Place Branding Research Articles

Impact of Autonomous Driving Demonstration Complex on Place Brand Factors: Focusing the Expanded Technology Acceptance Model

Impact of Autonomous Driving Demonstration Complex on Place Brand Factors: Focusing the Expanded Technology Acceptance Model

THE ROLE OF MUSIC FESTIVALS IN SHAPING DESTINATION BRANDING AND IMAGE IN TWO HUNGARIAN REGIONAL CENTERS

Urban marketing with culture-led urban development has a growing importance for contemporary cities. In a global competition, cities must stand out and attract tourism, investment, and cultural activities. Consequently, their image should be constantly improved. City branding provides strategies for enhancing a city's public image – thus, becoming more and more attractive. Events and festivals, like popular music festivals, offer valuable opportunities for promoting cities and boosting tourism. The aim of this research is to explore the potential of music festivals in building city image and integrating it into the broader branding processes. The results are based on semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey. The findings support the hypothesis that festivals can significantly raise destination awareness, and shape image, and through them, a wider audience can be reached. Festival uniqueness and appropriate venue choices facilitate seamless integration into the host city 's tourism – thus decision-makers should pay attention to this issue and facilitate coordination between stakeholders.

Between branding and being: how are inclusive city branding and inclusive city practices related?

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between being an inclusive city and branding oneself as such, as more cities adopt the inclusive city concept as part of their brand identity. Design/methodology/approach This paper builds theory by introducing a typology that categorizes cities based on their level of inclusion and degree of branding, supplemented by an analysis of the branding practices and identities. Integrating the literature on inclusive city and city branding, with a specific focus on the inherent conflict between their sharing and competing attributes, this research postulates that a city may choose to engage in being inclusive and branding itself as such in various ways depending on its dominant motivations of altruism or entrepreneurialism. Findings Four distinct types of inclusive city branding are identified: inclusion ambassadors (high inclusion and high branding); innate champions (high inclusion and low branding); façade marketers (low inclusion and high branding); and silent segregators (low inclusion and low branding). Furthermore, it underscores that inclusive city branding is shaped by the interplay of entrepreneurialism and altruism, not just a city’s inclusion. Different branding practices, such as media-generated images, narratives and events, are emphasized when entrepreneurialism is the primary motivation, whereas iconic architecture buildings, flagship projects and long-term policies are more associated with altruism. Originality/value This study develops a typology to unravel the paradoxical aspects of inclusive city branding. Examining the intersection of city branding motivations and practices enriches existing literature. Moreover, its findings offer valuable insights for cities grappling with the implementation of contentious inclusive branding strategies, thereby bridging theory with practical applications.

Печоры: точки пересечения

This article discusses a border town of Pechory in Pskov Oblast and its surroundings. During the fieldwork for the project “People’s History of Russia: Crossroads of Local Civilizations” local residents were interviewed about significant periods in the history of the city and the uniqueness of the area. The focus of the article is on how the residents comprehend the border as a phenomenon (in spatial, geopolitical, intergroup, and other senses) and conceptualize the frontier as a local specificity. The paper reviews the particularities of the aforementioned fieldwork, which took place in the autumn of 2020, the toponymy and microtoponymy of the town where three ethnic identities interact, the conceptual frameworks of the state border, city branding through food and architecture, and the coexistence of two main conceptual frameworks: the primary one, “for our own and for others”, and the hidden one, “mostly, for our own”.

Performative place branding and Brazilian smart cities: the strategic character of smart city positioning

Purpose This paper aims to address what it means to brand a city as “smart”. In other words, what ideas, understandings and actions are mobilized by the discourse of smart cities in a particular context. Design/methodology/approach Taking a brand interpretive approach, this paper uses deconstructive criticism to understand the performativity of smart cities within the Brazilian Charter for Smart Cities and to expose hegemonic power structures and the various colonizations that disenfranchise consumers and citizens of the Global South. Findings This paper finds that the branding of smart cities within the Brazilian Charter for Smart Cities is largely performative and rhetorical in nature. The authors identify those dimensions of the smart city that are materialized by this branding performance. For example, the authors identify how the Charter calls forth issues around technological solutionism, sustainability and social inclusion. At the same time, the analysis draws attention to the dimensions of smart cities that are disguised by such performances. Research limitations/implications The implications of the work suggest that the authors need to understand the designation “smart city” as a branding performance. More research is required in context to determine in exactly what ways smart city projects are being implemented. Practical implications Rather than adhering only to the rhetoric of smartness, cities have to work hard to make smartness a reality – a smartness constructed not just on technical solutions but also on human solutions. That is, the complexity of urban issues that are apparently addressed in the move to smartness demand more than a technological fix. Originality/value The research offers a novel lens through which to view smart cities.

