Developing a city brand balance sheet – Using the case of Horsens, Denmark

Abstract

After a traditional brand campaign was aborted in the late 1980s, the Danish city Horsens has, over a 10-year period, been able to change its negative image of a city dominated by a prison, to one representing culture, large events and concerts, which has been documented in annual analyses of unaided top-of-mind knowledge among people living in Denmark outside Horsens. The process was initiated by the city council and is founded on close cooperation between politicians, the municipality, private businesses and volunteers, and the project has been financed by a combination of taxpayer money and private funding. The Horsens case makes it evident that investors in the city brand process (in Horsens, the town council and private companies) act as shareholders and that there is a need for a more developed understanding of brand equity as a return on investment. The author introduces a new model for a city brand balance sheet to describe brand equity from a shareholder perspective, including return on investment with focus on impact in relation to tangible and intangible assets inside as well as outside the city.