Place Branding Practice Research Articles

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.

Development of Place Branding, Its Features

Currently, the problem of studying and developing place branding is acute. It helps the territory become attractive in the eyes of investors, tourists, and entrepreneurs, which helps to increase local budget, develop the territory’s infrastructure and in general push the standard of living up. The practice of place branding is constantly changing and improving; there is no single recipe for its development, which gives a reason to a profound and more extensive study of it. The fragmentation of approaches to place branding as a process does not make it possible to come to a single definition. At the same time, relative unity is observed with regard to the purpose of branding. Most see it as attracting people, material and monetary resources, etc. to the territory. In order for the territory’s brand to develop successfully, to attract investors, to reduce the number of residents leaving, to increase the number of tourists and entrepreneurs, and to improve the overall infrastructure, it is necessary to work on it consistently.

Place branding: Religion in shaping the three-dimensional essence of a city brand through stakeholder engagement.

This study explores the role of religion in engaging stakeholders in branding a place on social media and unmasks what implications this has for (re)constructing the three-dimensional meanings of a place brand. Using the content analysis method to examine the case of Saudi Arabia, it probes how the key stakeholder groups of the government and the residents structure and interact with the narratives of the cities-Jeddah and Riyadh-on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The results show the Islamic religion serves as a powerful tool for motivating the residents to engage in the government-led city branding initiatives at the individual level. However, the strategy of dwelling on religion to mobilize resident engagement at the individual level towards the social level with the aim of growing resources in support of social development should be reassessed within a dynamic social system. Theoretically, the proposed framework of religion city branding expands the scope of stakeholder engagement in place branding research through the integration with the driver of religion, especially unveiling how religious factors shape the personality traits of a place brand. It contributes to the practical sense that religious elements might be deployed by the key stakeholder groups of the government and residents in city branding initiatives, which potentially contributes to their relationship and the engagement of residents in co-creating a place brand with the government. This Saudi-focused study, therefore, possesses significance for place branding practices in Middle Eastern countries and beyond.

The Place as a Brand. Theory and Practise of the Place Branding

Abstract Research purpose. The purpose of the research project was to evaluate the status of place branding as a scientific discipline and to check whether this concept has been concretised during exploration and articulation. An additional objective was to check the theoretical status of place brands. Design / Methodology / Approach. The study used an approach based on the analysis of 'place brand' models developed in the literature since models are central to the scientific procedure. These models were then confronted with the empirical observations of the authors using the Flexible Pattern Matching (FPM) method. Findings. A consulting and practical approach is noticeable, especially in the ever-new 'process models' (how to create and manage 'place brand'); moreover, these models are scientifically insignificant and practically unworkable. Descriptive models (what a 'place/territorial brand' is) do not reveal signs of concretisation. There is undoubtedly a phenomenon of 'forcing' empirical data. Originality / Value / Practical implications. Based on the analyses done, it can be concluded that none of the examined models meets the requirements of lawlike generalisations. In the practice of place branding, carried out by territorial units, the only common element is the usage of the name and logo of the place. It can also be argued that the basic concept of 'place brand' is poorly defined. The research method used (FTM) has not been applied in the analysis of place brands so far; however, the examination done in this article proves its usefulness.

The geographical aspect of place branding: Interactions between place brands in the spatial hierarchy

Despite increasing experience with the practice of place branding, researchers find it challenging to produce a broad, multi-disciplinary framework that encompasses the full complexity of a place brand. This paper applies a geographical approach to brand analysis, acknowledging the multifaceted relationship between place brands and the network of socio-cultural dependence and collaboration. This study examines how interactions between place brands affect small, peripheral place brands by identifying interactions between brands, estimating their importance, and explaining them geographically. The research focuses on the interactions between four city brands in the Negev region in Israel and between them and the Negev regional super-brand to which they belong. The sample includes Beersheba, the central city, and three medium and small towns in the northeastern Negev. Four hundred questionnaires were completed by residents of the Central District, representing the target audience that might visit or move to the Negev. Various brand components were measured, including brand associations, familiarity, recognition, and perceived quality, to determine the value and positioning of the brands in the eyes of the respondents. The analysis reveals the network of associations and images, showing similarities and differences between the place brands, their strengths and weaknesses, and the impact of spatial relations.

