Measuring the effectiveness of city brand strategy. In search for a universal evaluative framework

Abstract

Along with the development of concepts such as New Public Management (NPM), city managers are required to implement performance control tools to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the diverse urban strategies. Since place branding is considered a component of managerial approach to city development, it also requires performance evaluation.Taking the above into consideration, the primary aim of the current paper was the development of a holistic measurement system designed to facilitate the evaluation of the city branding strategy. To this end, the municipal representatives of the entire population of 66 Polish district cities were interviewed and the findings were juxtaposed with insights from international place branding experts as well as with the results of a comprehensive literature studies.The authors undertook the process-oriented approach to effectiveness measurement and designed a system of city brand effectiveness measurement that takes into account not only the branding outcomes, but also stages of the branding process in the city and the structure of city brand strategy documents. Moreover, the measurement system itself is constructed in such a manner to enable the evaluation of multiple types of brand-related activities that lead to diverse results in different timeframes. It also comprises a comprehensive list of indicators city managers can apply to measure the effectiveness of their branding efforts.