “City of Peace and Justice” is conducted not only at the
international, but also at the local level. There are held the Movies that Matter Festival and the
International Parade of Flags as well as events organized by the Humanity House, increasing the
understanding of disasters and conflicts which affected millions of people and inspiring
inhabitants or people visiting The Hague to appreciate peace in the world by assembling lectures,
exhibitions, debates, film evenings and other activities. A remarkable role plays today The
Hague Peace and Justice Project, which assists maintaining the unique positioning of The Hague
as a “City of Peace and Justice” by founding The Hague talks and running it not only in the city

31
but also abroad in such cities as Vienna, Geneva and even outside of Europe, for instance, in
Tokyo, Beijing, New York, Cape Town and Nairobi. In addition, a few years ago it was decided
to organize Just Peace Festival annually, in honor of the U.N. International Day of Peace which
lasts 5 days during which The Hague citizens and visitors can participate in and attend a number
of activities such as sport events like Peace Run and Rally, various concerts, exhibitions and also
visit such world-wide renowned institutions as the Peace Palace, OPCW, Permanent Court of
Arbitration (PCA), ICJ, ICC, Eurojust and several tribunals which accomplish extremely
important duties behind closed doors and once a year provide a unique chance to see their work
from the inner perspective.
Participants of the branding process emphasized that identity of The Hague was not
difficult to decide upon due to the historically determined unique characteristics of the city such
as the presence of numerous peace and justice institutions, courts and tribunals:

“…courts and tribunals, they defined the role of The Hague as a “City of Peace and
Justice", including the Peace Palace and the International Court of Justice inside the
Palace. If they are not here, the city would never be the “City of Peace and Justice”…
about more than 150 NGOs are here not because they like the city but because they’re
linked to the bigger courts and tribunals or the other organizations …”

“We have the Peace Palace and other institutions which come here in The Hague. We
have the ICJ and ICC and we have all the courts on the topics that were in Africa.
Looking at what happens in the world for these topics – you look in The Hague…”

Brand-makers claim that the brand is a natural reflection of the DNA of the city, which
started to form with the first Peace Conventions of 1899 and 1907 initiated by Russian Czar
Nikolas II and with the erection of the Peace Palace in 1913, which determined unique trajectory
in which the city continues to develop today:

“The identity of the brand is what the brand says: The Hague is the “International City
of Peace and Justice”, “Legal Capital of the World”. For example, Afghanistan
Conference: there is nowhere else where it should take place and that’s why it takes
place in The Hague. That’s what makes The Hague special in the world: here people are
working every day to make the world just, a bit more peaceful than it was yesterday,
that there is no war.”

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 In order to see how the identity of the brand is being perceived by the target group of the
brand and if their perceptions about the brand are consistent with the vision of the brand-makers,
during the interviews representatives of the international organizations were asked to define
identity of “City of Peace and Justice”. It can be concluded that identity was easy to describe by
all the respondents and that it is compatible with the brand-makers’ views:

“For me identity is in the name itself - “City of Peace and Justice”. That they are
striving to make city known as a place where discussions and actions in the aim of
establishing peace and justice the world over take place.”

Respondents also stressed that identity of the brand is not superficial. It is based on the
actions which the city and the institutions in the city have performed through the years:

“Identity of the brand is based on actual achievements of international organizations

which are working together for more just world.”

“It’s (The Hague) famous for the international tribunals and peace agreements and if
there is somewhere worldwide an international conflict, it will be solved in The Hague
and justice will take place…”

Analysis of the documents as well as perceptions of the brand-makers and target group of
the brand - international organizations - revealed that the brand has a clearly defined identity
which is recognized by the target group as important and advantageous for the city.

4.1.2. Peace Palace as an Iconic Building

Cities differentiate themselves by emphasizing distinctive features they possess, such as

physical objects which can become icons, what happened in the cases of Paris with its Eiffel
Tower, Opera House in Sydney and like. The iconic building of The Hague is the Peace Palace
foundation of which in 1913 became a result of the The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907.
The Peace Palace became a basis for the formation of the identity of the brand and was
mentioned by vast majority of respondents who however were also associating the brand with
the courts and institutions linked to the peace and justice theme, “united by the common goal and
conduct joint efforts to achieve peace and justice”.

33
 “In fact the Peace Palace was the first international organization here in The Hague that
attracted many many others and that’s exactly why the city tries to use the Peace Palace
or the façade of the Peace Palace as the image, the icon, the center of The Hague – “City
of Peace and Justice”

“I think the identity of the city is determined by the Peace Palace because it was the first
building and it’s the only real historical building which was really built for this reason.
The Peace Palace is really the heart of The Hague - “City of Peace and Justice”

“When it comes to iconic buildings it would have to be of course the Peace Palace. It’s
the oldest if I’m not mistaken structure here in The Hague that had a deliberate focus on
the notion of establishing peace in the world.”

The Peace Palace is recognized as a significant element in the formation of the image of
the city which determined the identity of the brand “City of Peace and Justice” and which was
also discovered to be one of the first associations which people have about the city and the
brand.

4.1.3. Associations

Associations which the brand triggers are important because they can play a decisive role
in convincing the actor to choose the product. The city is willing to attract certain target groups
with the brand causing positive associations which make the target groups regard the city as
different from other cities and be the best possible choice for the realization of their interests.
The branding campaign is striving to position The Hague as the “City of Peace and Justice”
which due to its unique role is capable of making a difference in the world. Thus, the brand “City
of Peace and Justice” is also the key positioning message which the city is conveying to internal
and external audiences and which the city is proud to hold. According to the City Marketing
Vision 2011-2015 positioning message has to “become a rock-solid, inalienable” and enhance
recognition of the city both in The Netherlands and abroad. City Marketing Vision 2011-2015
also states that The Hague should represent and create associations such as “diplomacy,
international law, justice, safety and conflict resolution without violence”. Another set of
associations includes the Peace Palace which has also become an iconic building, courts,
tribunals, embassies and peace and justice institutions in which thousands of people every day
dedicate themselves to working for the world peace.
34
 Thus, respondents were asked to express the first associations which come into their mind
when they hear the brand “City of Peace and Justice”. Majority of respondents were addressing
to the uniqueness of the city with regards to the Peace Palace and organizations which are
located in the city and activities which these organizations perform. It was outlined that presence
of these peace and justice institutions is undoubtedly something what makes the city special:

“First of all - the Peace Palace and the role it has played throughout history. Second -
there is a number of UN but also other multilateral agencies based here and which
promote peace and justice. And third, I think, the position of the Netherlands being a
country which has always had highest standards of the universal human rights…”

“I think about the Peace Palace and the International Criminal Court. …if we didn’t
have those, we wouldn’t have “City of Peace and Justice”, I believe.”

“My association is of course the Peace Palace and I think that “City of Peace and
Justice” is a one way for the city to get known internationally.”

Several respondents stressed that the brand it important for the city and that “it
distinguishes The Hague from other cities” and that the “Peace and Justice” component in the
brand name “is a unique selling point”. According to the representative of one of the
international organizations, this is the reason why NGOs and IGOs from elsewhere have
headquarters or at least a small brunch in The Hague, which can be considered as “a big
playground for the international peace and justice”.

“It’s the only “City of Peace and Justice” in the world and that’s it, the legal capital of
the world.”

To conclude, the strongest associations which representatives of the target group of the
brand named were the Peace Palace, international institutions working in the peace and justice
sphere, as well as courts and tribunals based in the city in which people are working daily to
ensure more secure and just world. Another point to be stated is that all the respondents were
emphasizing more or less homogeneous associations mentioning different aspects of the peace
and justice theme, what could however be influenced by the fact that respondents are personally
involved in this sphere and associate the city with it. Also, there is a concern that due to the fact
that there were studied perceptions of only one target group – international organizations –
whose judgements could be biased due to the specifics of their work, results of the study of
35
associations cannot be generalized. Study of associations of such target groups as residents,
tourist and business sectors are required to attain comprehensive insight.

4.1.4. Personality of The Hague Brand

In one of the questions during the interviews respondents were asked to describe The
Hague if it would be a person. Although the question turned out to be unexpected and hard to
answer for majority of the interviewees, provided answers helped to realize that the perception of
the city by the representatives of organizations fits with the features The Hague city marketing
strategy aims to promote. In addition, presented personality descriptions were recognized quite
homogeneous even though the scopes of activities of interviewed organizations differ
considerably. So, the idea behind the brand and the message are perceived equally for instance
by such organizations as the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, Center for the
International Legal Cooperation and the Hague Academy for Local Governance.
It was discovered that The Hague would be a person of integrity, fairness, high morals and
ideals. This person definitely must be a professional in what he or she is doing, be reliable,
knowledgeable and experienced. Interviewees explained that they see an open person, very
international, very energetic, welcoming but at the same time modest, patient and having realistic
expectations. Respondents noted that patience would be very important trait of character as
“peace and justice work is not today, it is always long term”, for instance some court cases in the
ICC and ICJ can take many years to be solved. It was also stated multiple times that this should
be a person above everything having a balanced helicopter view on what is going on, but at the
same time be with both feet on the ground. In addition, several interviewees stressed that they
would find The Hague a little bit of a dull person, especially in comparison to other Dutch cities,
which has more an image of a grey civil servant city. However, overall, mentioned by the
respondents personality descriptions can be considered as very positive and fitting to the
message which the brand “City of Peace and Justice” is conveying.

4.1.5. Message

The aim of the brand is to strengthen the image of The Hague as a city in which it is
pleasant to live, work, study and interesting and welcoming to visit. Also, with the international
focus of the brand the city is positioned as an attractive place for multinational companies and
logical place for the international organizations to be based especially those specializing in peace
36
and justice due to the past of the city which is tightly connected to peace and justice topics and
also the opportunities which vast network of international organizations in the city opens.
According to the City Branding Approach 2020, if international organizations want to play an
important role in the world, they should be located in The Hague, which is becoming
increasingly famous for its courts, non-governmental organizations, knowledge institutions and
in the last years started to be a place where world leaders meet and high-profile events take
place.
One of the respondents noted that the brand assists to convey the notion of permanence to
the ideal of peace and justice:

“…before the ICC was established the prospects for attaining justice for victims of
international crimes like genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity were limited,
and certainly there was not a sense of resounding permanence to it because you had ad
hoc tribunals like the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or the International
Tribunal for Rwanda which were temporary mechanisms. You have some investigations
and prosecutions at the national level but maybe no sense of real permanence that the
notion of ending impunity for these crimes is something that we all need to endeavor to
ensure has a permanent footing. The branding of the city of The Hague as a “City of
Peace and Justice” adds more weight to this notion of the permanence.”

Message which the brand transfers to external audiences is positive. Since 2016, the brand
also has particular messages for other target groups: residents, tourists, companies and students.
For inhabitants, The Hague is hospitable, safe, green and clean city where there are various
cultural activities are organized and which is located near the sea with its famous resort
Scheveningen perfect for spending enjoyable leisure time. Also, The Hague is a city which can
offer various career opportunities in the biggest companies like Shell and Siemens, tourism
sector and international IGOs and NGOs, working on peace and justice every day. Students,
coming to The Hague to study will find high quality education and chance to get a valuable
career experience in numerous organizations based in the city. As City Marketing Vision 2011-
2015 claims, for people who are eager to make a career in peace and justice, the name of The
Hague is very important and even a “must” on the resumes.
Branding of the city focuses on improvement and strengthening of city image and
reputation both internally, increasing engagement of citizens and cooperation between
professionals and international organizations and externally, attracting more business activity,
international institutions, conferences and high-profile events.

37
 To sum up, the positioning of The Hague as the “City of Peace and Justice” traces far back
as the first Peace Convention in 1899, which determined the future development of the city,
which today asserts its global reputation through the activities of the Peace Palace, courts,
tribunals, organizations, conferences as well as other events and activities. According to the City
Marketing Approach 2020, The Hague is unmistakably perceived internationally as “a symbol
for justice and the hope for peace”, which continues to defend this position today more than ever
before to enforce and protect the identity of the brand “City of Peace and Justice” according to
the needs and preferences of the main target groups.

4.2. Market Research and Brand Creation

Marketing of cities in the Netherlands started decades in the past with the establishment of
touristic information offices (VVV) in several Dutch cities 125 years ago. These days The Hague
is implementing a rather ambitious city branding strategy. The idea for the creation of the brand
appeared after the introduction of the results of the city report in 2005 which made the
municipality realize that the city is rather weak in the external representation and that the image
of the city in the international arena has to be immediately strengthened (Heeley 2011, p. 140),
especially taking into consideration the goal of the city to attract as many international
organizations and foreign investments to the area as possible. Another thing that the report
revealed is that the people living in The Hague are not proud of their city and even view it as
boring. This report became a starting point for the Municipality of The Hague to start thinking
about the development of the city brand. Actors participating in the branding process in 2006
noted that development of the brand was necessary for the city:

“Most important was that a lot of people did not know what’s going on in The Hague.
Also, a lot of people thought it was quite of a boring city and what we wanted is to
make sure that everybody would better know what was going on…”

In 2006 The Hague City Council realizing the urgency for the enhancement of the city
image and consequently city brand creation, established a position of the Alderman for City
Marketing, International Affairs, ICT and the City Center. It was the first time in the history of
the Netherlands when there was appointed a Deputy Mayor responsible for marketing of the city
what signified that branding of The Hague was considered as serious policy issue (Heeley 2011,
p. 142). Within the Municipality of The Hague there was organized Bureau City Branding

38
accountable for the promotion of The Hague, development of the branding strategy and its
implementation. Back then city of The Hague did not have official brand and it was the time to
make a choice what kind of brand that would be and which goals it will pursue. The original idea
came from the city itself and it was implemented by the City Hall and its department Bureau City
Branding:

“About 10 years ago we looked at a couple of other cities in the world: Antwerp, New
York, Vienna, London. And we said: “Okay, we must have a focus!” and also the local
government said that it is very important that people have one feeling if they think about
the city. We started with an ambition, we started with a vision and most important is
that all important people in the city said that’s it’s the right choice…”

Looking at the winning characteristics of the city it was decided to build up the image of
the U.N. second city, which is a home to such unique and important institutions as The Peace
Palace in which International Court of Justice and Permanent Court of Arbitration are based, the
International Criminal Court (ICC), Eurojust, Europol, Organization for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and various tribunals, such as for instance the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as well as the city’s international zone
where a growing number of international organizations prefer having their headquarters rather
than in any other city.
In 2006 the first market research was conducted to find out perceptions of the residents
about the city and their opinion about which important characteristics should be stated in the
future brand concept to display the city correctly from the local perspective:

“It (market research) was done and that’s why we knew what we needed, what
people were thinking of The Hague, what was strong about The Hague and also what
were the weaknesses of the city.”

There were several most positive, strong and unique associations and images determined
which were frequently mentioned during the market research. There were also main target
groups indicated in order to make the right decision of what kind of brand it should be. Thus, in
2006 the target audience of the brand was indicated as follows: The Hague residents, non-
governmental organizations and companies, students and visitors of The Hague.
Brand-makers point to the fact that back in 2006 there were emphasized various
characteristics of The Hague such as a sport city, city of peace, justice and security, city near the

39
sea, royal city and so on, but decision was made to focus only on one thing, something what
makes The Hague special, unique and distinguishes from other cities.

“You always have to look what’s there and then you make a choice. There wasn’t the
Peace Palace anywhere else in the world, it was in The Hague. So it was not very hard
to make a decision that we should promote The Hague as a “City of Peace and
Justice”…”

“…it was “City of Peace, Justice and Security” but then security was actually dropped
because if you brand a city and say that it’s a “City of Security” you actually say that
it’s a secure city and that’s not a thing you want to promote. Cause whenever something
happens in a city a lot of people will say it’s not a secure city. “Peace and justice”
sounded stronger and it’s maybe about justice of course cause of international courts
and tribunals and organizations… it’s not really peacemaking, its more justice making
and making justice you really reach peace.”

“I always said that if you try to make everything than you are nothing in the end, so
that was why I said: “…we have to make a choice!” And so we did.”

Thus, “City of Peace and Justice” became official brand of The Hague representing unique
characteristics of the city and desired image consistent with the city and beliefs of stakeholders.
International profile of the city was emphasized in the brand of The Hague, city with a number
of international organizations such as Eurojust, The Hague Security Delta, OPCW, Europol and
like, with its International Zone, Embassies, several important for the world, influential, and
famous Courts and Tribunals. Brand-makers were also stating that the brand appeared naturally
and was already representing the city and used before especially after The Hague being called by
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations “Legal capital of the
world”.
There was a logo for the brand developed in 2006 – The Kite, which was designed by the
resident of The Hague, renowned film maker and photographer Anton Korbijn. The aim of
original logo was to reinforce the brand and was intended to be used in official events and
whenever it is relevant.

