Branding the city: the case of Casablanca-Morocco

Abstract

Over the past two decades, a new paradigm has emerged in the field of public management, which advocates place branding as a determining and impacting strategy of differentiation, recognition and commodification of places. The interest of this article is to approach the city branding strategy of the city of Casablanca, consecrated as being the first experience of its kind in Morocco and even in Africa. Thus, we will try to discover its operating mode, in particular by analyzing the instrumentalization process of the couple «identity/image» of the city for the purposes of attractiveness and competitiveness. We will also discuss the pillars on which this strategy is based, in particular through the operationalization of the city’s development plan 2015–2020, the deployment of its communication and the involvement of its various stakeholders.