City Brand Image Research Articles

The Role of Eco Cultural Creative Products in the Communication of City Brands and International Images

The growth of the city and the improvement of people's living standard gave birth to brand communication. Under the tide of globalization, cultural & creative industries act on the spread of urban brands, integrating culture and economy, and providing sufficient power for urban development. As an important carrier and core competitiveness of city brand communication, ecological creative industry promotes, supports and develops together. City-based competition has started. As an important element in the competition, city business cards can add cultural added value to the city and promote its development. There are still some problems in the city's brand promotion, which affect the pace of building and spreading the city's brand. The resource advantages of urban cultural & creative industries need to be further explored by various functional departments and scholars to promote the shaping and dissemination of urban brands. Based on this, this paper analyzes the realistic dilemma of eco-cultural creative industries in spreading city brand, and discusses the role of eco-cultural creative products in city brand and international image dissemination.

City Brand Image Building and Its Impact on the Psychological Capital of New Entrepreneurs Following Cultural Construction.

The purpose of the study is to provide effective direction and ideas for urban modernization and promote the development of the city innovation economy and the stability of the employment rate. First, the main contents and influencing factors of urban culture construction are introduced. Second, the construction of city cultural images and the social capital of new entrepreneurs are discussed, and the relationship between the two is analyzed. Then, Interpretative Structural Modeling Method (ISM) is put forward, and five influencing factors of city entrepreneurial environments are expounded. A questionnaire survey is designed based on the ISM model, and a nationwide survey of new entrepreneurs is carried out. The survey results show that entrepreneurs of different genders, ages, and educational levels have different degrees of concern for the city image. Among them, the entrepreneurs with different educational levels have the most obvious difference in their attention to the cultural image of the city (p < 0.05). In addition, public transportation, educational conditions, tourism resources, air quality, and image orientation are the most obvious factors affecting the construction of city brand images (p < 0.05). The influence of the educational level of residents and investment environment on new entrepreneurs is more prominent. This shows that in the process of shaping the city brand image, the improvement of city culture is helpful for new enterprises. The more perfect the city culture is, the more attractive it will be for highly educated entrepreneurs. The study can help relevant decision-makers to plan the future development direction of the city more accurately and realize the stable development of city brand images.

Influence of Large Marathon on City Brand Building Based on Big Data Analysis

With the rise of the national fitness tide, marathon has become one of the popular sports in the city. Marathon has a positive impact on the shaping of city brand, but there is little research on this aspect in China at present. Therefore, this paper puts forward the research on the impact of large-scale marathon on city brand building based on big data analysis. Through the investigation and analysis of the effect of marathon on urban construction, the results show that marathon competition in the city has the functions of carrying forward the city culture, strengthening the citizens’ fitness consciousness, clarifying the city brand positioning, and strengthening the construction of sports infrastructure. In order to further investigate the role of marathon in the construction of city brand, this paper takes the marathon race of a city as the research object and makes an in-depth study on it. While analyzing the impact of marathon on city brand building, the paper also analyzes the passenger flow and passenger flow structure during the marathon race through big data. The data show that during the marathon, the city’s passenger flow has been significantly improved. From the crowd structure, marathon is more popular with young groups. In this paper, the author holds that the marathon race in a city has an important impact on the image of the city concept. It can not only shape the city brand image, but also promote the development of tourism industry.

“One Event, One City”: Promoting the Loyalty of Marathon Runners to a Host City by Improving Event Service Quality

China has entered into a new developmental phase where the government can promote national fitness, the sports industry, and city tourism, simultaneously. Rapidly becoming the largest single sporting events in China, marathon events help facilitate this integration. However, event organizers tend to focus on winning bids for events instead of improving event services and increasing the loyalty of runners to the host city, which could benefit the city for sustainable development. In this study, the antecedents affecting marathon runner loyalty to the city hosting the annual hallmark event (i.e., destination loyalty) were investigated by studying a sample of 392 repeat runners during a recent HengQin International Marathon (HQ-M). Conducting structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses, the proposed model, integrating event service quality (ESQ), destination image (DI), satisfaction (SAT), and destination loyalty (DLOY), was confirmed. Nine hypothesized paths were identified among these four constructs, including six direct paths and three indirect paths. Meanwhile, mediation effects and serial mediation effects of DI and SAT between ESQ and DLOY were found. Good ESQ, positive DI, and high SAT were found both separately and collectively to enhance DLOY and have important implications for the strategic marketing of sporting events and sustaining city brand image.

