Cities and their brands: Lessons from corporate branding

Abstract

First, this article attempts to clarify certain issues involved in treating cities as brands, which have significantly limited the application of city branding. Secondly, it draws from corporate-level marketing theories important lessons for cities, and, thirdly, it contributes towards a clear city branding framework that is evidently missing and required. The article directly addresses whether city brands should be treated as corporate brands. It then concentrates on the similarities between these two forms of branding and extracts major lessons from corporate-level marketing concepts. Essential similarities are identified, especially in their complex and multi-stakeholder character and their dependence on a wide cooperation that runs across a city or organisation. Corporate-level marketing is suggested as the closest that marketing theories have ever come to addressing the distinct demands of cities, not disregarding the need to fine-tune relevant tools. The article then compares several city branding frameworks found in the literature exploring their common ground, which leads to the identification of eight components of an integrated city brand-management framework. The paper substantially contributes to the academic discussion on city branding and fills a significant gap in the literature by bringing together the fragmented suggestions on how city branding should be implemented.