This section described and analyzed two important branding strategies: market research
and brand creation and development. City branding theory states that market research is crucial
before the creation of the brand and the more carefully perceptions of the target group about the
40
city are studied, the more successful the brand will be. It can be outlined, that according to the
brand-makers the branding strategy “Market research” was not very seriously implemented back
in 2006, because The Hague already obtained international status of the “Legal Capital of the
World” and “City of Peace and Justice”, therefore the brand can be considered emerging
naturally out of the city identity and then through market research it got support of stakeholder
groups by finding out that their perceptions are more or less homogenous and will be consistent
with the brand. Creation of official brand therefore was determined by the identity of the city and
emphasized its unique position of being an international center of excellence in peace and
justice. The identity of the brand is detailed and clear and was easy to define by the
representatives of the international organizations - target group of the brand.

4.3. Stakeholder Involvement

Klijn et al. (2012) claim, that branding of cities is being conducted by a variety of different
actors who are crucial for the success of the brand. Although, as a rule, these actors are having
different perceptions about the brand and different views on which characteristics of the city
should be promoted and how, stakeholders are extremely beneficial for the branding process
because they have vital resources and special knowledge which can be used for the brand
promotion what will lead to an increase in loyalty towards the brand and better performance.
Branding process of The Hague as a “City of Peace and Justice” can be considered as highly
interactive and brand-makers are largely dependent on the city stakeholders and were fostering
their participation at different stages of the branding process from market research during the
brand planning process, brand construction and development to maintenance and rebranding.

“Today we are more than ever go with the brand of The Hague to the partners in the
city…It is very important to talk to stakeholders because we must speak with one mouth
about the brand of the city.”

According to brand-makers, branding activities are being performed through consultancy

and advisory with important city stakeholders to know better their needs, values, interests and
expectations about the brand of The Hague. Actors responsible for The Hague brand “City of
Peace and Justice” are convinced that ceaseless stakeholder involvement is very important and
beneficial for the branding process, for instance enhancement of participation of the international
organizations helped to create the brand “City of Peace and Justice” to which a number of

41
organizations in The Hague are loyal and have a good feeling about it. Also more and more
organizations are eager to move their headquarters to The Hague in the last a few years, as they
feel the belonging and opportunities which can be open for them: to have access to one of the
largest networks of international organizations working for peace and justice in the world, to
organizations in this network and information.
Participants of the branding process noted that it is very important for them to involve
international organizations in the branding process and have a closer contact with them. For this
reason there were organized meetings with marketing and communications professionals from
the international organizations present in the city to find out their perceptions about the brand,
how they see it, how important it is for them and how it could be improved. Brand makers
concluded that there are a lot of efforts being put into engagement with the international
organizations, because they define the identity of the brand and convey image and reputation of
the city to internal and external audiences.

“Because they (international organizations) are the representatives of “City of Peace

and Justice” themselves, they make this positioning come true.”

Better understanding of perceptions of the international organizations towards the brand

will allow to change communication strategy according to their preferences and interests what
will lead to higher levels of satisfaction and loyalty and consequently willingness of
organizations to stay in The Hague. Cooperation with the international organizations will not
only help to create a more effective brand, having clearer concept and more efficiently fulfilling
its functions, but will also expand the network of The Hague institutions as more organizations
will be willing to start working in The Hague taking into account opportunities the city can
suggest. It is a long term process which is very important for the city. The number of
organizations in The Hague is slowly growing also due to the conditions created for the
organizations and reputation of the city, it is a long term goal of the brand as organizations stay
in the city for years and also tend to expand.
The difficulties which the brand-makers ascribed to the process of involvement of the
international organizations in the branding of The Hague were that there is a big fluctuation of
people within the international organizations what makes it hard to control the process. In
addition, international organizations in The Hague are as a rule closed institutions dealing with
serious and very specific issues that they due to their workload find it hard to have constant
contact with the representatives of Bureau City Branding. Also, Bureau itself has a limited

42
capacity and consists of 4 to 5 people who have to work with more than 160 organizations in the
city.

“So we worked with the Peace Palace but also with the ICJ, ICC, Europol, OPCW,
which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 ….although their main interest was not to
promote The Hague but just to do their job. They are very strict organizations, they are
courts and tribunals and really serious, so The Hague brand “City of Peace and Justice”
wasn’t in their biggest interest but in the last a couple of years they are really more keen
on working together.”

Another point which was stated by brand-makers is that in the last years the brand “City of
Peace and Justice” getting more and more awareness and recognition and that reputation of The
Hague is really improving and being associated very positively and strongly with peace and
justice theme that some institutions and events feel that they have to be in this city and that it will
be good for them to show that they are based in The Hague. Therefore several organizations in
the last years moved their headquarters to The Hague, for instance Amnesty International,
because they feel that it will be more beneficial and easier for them to realize their interests being
based in the city which name is a synonym to “peace and justice”.

“Initiative grows in The Hague because we are The Hague, it is not initiative of the
city marketing. We are now in the period when people come to us and ask: “Please can
you help us, because it belongs or happens in your city…”

“We have a Red Cross, Humanity House and they said 7-8 years ago that there is only
one place where they belong and it is The Hague. It was the former mayor of The Hague
who said that we need to work to get more institutes and at that time we got Europol,
OPCW, ICC…”

Another point to be stated is that brand-makers were working a lot with the Peace Palace –
iconic building for the world peace and justice - to organize different events in order to promote
the brand both to guests of the city via mainly Visitor’s Center and provided there Audio and
Walking Tours and to locals, enhancing their participation in the events organized in the city on
peace and justice topic.
Apart from involving the international organizations and events, which “belong to The
Hague” and contribute to the branding of the city as a “City of Peace and Justice” brand-

43
managers put a lot of efforts into developing relationship with the The Hague Campus of Leiden
University offering study programs with a focus on public administration, law, political science,
sociology, cyber security, international affairs and diplomacy in which The Hague institutions
specialize and the city is being known off. Leiden University became an important stakeholder in
2009 with the establishment of a small campus which is today developing in the direction of a
small university:

“The Mayor Mr. Deetman saw a big city without the university and in the neighborhood
there is a university (Leiden University) with a content directly related to the city,
looking at the government sphere, public administration, ministries, peace
bureaucrats…University people came to an idea: “…why don’t we transfer the parts of
University which are directly related to The Hague to The Hague?”. And that’s what
happened.”

According to the representative of Leiden University, such cooperation between the city
and Leiden University is very beneficial for the University because it is now being recognized by
students together with the profile of the city.

“Internationally it is very important for the University and very important for the
city. Everybody knows that Leiden University is in The Hague with a distance of 20 km
so it is not a problem for the Dutch students to go to Leiden and work in The Hague but
for international students the name of The Hague is much bigger than the name of
Leiden. So, it helps University to get more international students and it helps the city of
The Hague to become more famous in the world.”

The city of The Hague considers extremely important to foster relationship with the
University and contribute to its expansion to increase the chances of The Hague to become an
important student city also with The Hague University of Applied Sciences and Hotelschool,
suggesting one of the best courses in Hotel Management in the world. Definitely it will be hard
for The Hague Campus to compete with other world famous and providing high quality
education Dutch universities, but both brand-makers and representatives of Leiden University
are convinced that they will find their consumer due to the unique city characteristics and
opportunities which are opening for students, who can get genially international experience in
institutions working on peace and justice in The Hague.

44
 To sum up, branding process of The Hague as a “City of Peace and Justice” is considered
to have an interactive character and brand-makers endeavor to involve various stakeholders in
the city from international organizations to museums and hotels because in their opinion
involvement of such actors is crucial for the brand success. Cooperation within The Hague
branding process is recognized to be beneficial both for the stakeholders providing them with for
instance access to officials and information and also for the city, improving its image and
reputation and allowing to create a more effective brand answering to the needs and preferences
of the target groups.

4.4. Brand Communication

When identity of the brand is being constructed and the main values are defined,
communication of the brand message to the target audiences starts. The clearer the brand
identity, the more effectively the brand can influence perceptions of the target groups and defend
winning characteristics of the city. Brand “City of Peace and Justice” communication strategy is
being decided and implemented by Bureau City Branding and Municipal Department of
International Affairs which plays a role of a liaison between the city and international
organizations. One of the first things which was decided already back in 2006 was that
promotion and communication of the brand “City of Peace and Justice” will be implemented
“mainly through activities and events and not huge campaign”. Brand makers and also
representatives of the international organizations think that branding of The Hague is being
executed in a modest manner and aims mostly at the international public and not local. In
addition, participants of the branding process stated that communication of the brand is an
ongoing process which has to be constantly managed and which takes years to see the results.

“Cause you have to feel it and defend it as well and not just say we are this and this
and this all the time.”

Although there was no campaign about the “City of Peace and Justice”, information about
the brand after 2009 became available to both internal and external audiences, transmitting the
main ideas and values for which the brand was standing for:

45
 “…we set up the website thehaguepeacejustice.com and a new brochure. We started
working on those in 2010-2011 so we were really asking ourselves: “What is the city of
peace and justice? What does it mean?”

“We made sure that all the information was found and that website was there and
brochures, but not really actively saying that we will make commercials on that. There
were videos and presentations about peace and justice but not really pushing it or
advertising.”

It was also emphasized that promotion of The Hague as a “City of Peace and Justice” is
important not only for the city but also for the Netherlands:

“The prime minister Mark Rutte really wanted to get the theme “Peace and Justice”
not only for The Hague but also for Holland branding. That it’s not only a country of
water, tulips but also of peace and justice. So, there was a joint effort in promoting the
city internationally…”

 Events

Communication of the brand was primarily focusing on the attraction of events and getting
conferences. Participants of the branding process noted high importance of such events as the
Nuclear Security Summit in 2014 and conferences like the Global Conference on Cyberspace in
2015, which are considered as a great opportunity to promote the “City of Peace and Justice” to
the world press and media, but mainly through PR and not through paid commercials.

“We had a strategy mainly businesslike for positioning of The Hague internationally,
so we were working with international PR agencies … but not with specific TV
companies. Of course we had a press officer as well, and in the last couple of years we
were really trying to get an international press officer within the city of The Hague and
finally succeeded.”

Moreover, brand-makers stated that the city attracts more and more events due to its
positioning as a “City of Peace and Justice”, as they feel that the values which the city promotes
fit to the concept of their event. For instance, “Movies That Matter” film festival moved to The
Hague a few years ago, because its concept matches identity of the city.

46
 “Movies That Matter” which were for more than 20 years in Amsterdam…but they
said that the Festival belongs to the city.”

This Festival presents “truth-loving” films on human rights from those produced by
famous movie corporations to documentaries created with limited financial resources. “Movies
That Matter” became a part of Just Peace Festival held in The Hague due to the strong message it
is conveying, giving an insight into human rights abuse topic in different countries and choosing
films which not only focus on problems but also on solutions.
Brand-makers concluded that in the last years The Hague is becoming increasingly popular
place where more and more events which communicate the brand of The Hague are being held:
from high-profile events where world leaders come to negotiate to small festivals attempting to
attract attention to serious issues at the municipal level.

 International Organizations

Also, communication strategy implies contact with the international organizations in order
to work together and organize events which will promote The Hague as a “City of Peace and
Justice” not artificially but providing access to the principal sources of brand identity: the Peace
Palace and international institutions. Demonstration of what is happening behind the closed
doors helps to promote what organizations in The Hague are doing and also generate
international interest to the story of The Hague.

“International organizations they are not in public and you cannot visit them with a
few exceptions so we really wanted to open up these international organizations. In
2010 we had the first International Open Day, so then all the international organizations
were open. There was the main thing in the beginning to work together with them: we
wanted them to open their doors and show the public what they do and make it as
entertaining and fun and interesting as possible. It was sometimes hard to do because in
some cases they just showed a Power Point presentation. But in the last a couple of
years they were making more.”

Also brand-makers are willing to represent international institutions based in The Hague in
a more interactive, entertaining and interesting way. For this reason, there were conducted many
interviews and were made a lot of pictures not only of the buildings, but also trying to get people
in these pictures.

47
 “Before 2010 all the commutations about the international organizations we just
pictures of buildings and descriptions of what these organizations are doing and this was
quite boring. That’s not something that people get really enthusiastic about, so we
started to work on who are these people who are working there and what drives them to
work in the international organizations. So we conducted interviews with judges but
also with a guy who maintains the garden of the Peace Palace, what did he see, what did
he experience… We created those stories and then we wanted to show the result of their
work in The Hague and in the world. What is the result of this court case and what has it
done in the world. So just to make it more empathetic…”

During the interviews representatives of the international organizations were asked to tell
in what way the brand was communicated to them, but unfortunately due to the limited amount
of organizations which were interrogated (7) only one of them could actually conclude that they
had a contact with the representatives of Bureau City Branding concerning the brand, firstly
regarding development of the brand concept in 2015 (consultancy) and secondly communication
about the Brandbook:

“I got an email. Here is the Brandbook, you can download photos, texts. Also, I’ve
been to the launch of the Brandbook. I would say that promotion was at the minimum
level.”

Unfortunately, research of the communication strategy towards the international

organizations was not possible to study in more details as the brand-makers dealing with the
promotion of the brand to the international organizations did not have an opportunity for an
interview as well as representatives of the Department of the International Affairs.

 Role of The Hague Peace and Justice Project

An important role in the communication of The Hague brand plays Peace and Justice
Project initiated by the Municipality of The Hague and The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
Netherlands, which aim is to enhance reputation of The Hague and The Netherlands “as center of
excellence in peace and justice” (de Beer and van Buitenen 2016). The project strives to connect
“the deep legal understanding of the peace and justice within the many organizations in The
Hague on the one hand with student, journalist, and NGO networks, and affected communities
48
on the other hand.” (Ibid, p. 1). The aim of the project is to engage various stakeholder groups
such as Dutch Government entities, IGOs, NGOs, Knowledge Institutions, Private sector and
journalists and their organizations and serves as a coordinator and connector among them:

“…it’s more than a city, more than a municipality, we position it really as an icon, and
it’s effective so we see it more and more in news and we see it more and more as if it’s
about peace and justice …”

The Project organizes various events and activities based on dialogues in order not only to
brand the municipality but also stakeholders of the city, the country as a whole and also
international law which is not always seen positive around the world.

“…if you go to Africa for example and say: “I’ll send you to The Hague”, that’s not
the municipality there, the nice beaches and so on … it’s The International Criminal
Court, so The Hague has a negative connotation there, and what we want is a positive
connotation with The Hague.”

Thus, the Project explains the role of The Hague and why it is called the “Legal capital of
the world” in the places where there city obtained bad reputation because of, for instance, the
International Criminal Court cases, and tries to change it into more positive.

“…the goal is always to brand positively, so where it is negative we try to explain …

sometimes you can’t immediately change minds about it, but politics also plays a role…
at least you can try to give more information, background information, where it came
from, how the procedures work and so on … so there’s more understanding about it,
which can help of course at the end with the positive branding of the city.”

There are activities organized by the Project which add value to the positioning of the city
and also of the stakeholders who pursue similar with the city goals. In order to foster
collaboration between the city and stakeholders there are being arranged peace and justice visits,
training and learning programs for young legal professionals and journalists and public dialogues
in terms of international conferences, governmental meetings and negotiations such as the
Nuclear Security Summit in 2014 (de Beer and van Buitenen 2016). Activities organized by the
Project are presented in the table below.