СОЦИАЛЬНО-ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЕ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ РЕГИОНА КАК ОСНОВАНИЕ УСПЕХА БРЕНДИНГА ТЕРРИТОРИЙ

This paper aims to explore how regional socio-economic conditions and organizational factors affect the success of place branding activities. The secondary purpose is to systematize place branding practice of the Russian federal subjects.We conducted a logistic regression analysis of place branding success probability versus quality of place branding organisation and regionalsocio-economic conditions.The sample is comprised of 22 federal subjects of Russia within the period of 2010 to 2021. The secondary purposeis achieved through a chronological and cartographic analysis of place branding activities. We confirmed the positive influenceof organizational factors, used as a control variable, onplace branding success, and revealed the relationships between place branding success and some socio-economic conditions ofthe federal subjects of Russia: a positive relationship with the GRP, investment, and migration; a negative relationship with the population. The relationship with the adjacency to regions, already having place brand, was not confirmed. This study contributes to place branding theory by unveiling the relationship of regional socio-economic conditions and place branding success. Thus, regional conditions are needed to take into account when predicting the place branding results. This is especially important when using branding as a typical development tool because the uniform success across all regions is unlikely.

Logo as a Tool of European Union Countries’ Destination Branding

Developing a coherent and comprehensive brand of a country is of vital importance for a destination in the contemporary global world. There seems to be a recognizable gap in the literature regarding the application of visual signs practiced in country branding. The subject of the study: The research identifies the logos of the European Union countries used in place branding. The purpose of the study is the exploration of the logo content from the senders’ perspective, i.e., the structures and organizations responsible for the country branding. There are many reasons why logos are used in place branding practice. The authors decided to focus on the logo as a form of controlled and projected message communicated via media and ICT. Cognitive gap: The research conducted so far has focused on the reception of logos by the recipients. The presented research attempts to examine the visual message contained in logos from the senders’ perspective. Research methods and data collection techniques: The content analysis method was used to study the visual identity of the countries. The authors collected logos and scrutinised them using Beyrow and Vogt as well as Mollerup’s taxonomy. The results of the study illustrate how governmental institutions, which are responsible for country branding, portray countries using visual identity on the Internet, social media, and their own media.

Place Branding: What Distinctiveness for the Southern Territories? An Analysis Through the Prism of a Moroccan Region

Over the past 20 years, place branding has received increased attention, both as a practice and as a subject of academic studies. Its rapid expansion in territories can be explained by globalization and its corollary, the feeling of fierce competition between places to attract investment and visitors on the one hand, and the adoption by the public sector of private methods and tools, as part of the managerialist trend, on the other hand. Based on the results of research conducted in the Oriental region of Morocco and a literature review, we propose a comparative study of place branding practices between two French regions and the Moroccan Oriental region, in order to define the similarities and differences, in an attempt to outline a marketing practice specific to Moroccan regions.

Rural place branding from a multi-level perspective: a Danish example

Few studies have looked at the interaction of place branding practices of geographically linked places. Moreover, the different administrative contexts of the linked places and the resulting different place branding approaches have not been taken into consideration. This study provides insight on the interactions of the brands and branding initiatives of higher-level administrative rural places and lower-level places within their territory. A qualitative study was conducted based on the cases of three Danish municipalities and eight smaller places within them. Although none of the vertically linked places under investigation had applied a strategic approach to manage place brand architecture, four archetypes of interaction between the place brands at the different vertical levels are identified. The findings provide guidance for place branding officials and others involved in the initiatives regarding the role the higher-level place brand can play in the lower level’s place branding, while making the lower level aware that their place branding should also focus on building good reputation towards the higher-level place. The study further reveals challenges regarding the strategic implementation of place brand architecture and highlights important areas for future research on the topic.

Rural place branding processes: a meta-synthesis

Like cities and nations, rural places have adopted the practice of place branding to improve their reputation and increase their competitiveness to attract residents, tourists, and consumers. This review aims to synthesize case studies of rural place branding in order to identify different types of processes applied and relating them to the contextual factors underlying their application. A typology of five rural place branding processes (PBP) is proposed, based on the existence and dominance of a focal actor, and other actors involved in the process. Six contextual factors that affect the application of the various PBP are identified: (1) type of place distinguishing between places with or without administrative power, (2) initiative referring to the difference between political/administrative, community, mixed, (3) support base for the branding distinguishing between strong political/organizational, strong community, strong identity, (4) brand purpose, i.e., competitiveness, identity, conservation; (5) target group, and (6) type of place brand referring to the difference between sectoral and integrated place brands. Patterns of the contextual factors have been identified that seem to be typical for the application of the different PBP types. The findings provide guidance to rural place managers and communities to apply a PBP that matches their specific context.

The Role of a City Council in a Place Branding Campaign: The Case of Vic in Catalonia

The fundamental goal of this article is to show the implications that place branding has for regional public management through a case study of the brand “Vic, a city with a human dimension” [Vic, ciutat a la mesura humana, in Catalan language], a project commissioned by the city council of Vic and carried out by the city’s university (University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia). Vic is the capital of the Osona region, in the centre of Catalonia, with a population of 45,040 inhabitants. Methodologically, this research utilised 14 focus group discussions, two in-depth interviews and a survey addressed to citizens and answered by 855 people. In regards to results, the research shows that the practice of place branding transcends the traditional action areas of place marketing and place promotion, in order to be fully integrated in the region’s overall management policies, that is to say, its urban governance. The article also concludes that the processes of conceptualisation and implementation of new place brands must be framed within a bottom-up approach, integrating all the stakeholders (public–private cooperation) in the decision-making process.

