Place branding

Place branding (including place marketing and place promotion) is a new umbrella term encompassing nation branding, region branding and city branding. Place branding is the process of image communication to a target market. It is invariably related to the notion that places compete with other places for people, resources, and business; the global competition of cities is estimated to host 2.7 million small cities/towns, 3,000 large cities, and 455 metropolises

Origins

The concept has been introduced several times by different thinkers such as Simon Anholt , Philip Kotler, Gold and Ward , Avraham and Ketter Seppo Rainisto , and others.

Competition of a globalizing world

The struggle for attention and preference is not limited to the contest between countries and cities; even within cities there is a fierce competition between city centers vs. neighborhoods, big box retailers vs. main streets, shopping malls vs. traditional down towns. This heightened competitive environment makes it important for places, no matter their size or composition, to clearly differentiate themselves and to convey why they are relevant and valued options. In 2005, the International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus published a book on the subject called "Destination BrandScience," co-written by a destination marketing veteran, Gary C. Sherwin, emphasizing that brand development was not a logo or tag line, but instead a commitment to a community-wide strategy on what distinguished the community from others, as well as a community-wide effort to effectively communicate and create that unique destination experience to the customer. Rather than being advertising-based, this brand effort focused on delivering an exceptional experience that was memorable and emotional .

In fact, this view is also supported and defended by Joao R. Freire . He states that successful destination-brand management can be seen as an exercise of coordination where relevant variables; such as tourism infrastructures, quality of local services, and other destination-brand users need to be managed in order to achieve a coherent and desired destination-brand identity. Therefore, contrary to the popular perception that destination-brand building is solely an exercise in communication, destination branding is, in reality, an exercise of identification, organisation and coordination of all the variables that have an impact on the destination image.

Strategic vs. Organic Place Branding

The strategic application of place branding is growing with nations, regions, cities, and institutions as they realize they compete with other places for people, resources, and business. The phenomenon of place branding, as an organic process of image communication without strategy, has been occurring throughout history. Examples of strategic place brands are diverse and include Amsterdam's "Iamsterdam", Las Vegas's "Sin City", and Abu Ghosh's "world capital of hummus". Examples of organic place brands are ancient and include Jerusalem's "holy city", Paris' "Illuminated City", and Silicon Valley's "tech capital."

Processes

Place branding is a process made up of several sub-processes. Unlike branding simpler entities like a product, service, company, person or classical subjects of branding, place branding, and in particular nation and city branding, is a complex process. The complexity comes from the great diversity of stakeholders in the process.

In general, a place brand is derived from existing assets of the place such as its value offering or public perception. Otherwise, the place brand is derived from created assets, such as events, policies, abstract concepts of tolerance, and so on.

The derived image of the place brand is then communicated through communication channels. These channels vary and range from television advertisements to Internet marketing efforts. These communications are aimed at a specific target market.

Place branding industry

The growing demand of place branding for institutions, cities, regions, and nations has legitimized the nascent industry of place, city, and nation branding. Unlike the parent field of marketing and branding, the industry of place branding is not as developed. The few service providers and consultancies offer a variety of branding solutions, though there is not a comparable overlap as in standard marketing or branding.
In understanding the industry, we see consultancies focused on three key areas: research, strategy, or implementation. Each area can be divided into groups of lightweight service providers and holistic service providers. Lightweights in the industry are concentrated in implementation, where the create logos, mottos, and other brand basics for the client place, city, or nation. Academics question whether such simplistic services constitute city or nation branding, even though such lightweights compete with the other industry players.
Like all industries, key players dominate the market. They tend to provide services across key areas, and oftentimes incorporate external disciplines. Simon Anholt is an independent consultant, with focus in research and strategy. Ed Glaeser is a Harvard University economist, with focus in research, who has indirectly contributed a great deal to the field with his seminal piece, Triumph of the City. His work has been called a 'masterpiece' by renowned economist Steven Levitt. Shir & Spitzer, exclusively in Israel, focus on strategy and implementation, and incorporate urban planning. Metti & Bronner, U.S. and Europe, focus on research, strategy, and implementation, and use their partnerships as a specialization. Granta Place&Country Branding Spain, focuses on Spain and Latin American countries, designing and implementing their projects based on Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy, Total Destination Marketing, U.S. and Australia, focuses on implementation as a lightweight provider, and incorporates tourism planning into their services. Other peripheral players exist in the industry, the bulk of which are standard marketing agencies and therefore exclusively provide lightweight implementation services. The complex nature of place, city, and nation branding acts as a serious entry barrier and few firms can currently afford to attract sufficient talent to offer multiple specializations.

Examples

Jerusalem has a clear city brand as a holy city. The holy city includes numerous significant holy sites such as the Western Wall, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Garden Tomb, and Al-Aqsa Mosque. A study commissioned by the Swedish Research Council suggests that Jerusalem may be one of the oldest city brands, having undergone organic branding campaigns for centuries. Pilgrimage, the religious equivalent of tourism, has been part of Jerusalem's history for millennia.

Las Vegas or simply Vegas is used by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority as a brand to market the bulk of the Las Vegas Valley, including the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada, Henderson, Nevada, North Las Vegas, Nevada and parts of Clark County, Nevada.

References

• Brian Lonsway, “The Experience of a Lifestyle,” pp. 225-246 in The Themed Space: Locating Culture, Nation, and Self, ed. Scott A. Lukas (Lanham, MD, Lexington Books, 2007), ISBN 0739121421

• Destination BrandScience, Duane Knapp and Gary Sherwin, 2005 International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus
• How to Brand Nations, Cities and Destinations, Teemu Moilanen & Seppo Rainisto, Palgrave Macmillan (2008).
• Nation Branding. Concepts, Issues, Practice. Keith Dinnie, Butterworth Heinemann(2009).
• Place Branding: Glocal, Virtual and Physical Identities, Constructed, Imagined and Experienced, Robert Govers & Frank Go, Palgrave Macmillan (2009).