49
 Table 3: The Hague Peace and Justice Project: Activities, Target Groups and Objectives

№ Activity Primary Target Groups Objectives

1 Peace and Justice  decision makers  improvement of the reputation of the

visits  influential Netherlands
 Dutch diplomatic  increase in the level of contacts with
missions the administration
2 Event driven  Dutch diplomatic  gatherings within the international
dialogues missions events can spur change, when decision
 multilateral makers, representatives of NGOs and
governmental academics come together to have
organizations discussions on peace, justice and
 knowledge intuitions security topics
3 Learning and  knowledge institutions  provision of information about the
training  affected local activities performed in The Hague by
communities tribunals, courts and NGOs from
 international students different perspectives
 professionals  international peace and justice
 journalists and bloggers experience exchange

 academics  influence on peace and justice reporting

(strive for balance, there is no universal
truth in peace and justice)
4 Innovative  influentials  high profile dialogues on peace and
dialogues  decision-makers justice
(Hague Talks,  academics  creation of visibility of the activities
Cartoon Contest)  professionals performed by the international
 students organizations

 embassies  international legal order promotion

According to de Beer and van Buitenen (2016) activities organized by the Project improve
reputation and increase visibility of the city in the international arena due to the joined efforts of
stakeholders. Such positioning of the city leads to the recognition by the international institutions
the value of being in The Hague. Therefore the municipality in the coming years is expecting the
total number of NGOs based in the city to double (Ibid, p. 6). Brand-managers recognize the
importance of the Hague Project for the positioning of the city and therefore are eager to
organize various events together, like for instance annual Just Peace Festival, or render their
support for Hague Talks sessions.
50
 City Residents

Communication of the brand to the inhabitants of The Hague is being implemented mostly
via Just Peace Festival, which is held annually since 2014 every September to celebrate the U.N.
International Day of Peace and which suggests to locals a very rich program of activities to
attend or participate from sport events to exhibitions and concerts. For instance, in 2016 the
Festival of Peace and Justice will last 5 days and will offer to the visitors to attend the “World
Press Photo”, “Flags of Peace”, “Save the Children” and “Enter World of a Refugee”
exhibitions, masterclass in international negotiating, Peace Rally and Peace Run. Moreover,
visitors will get a unique opportunity to visit and get to know about the operation of ICTY,
Courts (ICC, ICJ, PCA) and organizations (OPCW, Eurojust and so on) and take part in many
other activities linked to the peace and justice theme, allowing to experience personally how
people have to survive in the area where armed conflicts occur, and contributing to a deeper
understanding of the necessity for the universal peace. Considering that peace and justice
institutions in The Hague are working behind the closed doors and deal with very specific and
requiring professional knowledge issues, the importance of Just Peace Festival cannot be
underestimated. This is really the chance for the people living in The Hague or visiting the city
to realize the importance of the activities which the institutions perform and see how worldwide
influential organizations are working. The Program of the Festival is expanding every year to
engage more citizens and foster their comprehension of the role of The Hague for the peace
worldwide and pride of being a citizen of the “City of Peace and Justice”.
It was also stated that these days both the City Council and people in The Hague realize
importance of the brand and necessity to work on it, but not just enhancing support but also
creating more opportunities to prove the reputation and image of the “City of Peace and Justice”.

“…not just promoting it, but also creating infrastructure. So, more places, more
conference rooms, more meeting places, more conferences in The Hague to this
subject.”

It was noticed that communication of the brand to the inhabitants of the city is rather
limited and there are no activities except for the Just Peace Festival are organized to promote the
brand. Similar opinion was also expressed by the interviewed representatives of the international
organizations, who stated that speaking on behalf of the residents of the city they do not feel the
brand to be promoted.
51
 “…local people don’t know what all the institutions are about, they don’t know what
is going on in the Peace Palace and they don’t feel involved in these particular subjects,
so I think there is a lot of work to do for the Municipality but also for the institutions
themselves to gain more support from local ordinary people, from school children to
become more involved with the subjects that are so important for the international
community. Because I don’t think that they feel that. I don’t think that they are aware of
it as much as they should be.”

Thus, it can be stated that the communication strategy towards the residents of The Hague
has to be improved and enriched with more activities and events to encourage involvement of
citizens and their connection to and understanding of the brand “City of Peace and Justice”.

 Students

In terms of the communication strategy of The Hague brand “City of Peace and Justice”
there are a lot of activities being organized for students in order to promote The Hague brand.
For instance, students can become participants of summer schools on international criminal law,
advocacy, human rights, children rights and other topics, courses for professionals, lectures with
renowned people in peace and justice theme. Also, students have a chance to attend Hague
Talks, where very famous people like Nobel Prize winners talking on world important issues.
Brand-managers are convinced that The Hague “brings a lot of things apart from the studies” and
they strive to create more opportunities for students and engage them in various activities.

“So we have organized by the local government and municipality a world class in
which students from the University and De Haagse Hogeschool are able now to attend
courses and lectures from people from the United Nations who visit The Hague for
meeting or whatever and they give a course or a lecture for 2-3 hours. Students are
eager to be there, to get information and to get connected to these institutions. That’s
why these institutions in the city are very important.”

“Hague Talks is a beautiful example of how several groups living in the city work
together. It is from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and students who work together in
Hague Talks. It has everything to do with peace and justice. It is looking for the right
DNA of peace and justice.”

52
 Brand-makers emphasize that communication of the brand to the students is important
because they are really open to new opportunities which the city suggests. In addition, especially
international students are enthusiastic and willing to participate in various events promoting
peace and justice. Moreover, engagement of students can have positive effect on the image of the
city, because if they are satisfied with the experience they got in The Hague they start acting as
city ambassadors, promoting winning characteristics of the city, attracting more students, visitors
and also if they stay in The Hague and work in the international organizations they can improve
cooperation and enhance awareness of The Hague as the “City of Peace and Justice” in the
countries where they come from.

To conclude, this section illustrated that the brand is being promoted to various target
audiences from international organizations and high-profile events to residents and students as
well as internationally in cooperation with The Hague Peace and Justice Project, taking into
account specific characteristics, needs and preferences of each target group. Considering, limited
capacity of Bureau City Branding which is both developing and implementing communication
strategy, it can be stated that Bureau put a lot of efforts into the promotion of the brand to boost
its effectiveness, encourage recognition and increase support level of the target group.

4.5. Brand Maintenance: Assessment and Rebranding

4.5.1. Brand Performance Monitoring

As was stated earlier, maintenance of the brand is crucial because brands exist in unstable
environments and have to be constantly managed and adapted according to altering conditions in
order to fulfill their functions successfully. Brand of The Hague “City of Peace and Justice” was
established about ten years ago and therefore there was conducted monitoring and assessment of
the brand performance during these years in order to see the progress of the brand in the
achievement of its goals and alterations in perceptions of the target groups and how they were
affected by the brand communication efforts.

“If you brand something you always have to make sure that it’s still working, that’s
why we really pushed the idea of a Peace Museum not just promoting The Hague as a
“City of Peace and Justice”, when people cannot go anywhere and experience that. That
was very important. Also, different communication materials and updates of them. At
the moment we are working on the new website. Also, still to get as many events and
53
 international organizations to the city as possible and get them pressed to write about
it.”

Every two years there is conducted a brand research in the Netherlands and according to
the brand-makers awareness and popularity of the city is slowly rising, especially it was
noticeable after the Nuclear Security Summit in 2014. Assessment of the brand effectiveness is
being performed by the MotivAction Company having a great experience in the qualitative and
quantitative market research. They studied perceptions of the target audience of the brand both in
the Netherlands and in The Hague with regards to their belief that The Hague indeed lives up to
its position of “City of Peace and Justice” and also studied to what extent inhabitants of The
Hague are proud of their city and like. In addition, the number of international organizations was
measured, how it was changing throughout the years when the brand was developing and also
economic benefits for The Hague from positioning as a “City of Peace and Justice”. In the next
years participants of the branding process intend to study perceptions about and effects of the
brand also in the international level.

“Every two years we have a big national investigations in which we are looking at
different kinds of things like the idea which people have about the city. Every two years
there are the same questions so you can see the scores and so you know how the scores
develop and whether they develop in a positive or negative ways. We started big
investigation 7-8 years ago in the Netherlands and now we start those international.”

Brand-makers stated high importance of this branding strategy for the development of the
brand and achievement of its goals and concluded that in future more indicators for the
measurement of the brand performance have to be developed and regularly assessed.

4.5.2. Rebranding

The ideas about the rebranding of the city started to appear a few years ago, when during
performance monitoring it was revealed that the brand “City of Peace and Justice” is not
consistent with perceptions of the local population of the city and touristic sector, who claim that
“peace and justice” is not something what people really experience living or visiting the city, if
they are not personally involved in this theme. Also, several participants of the branding process
noted that they do not believe that the city can be defined just with one thing like “City of Peace
and Justice”. However, the brand was still evaluated as successful at attracting international

54
organizations, conferences and also students. Here are some of the reasons explained by the
participants of the branding process why the brand “City of Peace and Justice” was subject to
rebranding:

“City of Peace and Justice” gives a good feeling where people work together for a
better world, but for a couple of groups it’s not enough. So in the mindset of people it
was not clear why should they go on holiday to the “City of Peace and Justice”. We
realized that, we have eleven km of coast, we have a royal family living here and the
history of that, because it is very important that the identity of the city is the same as the
brand. Government is also more than 500 years located in The Hague so you see the
history, the buildings and they are the DNA of The Hague…”

“…for the inhabitants of The Hague and also for tourists it’s not something what you
really feel in the city. Of course we’ve got the Peace Palace and the international
organizations but it’s all behind closed doors.”

“…this was particularly my first meeting with the people from tourism sector, they
were saying to get rid of “City of Peace and Justice” … I think because they couldn’t
work with it, they had no benefit from it, they were not against this…but their story was
not really helped by it.”

“…you need support from the other people, you need buy-in from the people living in
the city or the companies located in the city to use this…those organizations that are
actually active in this field (peace and justice) actually do use it as far as I know, but I
don’t think you’ll find “City of Peace and Justice” on the website of Siemens which is
based in the Hague, why would they?!”

In 2015 there was made an official decision about the start of the rebranding and since then
a great deal of attention was devoted to the development of the new brand concept answering to
the needs of all target groups. There was identified a necessity for more flexibility of the brand
which will be equally appealing to different target groups. The main feature which was not
reflected in the brand before was that the inner city center is very close to the sea, where people
can go to the equipped beach “for a drink in the evening or for a walk”. Moreover, it was
emphasized that “there is no other European city which has a city center so close to the beach
and such a big beach, because its eleven kilometers”. Other distinctive characteristics of The
Hague which were not reflected in the brand before is that the city has a favorable environment
for the international companies to make their business, as well as that the government of the
55
Netherlands is based in The Hague (and city name is in fact for the Dutch people is a synonym to
government) and that the Royal family has always had its residence in the city. Rebranding
process of The Hague started in 2015 and proceeded as follows:

“…we organized many stakeholder meetings within the city… museum directors,
international companies, marketing directors, hotels… to create this brand and we
wanted to know what in their opinion makes The Hague unique and special if you look
at other cities, and how to brand it, and then also differentiation towards target groups.
We said: “If we don’t say “City of Peace and Justice” to tourists but what are we saying
then?” That’s how “City by the sea” came up. But also a lot of tourists come to see the
Peace Palace and it is interesting for tourists. So “City of Peace and Justice” cannot just
be businesslike but it can also be a tourist attraction.”

“…first work was an empty sheet and then we actually had a number of characteristics
that were mentioned a lot in those first sessions (meetings) and then there were those
which were the “city by the sea”, “peace and justice”, were also the royal dimensions of
The Hague, and … that it’s a government city, it’s a governmental city.”

Rebranding process was called “Brand The Hague” and identified five elements in which
the two main themes distinguishing the main characteristics of the city were “City of Peace and
Justice” and “City by the Sea” and supporting themes “Residence of the royal family with regal
allure”, “Seat of government” and “Leading companies and institutions”. So, the aim of the
rebranding was to represent various facets of the city to the outside world what will enhance the
image of the city and will attract target audience more effectively. Thus, there are also several
messages which the new brand concept is trying to convey. The two main messages position The
Hague as a U.N. city with a number of organizations, knowledge institutions, courts, tribunals,
attractive student city which rightfully obtained its reputation of the “Legal Capital of the
World”, which at the same time has a unique location by the sea, with its thriving historic city
center fifteen minutes away from the seaside resort, where one can take a break from the
cosmopolitan hustle. Supporting elements of the brand communicate the message that the Dutch
government as well as the royal family are based in The Hague, whose decisions affect the future
of the whole country every day. For these reason, international institutions and companies are
eager and should have their offices in The Hague if they want to expand their network, become
more influential and make a difference in the world. The ultimate goal of “Brand The Hague” is
to strengthen the image and reputation of the city and promote it in order to increase its
awareness and popularity among all target groups from tourists, residents and students to
56
international organizations, companies and conferences. Comparison of the branding strategies
“City of Peace and Justice” and “Brand The Hague” is presented in Table 4.

Table 4: “City of Peace and Justice” and “Brand The Hague”: Comparison

Approach “City of Peace and Justice” “Brand The Hague”

(2006-2015) (2016-2020)
Brand “City of Peace and Justice” Main: 1) “City of Peace and Justice”
Identity 2) “City by the sea”
Supporting:
3) “Leading companies and institutions”
4) “Seat of government”
5) “Residence of the royal family with
regal allure”
Key “The Hague is the international city of  The Hague is a city where “tens of
positioning peace and justice. Here, every day, tens thousands of people are working
of thousands of people jointly pursue a every day to build a more secure and
more peaceful, just and secure world. just world. People come to The
They work in around 160 organizations, Hague from every corner of the
hundreds of companies and various globe to work together to tackle
knowledge centres. And also in the global challenges. With the Peace
Peace Palace, the symbol of international Palace at the centre of it all, The
justice for more than 100 years. The Hague is truly the international city
Hague is the place where conflicts are of peace and justice.” (Source:
prevented and peacefully solved. It is, Brand The Hague 2016-2020)
furthermore, the host city for  “In The Hague, you’re never far
international conferences and a meeting from the sea.” (Source: Brand The
place for dialogue and debate. For Hague 2016-2020)
everyone; both now and in the future.”  “Many companies and institutions
(Source: viewed as world leaders are found in
www.thehaguepeacejustice.com) The Hague: from small to large,
from long established multinationals
to innovative start-ups…”( Source:
Brand The Hague 2016-2020)
 “The history of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands begins in The Hague.
Ever since, The Hague has been both

57
 the seat of government and the
residence of the Dutch royal family.”
(Source: Brand The Hague 2016-
2020)
Core the Peace Palace, courts and tribunals,  the Peace Palace, courts and
Associations international organizations, legal and tribunals, international
security organizations, United Nations, organizations, legal and security
conferences, governmental meetings; organizations, United Nations,
conferences, governmental meetings;
 sea resort close to city centre,
eleven-kilometer long beach,
Scheveningen, holiday feeling,
recreational activities, sport
opportunities;
 business city, leading companies,
networks, unique partnerships;
 government, important decisions,
political life, policy, Binnenhof,
ministries, Prime Minister;
 Royal residence, royal family, King,
regal allure;
Website www.thehaguepeacejustice.com www.brandthehague.nl

Logo

Another point to be stated that there was a new logo for The Hague introduced. The
problem was that the previous logo caused lots of misunderstanding and confrontation as it did
not clearly convey the message of the brand and did not have a direct link with peace and justice,
at least not at the first sight:

58
 “The logo had a lot apart from being unclear what the message was, because you had
to study it…it’s got the sea and it’s got the clay, and it’s got the sand part, and it got the
logo of local football team, and there were a lot of things there…but people don’t study
logo so much, you just see and you recognize …”

“…there was a lot of opposition against that logo for a long time, and one of the
previous alderman actually came up with that, and there was a research, that there was
no support in the city for that logo, because it was just an alderman giving someone, in
this case a famous photographer, the assignment to do this … it’s not being used a lot,
only when people had to use it because they were sponsored for an event or something
that they had to use it …”

“…logo was actually problematic from the start… I still have some headlines from the
newspapers …like “expensive logo or party”… they spend a lot of money on the logo
and they spend even more money on launching it, and there was no buy-in of
stakeholders, not even from the tourism sector, not even from the economic
development, not even from the international….”

Because old logo simply did not work, a new typographic logo was designed. Brand-
makers claim that their main goal was to develop a simple logo which makes the brand
recognizable immediately, avoiding complicated images and messages which the previous logo
had, so that institutions and businesses in The Hague could freely use it.

“I would say if you do something just make sure you can read the name of the city
properly… so what we done there is that we said: “Well, we are going to have eight or
nine designers from The Hague itself, put them together, and let them come up with an
idea, because you have the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, and they have a very
strong design school… “

Brand managers are very enthusiastic about the new branding approach and consider that
emphasizing several distinctive characteristics of the city with special brands will help to
strengthen the image of the city and increase commitment and loyalty of each of the target
groups.

“The Hague is a very special city, it’s not only the “City of Peace and Justice” but it’s
also the “City by the sea” and also the “Royal residence” and also the “Seat of the
government” and has many international organizations. It is a very interesting city to
59
 work for because it’s got so many unique qualities. However, a lot of people living in
the city about seven years ago thought that it was boring, not very interesting…. it had a
governmental boring image and now people see that there is more: “City by the sea”
where quite a lot happening and also “peace and justice” is not just a boring thing that
international organizations are working on. This is quite challenging and interesting and
it makes a small city of only half a million inhabitants very important in the world. Not
many cities in the world with only half million inhabitants can play such an important
role in the international opera.”