Research on the Application of Vertical Greening in Urban Park Design

The purpose of the study is to explore the design form of vertical greening in urban parks, introduce the intangible cultural heritage with strong participation, excavate the cultural connotation of the city, further explore the integration concept of traditional cultural elements and vertical greening, and inherit and continue in the design of urban parks. In the early stage, this paper summarizes the classic cases of vertical greening in foreign countries, and finds out the application scheme of the integration of traditional cultural elements in the design of domestic urban parks. The method is to refine and abstract the traditional cultural elements such as intangible cultural heritage display, folk culture and pattern symbols from the clues of local traditional cultural elements, so as to coordinate the humanities and nature to create urban characteristics. The research results are based on the local actual case, the integration of vertical greening and local cultural elements, so that the modern city park can play its own cultural value, increase the cultural function of urban park greening, enhance the city brand image of Dazhou, enhance the cultural identity of citizens, and add more green space and cultural exchange places.

Research on visual recognition intelligent system of city brand image based on fuzzy theory and regional culture

With the rapid development of China’s market economy, brand image is becoming more and more important for an enterprise to enhance its market competitiveness and occupy a favorable market share. However, the brand image of many established companies gradually loses with the development of society and the improvement of people’s aesthetic pursuit. This has forced it to change its corporate brand image and regain the favor of the market. Based on this, this article combines the related knowledge and concepts of fuzzy theory, from the perspective of visual identity design, explores the development of corporate brand image visual identity intelligent system, and aims to design a set of visual identity system that is different from competitors in order to shape the enterprise. Distinctive brand image and improve its market competitiveness. This article first collected a large amount of information through the literature investigation method, and made a systematic and comprehensive introduction to fuzzy theory, visual recognition technology and related theoretical concepts of brand image, which laid a sufficient theoretical foundation for the later discussion of the application of fuzzy theory in the design of brand image visual recognition intelligent system; then the fuzzy theory algorithm is described in detail, a fuzzy neural network is proposed and applied to the design of the brand image visual recognition intelligent system, and the design experiment of the intelligent recognition system is carried out; finally, through the use of the specific case of KFC brand logo, the designed intelligent recognition system was tested, and it was found that the visual recognition intelligent system had an overall accuracy rate of 96.08% for the KFC brand logo. Among them, the accuracy rate of color recognition was the highest, 96.62%; comparing the changes in the output value of the training sample and the test sample, the output convergence effect of the color network is the best; through the comparison test of the BP neural network, the recognition effect of the fuzzy neural network is better.

공연축제의 체험요인이 도시브랜드이미지 및 관광객 행동의도에 미치는 영향에 대한 연구 : 부산 원 아시아 페스티벌(BOF)을 방문한 중국인 대상으로

공연축제의 체험요인이 도시브랜드이미지 및 관광객 행동의도에 미치는 영향에 대한 연구 : 부산 원 아시아 페스티벌(BOF)을 방문한 중국인 대상으로

City brand image formation by urban heritage initiatives

In today's world, as cities compete in the marketplace, strategies for creating a city brand image are often shaped solely to meet the aspirations of profit, business development, and awareness. The preservation of culture, historical, and urban heritage remains important only in urban development strategies and not in actual development actions. The truth is, the image of a city is shaped by different historical, political, demographic, sociological, and economic factors which make up what we perceive as the brand image of a city. However, one of the most noticeable elements of the brand image of a city is the urban heritage based on national traditions. The aim of this article is to evaluate the effects of urban heritage initiatives in the creation of the brand image of the city of Vilnius. Research methods used in this article are qualitative content analysis and expert semi-structured interviews. Main conclusions stimulate debate, hesitation and criticism from communities and city researchers for using new heritage object and culture initiatives in order to create the brand image of Vilnius. The influence of urban heritage is inevitable when modelling the brand image of Vilnius, but there are no effective strategies to deal with the new urban heritage initiatives by creating the brand image of Vilnius yet.

Talking about Using Big Data to Analyze the Brand Design of Sports Events to Improve the City Brand Image

Based on the background of big data, this article combines computer big data analysis and literature methods, logic analysis and induction to illustrate how a city can organize and market sports events and use sports as an entry point to carry out urban brand image activities. The research shows that the holding of sports events is an important resource and means of urban brand image, which is conducive to the overall development including urban construction, economy, culture, city image and society. It further clarifies the process of introducing urban brand image of sports events and proposes A few things that should be noted. Explain and demonstrate the theoretical system of "sports events and city brand image", and at the same time provide guidance for theoretical support and practical activities as a city brand image focusing on sports events.