Determinants of intention buying local foods: a conceptual framework

Consuming food from the area has grown in popularity. Local foods have positive effects on the environment, economy, society, and health. In particular, we investigate how consumer beliefs about locavorism is predicted by antecedent factors (i.e., values of collectivistic and individualistic). We also investigate how locavorism is predicted by consumer travel behavior and city branding. We also look at how these sets of beliefs affect consumer attitudes toward and intentions to buy local foods in Special Region of Yogyakarta. By addressing the antecedents of locavorism and placing the constructs of locavorism within an integrated network of antecedents and effects, this study closes a research gap in the field of local food research. We use 9-point scales for questionnaire, which is a novelty in this study, where previous studies used 7 scales. The 9-point scales are used to rate as closely as possible the respondent's response to what is described. This study's conclusions have ramifications for regional food marketers.

Taking Advantage of the Momentum -- Research on the Strategy of Urban Brand Communication in Zibo

As an effective way to create the city image and business card, the city s brand communication has been the trend of The Times. For the city that wants to create a unique IP, identifying the characteristics is the fundamental problem. Zibo has been popular on social media since March 2023, and has created a warm and hospitable city brand image with barbecue as a symbol, which has promoted the construction of local city brand. Due to the geographical advantages of Zibo as a transportation hub, rich historical origin and the social attributes of barbecue food itself, the city IP of Zibo Barbecue has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people through the visual communication, emotional communication and empathy communication of the Internet, which provides reference and inspirational significance for other cities to build brand image in the new media era.

Municipal Flag Design Preferences of United States Residents

ABSTRACT Contemporary place branding practices face occasional pushback in the form of public rejection of the identity elements deployed as part of the brand. In United States municipalities, one important symbol – and one increasingly contested – is the city flag. The flag occupies a unique space outside the core group of identity elements that commonly form the iconography of a place brand and flag design or redesign efforts can be particularly emotive. Using a mixed methods approach, this study sought to identify trends in public preferences for civic flag design in the United States. Its findings reinforce the popular appeal of traditional practices in flag design, such as textless flags and simple composition, while outlining possible perils associated with market-oriented designs single-mindedly driven by a city’s external concerns. These findings will be useful to the civic marketer as a grounding point from which a meaningful public discussion on the design, redesign, or retention of a city flag can be initiated.

FOCUSING A CITY BRANDING STRATEGY ON A LUMINARY: A CASE STUDY OF TREBINJE AND JOVAN DUČIĆ

<p class="ABSTRACT">Trebinje is a city with a rich cultural and historical heritage associated with influential historical figures who have played a role in its physical construction and contributed to its identity. Legends about these people are a part of the city’s rich intangible cultural heritage and they can provide a solid basis for city branding.</p> <p class="ABSTRACT">This paper examines the possibilities of using a renowned person – more specifically, the poet, diplomat, art collector and patron Jovan Dučić – for branding Trebinje. The focus of the study is the tangible and intangible heritage associated with Jovan Dučić and covering all the crucial aspects of focusing the city branding strategy on a luminary.</p>

Oud Batavia as a heritage site within Jakarta: Tourist revisit intentions

The main objective of this study is to explore the dynamics of heritage tourism in Oud Batavia, the Old City of Jakarta, specifically focusing on perceived price, perceived authenticity and perceived value, and how they influence tourist satisfaction and revisit intentions. By using a quantitative design, data was collected from 406 valid responses through a questionnaire distributed in the Old City. The findings confirmed positive and significant relationships highlighting the importance of preserving historical buildings and emphasizing the role of perceived factors in enhancing the overall tourist experience. The study contributes valuable insights for stakeholders, urging the Jakarta city government and the Ministry of Tourism to focus on preserving cultural heritage buildings and employ adaptive reuse strategies to increase tourist visits. The limitations of the study include its exclusive focus on domestic tourists in the Old City of Jakarta, suggesting avenues for future research to explore broader topics such as city branding and foreign tourist perspectives. The study concludes with recommendations for strategies to commercialize historical tourist destinations and a call for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization recognition of the Old City as a world historical heritage site.