Summing up, the study of the branding process of The Hague revealed that all the branding
strategies discussed in the Theoretical Framework were employed by the brand-makers to create,
develop and maintain the brand. Summary of the activities performed in terms of each branding
strategy and how they influenced the brand image is presented in Table 5.

Table 5: Branding Strategies: Summary of Performed Activities and Impacts

№ Branding Performed activities Purpose Impacts on the brand

strategy
1 Market - Research of perceptions - To find out what - It was determined
Research of the residents about the people of The Hague were which important
before the brand city thinking about the city, characteristics of the city
creation (2006) - Indication of most what were their needs and should be stated in the
positive, strong and unique expectations future brand concept to
associations and images - To determine strong display the city correctly
and weak points of the city
2 Brand - Decision to focus on - To reflect unique - The brand of The
construction the brand “City of Peace characteristics of the city Hague “City of Peace and
(2006) and Justice” in the brand Justice” was officially
- Identity and logo - To create the brand established
creation which will have a positive - Logo was created and
- Branding campaign impact on the city image the branding campaign
development and reputation was decided upon
- To develop the brand
with distinctive identity
and recognizable logo to
enhance popularity of the
city
- To decide upon the
activities which will be
systematically performed
to enhance the brand
3 Communication - Set up of the - To promote the brand - Reputation and image
of the brand thehaguepeacejustice.com - To defend and of The Hague were
(2006-2016) website, brochure launch strengthen unique position improved
- Positioning of The of the city - Brand became more
Hague as a “City of Peace - To increase support for visible
and Justice” through the brand of the target - Awareness and
60
 various scale events groups recognition of the brand
(governmental meetings, - To increase increased
conferences, festivals and commitment and loyalty to - Loyalty and
like) the brand of the target commitment of the target
- Promotion of the brand groups group of the brand
to the international - To foster awareness of increased
organizations and their the brand
engagement
- Organization of peace
and justice visits, event
driven dialogues and
innovative platforms
(HagueTalks)
- Organization of
learning and training
activities on peace and
justice topics
- Summer schools,
courses and lectures on
peace and justice topics in
The Hague Campus
Leiden University
4 Brand - Assessment of a - To reveal the effects of - Helped to reveal what
Monitoring and number of indicators performed activities aimed kind of activities were
Assessment conducted by Company at promotion of the brand especially beneficial for
(2009-2016) MotivAction every two on the image of The the brand image (for
years Hague instance NSS and Just
- Comparison of the - To assess performance Peace Festival)
scores with the previous of the brand - Discovered increasing
years loyalty towards the brand
- Analysis of the scores from the international
organizations
- Discovered that the
brand is not consistent
with the views,
preferences and needs of
two target groups:
residents of the city and
tourism sector
5 Rebranding - Development of the - To strengthen the - Formulation of the new
(2015-2016) new branding approach image and reputation of brand concept consisting
“Brand The Hague” the city of 5 elements: “City by
- Development of the - To adapt the brand to the sea”, “City of Peace
new brand concept match the needs of all and Justice”, “Residence
target groups of the royal family with
regal allure”, “Seat of
government” and
“Leading companies and
institutions”.
- The new brand concept
adding more flexibility.
- The effects of the
brands on the image of the
city cannot be yet
estimated.

61
 It can be stated that application of the branding strategies allowed to create distinguishing
identity, which is considered to be clear and recognized by the target group of the brand –
international organizations. It was revealed that the first associations caused by the brand “City
of Peace and Justice” are about the Peace Palace, courts and tribunals and the Peace Palace is
also perceived as the main symbol of the “City of Peace and Justice”. As for the communication
strategy it was discovered that brand-makers perform certain activities for the engagement of
each target group: international organizations, events, citizens, students but also internationally
in cooperation with The Hague Peace and Justice Project. It was discovered that promotion of
the brand to the citizens these days is insufficient and has to be extended in future to make the
brand more comprehensible and appealing to the ordinary The Hague resident who is not
involved in peace and justice sphere. For the city residents peace and justice topic has to become
something interesting and they should feel that they are living in a special city, which is very
influential and important for the world. It was revealed that the most success brand
communication strategy had with regards to the international organizations and the city should
also continue its efforts in getting more international events and conferences, which are now
recognized by the brand-makers as the most powerful mean of international promotion of the
city and the brand. Perceptions of the international organizations in the city and their
recommendations have to be taken into account in the planning of the future branding process.
Furthermore, although there was regularly implemented assessment of “City of Peace and
Justice” brand performance, in order to represent more comprehensive picture of brand
effectiveness evaluation procedure has to include more indicators to measure satisfaction and
perceptions of each target group of the brand. As for the rebranding of the city, it is hard to
provide detailed analysis as the concept became official only a few months ago and effects from
the added brand elements can be hardly estimated. It can be exciting to see if more brand
flexibility was beneficial for the image of the city and enhancement of the target groups’ support
in the following years.

62
V. Effectiveness of The Hague Brand “City of Peace and Justice”: Analysis

This chapter presents the results of the analysis of the collected data regarding
effectiveness of the brand and consists of four sections. The first two sections represent results of
the analysis of the media coverage of the brand and it’s usage by the international organizations
on their websites and in their work. The third and the fourth sections evaluate brand
effectiveness by looking at the perceptions of the representatives of the international
organizations.

5.1. Media Coverage Analysis

For the analysis of the media coverage of the brand “City of Peace and Justice” Lexis
Nexis Academic database was used which covers and provides access to the media materials
since 1980 until today and gives an opportunity to search for particular information in different
media sources and in certain languages. In terms of this study there was conducted a search for
the articles written in the English language in the newspapers and magazines published
worldwide. A search for the “City of Peace and Justice” word combination was fulfilled
specifying the period from 2007 – the point where natural definition of the Hague as a city of
peace and justice became the official brand of the city – until today, when the brand is being
subject to constant development and in the last year being extended towards elements such as the
“City by the sea”, “Residence of the royal family with regal allure” and “Seat of government”
(See Appendix 3). The aim of this research was to determine the quantity of media coverage, to
study how it was increasing, whether and why it was fluctuating in a given period and in relation
to which subjects the brand was more often mentioned. In addition, it was decided to examine
which countries generated most media coverage, how many times the brand name was
mentioned and how many words the articles in which the brand “City of Peace and Justice” was
published counted in average.
It was discovered that in total the brand was mentioned 27 times in the international
newspapers and magazines in the period from January 2007 to July 2016 (See Figure 2). Only
four out of the twenty seven sources were magazines, such as Vanity Fair and Lawyers weekly,
while in the newspapers the brand was mentioned the other twenty three times.

63
 Number of Publications in Newspapers and
Magazines (2007-2016)
Number of Publications

5
4 4

2 2 2
1
0 0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Figure 2: Number of Publications in Newspapers and Magazines (2007-2016)

The first mention of the brand name was detected in the Vanity Fair Magazine in
December 2008 with an emphasis that The Hague is a place where “agencies such as the
International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and the U.N. Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia” (Vanity Fair, December 2008) are situated. The article was mainly
discussing the Kosovo war with an accent on the topic of war crimes, conflict and the role of the
U.N. tribunal in The Hague. In the following year (2009) there appeared two more publications
in Canadian newspaper and two more in 2010 published in Australia and Ireland.
It can be noticed that the media coverage of the brand in this period was relatively low, but
brand makers are claiming that there were no strong brand promotional activities performed at
that time. More serious branding of the city started in 2011 with the introduction of the City
Marketing Vision for the period from 2011 to 2015.
After no articles mentioning the brand in 2011, later in 2012 there were five publications
produced mentioning The Hague as the “City of Peace and Justice”. Two of them discuss an
important role of The Hague in the world, due to the activities performed by courts, tribunals and
international organizations. Two others were discussing the role of the Violea Group in the
tender for public transport in The Hague and concerns of the Palestinian human rights group
about this participation. These two articles were published by Palestine News Agency. The fifth
publication of 2012 was devoted to the terror attacks threat for the cities in the Netherlands and
was issued by The Irish Times. In the next year quantity of media coverage did not change

64
considerably with having 4 publications mentioning “City of Peace and Justice” in 2013 with
regards to the activities performed by the international courts and tribunals located in the city.
A rapid growth in the number of articles mentioning “City of Peace and Justice” brand was
observed in 2014 with 7 articles mentioning the brand published. Such increase in the number of
publications can be explained by the fact that in 2014 The Nuclear Security Summit took place
in The Hague which was attended by 58 world leaders and became the biggest international
conference ever held in the Netherlands. Another event which caused international media
attention to the city was Men’s Hockey World Cup held the same year. Brand-makers of the
brand are convinced that The Hague needs such international and important for the world events
to attract not only media attention but also more international organizations, businesses, students
and also inhabitants.

“The big thing that was really important for The Hague in the last couple of years was
the Nuclear Security Summit in 2014. That case was chance to really internationally
promote the “City of Peace and Justice” high and to the world press.”

Next year (2015) media coverage of the brand came back to the level of 2012 and 2013
and numbered 4. Topics which the articles covered differed considerably from the first and
second Hague Conventions and war crimes to cyber security pact ratification between The
Hague Security Delta and Indian Government and winning of the seventeen year old Liberian of
the Peace Prize 2015. So far in 2016 there were published two articles mentioning the brand
“City of Peace and Justice” focusing on the visit of the Baroness Anelay to the city and
participation of the Lakewood High School in the Human Rights Summit. Diagram illustrating
the changes in the quantity of media coverage in the period from 2007 to 2016 can be found in
Appendix 2.
As this research was only studying media coverage of the brand in the international
newspapers and magazines written in the English language, majority of the publications were
produced in the countries where English is the official or one of the official languages, so in
most cases the articles were produced in such countries the USA, Canada, Australia, South
Africa, Ireland, United Kingdom and also in India, Pakistan, Liberia and Zimbabwe and made up
81 percent of the total media coverage. Publications generated in countries where English is not
official language namely Jordan, Japan and Israel made up only 19 percent. (See Figure 3, Figure
4).

65
 Number of Publications in Newspapers and
Magazines by Countries (2007-2016)

1 USA
1 4
Canada
2
Australia
Ireland
2
Israel
4 South Africa
Zimbabve
2
Pakistan
Japan
1
2 India
United Kingdom
3
Jordan
3
1 1 Liberia

Figure 3: Number of Publications in Newspapers and Magazines by Countries (2007-

2016)

66
 Number of Publications in Newspapers and
Magazines by Countries (%)
USA Canada Australia Ireland Israel
South Africa Zimbabve Pakistan Japan India
United Kingdom Jordan Liberia

4%
4%
15%
7%

7%
15%
7%

4%
7%

11%
11%
4% 4%

Figure 4: Number of Publications in Newspapers and Magazines by Countries (%)

Average counted length of the articles was 1374 words, with the longest consisting of
10603 words (2012) and the shortest composed of 194 words (2016). It has to be noted that the
average result was affected by the two articles which counted 10603 (2012) and 9255 (2008),
whereas in most cases articles did not exceed one thousand words. In addition, in a vast majority
of articles brand was only used once, with the exception of four cases where it was mentioned
four, three and twice two times.
Lexis Nexis database provides for every article a list of subjects to which its content
relates. Analysis of the content revealed that the most common subjects which were addressed in
the predominant number of publications were “International Courts and Tribunals”, “United
Nations Institutions”, “International Law” and “International Relations. Less common subjects
were recognized to be “Associations and Organizations”, “War Crimes” and “Human Rights
Violations”, which were followed by the articles concerning the topics of “Crimes Against
Humanity” and usage and threats of the nuclear, chemical, biological and military weapons. Less
common than already mentioned subjects but still remarkable that a few articles were focusing

67
on the issues with regards to “Non-governmental Organizations”, “Foreign Relations”, “Head of
State and Government” and “Nobel Prices”. It was interesting to notice that in most cases
content of articles was concentrating on the topics which are considered by the brand-makers to
be the winning characteristics of the city, which are worth to be promoted in the branding of The
Hague as a “City of Peace and Justice”. The fact that the mentioned subjects are as a rule the
topics of the publications mentioning the brand allows to conclude that the brand introduces
strong points of The Hague to the international public correctly and helps to convey the image of
the city which was forming during many years.
Participants of the branding process of The Hague as a “City of Peace and Justice” realize
importance of such indicator as Media Coverage” for successful performance of the brand in
future and endeavor to enhance interest of press and media to the brand. Several actors
emphasized that there are certain countries, from which media attention would be most desirable,
considering the international context. In addition, respondents indicated that there were no direct
measures conducted to boost media attention due to budget scarcity:

“PR agency with which we are working now they really try to get as much
international coverage as possible. We are also not aiming towards every country, only
certain, such as United States and Germany and some other are really important...”

“We have a new international media officer who helps to bring the brand of The
Hague in the mindset of press all over the world and of course in important countries for
us. We have no budget to advertise, it is too expensive, so we have it from the PR, word
of mouth and the knowledge of people and journalists who travel to The Hague, and we
make a program for them and hope that they will write in their papers about The Hague.
And more and more that happens, because we are a very interesting city, but not many
people know it. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It takes a long time.”

Nevertheless, quantity of media coverage – 27 publications in the period from 2007 to

2016 can be rated as low, what can be explained by the fact that there were no expensive
publicity campaigns organized to promote the brand “City of Peace and Justice”, and brand-
makers strive to get events and projects to the city (like for instance NSS) which they believe are
going to play the main role in positioning of the city, generate press and social media attention
and foster pride of the residents of The Hague. Another explanation of a low number of
publications mentioning the brand “City of Peace and Justice” is applied research method, where
the focus was mainly at the newspapers and magazines written in the English language. Thus, an
alley for further research could be a study of the media coverage of The Hague brand which was
68
generated in the same period but in the newspapers and magazines written in the Dutch
language.

5.2. Loyalty: Analysis of the Brand Usage by the International Organizations

In order to estimate effectiveness of the brand “City of Peace and Justice” it was decided to
measure loyalty level of the target group of the brand - international organizations - towards the
brand.
A search on the official websites of IGOs and NGOs based in The Hague revealed that 26
organizations out of 91 were using the brand in the publications in order to promote themselves
(Appendix 4, Figure 5). Thus, 28, 57 percent of the organizations which were randomly chosen
for the present research find it important for them to mention that they are based in The Hague
employing the brand “City of Peace and Justice” on their official website. The other 71, 43
percent did not use the brand as it is, however in a few cases there were detected such word
combinations as “Peace and Justice” and “Legal Capital of the World”. Taking into account the
number of the organizations located in The Hague (more than 160) and their various scopes of
work from law, cyber security, chemical weapons control, human rights defense and terrorism
prevention to water pollution, clinical trials, refugees issues, gender justice, journalism and many
others, it can be concluded that international organizations are loyal to the brand and that they
consider usage of the brand beneficial for their external representation.

Usage of the Brand by IGOs and NGOs

28,57% Used the brand (26 out of 91)

Did not use the brand (65 out of

91)
71,43%

Figure 5: Usage of the Brand by IGOs and NGOs on their Official Websites

69
 Apart from the websites search, during the interviews, representatives of the international
organizations were asked which meaning the brand has for them and if they use it in the
operation of their organization and why. Thus, representatives of every international organization
interviewed in term of the present research find it important for them to be situated in a city
which has a reputation of “City of Peace and Justice”, because the brand is very relevant to the
activities their organizations perform and it adds more value to their work. Thus, the Coalition
for the International Criminal Court even moved its headquarters in 2000, which was previously
based in Amsterdam “because of this notion that the city was increasing in predominance, even
though it was not promoted then as a brand … as a headquarters for justice institutions.”
Therefore, representatives of the international organizations which specialize in international
justice stated:

“…we have a sense of being part of this notion that it is the “City of Peace and
Justice” obviously being the headquarters not only for the ICC but also the International
Court of Justice, the ICTY, many other international institutions like OPCW etc and we
ourselves are a global network of civil society organizations working on peace and
justice. It has certain logical relevance for us that we have our headquarters here in the
“City of Peace and Justice.”

“It (brand) also fits to the idea how we position ourselves. Not only what we are doing
but also that we are based in the “City of Peace and Justice”. I am convinced that our
efforts add value to one another. It’s an honor to be part of this large number of
organizations working in this field in The Hague. It’s a value for our organization to
mention that.”