국가와 도시 브랜드 이미지를 활용한 문화상품 개발 연구 − 한국과 부산 이미지를 중심으로 −

The purpose of this study is development of cultural products applying Korean national brand image and city brand image of Busan. In order to achieve aim of this study, the processes of this study is divided two section as theoretical discussion and practical process of developing cultural products. In the theoretical discussion, we consider conception and case of the national brand image and city brand image of Busan and also discuss theory of cultural products. In the practical process of developing cultural, on the other hand, we first consider design research process of Korean national brand image that based on traditional culture and city brand image of Busan and then develop almost 200 cultural products based on 7-representative city brand images of Busan which contain past and present of Busan applying story-telling technique. We hope that the cultural products that is developed in this study have positive impact to strengthen Korea and city brand of Busan.

Chinese city brands and semiotic image scales: a tourism perspective

ABSTRACTWhile many researchers have documented the characteristics of China's growing tourism market, a comprehensive image scale of city brand for tourism has not yet been developed. This study investigates a semiotic image scale of city brands to encapsulate the contextual background of China and its ability to increase tourism efforts. This study attempts to extend the semiotic mapping of consumption values to city brand and develop it into an image scale of city brand in the perspective of tourism practitioners. In the process of developing an image scale for understanding the perception of the consumer's city brands, this study utilizes semiotic mapping of consumption values to analyse the consumer's image vocabulary. The image vocabularies are categorized into four quadrants (mission, project, euphoria, and information) as illustrated in the semiotic mapping of consumption values. In the Chinese context, the developed image scale extracts the value orientations of excellence, effectiveness, pleasantness, and convenience with these four quadrants to comprehend city brand in tourism perspective. By combining the measurement development with the reality of city tourism in China, the image scale will help to systematically understand the city brand image expressed through tourism in China.

Ningbo city branding and public diplomacy under the belt and road initiative in China

This paper takes Ningbo as a case study to examine stakeholders’ perceptions of the city image and city branding strategies under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Using stakeholder approach and in-depth interviews with 53 city officials, residents, businesses, and expatriates in Ningbo, the authors argue that public diplomacy has influenced city branding strategies in the globalizing world. Different stakeholders have different perceptions toward city brand image based on their interests, focuses, and concerns. Expatriates are a crucial external stakeholder group in the city branding process. This study makes both theoretical and empirical contributions. Theoretically, the study contributes to enhance the link between public diplomacy and city branding concepts, thus further bridging the disciplines of international relations and marketing with the inclusion of the expatriates as significant stakeholders. It also provides interview-based empirical data to the studies of public diplomacy and city branding in the Chinese context.

Research on the Communication and Marketing Strategy of Zhanjiang&amp;apos;s City Brand

City image dissemination is to use the city as a foothold to spread the specific image of the city. City image dissemination is a social management activity and process to enhance the city's influence and reputation. Currently, city resources are limited and competition among cities is becoming increasingly fierce. Using the principles of branding to brand a city will help to enhance the breadth and depth of the effect of city image dissemination. Through the dissemination of city brands, highlight the characteristics of the city, improve the business environment, attract talents, and seize development opportunities. How to do a good job in spreading the city brand of Zhanjiang and increase the popularity of Zhanjiang is based on the research of this research institute. This article takes Zhanjiang as the research object, and finds three main factors that influence the spread of Zhanjiang's city brand image through big data and social networks: First, there are many and mixed images, resulting in fuzzy perception. Second, the lack of communication methods and channels has resulted in limited information acquisition. The third is the low degree of brand image recognition and low stakeholder attention. These factors restrict the shaping and dissemination of city brands. Therefore, this article attempts to reposition the city image of Zhanjiang and build a city brand with Zhanjiang characteristics. Promote Zhanjiang's reputation through the spread and marketing of Zhanjiang city brands, promote the improvement of the city's comprehensive competitiveness, and promote Zhanjiang to better build an important development pole for a modern coastal economic belt.

The narrative rhythm of terror: a study of the Stockholm terrorist attack and the “Last Night in Sweden” event

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how the mediatisation of terror attacks affects the brand image of tourism cities.Design/methodology/approachInformed by theories of mediatisation and space, the study analyses two different types of terror attacks in Sweden during 2017 as media events. The focus of analysis is on identifying spatial and temporal patterns that underpin the narrative rhythm of the discussions of the events on Twitter and online news platforms.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that the unfolding of the events can be divided into three phases of varying intensity in rhythm and implications for city brand image. The manifestation of an imaginary terror attack in a digital environment had a greater impact on the narratives of the city than an actual one.Research limitations/implicationsRythmanalysis is introduced as a useful device to examine how urban space is mediatised through social media and online news flows.Originality/valueThe study contributes with novel knowledge on the mediatisation of city space on digital media platforms in a post-truth world. It shows that city administrations need to deal with both real and imaginary terror attacks, especially when there is an already established negative image of the city.