The role of regional administrations in improving place branding effectiveness

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study ways, which regional administrations affect place branding effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted based on qualitative analysis. In total, 10 place branding cases of federal subjects of Russia were considered to estimate short-, mid- and long-term effects of place brands and quality of regional administrations’ place branding process management. The information on these cases was taken and systematized from three groups of sources, namely, official information from regional administrations (including regulatory acts); scientific publications focused on the brands of selected regions; data from federal and regional news agencies. Findings It is revealed that the quality of place branding processes is positively related to the presence and power of place branding effects, while the branding budget has no observable impact on place branding. The areas of attention for regional administrations intending to develop the place brand are defined. Research limitations/implications The limitation of this study is that the chosen approach is based on secondary data on brand-management practices that are publicly available. This information is mostly fragmentary and may not provide a complete view of place branding practices. Originality/value This paper provides a view on place branding success factors from the standpoint of the quality of branding process, rather than quality of the brand itself. The role of regional administrations in this process is studied, thus proposing a basis for integrating place branding in a public administration field.

Combining participatory action research with sociological intervention to investigate participatory place branding

PurposePlace branding research has recently focused on developing more inclusive models to better capture the co-creation of place identities. This paper aims to investigate stakeholder communication interactions in place branding processes to inform alternative, participatory, network governance models of stakeholder engagement.Design/methodology/approachThe literature on stakeholder engagement in place branding processes is sparse. Through a regional case study of the Australian island state of Tasmania, the paper combines participatory action research (PAR) with the method of sociological intervention (SI) to investigate how participants individually and collectively reflect on their practices and patterns of engagement.FindingsBy combining PAR with SI, participants were enabled to gain a greater appreciation of how cooperation and collective self-reflection enhance effective place branding practices. Furthermore, by facilitating participants to compile a list of impediments to collaboration, the research informs efforts to develop more inclusive governance models for place branding. Finally, the PAR/SI method itself served as a practical tool to encourage enhanced stakeholder engagement in applied settings.Research limitations/implicationsThe approach is based on a single case study in a particular regional context and the findings require replication in other jurisdictions.Practical implicationsPAR/SI is a practical tool to achieve greater stakeholder engagement and enhance collaborative social action through a process of collective, critical reflection in applied settings.Originality/valueThe paper advances understanding of ways to operationalize participatory place branding through more inclusive, multistakeholder governance arrangements.

Consuming Canada: How fashion firms leverage the landscape to create and communicate brand identities, distinction and values

In the increasingly global and competitive fashion industry, firms are adopting a variety of strategies to generate value and brand loyalty. While some emphasise the quality of material elements such as inputs, local production and design, others focus on immaterial aspects such symbolic value and exclusivity. In recent years, place-branding has become an important way to create connections between people, places, and products. Yet, the processes behind this type of branding remain poorly understood. In particular, limited attention has been paid to the ways in which landscapes – in all their forms – are being incorporated into place-branding practices. Drawing on 87 interviews, participant observation and an innovative analysis of Instagram accounts, this paper examines how a range of Canadian fashion firms leverage the landscape to create and communicate brand identities, distinction and values. It demonstrates how firms of different sizes and scales construct, harness, or reimagine landscapes and/or popular stereotypes to connect with Canadian identities and consumers. It also highlights how landscape-centric branding can be combined with broader value creation strategies such as local production. In so doing, this paper brings together the economic geography literature on place branding and the cultural geography literature on landscape and identity, and makes a methodological contribution to nascent examinations of social media and visual data sources in geography.

Impact of place brand names on destination image

The theory and practice of place branding has been drawn on to build strong destination images and position them in the minds of consumers. The naming of a product or service is integral to the development and implementation of branding strategies; place marketers, however, seldom have the opportunity to rename locations and thereby build brands from scratch. The present study is unique since it investigates the evaluation of two different place brand names for the same geographic area among two different groups of foreign visitors. Specifically, it examines similarities and differences in tourists' images of a destination branded as either (1) 'Lisbon' or (2) 'Lisbon Coast. This investigation confirms the need to highlight different attributes to appeal to different target markets and also demonstrates that the 'Lisbon' and 'Lisbon Coast' brands are evaluated differently with regard to almost all of the attributes investigated.

Confused branding? An exploratory study of place branding practices among place management professionals

Although the knowledge about place branding and place management is growing, there is a substantial gap in the understanding of place branding among professionals responsible for the management of town and city centres, including private-public partnership formats such as business improvement districts (BIDs). This exploratory study addresses this knowledge gap through in-depth interviews with key professionals in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The results suggest that the strategic potential of place branding is negatively affected by a focus on operational thinking, which hinders innovation towards more holistic approaches to place management. Further quantitative research is needed to elaborate on these findings across the UK, Ireland and other countries to enhance the understanding of the uses and interpretations of place branding among town and city managers.