Majority of the representatives of the interviewed organizations could provide specific

example of brand usage in their work, what demonstrates their loyalty towards the brand:

“The brand does come up in some of the presentations when our staff travels abroad
and when we are explaining a bit what our organization is and how we work, where we
operate and we do reference it, although I wouldn’t say necessarily in negotiations we
use the term. ... But certainly in our introductory presentation about our organization we
would say that we are headquartered in the “City of Peace and Justice”

“We use it because we are a training institute and of course we would like to attract
people with the products we offer – specific training courses- but it’s also nice if the
training courses will be facilitated in the nice city. So we certainly use it as: “The Hague

70
 is a “City of Peace and Justice, it’s a really nice city and we are known of the ICC and
the Peace Palace”. Than it has more volume.”

“…I use it just because it differentiates me from my competition which is not in The
Hague, but in the other European capitals… it’s a nice way to present whenever I have a
speech or so … I often use it.”

A prominent example of the brand usage can be demonstrated in the Visitor’s Center of the
Peace Palace, where there is a particular part of the Audio tour devoted to the explanation of the
role of The Hague in the world and why the city rightfully gained the name of the “City of Peace
and Justice” and “Legal Capital of the World”:

“When we speak to public we use the brand “City of Peace and Justice”, we receive
115 thousand people a year in the Visitor’s Center and the last part of the Audio tour is
about the “Legal Capital of the World and “City of Peace and Justice.”

Two respondents were stating that they use the brand on their official website, but not
really in the operation of their organization, because for them it it more important what stands
behind the brand – networks of various peace and justice institutions - with who they can
cooperate. This is the reason why the brand “City of Peace and Justice” is relevant to some of the
organizations in The Hague:

“It’s not so much that we use the brand of the city but we do use the fact that we are
based here. There is a distinction between the brand and what is actually behind the
brand, namely the organizations which are working together in this field….”

“It’s not the main thing (brand), because they of course come for us and project but I
promote it on the website and if our international group of course participants are
coming here ….they ask: “Can we visit the ICC?” because they come from Kosovo or
other countries and they are really interested and really would like to see ... So, that’s a
nice advantage of being in The Hague.”

Respondents participating in the branding process were asked to comment on the results of
the usage of the brand and they concluded that there is still a lot of work has to be done to
engage international organizations in relationship with the brand. There was also noted that this
is a very slow process and that within the international organizations there is a big fluctuation of
people and marketing managers of those organizations were also changing, so it was hard to
control the process. Also, Bureau City Branding responsible for the brand management did not

71
have a capacity to constantly have contact with the international organizations concerning the
brand:

“…some of them (organizations) were saying: “Yes, we are based in The Hague but
we could be anywhere”… but some of them really see the benefits of the brand of The
Hague and that The Hague internationally becomes more and more a synonym for peace
and justice. So it’s also good for them to show that they are based here.”

Another point to be made is that brand-makers consider that organizations themselves have
to decide if the brand will be used, whether it will help them to promote their interests and will
be beneficial to mention it while presenting themselves internationally:

“It is not possible that you say to people, to companies: “Please use the brand! Here is
the brand, use it!”… that doesn’t work. So we ask them now: “How important for your
company is the brand of The Hague? Is there any difference if your company is in
Rotterdam or in Amsterdam or in Deventer or in Leiden?” If they think that it is
important that it is in The Hague, then they use it.”

5.3. Understanding the Effectiveness of the Brand “City of Peace and Justice”
by the Target Audience

5.3.1. Brand Effectiveness Perceptions

During the interviews there was posed a question concerning the effectiveness of the brand
and whether “City of Peace and Justice” fulfills its functions successfully and represents the city
in a correct way. Majority of respondents consider that the brand of The Hague is very strong
and that it promotes winning characteristics of the city efficiently also in the international level.

“I think the brand “City of Peace and Justice” is a very powerful one not only in The
Hague, in the Netherlands, but also internationally.”

“It’s difficult to find a really specific thing for The Hague that gives international
attention and “Peace and Justice” does. So I think they should continue with the brand,
it’s a good brand.”

“The use of the brand like this (“City of Peace and Justice”) puts you on the world wide
map…”

72
 However, there were also respondents, who found it complicated to define performance of
the brand, especially how it is being perceived abroad:

“I think it’s still a bit new for people outside of the Netherlands. I don’t know if the
brand is old enough or established enough that it automatically reflects people the world
over.”

In addition, almost all the interviewed actors concluded that the brand perceptions differ
for them if they talk about it on behalf of the organization they are representing or as The Hague
inhabitant. They also make a point of that the city is being branded mostly for the international
public and not for the local people. Surprisingly, every interviewee noticed that the brand is
effective in attracting organizations specializing in peace and justice as well as international
conferences and events, but does not speak so much to the inhabitants, which in fact represent
the city and play the role of the main ambassadors. So, it was noted that the brand should
represent interests of the residents of The Hague better, because they are a very important part of
the city profile.

“When I was younger for me The Hague was really the city of the Queen, city of the
Parliament. It was more something local and I think for many people abroad the city has
an image of being the “City of Peace and Justice” but for the local people not really and
municipality wants to make it more visible.”

“I don’t think that many people in the city who are not working in this environment do
realize that they live in the “City of Peace and Justice”. We know the Peace run, the only
thing people know. I am not sure whether they know that we have tribunals here and the
Peace Palace. I can imagine they think it is a Royal Palace.”

There were also expressed concerns that the brand “City of Peace and Justice” is not well
known outside of particular professional circles and outside of the Netherlands, and that the main
symbol of the brand the Peace Palace will not be unmistakably recognized abroad:

“Students, academics, interested individuals, public people who are involved in

studying international law, international relations, politics - they will know of the Peace
Palace but perhaps an average person walking down the street in another country outside

73
 of the Netherlands will not have heard or seen any pictures of the Peace Palace previously
or know what actually is housed there.”

Thus, looking at the presented results of analysis it can be concluded that the brand “City
of Peace and Justice” is perceived as successful by the target group of the brand – international
organizations. Although, respondents apart from working in the international organizations also
represent other target group – citizens of the city – and from this position they considered the
brand to be not so much known and also not being promoted significantly.

5.3.2. Perceptions on the Rebranding of The Hague

As was presented in the previous chapter, in the end of 2015 The Hague started with the
new branding effort, called “Brand The Hague”, which identified four other brand elements
besides “City of Peace and Justice”, namely “City by the sea”, “Seat of government”, “Residence
of the royal family with regal allure” and “Leading companies and institutions” aimed at
strengthening identity of The Hague and ensuring that the brand is answering to the needs and
expectations of all major target groups. As it is not yet possible to measure effectiveness of the
new brand concept, it was decided to study opinions of the target group of the brand –
international organizations – about the rebranding of The Hague.
It was curious to discover that a small minority of respondents had positive perceptions
about the fact that the city is being rebranded:

“I think it is possible to have different brands together …I think for some local people
the sea and the royal family are more attractive than the legal part of it and then I think
for people coming from some countries royal family is not known or not well known
doesn’t have their interest so much, so for them it’s better to focus the branding on
“City of Peace and Justice”. Cities are dynamic. It doesn’t have one feature only. I think
it’s smart that they are extending the brand…”

Although, brand-makers are very enthusiastic about the new identity of the city and the
new brand elements, vast majority of respondents did not demonstrate support for the new brand
concept as in their opinion added elements such as “City by the sea”, “Seat of government”,
“Leading companies and institutions” and “Residence of the royal family with regal allure”,
were more descriptive rather than focusing attention on what makes the city really unique in their
opinion – its relation to peace and justice theme. Also, some actors expressed their concern that
74
the rebranding of The Hague will create misunderstanding and image of the city might be
impaired.

“Positioning should be just around “City of Peace and Justice” because that’s what
makes the city unique and all the other things…– that’s nice but you need stick to your
choices. City marketing is not like a sprint, it’s more like a marathon and you should
walk all the way, you can’t change your position in the middle of the match. It’s a
stupid decision.”

“...there are more cities by the sea, more cities with international organizations. There
are more cities with King or Queen. This is not unique. The high concentration of
justice organizations is unique, as I do not know any other city like this.”

“…the city almost has no choice but to be the “City of Peace and Justice”, because all
the other things are not important for the image of the city… If you want to go to the
beach, I don’t think you’ll choose The Hague … if you can go to Spain or Portugal …
you can also have a walk on the beach on Sunday, but it’s a side effect, people are here
only for one reason…”

Nevertheless, brand-makers are convinced that new brand elements will add more
flexibility and create more choices for every target group. Also, it is emphasized that The Hague,
possessing a number of distinctive characteristics, is impossible to define in one brand.

“It’s rebranding yes, but’s not like a drastic … you also have rebranding where you
completely start with something that’s completely different, and that’s not the case …
it’s a big city, it’s very complicated… if you’re a small town in Switzerland which is
basically known for skiing, there are ten thousand people and everybody eats and drinks
from the skiing industry… you can actually position yourself as a ski resort, that’s it.
But if you’re a big city and you have a lot of different economic sectors and a lot of
variety of events and people and culture, it’s very hard to grasp it…”

The fact that a vast majority of the representatives of the international organizations did not
consider the rebranding as a positive phenomenon, but rather defined it as something not
necessary, confusing and impairing the image of the city, making it less unique and distinctive,
was predictable. All the interviewed actors representing the brand’s target group were employees
of organizations directly related to the peace and justice topic, very enthusiastic and considering
the brand “City of Peace and Justice” extremely important for the city. However, brand
75
managers were stating that such target groups like tourists, residents and companies did not see
any benefits from “City of Peace and Justice” brand and wanted other winning characteristics of
the city like that The Hague is close to the sea or that it is a place where royal family lives to be
also reflected in the brand. Therefore it might be curious, to study perceptions of other target
groups apart from the international organizations about the brand and even more interesting to
see the results of the performance of the new brand concept effects of which can be seen and
evaluated only in a few years.

5.3.3. Brand Performance Satisfaction (Questionnaire Results Analysis)

Next to the interviews, respondents (both participants of the branding process and
representatives of the international organizations) were asked to fill out a short closed
questionnaire concerning their opinion about the brand performance (Appendix 2). As in a vast
majority of cases respondents expressed their satisfaction with the brand performance, it was
decided to study correlations between the perceptions on the effectiveness of the brand
separately by the brand-makers and a target group of the brand – international organizations (See
Figure 6).

Brand Performance Assessment by

the Brand-Makers and the International
Organizations
5,00
4,50
4,00
3,50
3,00
2,50 Brand-makers
2,00 Organizations
1,50
1,00
0,50
0,00
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Figure 6: Brand Performance Assessment by the Brand-Makers and the International

Organizations

76
 It can be stated that participants of the branding process in general consider that the brand
is more effective, rather than the representatives of the international organizations think. The
lowest score was obtained by the dimension that the branding campaign “City of Peace and
Justice” meets the needs of The Hague. Other relatively weak points considered by the
respondents (still having in average 3,9 and 3,8 respectively with the responses between
“Undecided” and “Agree”) were the “clarity of the brand concept and identity” and “consistency
of the brand with the strong points of the city” which should to be promoted according to
respondent’s opinion. Remarkable fact is that the representatives of the international
organizations evaluated the brand as very effective and important for the reputation of the city in
the international arena with an average score 4,4, which was even slightly higher than the
average score of the brand-makers (4,3), what certainly demonstrates that both parties are
convinced that the brand is crucial for the international image of the city. The answers to the
eighth question indicated that actors participating in the branding process strongly agree that
there were activities performed to enhance the image of the city with regards to the brand “City
of Peace and Justice”, although representatives of the target group could not fully agree to this
fact. Brand-makers noted several times that real campaign about the “City of Peace and Justice”
was never their goal, also due to the lack of financing and capacity, but representatives of
international organizations would like to see and be involved in a bigger amount of activities
apart from Just Peace Festival, which is in the opinion of the target group is very efficient in
fostering the brand. Strong difference in perceptions of the brand-makers and representatives of
the international organizations was recognized in the answers to the last question, where
respondents were asked to express their overall satisfaction about the brand performance. Thus,
brand-makers indicated their very high satisfaction with average score 4,7, while representatives
of the target group with rather low score 3,7. Such difference in perceptions signifies that
international organizations see potential, value and strength of the brand and its usefulness and
believe that it could be promoted more. One of the representatives of the international
organization specializing in international justice stated:

“I think the brand is useful. The performance could be better… I think they can lobby
even more, I mean lobby for making it a serious brand. I think they could attract more
organizations, I also feel they could still do better in promoting and bringing together
international and national organizations which are linked to subject.”

Apart from the questionnaire actors participating at different stages of the branding process
were asked to express their opinion on the brand performance. All the interviewed actors

77
emphasized that the branding process more resembles a marathon, rather than sprint and that
actual results of the efforts of the last years will be seen later.
Brand-makers believe that the best mean for The Hague promotion in future will be
attraction of more international events and conferences, more international organizations and
extension of Leiden University Campus, which is expected to attract more students. Brand-
makers are convinced that the ambassadors of The Hague will play a very important role:
“…ambassadors who worked here, ambassadors who studied here” but also tourists visiting The
Hague while travelling in the Netherlands and of course residents which are proud of their city:

“City marketing comes with city pride and the people living in The Hague are proud
of being … in a city with has such an international performance.”

Another point which was stated is that the city branding should be approached in a more
creative manner to ensure that the city promotion will be modern and inspiring and not boring.
For instance, for the Peace Museum there is really a goal to make it in a creative team with
creative architect, “…it should be like an experience, something really fantastic…” to make
peace topic appealing, challenging and exciting and not boring as it is perceived especially by
young people today.

“…success would be really in terms of improving the image, that’s the most important
thing and more awareness of The Hague …not only for tourists, but also for students,
companies and international organizations.”

“…I think we have done a lot and it is also about patience. There is still a lot of work
to be done within the City Council and within the cooperation with the Department of
Foreign Affairs. It is slowly progressing and you need events like the NSS to really
make it happen, but I think a lot of people see the economic potential of the “City of
Peace and Justice” and importance for the development of the city of The Hague. I think
if there would be a Peace Museum it becomes interesting for tourists as well and if more
students will be coming in The Hague and the University of Leiden will be expanding. I
think there are a lot of signals that it’s really important for the city...”

As for the representatives of the international organizations, they consider the brand of The
Hague “City of Peace and Justice” effective, although they had a couple of concerns and also
recommendations on what could and should be improved:

78
 “I think it is a really good strategy…One thing I hope that The Hague doesn’t lose in
its branding exercise is its “Dutchness”. It is a part of the Netherlands and it should
remain a Dutch city, open and welcoming for people who come from anywhere else in
the world, but I wouldn’t want it to lose that sense of self and origin and belonging to
the rest of the country.”

“The city of The Hague is successful at attracting new organizations … only than the
next step is to bring those organizations together, to make it one plus one not two, but one
plus one is three. I don’t see it happening…”

To summarize, conducted study of the perceptions of the representatives of the

international organizations revealed that this target group believes in success of the brand but
would also like to see more efforts from the brand-makers, more promotion, and more
cooperation with the network of international institutions in the city. In addition, perceptions of
the interviewed actors differed considerably when they were talking on behalf of the
organization which they represent or as a resident of The Hague. It was stated, that more
activities have to be performed to enhance commitment of the citizens of the city to the brand,
which is today perceived as rather professional and not speaking so much to ordinary The Hague
residents. This was the reason why The Hague started its new branding efforts “Brand The
Hague” in 2016 to be able to create identity which is appealing and answers the needs of such
target groups as citizens and tourists and attracts them effectively. However, brand-makers were
emphasizing that branding of the city is an ongoing process and that more observable results will
be seen later and that these days they put all their efforts into the brand development and image
enhancement. As a final point, it was revealed that the brand is quite effective in the fulfillment
of its functions, although the studied target group is expecting better brand performance in
future.

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VI. Main findings. Conclusions. Future Research

6.1. Main Findings

The objective of this thesis was to study influence of the branding strategies on the
effectiveness of The Hague brand “City of Peace and Justice”. The analysis was based on the
information obtained during the interviews with the participants of the branding process as well
as opinions expressed during conversations with the representatives of the target group of the
brand – international organizations - in order to examine whether their perceptions of the city are
congruent with what the city offers and if they match image and identity which brand-managers
are trying to promote. Collected during the interviews with the brand-makers data allowed to
research circumstantially what kind of brand management strategies were applied during the
branding process, which activities were performed at every particular stage to achieve the brand
goals, and how they contributed to the brand performance and consequently to the image and
reputation of the city. The Hague case became another illustration of the complex nature of the
city branding processes in which managerial efforts play pivotal role.