An instagram content analysis for city branding in London and Florence

ABSTRACTThis paper aims to understand how user-generated content (UGC) affects the process of place branding by identifying the main associations of various actors related to London and Florence, both traditionally linked to the fashion industry. In particular, this study focuses on fashion as a city image component that contributes to the construction of the image of London and Florence. This research applies a content analysis of visual information (pictures) and textual information (hashtags) available on social networks (i.e. Instagram), typing the hashtags #London and #Florence, to reconstruct the brand image of these two cities. As the recent literature has argued for brands or products, even for places and cities, it is important to monitor the perceived city brand image resulting from the overall online experience, especially on social media. This paper is one of the first to apply content analysis on Instagram in relation to city branding, where the core of communication is based on images. Therefore, in contrast to previous studies, this work principally focuses on visual communication, as a form of textual paralanguage communication, for the construction of a city image for London and Florence.

The Effects of City Brand Image on City Brand Recognition and City Loyalty

The Effects of City Brand Image on City Brand Recognition and City Loyalty

Influence of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city

PurposeThis study aims to examine the influence of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city. The study also compares the effects of perceived brand image of the city on the emotional attachment to the city across two groups: local residents and visitors.Design/methodology/approachA total of 207 usable questionnaires were collected from 107 residents of the city of Bratislava, Slovakia and 100 visitors to the city. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used for data analysis.FindingsThis study establishes that perceived city brand image significantly influences emotional attachment to the city. The study concludes that affective city image has a greater impact on emotional attachment to the city among the residents than visitors. By contrast, the influence of cognitive city image on emotional attachment to the city does not vary across the two categories of residents and visitors to the city.Practical implicationsCity tourism marketers should focus on improving city brand images to enhance tourists’ emotional attachment to the city to promote repeat visits among visitors.Originality/valueThis study contributes to improving understanding of the impact of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city across the two groups, residents and visitors, using social exchange theory (SET). Furthermore, the findings come from a relatively under-researched Central and Eastern European (CEE) region.

A Study on Perceived City Brand Image and Consumer Behavior

A Study on Perceived City Brand Image and Consumer Behavior

ARE FASHION CITIES REALLY FASHION CITIES? AN ANALYSIS ON CITY BRAND ASSOCIATIONS

This paper aims to monitor brand image of two important fashion cities on social media (Instagram). Through a content analysis of pictures and texts authors attempt to identify the main associations that various actors have of London and Florence, both traditionally strictly related to the fashion system. As recent literature has argued for brands or products, even for places and cities (Gilboa et al. 2015), it is important to monitor the perceived city brand image resulting from the overall online experience (Choi et al. 2007), especially on social media. Indeed, it is demonstrated that word of mouth on social media is able to strongly affect users’ perceptions (Gretzel, Yuan, and Fosenmaier, 2000), thus contributing at the construction of the city brand image. This paper is one of the first one that applies content analysis on Instagram in city/place branding, where the core of communication is based on images. Therefore, differently from previous studies (Andehn et al. 2014; De Moya and Jain, 2013), this work principally focuses on visual communication, as form of textual paralanguage communication (Luangrath, Peck, and Barger, 2016), for the construction of city image of London and Florence.

Social representations of the European capitals and destination e-branding via multi-channel web communication

Abstract This article focuses on destination branding using social representations as the main theoretical framework, with a specific focus on ICT-mediated social representations. It tackles the questions related to destination e-branding expressed through web marketing of city brand identity and city brand image of ten European capitals (Rome, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Helsinki, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Warsaw, and Vienna). The data derives from asynchronous and interactive e-tourism communication channels. City brand identity is created by the marketers through institutional tourist websites as official visiting cards presented to tourists. This exploratory study examines their usability, interactivity, contents, and references to the social networks. City brand image is operationalized through data retrieved from forum discussions on the TripAdvisor portal, identifying the main places of the European capitals targeted by social representations charged with symbolic values and emotional attributions, and examining evaluations of these capitals expressed and negotiated by the members of the web communities during spontaneous conversations and free exchanges of their experiences. The main results include detecting a higher communicative capacity of the institutional tourist websites of the northern European capitals than the southern ones, verified for the majority of the cities considered. In particular, Berlin stands out as the capital city with the highest communicative capacity and convergence of city brand identity and city brand image, in relation to the tangible aspects of the city.