The ambiguity of place branding consultancy: working with stakeholders in Rio de Janeiro

ABSTRACTThis study explores the tensions inherent in place branding consulting, by problematising the prescriptive and functionalistic view of consultants that characterises the place branding literature. If consultants’ pervasive impact on the contemporary place branding practice cannot be ignored, their fixed representation as powerful agents of top-down policies might limit more holistic accounts of consultancy practice. Indeed, consultants can find themselves mediating between bottom-up and top-down approaches to place branding. Thus, they can decide to promote more inclusive activities that give voice to local communities, while simultaneously addressing the needs of urban elites that are likely to pay the consultancy bill. Liminality is suggested as an appropriate idea to challenge role fixity and appreciate the ambiguity of place branding consultancy. The study reports self-reflective accounts from a case study on Rio de Janeiro, where the first author was involved in a three-year activity of working with stakeholders to stimulate a more inclusive public debate on city-brand management. Charting, snowballing, coopting consultants, informal advising, feeding and scientific arming are the six types of consulting practices of stakeholder engagement that the study identifies in order to offering a more nuanced representation of place brand consulting.

‘Green cities’ going greener? Local environmental policy-making and place branding in the ‘Greenest City in Europe’

ABSTRACTA growing number of cities around the world have taken advantage of their green image of the purpose of place branding. In the research literature, it is suggested that these practices are motivated by place-based competition over financial and social capital, combined with more holistic motives of sustainable urban development. However, although an increasing number of green cities are engaged in place branding, few studies have researched the impact of place branding on environmental policy-making in a city, building up to the question: how is local environmental policy-making affected by green place branding? Addressing this issue, this paper critically investigates how the continuity of local environmental policy-making is affected by place-branding practices. To tackle this task, the paper firstly develops an analytical framework aiming to understand how green cities emerge and become famous based on their policy-making. Secondly, using that framework, this paper present an in-depth case study of a city branding itself as the ‘Greenest City in Europe’. Drawing on the growing body of work on green cities, this paper investigates the ‘understudied’ practice of using policy for the purpose of place branding as well as the impact of place branding ‘on the environment’.

City brand strategy evaluation: in search of effectiveness indicators

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse a process for developing indicators of effectiveness for the city brand strategy.Design/methodology/approach– A single-case study method is used as the analytical approach. The proposed indicators of effectiveness were developed in cooperation between the municipal government of a large, post-industrial Polish city and representatives from academia.Findings– The paper addresses three important considerations to be taken into account by city managers when they seek to develop criteria for measuring the effectiveness of branding: links between tangible and intangible effects of brand implementation; spillover effects that sectoral strategies such as those aimed at urban renewal have on the city brand and vice versa; and the adoption of a threefold temporal regime whereby the effects of projects that contribute to the brand strategy are measured in the short, medium and long term.Research limitations/implications– The proposed approach offers a useful point of departure for place managers for the design of place brand strategy evaluation systems. The study is limited to the case of a single city.Practical implications– The merger of brand management and public management perspectives re-evaluates the existing attempts to measure place brand strategy effectiveness. The new approach stimulates place authorities to consider multiple perspectives on the methods and instruments of measurement. It also implies the organisational shift where a number of units from the city hall coordinate their efforts to contribute to the assessment of the brand strategy.Social implications– A more systematic approach to measurement of place brand strategy effectiveness can be used to increase the level of legitimacy of brand-related activities in the eyes of internal stakeholders and to increase the level of professionalism among the public officers responsible for effectiveness measurement.Originality/value– Theoretical considerations and the practice of place branding alike tend to give insufficient attention to criteria for measuring the effectiveness of place-branding strategies. This paper concentrates on the process of translating general strategic objectives into specific, measureable and time-bound operational indicators. The combination of theoretical insights into place branding together with public management grounds this approach in the administrative environment in which local authorities work.

DEVELOPMENT AND FORMATION OF THE PLACE BRANDING PRACTICE

The development and establishment of the place branding practice in the context of international relations and foreign policy is analyzed. The term «place branding» is actualized by author and the objectivity of such approach in further theoretical and practical development of this practice is justified. A dualistic approach to the definition of «brand» at the present stage is demonstrated. The author stresses that the state brand is not created but crystallized from the identity of the country. The article shows the evolution of the place branding practice from the practice of place marketing. It is proved that place branding has its own tools of spreading state brand and formation of the international image of the state. The author defines the place of the practice of place branding at the interface of political science and marketing in modern science. It is suggested to develop strategic place branding models as a long-term projects in further researches aimed to build and sustain state’s international image.