6.1.1. Branding Strategies

The interviews demonstrated that each of the major brand management strategies discussed
in the theoretical framework namely market research, brand construction and development,
communication and maintenance were applied by the brand-managers in The Hague case.
Analysis showed that The Hague brand has a clear brand identity which was determined by
historical development of the city and it was also stressed that “City of Peace and Justice” was
appearing naturally and reflects the DNA of The Hague. Thus, identity of the brand was
formulated on the basis of the actual achievements of the city and therefore can be considered
credible. However, it has to be outlined that the brand reflects the identity of The Hague in a
selective manner, leaving out such characteristics of the city as closeness to the sea and that the
city is a place where a number of leading companies are headquartered, royal family is living and
Dutch government is based. A new branding approach was introduced in 2016 and it represents
particular brand for every specific target group to be able to convey other winning characteristics
of the city apart from the “peace and justice” theme. The new branding approach is broader than
“City of Peace and Justice”. Perceptions of the target group of the brand - international
organizations - about the city in all cases were congruent with the identity of the brand “City of
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Peace and Justice” and it was also revealed that respondents had a clear picture in mind
describing the image of the brand indicating similar characteristics. Associations, which the
representatives of the target group had with the brand, match the features which the branding
strategy “City of Peace and Justice” is trying to promote. Overall, it can be stated that
perceptions of the interviewed actors about the brand are very positive and the brand is
considered by majority of respondents to be the only right choice for the city because it
emphasizes its unique position.
The communication strategy of the brand was implemented performing various activities
designed specifically for every target group taking into consideration their needs and
preferences, what according to the brand-makers allowed to convey the brand message
effectively. First of all, the brand-makers’ aim was to make sure that the information about the
brand is accessible and therefore the website was launched and the brochure was prepared and
distributed (for instance, during events like NSS) what had an impact on the quantity of media
coverage dedicated to the brand in 2014. Therefore within the brand communication strategy the
brand-makers are striving to attract as many governmental meetings, events, conferences and
festivals to The Hague as possible because they believe that such events will boost awareness of
the brand, especially taking into account the fact that the city due to the lack of resources cannot
promote itself via expansive campaign with paid commercials. Also, due to the limited
resources, the brand could not be promoted actively to the citizens and tourists, therefore
communication strategy for these target groups mostly comprised Just Peace Festival and audio
and guided tours at the Peace Palace. It is necessary to introduce more means of brand
communication, more activities which will engage citizens and tourists and improve their
perceptions about the “City of Peace and Justice”, which is today perceived by them as
something boring, only speaking to professionals and not something exciting and attractive for
ordinary people. In addition, several respondents stressed that ordinary The Hague citizens are
not so much aware of the brand, if they are not personally involved in “peace and justice” theme.
Nevertheless, brand-makers are in constant contact with the international organizations and
trying to get to know their needs thoroughly and involve into the branding process, as they are
the ones who possess unique knowledge which can help to boost the popularity of the city and
the brand in the international arena as well as to attract more institutions and events on peace and
justice topics to the city. In addition, it was revealed that many international organizations based
in the city consider the brand important for future expansion of The Hague network of
international institutions and also stated that mentioning of the brand in the official websites is
beneficial for their image and helps to differentiate themselves. Moreover, The Hague Project
Peace and Justice plays an important role in the communication of the brand and fostering the
81
reputation of the city as a “center of excellence in peace and justice” by organizing various
learning and training activities, lectures, dialogues (for instance, Hague Talks) where actors from
students to high-profile persons can discuss peace and justice issues and exchange expertise,
attracting international attention to The Hague “City of Peace and Justice”. In fact, it was not
easy to determine whether activities performed by the brand-makers within the city branding
strategy were contributing to the effectiveness of The Hague brand and even harder to assess
direct effects. Therefore, in order to present judgements as a rule the author was looking at the
opinions of both brand-makers and target groups towards every particular issue, trying to achieve
balanced perception.
Another point to be stated is that “City of Peace and Justice” with the Peace Palace, courts,
tribunals and extensive network of more than 160 peace and justice institutions was defined as
the only unique characteristic of the city, which has to be fostered both at the local and
international level. It can be concluded that representatives of the international organizations
demonstrated high support for and commitment to the “City of Peace and Justice” brand and
would like to see more promotion of it in future and also more efforts from the city to enhance
cooperation between the organizations and strengthen relations between the network members
making them better organized and more productive. Another point to be made is that institutions
in The Hague are really eager to see government support in what they are doing as well as to
attract more organizations specializing in peace and justice to the city, to enhance its reputation
of the “Legal capital of the world”.
Furthermore, during the study of the process of brand maintenance, was discovered and
studied another branding strategy – rebranding – as well as circumstances and reasons which
lead to the decision to rebrand the city. The most important reason named by the brand managers
was that the brand did not correspond to the requirements of the tourism sector and residents,
who do not really feel the peace and justice theme, if they are not personally involved in this
sphere. For tourists, concepts like “City by the sea” and “Residence of the royal family with
regal allure” are more attractive and more successful at boosting city image. Brand-makers
emphasized that The Hague has so many dimensions and strong points distinguishing it from
other cities, that these characteristics cannot be comprised in just one brand. They are convinced
that in order to ensure positive image and reputation of the city for each target group from
conferences and international organizations to tourists, residents, students and companies, The
Hague will have to position itself with each of the five brands: “City of Peace and Justice”, “City
by the sea”, “Seat of government”, “Leading companies and institutions” and “Residence of the
royal family with regal allure”.

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 In spite of positive expectations of the brand managers with regards to the new brand
concept, during the interviews with the representatives of the international institutions in The
Hague it was discovered that vast majority of respondents do not support the new approach and
characterize it as unnecessary and impairing the image of The Hague as a “City of Peace and
Justice”, and added brand elements rather descriptive than promoting unique features of the city.
However, these judgements cannot be considered as universal and it is necessary to examine
perceptions of other target groups apart from the international organizations in order to indicate
the attitude towards the rebranding. The effects of the rebranding as a part of the maintenance
strategy cannot yet be estimated as the new approach has been employed for only several
months.
It was stated in the theoretical part that successful city branding requires involvement of
multiple actors contributing to the effectiveness of the brand providing their valuable expertise
and resources. The Hague branding process is recognized to be highly interactive as the brand is
being managed in cooperation with important city stakeholders such as The Hague Peace and
Justice Project, the Peace Palace and The Hague Campus of Leiden University as well as other
international institutions in the city. Participants of the branding process noted that stakeholder
involvement is important for the promotion of the brand and its future success with what they
justified the theory argued in the second chapter of the present thesis. Moreover, brand-makers
noted that stakeholder involvement in The Hague case helped to increase their commitment to
the brand.

6.1.2. Brand Effectiveness

It is hard to determine to what extent city brands are effective, therefore there were several
indicators designed in order to evaluate performance of The Hague brand. Thus, assessment of
the brand usage by the international organizations on their official websites, tells about rather
high loyalty level towards the brand, even though there are only slightly less than 30 percent of
organizations in the city who actually use it on the official websites. Vast majority of the
interviewed representatives of the international organizations concluded that the brand is
beneficial for their external representation and is being employed in the operation of their
organizations, providing particular examples of the brand usage. Overall, respondents
representing international organizations are loyal to the brand, share its message, satisfied with
already achieved results and convinced that branding of The Hague as a “City of Peace and
Justice” is vital for the city and has to be continued in future. Moreover, it was mentioned during

83
the interviews that positioning of The Hague as a “City of Peace and Justice” is significant not
only for the city, but also for the Netherlands on the whole, because it adds to the image of the
country which is today associated more with tulips, legal drugs, canals and bicycles. Thus, it can
be concluded that in the process of employment of the “Brand creation and development”
branding strategy the identity was chosen according to the needs and preferences of this target
group, what lead to such revealed effects as satisfaction with the brand and loyalty towards it. As
a consequence, it was noticed that satisfied with the brand and loyal to it organizations tend to
place it on their official websites.
Another interesting finding is that the brand managers’ perceptions on the effectiveness of
the brand differ considerably from perceptions of the target group – international organizations.
Brand-makers tend to think that the brand fulfills its functions more effectively rather than the
representatives of the international organizations consider, who found it difficult to assess brand
performance and in most cases just defined it as “satisfactory”. This might cause additional risks
and complications for the branding process in future because the brand-makers’ are not able to
perceive things as the target audience does and consequently cannot adapt the brand according to
their needs, what could possibly lead in future to lower levels of loyalty and satisfaction if this
tendency continues. Without detailed examination of perceptions of the target groups about the
brand and knowing their needs and preferences, which as was stated in the theoretical part can
change during the time, it might be hard in future to design effective brand maintenance strategy
which will strengthen the brand and its impacts.
Also, it was noticed that perceptions of the representatives of the international
organizations vary considerably if they are talking on behalf of the organization or as The Hague
citizen. They stated that as an organization representative they really see the values of the brand
and also activities which were performed by the brand-makers to promote the brand and increase
loyalty towards it, whereas there were not seen activities promoting “City of Peace and Justice”
to the local public, except for the Just Peace Festival. From the point of view of the citizens of
The Hague the brand is focusing too much on professional characteristics of the city without
speaking to the ordinary local population not engaged in peace and justice sphere. It can be
concluded that the “City of Peace and Justice” communication strategy towards the citizens and
tourists has to be improved and enriched with more activities appealing to ordinary people and
contributing to the understanding and acceptance of the brand, although the brand-makers claim
that such brands as “City by the sea” or “Residence of the royal family with regal allure” will be
more effective in attraction of these target groups.
Another point which is worth mentioning is that measurement of media coverage as an
indicator for the brand effectiveness was hard to analyze due to the small number of publications
84
(27) mentioning the brand in the international magazines and newspapers in the period from
2007 to 2016. Because within this research there was not conducted a comparison with the
brands of other cities, it is hard to judge whether the quantity of media coverage of the brand was
low or average, although there can definitely be recognized the tendency of the increase in the
number of publications symbolizing the strengthening of the brand and its growing effectiveness.
It has to be stated that in the branding process there were not recognized activities aimed at
fostering media attention and coverage, such as for example advertising in different types of
media from print to television and the Internet, due to the lack of resources.
Direct effects of certain branding activities were not possible to verify and therefore
judgements were formulated by the author looking additionally at the beliefs of the brand-
managers and representatives of the international organizations.

6.2. Hypotheses Testing

Looking at the analysis results it can be concluded that each of four hypotheses posed in
the beginning of the present research were accepted. There was proved strong positive
relationship between the independent variable “Branding strategies” and dependent variable
“Image and Identity” (H1, H2). It was revealed that due to the employment of branding strategies
image and reputation of The Hague improved, what is witnessed by the increasing number of the
publications in the international newspapers and magazines which mention the brand “City of
Peace and Justice”. Also, questionnaire results detected that the target audience of the brand is
satisfied with the brand performance and is convinced that performed activities to promote the
brand in the last years resulted in a stronger brand commitment and improvement of the city
image and strengthening of The Hague position as a “center of excellence in peace and justice”.
In addition, in the recent years more and more events such as congresses, conferences and
meetings of governmental leaders are being held in The Hague on peace, justice and security
topics, such as the Nuclear Security Summit in 2014 and the Global Conference on Cyberspace
in 2015 which according to the brand-makers are an opportunity to increase awareness of the
“City of Peace and Justice” worldwide. Moreover, unique identity and distinctive and positive
image invigorated by the branding campaign led to the establishment of The Hague Campus of
Leiden University, offering courses directly relating to peace and justice theme and successfully
attracting both Dutch and international students.
The third hypothesis (influence of branding strategies on the brand effectiveness) is
accepted due to the fact that quantity of media coverage of the brand was increasing in the period

85
from 2007 to 2016 when there are more activities in terms of branding strategies are performed.
Also, the relation between the application of the branding strategies and brand effectiveness is
demonstrated through the increasing number of international organizations coming to The Hague
because of the feeling of belonging to the network of international peace and justice institutions
and opportunities which are opening for them in the city. In addition, The Hague is becoming an
increasingly popular meeting place for the negotiations of the world leaders and for other events
like conferences, festivals or exhibitions on peace, justice and security topics.
Relation between the clarity of the brand concept and identity and the brand effectiveness
(H4) was also proved to be invigorating due to the results of the measurements of performance
indicators. The brand effectiveness was increasing when more brand management strategies
were applied which were helping to achieve clearer brand identity and better image.

6.3. Validity and Reliability

In the present research there were used transparent methods of data collection and analysis.
Respondents are considered as reliable sources of information. The author was trying to avoid
biases during the interviews following the questionnaire carefully and being non-judgmental and
neutral. Data was studied according to City Branding Theory presented earlier and was analyzed
carefully to provide reliable results.
However, taking into consideration the fact that for the author and some of respondents
English was not a native language, information could be distorted, whereas additional
clarifications were asked for in the moments of misunderstanding. Research results could be also
affected by variety of conditions such as quality of Internet and telephone connection, space
where interview was taken, time, noise and other factors. Nevertheless, the recordings of the
interviews were of a good quality and transcriptions were accomplished accurately. In cases,
when important information pieces needed additional explanations the author was contacting
respondents.
Another point to be made is that the brand effectiveness was mainly measured from the
perceptions of one target group - international organizations. Therefore brand performance
assessment of perceptions of other target groups such as The Hague residents or tourists has to
be conducted to see the entire picture and be able to say to what extent the brand can be called
successful.

86
6.4. Recommendations

There were several recommendations formulated based on the judgements of the author
which were supported by presented findings and analysis results. As The Hague recently started
to implement the new branding strategy which includes four new brand elements,
recommendations are going to concern the future efforts of the brand-makers in promotion of the
city.
Although the brand-managers state that the new approach is not a drastic change but rather
creation of more flexibility, the analysis shown that not all target groups of the brand “City of
Peace and Justice” are ready for the new brand elements. As city branding is a long-term process
and the effects of the rebranding will be visible only in a few years, at this point brand-makers
are recommended to devote particular attention to the communication strategy of the new brand
elements, not to cause confusion in what the city of The Hague actually is and ensure deep
understanding of the new brand concept by the target audience.
Another point to be made is that further brand communication efforts have to be sensitive
and differ for every particular target group to avoid possibility of disapproval or even rejection of
the new brands. Equally important in the next years will be to organize extensive promotion of
the new brand concept, in order to foster awareness and recognition of other brand elements
besides “City of Peace and Justice”. Communication should be implemented via various
channels such as media and events but also advertising, which was not performed before, in
order to ensure that this branding strategy is efficient.
In addition, it is believed that it will be crucial to conduct performance monitoring of the
new brand concept in the nearest future in order to find out perceptions of the target groups at the
early stages of the branding process and if necessary to adjust the brand according to their
preferences. Such measure will increase chances for success of the new branding campaign and
consequently will help to achieve desired image and reputation of The Hague faster.

6.5. Further Research

In order to ensure that the results of the present analysis are reliable, further research
should include development of the new approaches to the city brand evaluation and new
indicators for the brand effectiveness. Although this research was assessing three indicators
namely loyalty, satisfaction and quantity of media coverage, further similar research should be
conducted to measure brand performance with other indicators, for instance recognition, pride of

87
people, worthiness of coming to see and like and also from the point of view of other target
groups. Thus, there could be conducted a study of perceptions of tourists coming to The Hague,
if they are aware of The Hague being the “City of Peace and Justice” and which characteristics
they find important in making a decision to visit the city. Similarly, there might be examined
perceptions of students of The Hague Campus Leiden University, what are their motives to
choose namely this study institution, which factors determined their choice and what are their
expectations about education obtained in the “City of Peace and Justice”. Evaluation of
perceptions of the inhabitants of The Hague as well as other indicators (also quantitative) is vital
for getting homogeneous results on The Hague brand effectiveness. It could be also interesting to
study communication strategy of the brand aimed at engagement of the international
organizations from the perspective of the Municipal Department of Foreign Affairs, which
activities are being performed and if they are considered effective and enhancing the brand
image.
Moreover, it is assumed that better judgement of the brand performance for the indicator
“Quantity of media coverage” could be introduced after evaluation of the media coverage of the
brands of the cities with similar characteristics, for instance Antwerp with its “Atypical
Antwerp”, to be able to compare it with the analysis results of The Hague brand. Moreover, there
is a concern that the reason for such small number of publications mentioning the brand “City of
Peace and Justice” might be the language, in which articles are published, therefore might be
curious to measure quantity of media coverage within the same period of time but in the Dutch
language.