The effect of self-city brand connection on city brand ambassadorial behavior in a cultural city: the mediating role of city attachment

The effect of self-city brand connection on city brand ambassadorial behavior in a cultural city: the mediating role of city attachment

The Role of Classical Music Public Services in Building Urban Cultural Soft Power: A Triple Model in China

Recent studies advocate expanding the concept of soft power from the nation to city context and emphasize the importance of culture in building urban soft power. The existing research neglects the role of classical music on urban cultural soft power and reflects the necessity to explore long-term musical projects that are beneficial to residents. By analyzing the case study of a classical-music-educational-based public services project, the Guangzhou Youth Symphony Orchestra (GYSO), this research finds that public cultural services can continuously improve urban cultural soft power through the triple model of “contractor-cultural policies-public participation”. This research argues that although the In Harmony and the EI Sistema projects are also public cultural services of classical music, the triple model of GYSO has multi-faceted impacts on urban development, including cultivating creative class, enhancing residents’ cultural tastes, promoting social cohesion, integrating cultural resources and establishing city branding. This triple mechanism is a model with Chinese characteristics that combines the arm’s length principle with the cultural exception policy.

ТЕРРИТОРИАЛЬНЫЙ БРЕНДИНГ КАК ИНСТРУМЕНТ В РАЗВИТИИ ТЕХНОЛО-ГИЙ ИСКУССТВЕННОГО ИНТЕЛЛЕКТА В РЕГИОНЕ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГА)

The article is devoted to territorial branding, its features, and its role in the development of artificial intelligence in the region. The tools and technologies of territorial branding have been studied on the materials of St. Petersburg. In the article there were researched the problems, opportunities and prospects of branding for attracting investments in the field of artificial intelligence and stimulating innovation. With the help of an in-depth interview there were revealed the peculiarities of the influence of St. Petersburg branding as a tool for the development of the region on artificial intelligence, business, innovation, and, in general, on the regional infrastructure. In this article there was applied a secondary analysis of trends in the development of artificial intelligence in the region. The author has analyzed the events from 2019 to the present day in electronic media. There were found the successful examples of the use of tools for the formation of the city's brand. With the help of content analysis of regional media in 2024 the problems were identified in the communication strategy of branding of the large city. There were proposed some recommendations and directions for the development of the territory using branding of Saint-Petersburg as an effective tool.

Toward an improved, holistic understanding of ‘meaningful destination’

ABSTRACT This conceptual paper has two primary aims – to provide a definition and a holistic conceptual framework for a ‘meaningful destination’. This study draws upon foundational literature that explores different ways to interpret meaningfulness, the processes of meaning-making, and how individuals and institutions perceive destinations as meaningful. It incorporates insights from diverse fields, including positive psychology, existential philosophy, consumer experience and place branding, to establish a conceptual framework. Six essential elements or dimensions of meaningful destination are presented, drawn from both an individual perspective (tourists, residents, and tourism employees) and an institutional perspective (DMOs and tourism businesses). These dimensions encompass (a) Ethno-cultural (b) Ecological (c) Eudaimonia and spiritual (d) Economic (e) Equity of destination brand and (f) Ethical governance dimensions. The first three dimensions hold significant importance for individuals as they contribute to the formation of meaningful relationships and engagements with self, others, and the environmental settings. In contrast, the final three dimensions hold importance for tourism institutions as DMOs and tourism businesses, reflecting their roles and objectives and guiding their efforts in resource allocation, destination competitiveness, policy development, and business management. The paper concludes with future research trajectories and suggests pressing research agendas in relation to meaningful destinations.