88
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56. Zenker, S. and Braun, E. (2015), Rethinking the Measurement of Place Brands. In M. Kavaratzis,
G. Warnaby, and G. J. Ashworth (Eds.), Rethinking Place Branding : Comprehensive Brand
Development for Cities and Regions. (pp. 211-223).
57. Zhang,L. and Zhao S.X. (2009), City branding and the Olympic effect: A case study of
Beijing.Cities, Vol.25,pp.245-254.

92
Appendix 1: Interviewee Details

№ Interviewee Institution Position Procedure Duration Date

(min)
1 Paulien The Hague Institute for Development Skype 23 19.05.2016
Boone Global Justice Officer

2 Erik Braun Erasmus University Senior face-to- 60 19.05.2016

Rotterdam Researcher and face
Lecturer

3 Stefan Beer- Bureau City Branding Senior Skype 50 23.05.2016

Rutte Communtications
Manager (2009 -
2016)
4 Ernst van den Bureau City Branding/ Chief Marketing face-to- 56 25.05.2016
Berg and University of Leiden Officer/ Liaison face
John Kroes Officer
5 Willem van Center for International Director face-to- 34 26.05.2016
Nieuwkerk Legal Cooperation face
6 Dyana The Hague Academy for Communication face-to- 33 26.05.2016
Kettenis Local Governance Officer face
7 Kirsten Coalition for the Director of Skype 31 27.05.2016
Meersschaert International Criminal Programs
Court
8 Ingrid de Ministry of Foreign Project manager face-to- 84 30.05.2016
Beer Affairs “Hague Project face
Peace and Justice”
9 Frits Municipality of The Alderman for telephone 25 06.06.2016
Huffnagel Hague City Marketing,
International
Affairs, ICT and
the City Centre
(2006-2009)
10 Christien Carnegie Head of Public face-to- 24 09.06.2016
Uringa Foundation/Peace Affairs face
Palace
11 Pepijn Netherlands Helsinki Executive telephone 28 21.06.2016
Gerrits Committee Director
12 Candice Peace Palace Library Coordinator of face-to- 27 24.06.2016
Alihusain Reading Room face
Services

93
Appendix 2: Interview Questions and Questionnaire

Interview Outline (Brand-makers)

General:

1. Why the idea to create the brand appeared? (some city problems which had to be overcome)
2. How the branding strategy (campaign) was decided upon and put in action?
3. What are the initial goals of the brand “City of Peace and Justice” (short, medium, long-
term)?
4. What does the Hague brand “City of Peace and Justice” stand for? (positioning)

Branding strategies:

1. How was the data collected before the creation of The Hague brand?
2. Who was involved in the branding of The Hague and in what way? (how they contributed)
3. How was the image and identity of the brand constructed? Please define them
4. How was positioning reinforced and defended?
5. Which target audience did you want to capture with the brand? What do you want target
audience to think about The Hague brand and which feelings in them you want to evoke?
6. How was the brand communicated to internal and external stakeholders? Which stakeholder
group played an important role?
7. How did the maintenance of the brand being proceed? Was it reproduced? Were there some
obstacles/ challenges associated with this process?
8. Was the assessment of the brand performance implemented and how?
9. Which role international organizations played during the branding process?

Effectiveness:

1. Why it is possible to call The Hague brand “City of Peace and Justice” successful?
2. To what extent are you satisfied with the implementation of branding strategies?
3. Does the brand achieve goals it is supposed to reach according to initial branding
strategy?
4. Are there some success stories associated with The Hague brand?
5. How would you improve the current branding strategy?

94
 Interview Outline (International Organizations)

1. What is your position, task and responsibilities in …? Are your job responsibilities in some way
related to the brand? Have you already obtained some relationship with the brand?

2. How do you understand the brand “City of Peace and Justice” and its message?
3. When you think of the brand “City of Peace and Justice”, what are the first associations or words
that come into mind?
4. If the brand would be a person, what would it personality be like?
5. Would you agree that identity and image of the brand “City of Peace and Justice” fit to The
Hague and assist to promote winning characteristics of the city in a correct way?
6. How does this brand engage with your organization?
7. I noticed that sometimes your organization is using the brand in the publications on the official
website. Do you do it deliberately?
8. Do you use the brand in the work of your organization? Why and why not?
9. Do you think that the brand in some way could contribute to the work of your organization?
10. Do you have some experience with the brand? Was it rather positive or negative?

95
 Closed Questionnaire

This short questionnaire aims at identifying perceptions of actors participating at different stages
of the branding process about performance of The Hague brand “City of Peace and Justice”.

Full Name
Organization
Position
Date

Please tick the box which better indicates your agreement to the following statements, with 1
being “totally disagree” and 5 being “totally agree”.

№ Statement Totally Disagree Undecided Agree Totally

Disagree Agree
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

1. The brand “City of Peace and

Justice” has a clear brand
concept and identity
2. The brand “City of Peace and
Justice” is making a positive
contribution to the image of
The Hague
3. The image which brand “City
of Peace and Justice” promotes
corresponds with my
perceptions about the city
4. The brand “City of Peace and
Justice” contributes positively
to the international reputation
of the city
5. The brand “City of Peace and
Justice” is appropriate for The
Hague (fits with the identity of
96
 municipality)

6. The brand “City of Peace and

Justice” is carrying the idea
which is consistent with the
strong points of the city
7. Within city marketing strategy
“City of Peace and Justice”
there were performed activities
which enhanced the image of
the city
8. “City of Peace and Justice”
branding campaign meets the
needs of The Hague
9. “City of Peace and Justice”
branding campaign is
important for the city and has
to be continued in future
10. Overall, I am very satisfied
with performance of The
Hague brand “City of Peace
and Justice”

97
Appendix 3: Media Coverage
№ Date Article title Source Country Context Word Number
count of
mentions
1. December House of Vanity Fair USA WAR CRIMES (93%); PRIME MINISTERS (92%); 9255 1
2008 war SEPARATISM & SECESSION (91%); ETHNIC
CONFLICTS (90%); MARTIAL ARTS (90%);
ARMIES (90%); MILITARY WEAPONS (90%);
MILITARY & VETERANS LAW (90%);
SHOOTINGS (90%); GUNSHOT WOUNDS (90%);
BOMBS & EXPLOSIVE DEVICES (90%); METAL
DETECTORS (90%); MOUNTAINS (90%);
REBELLIONS & INSURGENCIES (90%);
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (90%); FARM
LABOR (90%); WAR & CONFLICT (90%); FAMILY
(90%); ECONOMIC NEWS (90%);
INTERNATIONAL COURTS & TRIBUNALS (90%);
ARMED FORCES (90%); AIRLINES (90%);
VIOLENT CRIME (90%); FIREARMS (90%);
CEMETERIES (79%); RURAL COMMUNITIES
(79%); CITY LIFE (79%); TERRORISM (79%); TAX
ENFORCEMENT (79%); TAXES & TAXATION
(79%); PROTESTS & DEMONSTRATIONS (79%);
POLITICS (79%); MOTOR VEHICLES (79%);
MOBILE & CELLULAR COMMUNICATIONS
(79%); SMUGGLING (78%); WOMEN (78%); TAX
FRAUD (78%); INTERVIEWS (78%); HISTORY
(75%); TAX LAW (75%); INTERNATIONAL LAW
(75%); STANDARDS & MEASUREMENTS (74%);
RAP MUSIC (74%); IRRIGATION (74%);
APPROVALS (74%); WITNESSES (74%); PUBLIC

98
 CONTRACTING (74%); TEXT MESSAGING (74%);
FAMILY FARMS (74%); PROPERTY VACANCIES
(73%); DOGS (73%); AIRLINE EMPLOYEES (73%);
SKIING (73%); HAIR LOSS (72%); BUDGETS (72%);
FUR & LEATHER CLOTHING (71%);
RESTAURANTS (71%); FARMERS & RANCHERS
(69%); MARATHONS (68%); GENOCIDE (68%);
JUDGES (68%); INDICTMENTS (67%);
EXTORTION (67%); HUMAN RIGHTS
VIOLATIONS (67%); UNITED NATIONS
INSTITUTIONS (67%); CRIMINAL OFFENSES
(67%); MEN (65%); RESORTS (64%); MILITARY
SURVEILLANCE (63%); HIP HOP CULTURE (62%);
ACQUITTAL (62%); GLOBALIZATION (62%);
SPORTS INSTRUCTION (62%); NIGHTCLUBS
(60%); MIGRANT WORKERS (60%); COLLEGE &
UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS (60%); HEROIN (59%);
EXERCISE & FITNESS (50%)
2. May 30, What it Ottawa Canada INTERNATIONAL COURTS & TRIBUNALS (90%); 1019 1
2009 means to Citizen LANDMINES (89%); CONFERENCES &
lead in the CONVENTIONS (89%); FOREIGN RELATIONS
world (89%); INTERNATIONAL LAW (89%); HUMAN
RIGHTS VIOLATIONS (88%); MILITARY
WEAPONS (87%); POLITICAL PARTY
CONVENTIONS (78%); GLOBALIZATION (76%);
STATE DEPARTMENTS & FOREIGN SERVICES
(76%); INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (76%);
FOREIGN POLICY (76%); NUCLEAR WEAPONS
(75%); WAR CRIMES (74%); CRIMES AGAINST
HUMANITY (74%); TREATIES & AGREEMENTS
(73%); HUMAN RIGHTS (73%); NATIONAL
SECURITY (71%); UNITED NATIONS
INSTITUTIONS (69%); GENOCIDE (69%); ARMS

99
 CONTROL & DISARMAMENT (66%); WEAPONS
DECOMMISSIONING (66%)
3. July 9, Celebrate Ottawa Canada PEACEKEEPING (91%); PARADES & MARCHES 623 1
2009 the Citizen (90%); INTERNATIONAL LAW (90%); AWARDS &
peacekeeper PRIZES (90%); ARMED FORCES (89%);
s INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (73%);
INTERNATIONAL COURTS & TRIBUNALS (73%);
CITY LIFE (73%); NOBEL PRIZES (72%); HEADS
OF STATE & GOVERNMENT (71%); PRIME
MINISTERS (71%); WORLD WAR II (70%);
KOREAN WAR (70%)
4. January So you want Lawyers Australia LAWYERS (93%); ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE 1254 1
22, 2010 to be an Weekly RESOLUTION (93%); INTERNATIONAL LAW
internationa (91%); INTERNATIONAL COURTS & TRIBUNALS
l lawyer? (90%); LAW COURTS & TRIBUNALS (78%);
UNITED NATIONS INSTITUTIONS (78%); MAJOR
US LAW FIRMS (78%); USTICE DEPARTMENTS
(73%); CONTRACTS LAW (73%); SCHOLARSHIPS
& GRANTS (73%); ATTORNEYS GENERAL (73%);
JUDGES (73%)
5. November Hanging out The Irish Ireland MUSEUMS & GALLERIES (87%); LEGISLATIVE 1845 1
27, 2010 in The Times BODIES (78%); WAR CRIMES (78%);
Hague INTERNATIONAL COURTS & TRIBUNALS (78%);
MARIJUANA (77%); RESTAURANTS (77%);
UNITED NATIONS INSTITUTIONS (73%);
WRITERS (73%); NONGOVERNMENTAL
ORGANIZATIONS (72%); LAWYERS (71%);
ARTISTS & PERFORMERS (71%); EXHIBITIONS
(71%); EMBASSIES & CONSULATES (68%);
VISUAL ARTS (66%); VISUAL ARTISTS (66%)
6. March 28, Confronting USA INTERNATIONAL LAW (94%); 10603 4
2012 complexity Abi Inform/ NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (91%);
in the American INTERNATIONAL COURTS & TRIBUNALS (91%);

100
 Hague:the Society of GLOBALIZATION (90%); RULE OF LAW (90%);
view from Internationa ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS (90%);
the courts l Law ETHNIC CONFLICTS (89%); LAW COURTS &
and TRIBUNALS (89%); RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS
tribunals (86%); GENOCIDE (78%); UNITED NATIONS
INSTITUTIONS (78%); INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS (78%);
7. May 5, Rights Palestine Israel URBAN RAIL SYSTEMS (90%); 471 2
2012 Group News & TRANSPORTATION SECTOR PERFORMANCE
Protest Role Information (90%); HOLDING COMPANIES (90%); URBAN
of French Agency TRANSIT SYSTEMS (90%); PUBLIC
Transport (WAFA) TRANSPORTATION (89%); HUMAN RIGHTS
Company in (89%); INTERNATIONAL LAW (89%); HUMAN
Tender RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS (78%); HUMAN
RIGHTS VIOLATIONS (78%); CITY LIFE (77%);
CONTRACT AWARDS (77%); PARENT
COMPANIES (77%); CONTRACTS & BIDS (77%);
PROPERTY ANNEXATIONS (77%); MASS
TRANSIT CONSTRUCTION (74%); LAW OF WAR
(73%); JEWS & JUDAISM (69%)
8. May 28, Rights Palestine Israel URBAN TRANSIT SYSTEMS (89%); 483 1
2012 Group News & INTERNATIONAL LAW (88%); UNITED NATIONS
Welcomes Information INSTITUTIONS (86%); CITIES (78%);
Dutch Agency TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE (77%);
Decision (WAFA) HUMAN RIGHTS (73%); PROPERTY
Against ANNEXATIONS (73%); JEWS & JUDAISM (68%);
French LANDFILLS (61%); MOTORCOACHES & BUSES
Company (57%)
9. July 1, Nelson Sunday South ARTISTS & PERFORMERS (89%); HUMAN 880 1
2012 Mandela Times Africa RIGHTS VIOLATIONS (86%); CRIMES AGAINST
graces the (South HUMANITY (78%); INTERNATIONAL COURTS &
world Africa) TRIBUNALS (78%); NOBEL PRIZES (76%);
AWARDS & PRIZES (76%); INTERNATIONAL

101
 LAW (76%); GENOCIDE (73%); HISTORY (64%);
ETHNIC CONFLICTS (60%)
10. September Terror alert The Irish Ireland TERRORISM (92%); TERRORIST ATTACKS (90%); 778 1
1, 2012 leaves a Times HIJACKING (90%); TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS
country on (89%); INTERNATIONAL LAW (89%); AL-QAEDA
edge (78%); COUNTERTERRORISM (78%);
INTERNATIONAL COURTS & TRIBUNALS (78%);
AIRPORTS (76%); COMMERCIAL & GENERAL
AVIATION AIRCRAFT (76%); AIRCRAFT PILOTS
(76%); ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS (74%);
SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE FORCES (73%);
CHEMICAL & BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS (73%);
SUICIDE BOMBINGS (73%); INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS (69%); ARMS CONTROL &
DISARMAMENT (67%); IMMIGRATION (64%);
EMBASSIES & CONSULATES (62%); UNITED
NATIONS INSTITUTIONS (62%); US PRESIDENTS
(60%)
11. January Year 12 The Age Australia COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY ADMISSIONS (90%); 731 1
18, 2013 Club HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCE (78%);
ecstatic STUDENTS & STUDENT LIFE (75%); INTERNET
over uni SOCIAL NETWORKING (71%); COLLEGES &
offers UNIVERSITIES (71%); FREE INTERNET ACCESS
(70%); RESTAURANTS (68%); WIRELESS
INTERNET ACCESS (68%); FAST FOOD (68%);
TEXT MESSAGING (50%)
12. April 17, Peace and The Nation India INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (90%); 774 3
2013 justice (AsiaNet) ANNIVERSARIES (90%); INTERNATIONAL LAW
fusion (90%); FOREIGN RELATIONS (89%);
ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS (89%);
UNITED NATIONS INSTITUTIONS (87%); STATE
DEPARTMENTS & FOREIGN SERVICES (78%);
EMBASSIES & CONSULATES (78%); LAW OF

102
 WAR (78%); DIPLOMATIC SERVICES (76%);
SUPREME COURTS (75%); LAW COURTS &
TRIBUNALS (75%); TREATIES & AGREEMENTS
(73%); NOBEL PRIZES (72%); TERRITORIAL &
NATIONAL BORDERS (70%); CHEMICAL &
BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS (68%); PEACE PROCESS
(68%); FREEDOM OF THE SEAS (66%);
BOMBINGS (65%)
13. October The Hague - Zimbabwe Zimbab INTERNATIONAL LAW (92%); INTERNATIONAL 826 1
20, 2013 Legal Standard we COURTS & TRIBUNALS (91%); UNITED NATIONS
Capital of (Harare) INSTITUTIONS (90%); HEADS OF STATE &
the World GOVERNMENT (89%); CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS
(89%); CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY (78%);
SETTLEMENT & COMPROMISE (78%); WAR
CRIMES (78%); INDICTMENTS (77%);
SENTENCING (77%); HUMAN RIGHTS
VIOLATIONS (77%); CORRECTIONS (77%);
NOBEL PRIZES (75%); MUSLIMS & ISLAM (74%);
ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS (74%); LAW
OF WAR (73%); AWARDS & PRIZES (73%); PEACE
PROCESS (73%); JAIL SENTENCING (72%);
HOMICIDE (72%); PRIME MINISTERS (72%);
PRISONS (68%); ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE
RESOLUTION (67%); HUMAN RIGHTS (66%);
TREATIES & AGREEMENTS (66%);
ASSASSINATION (64%); WORLD WAR II (61%);
RELIGION (50%)
14. December Lowdown Yorkshire United CHILDREN (89%); AMUSEMENT & THEME 863 1
30, 2013 on going Post Kingdom PARKS (89%); RESTAURANTS (89%); MOBILE
Dutch HOMES (89%); WATER PARKS (87%); CANALS &
WATERWAYS (76%); CYCLING (73%); TRAILER
PARKS (72%); EROSION CONTROL (68%);
WALKING & JOGGING (60%); GROCERY STORES

103
 & SUPERMARKETS (50%)

15. February PM to meet Daily The Pakistan PRIME MINISTERS (91%); TALKS & MEETINGS 456 1
22, 2014 Obama, Pak Banker (90%); US PRESIDENTS (90%); HEADS OF STATE
world & GOVERNMENT (90%); EXECUTIVES (78%);
leaders in INTERGOVERNMENTAL TALKS (78%); POWER
The Hague PLANTS (77%); INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
next month (77%); NUCLEAR WEAPONS (77%); AIR FORCES
(75%); MISSILE SYSTEMS (72%); AGREEMENTS
(69%); HELICOPTERS (62%); AIR DEFENSE
SYSTEMS (62%); TERRORISM (50%)
16. February Pakistan: Right Pakistan PRIME MINISTERS (91%); TALKS & MEETINGS 492 1
23, 2014 PM to meet Vision (90%); US PRESIDENTS (90%); HEADS OF STATE
Obama, News & GOVERNMENT (90%); EXECUTIVES (78%);
world INTERGOVERNMENTAL TALKS (78%);
leaders in INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (77%); NUCLEAR
The Hague WEAPONS (77%); POWER PLANTS (76%); AIR
next month FORCES (75%); MISSILE SYSTEMS (71%);
JOURNALISM (69%); MEDIA SYNDICATION
(69%); AGREEMENTS (68%); WRITERS (63%);
HELICOPTERS (62%); AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS
(62%); TERRORISM (50%)
17. April 8, 1. The Japan Japan WRITERS (90%); LEGISLATIVE BODIES (89%); 475 1
2014 News INTERNATIONAL COURTS & TRIBUNALS (78%);
ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS (78%);
EMBASSIES & CONSULATES (77%);
INTERNATIONAL LAW (77%); NOVELS & SHORT
STORIES (75%); LITERATURE (75%); FICTION
LITERATURE (75%); BOOK REVIEWS (74%);
HIGH SOCIETY (74%); MUSEUMS & GALLERIES
(70%); WEALTHY PEOPLE (70%); COLLEGE &
UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS (68%); UNITED
NATIONS INSTITUTIONS (56%); WORLD WAR I

104
 (50%)

18. May 30, World Cup Mumbai India FIELD HOCKEY (91%); SPORTS & RECREATION 329 1
2014 hockey set Mirror (91%); SPORTS & RECREATION EVENTS (90%);
to storm STADIUMS & ARENAS (90%); SOCCER
The Hague, TOURNAMENTS (90%); SPORTS (90%);
the city of INTERNATIONAL LAW (78%); OLYMPICS (74%);
peace and INTERNATIONAL COURTS & TRIBUNALS (73%);
justice RANKINGS (64%); UNITED NATIONS
INSTITUTIONS (56%)
19. August 28, 4 Things Legal Jordan INTERNATIONAL COURTS & TRIBUNALS (90%); 588 1
2014 You Should Monitor INTERNATIONAL LAW (90%); HUMAN RIGHTS
Know Worldwide VIOLATIONS (89%); UNITED NATIONS
About the INSTITUTIONS (89%); LAW COURTS &
Hague TRIBUNALS (89%); INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS (89%); WAR CRIMES (89%);
FOREIGN RELATIONS (78%); CRIMES AGAINST
HUMANITY (78%); CRIMINAL OFFENSES (78%);
ETHNIC CONFLICTS (75%); ARMS CONTROL &
DISARMAMENT (75%); LAWYERS (74%); FAMILY
(74%); INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE (73%);
GENOCIDE (73%); NUCLEAR WEAPONS (71%);
CHEMICAL & BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS (70%);
PAINTING (70%); CONFERENCES &
CONVENTIONS (69%); PEACE PROCESS (66%);
NOBEL PRIZES (64%); ASSOCIATIONS &
ORGANIZATIONS (61%); TERRORISM (50%)
20. September 'Hague Day' Jerusalem Israel INTERNATIONAL COURTS & TRIBUNALS (92%); 718 1
22, 2014 brings into Post INVESTIGATIONS (90%); MILITARY &
focus VETERANS LAW (90%); WAR CRIMES (90%);
decisions by INTERNATIONAL LAW (90%); EVIDENCE (89%);
ICC that MILITARY WEAPONS (89%); JURISDICTION
could have (89%); JEWS & JUDAISM (89%); CHEMICAL &

105
 major BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS (78%); ISRAELI-
ramification PALESTINIAN CONFLICTS (78%); ARMS
s for Israel. CONTROL & DISARMAMENT (78%); UNITED
NATIONS INSTITUTIONS (78%); LAW COURTS &
TRIBUNALS (78%); ASSOCIATIONS &
ORGANIZATIONS (78%); HAMAS (78%); WAR &
CONFLICT (76%); ARREST WARRANTS (73%);
ARRESTS (73%); HEADS OF STATE &
GOVERNMENT (72%); RELIGION (60%); ARMED
FORCES (55%)
21. September Diplomatic Dawn Pakistan VISUAL ARTISTS (90%); INTERNATIONAL LAW 237 1
28, 2014 Calendar: (Pakistan) (90%); STATE DEPARTMENTS & FOREIGN
Cartoons SERVICES (78%); FOREIGN RELATIONS (78%);
for peace INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (78%);
EDUCATION SYSTEMS & INSTITUTIONS (78%);
INTERNATIONAL COURTS & TRIBUNALS (78%);
PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES (74%); UNITED
NATIONS INSTITUTIONS (71%); ARMS CONTROL
& DISARMAMENT (71%); ANIMATED FILMS
(70%); CHEMICAL & BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
(56%)
22. July 13, War And EKantipur.c India WAR CRIMES (91%); LAW OF WAR (90%); 878 2
2015 Peace In om PEACEKEEPING (90%); INTERNATIONAL
The RELATIONS (90%); WAR & CONFLICT (90%);
'Internation TREATIES & AGREEMENTS (90%);
al City Of INTERNATIONAL LAW (90%); ARMIES (89%);
Peace & CONFERENCES & CONVENTIONS (89%);
Justice' AGREEMENTS (89%); INTERNATIONAL COURTS
& TRIBUNALS (89%); LAW ENFORCEMENT
(89%); WORLD WAR I (77%); DELAYS &
POSTPONEMENTS (77%); PEACE PROCESS (73%);
PROTESTS & DEMONSTRATIONS (71%);
DEFENSE DEPARTMENTS (69%); TERRORISM

106
 (68%); DIGITAL CURRENCY (66%); UNITED
NATIONS INSTITUTIONS (66%); ARMED FORCES
(66%); POLITICS (64%); DEATHS & INJURIES BY
POLICE (63%); VISUAL ARTISTS (62%);
CONSERVATISM (60%)
23. October TS New Indian India INFORMATION SECURITY & PRIVACY (90%); 247 1
17, 2015 Government Express REGIONAL & LOCAL GOVERNMENTS (90%);
Signs Pact INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (90%); BEST
with Hague PRACTICES (77%); CYBERCRIME (77%); CITY
Security GOVERNMENT (77%); INFORMATION SECURITY
Delta VULNERABILITIES (72%); ASSOCIATIONS &
ORGANIZATIONS (51%)
24. November Seventeen- The Analyst USA AWARDS & PRIZES (96%); CHILDREN (90%); 1070 1
10, 2015 year old NOBEL PRIZES (90%); CRIMES AGAINST
Liberian PERSONS (89%); LEGISLATIVE BODIES (89%);
wins Inter'l CHILD WELFARE (78%); SEX OFFENSES (77%);
Children's WOMEN (77%); FEMINISM & WOMEN'S RIGHTS
Peace Prize (74%); PEACE PROCESS (70%); LOBBYING (64%);
2015 JURY TRIALS (50%)

25. November Liberia The NEWS Liberia AWARDS & PRIZES (96%); NOBEL PRIZES (93%); 374 1
10, 2015 Wins Int'l (Monrovia) CHILDREN (91%); FAMILY LAW (90%); CRIMES
Children's AGAINST PERSONS (89%); CHILD WELFARE
Peace Prize (89%); LEGISLATIVE BODIES (87%); WOMEN
(77%); FEMINISM & WOMEN'S RIGHTS (77%);
PEACE PROCESS (72%); GRANDCHILDREN (69%);
LOBBYING (66%); JURY TRIALS (52%
26. February Baroness European United INTERNATIONAL LAW (91%); INTERNATIONAL 194 1
1, 2016 Anelay Union Kingdom COURTS & TRIBUNALS (90%); INTERNATIONAL
visits The News TRADE (77%); COMMERCE DEPARTMENTS
Hague (77%); MILITARY WEAPONS (76%); CHEMICAL &
BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS (76%); VIOLENT CRIME

107
 (76%); SEX OFFENSES (73%); PRIME MINISTERS
(73%); HEADS OF STATE & GOVERNMENT (73%);
ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS (72%);
ARMS CONTROL & DISARMAMENT (71%);
UNITED NATIONS INSTITUTIONS (51%)

27. April 29, Lakewood Sampson USA FUNDRAISING (90%); STUDENTS & STUDENT 647 1
2016 High Independent LIFE (90%); HIGH SCHOOLS (90%); HISTORY
School to (Clinton, (89%); HOLOCAUST (89%); GLOBALIZATION
join human North (78%); ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS (78%);
rights Carolina) WORLD WAR II (77%); FAMILY (74%);
summit ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS AWARDS (70%);
GRANDCHILDREN (67%); BIOGRAPHICAL
LITERATURE (61%); NOVELS & SHORT STORIES
(61%); WORLD WAR I (60%)

108
Appendix 4: Usage of the Brand by IGOs and NGOs on their Official Websites (Loyalty)

№ Organization name Website “City of No search

Peace and term
Justice”
1. Benelux Bureau Intellectueel Eigendom (BBIE) www.boip.int 

2. Eurojust www.eurojust.europa.eu 

3. European Commission, Representation in the Netherlands www.eu.nl 

4. European Parliament, Information Office in the Netherlands www.europeesparlement.nl 

5. Europol / European Cybercrime Centre (ECC) www.europol.europa.eu 

6. High Commissioner on National Minorities www.osce.org/hcnm 

of the OSCE (HCNM/OSCE)
7. International Court of Justice (ICJ) www.icj-cij.org 

8. International Criminal Court (ICC) www.icc-cpi.int 

9. International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) www.icty.org 

10. Iran-United States Claims Tribunal (IUSCT) www.iusct.org 

11. Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO www.unesco.nl 

12. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) www.opcw.org 

13. Peace Palace Library (PPL) www.ppl.nl 

14. Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) www.pca-cpa.org 

15. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) www.unhcr.org 

16. ADFU/Cercle Diplomatique www.adfu-international.nl 

109
17. Africa Legal Aid (AFLA) www.africalegalaid.com 

18. African Diaspora Policy Centre (ADPC) www.diaspora-centre.org 

19. African Foundation for International Law (AFIL) www.afil-fadi.org 

20. Amnesty International (AI) www.amnesty.nl 

21. Aqua for All (AFA ) www.aquaforall.nl 

22. Association of European Journalists (AEJ) www.aej.org 

23. Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS) www.ancbs.org 

24. Bridging the Gulf (BTG) www.bridgingthegulf.org 

25. Care Netherlands www.bbo.org 

26. Carnegie Foundation www.carenederland.org 

27. Centre for International Legal Cooperation (CILC) www.cilc.nl 

28. Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) www.coalitionfortheicc.org 

29. Cordaid www.cordaid.nl 

30. Dutch Coalition on Disability and Development (DCDD) www.dcdd.nl 

31. E uropean and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) www.edctp.nl 

32. European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations www.eblida.org 

(EBLIDA)
33. Europa Nostra www.europanostra.org 

34. European Juridical Network (EJN) www.ejn-crimjust.europa.eu 

35. Foreign Press Association of the Netherlands (BPV) www.bpv-fpa.nl 

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36. Foundation Arctic People Alert (APA ) www.arctica.nl 

37. Gender Concerns International (GCI) www.genderconcerns.org 

38. Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) www.ghrd.org 

39. Institute for Environmental www.envirosecurity.org 

Security (IES)
40. Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation (IHJR) www.historyandreconciliation.org 

41. Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) www.iwpr.net 

42. Intent www.intent.eu 

43. International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) www.iap-association.org 

44. International Bar Association Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) www.ibanet.org 

45. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) www.fidh.org 

46. International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) www.ifaw.org 

47. International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) www.iicd.org 

48. International Institute for Criminal Investigations (IICI) www.iici.info 

49. International Justice Mission The Netherlands (IJMNL) www.ijmnl.org 

50. International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) www.fip.org 

51. International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP) www.isocarp.org 

52. International Statistical Institute (ISI) www.isi-web.org 

53. Kreddha, International Peace Council for States, Peoples and Minorities www.kreddha.org 

54. Microjustice Initiative (MJI) www.microjustice4all.org 

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55. Microjustice4All (MJFA ) www.microjustice4all.org 

56. Model European Parliament (MEP) www.mepnederland.nl 

57. Montesquieu Institute (MI) www.montesquieu-instituut.nl 

58. Netherlands Organisation for International Development Cooperation www.oxfamnovib.nl 

(Oxfam Novib)
59. Netherlands Association for the United Nations (NVVN) www.nvvn.nl 

60. Netherlands Association for Water Management (NVA) www.dutch-industry.com 

61. Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) www.snv.org 

62. Netherlands Helsinki Committee (NHC) www.nhc.nl 

63. Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) www.nimd.org 

64. Netherlands Red Cross (NRC) www.rodekruis.nl 

65. Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) www.nwp.nl 

66. Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) www.pgaction.org 

67. Platform Spartak, Interdisciplinary Platform for Eastern Europe (PS) www.platformspartak.eu 

68. PRIME Finance (PF) www.primefinancedisputes.org 

69. Save the Children www.savethechildren.nl 

70. Society for International Development (SID) www.sid-nl.org 

71. Spanda Foundation (SF) www.spanda.org 

72. The European School The Hague (ESTH) www.europeanschoolthehague.nl 

73. The Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPA C) www.gppac.net 

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74. The Hague Academy for Local Governance (THALG) www.thehagueacademy.com 

75. The Hague Center for Global Governance, Innovation and Emergence www.thehaguecenter.org 
(THC)
76. The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) www.hcss.nl 

77. The Hague Institute for Global Justice (THIGJ) www.thehagueinstituteforglobalju 

stice.org
78. The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN) www.thimun.org 

79. The Hague Process on Refugees and Migration (THP) www.thehagueprocess.org 

80. The Hague Security Delta (HSD) www.thehaguesecuritydelta.com 

81. The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT-The Hague) www.icct.nl 

82. Transparency International Netherlands (TIN) www.transparency.nl 

83. United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY) www.unoy.org 

84. Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) www.unpo.org 

85. UPEACE The Hague www.upeace.nl 

86. VNG International www.vng-international.nl 

87. Water Governance Centre (WGC) www.watergovernancecentre.nl 

88. WO=MEN www.wo-men.nl 

89. Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice (WIGJ) www.4genderjustice.org 

90. World Federalist Movement (WFM) www.wfm-igp.org 

91. Yi Jun Peace Museum and Academy Foundation www.yijunpeacemuseum.com 

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