Employing Creative Tourism to Produce City Branding Derived from Vernacular Settlements: A Review

Employing Creative Tourism to Produce City Branding Derived from Vernacular Settlements: A Review

Country Brand as an Important Phenomenon of Modern Society

Abstract The county brand in terms of valuing consumer well-being is essential to the brand-building process and is especially significant in today's globally interconnected environment. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the national initiatives and country product-origin on consumer-centered country brands. The research strategy was based on a quantitative and qualitative approach. The findings highlight the emergence of place branding, national initiatives, and country product origins in national areas. The study of country brands in the context of communication studies extends to tourism and cultural studies. The study's limitations included the fact that it was limited to countries on the inside. A broader study to represent the circumstances of other emerging countries was proposed. The contributions, both practical and theoretical, address the many-faceted complexity of the evaluated concepts, such as consumer-centered country brand, national identity, country brand, country image, and national reputation. There are several countries, including Eastern Europe, where the country's brand is still in the initial development stages. The practice of Romania might present the required knowledge of other country brands, and this study enables highlighting this aspect.

The Impact of City Branding, City Image, and Food Authenticity on Revisit Intention Mediated by Tourist Satisfaction

This research aims to determine the impact of city branding, city image, and food authenticity on intention to revisit, which is mediated by tourist satisfaction for domestics tourists who visit Payakumbuh City. This research is explanatory with quantitative methods. Meanwhile, the sampling technique used in this research was purposive sampling of tourists who visited Payakumbuh City at least twice, with a sample size of 165 respondents. This research uses PLS 4.0. The thing emphasized in this research is that the branding of Payakumbuh City as "Rendang City" or "Rendang City" has stuck in the minds of tourists who visit Payakumbuh City. Apart from that, tourists who visit can enjoy natural and culinary tourism in Payakumbuh City. Implication research The branding of Payakumbuh City as "Rendang City" or "The City of Randang" has stuck in the minds of tourists who visit Payakumbuh City. Apart from that, tourists who visit can enjoy natural and culinary tourism in Payakumbuh City. In Payakumbuh City, there are also various types of traditional culinary delights, such as rendang and other traditional foods, that can attract tourists to visit Payakumbuh City.

Building city branding of Yogyakarta as a cultural city: A youtube user-generated content analysis

Building city branding of Yogyakarta as a cultural city: A youtube user-generated content analysis

Under the Image of Urban Identity and Non-mainstream Cities under the New Media

With the diversified development of media and media platforms, city brand building has entered a new stage, and some cities have achieved remarkable development results, while some cities with large development space in natural resources, humanities and culture have failed to achieve development leaps. In this paper, the city with beautiful urban environment, rich resources and good development conditions is positioned as "non-mainstream city". This paper aims to explore the recognition degree of "non-mainstream cities" with development potential in people's minds, and take Taiyuan City of Shanxi Province as one of such cities to understand and analyze their development status, the audience's cognition degree of brand positioning of these cities and the shortcomings of current development through questionnaires and other means, and propose corresponding solutions from the aspect of media communication. Guide such cities to improve the visibility and recognition of cities by clarifying brand positioning, making full use of their natural resources and historical and cultural resources to explore urban characteristics, strengthening the integration of culture and tourism, and improving communication strategies, and at the same time improve the quality and efficiency of urban brand construction. Through the influence of media platforms, increase the exposure of these potential cities in the public sphere, extend the urban characteristics and reach a wider audience, realize the three-dimensional communication of the city brand image, help the formation of a good urban spirit and the prosperity and development of a variety of cities, and provide guidelines for more cities in brand construction. This article has certain reference value for the media communication strategy, the perfection of government functions, the construction of social spiritual culture and material civilization, and the coordinated development of countries and regions.

Kajian teorI keterkaitan setting fisik dan identitas Kota dalam konteks City Branding

City branding is very important for the growth and marketing of cities. Urban planning, visual communication, and graphic design are used to build a distinctive city identity that represents its values ??and goals. This research examines how city branding improves local economies and competitiveness around the world and how physical and non-physical variables shape city identity over time. This research examines city branding, city identity, and 'place fuzziness' using a comprehensive literature review. The aim of this research is to find out how the form of city identity, especially in tangible terms, supports city identity so that branding of a city can be achieved from an architectural and urban design perspective. The research results show that city branding can attract investment and tourists and strengthen the character and attractiveness of the city. A complex combination of physical and non-physical components forms a city's identity, which underlies city branding. This research also emphasizes the need to resolve 'place fuzziness'—unclearness of a place's identity or function—to improve city branding. This research suggests that city planners and marketers must work together to ensure that physical development and social activities promote a city's identity, eliminate ambiguity, and improve its image. Creating a vibrant and sustainable city image requires integration and strategic planning in city branding and identity management.