Erik Braun

Urban Competitiveness, Marketing and the Need for Organising Capacity

Fundamental changes in the economy, technology, demography and politics are reshaping the environment for towns and cities in Europe. These changes have induced competition between towns and cities at regional, national and sometimes international scales. Increasingly, cities and towns behave in a logic of competition in a highly dynamic and complex environment (Bramezza, 1996). In such a competitive environment, the policies of local governments need to be more market-oriented with an eye to chances and threats, bearing in mind the city’ s strengths and weaknesses. Cities and towns are waking up to the fact that an entrepreneurial and anticipatory policy is called for to cope with urban and regional competition. In the past two decades, a growing number of European cities and towns have acknowledged that marketing could be a powerful instrument in such a new style of urban management. Cities aspire to become and remain attractive places for (potential) residents, businesses and visitors. In this process, cities `invent’ their own marketing strategies, discovering that the marketing of a city or region is not as straightforward as many people think. Our contribution considers one of the main challenges in this respect: the need for organising capacity. What lessons can be drawn up to now? The next section of the contribution describes some of the main features of the pattern of urban development and the increase in competition, setting the scene for a more strategic and entrepreneurial approach to the control of the development of metropolitan regions. The third section touches upon some of the consequences for urban management and discusses the speci® c role of urban place marketing in that setting in more detail. For any urban place marketing strategy to succeed, organising capacity has become indispensable, as argued in the fourth section of the contribution. The ® nal section concludes.

My city – my brand: the different roles of residents in place branding

Purpose – This paper deals with the importance of residents within place branding. The aim of this paper is to examine the different roles that residents play in the formation and communication of place brands and explores the implications for place brand management.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on theoretical insights drawn from the combination of the distinct literatures on place branding, general marketing, tourism, human geography, and collaborative governance. To support its arguments, the paper discusses the participation of citizens in governance processes as highlighted in the urban governance literature as well as the debate among marketing scholars over participatory marketing and branding.Findings – The paper arrive at three different roles played by the residents: as an integral part of the place brand through their characteristics and behavior; as ambassadors for their place brand who grant credibility to any communicated message; and as citizens and voters who are vital fo...

Growth Clusters in European Cities: An Integral Approach

This paper analyses and compares the dynamics of clusters in nine urban regions in Europe. The cluster perspective in the studying of growth processes in cities has added value because, increasingly, economic activities cross the boundaries of traditional economic sectors, as networks are becoming the leading organisational principle. The integral approach reveals that the performance and dynamics of clusters depend on cluster-specific conditions and, to a large extent, also on the general spatial-economic situation in the urban region and the quality of urban management.

The Influence of Stakeholder Involvement on The Effectiveness of Place Branding

Abstract The assumption in the governance literature is that stakeholder involvement enhances the chances of success of governance processes. Place branding has a strong governance character in that it involves many different actors and the government is one of the parties in the branding process. This article draws on survey data acquired from professionals involved in city marketing and branding in the Netherlands to analyse whether stakeholder involvement leads to a clearer brand concept and increased effectiveness of city brands in terms of attracting target groups. The analysis shows that involving stakeholders does make a difference and has positive effects on the clarity of the brand concept.

Place marketing and citizen participation: branding as strategy to address the emotional dimension of policy making?

Place marketing is increasingly used by local governments to enhance the image of cities and achieve policy goals related to economic and spatial development. Place marketing has become part of local and regional governance processes. Critics have argued that place marketing is often applied in top-down ways that exclude citizens. Drawing on survey data this article empirically confirms this critique. But the article shows with a case study that citizen involvement in place branding can be used to enhance the quality of the brand and include citizens’ emotions in governance processes. Points for practitioners The influence of citizens on place marketing is generally low. Nonetheless, when citizens are given influence the effects of place marketing on spatial plans and other policies increases, according to respondents of this study. Place branding can be carried out interactively with citizens, and then be applied to include citizens’ emotions in governance processes. This may be used to enrich and locally embed governance processes, and prevent citizens’ protest.

Questioning a “one size fits all” city brand: Developing a branded house strategy for place brand management

Purpose City branding has gained popularity as governance strategy. However, the academic underpinning is still poor, and city branding needs a more critical conceptualization, as well as more complex management systems. This paper challenges the use of a “one size fits all” city brand, which is still common practice in many places. The paper proposes that city branding involves much more complexity than is commonly thought and outlines a strategy that enables urban policy-makers, marketing researchers and (place) marketers alike to better deal with city branding. Design/methodology/approach The authors integrate insights from literature on place branding, brand architecture and customer-focused marketing. Findings The article argues that place brands (in general and communicated place brands in particular) are by definition very complex, due to their different target groups, diverse place offerings and various associations place customers could have. Thus, an advanced brand management including target group-specific sub-brands is needed. Practical implications The model will be helpful for place brand managers dealing with a diverse target audience, and is likely to improve the target group-specific communication. Originality/value The paper provides an insight into the complexity of city brands and acknowledges that the perception of city brands can differ considerably among different target groups. Additionally, it offers a more comprehensive definition of place brands. This will be helpful for city brand managers and researchers alike in dealing with city brand complexity.

Corporate Community Involvement in European and US Cities

We aim to identify the implications of corporate citizenship in general, and of collaboration between public and private actors in particular, for the development of cities. We analyse the changing behaviour of proactive firms in the field of community involvement, the spatial dimension of corporate citizenship, the added value of cross-sector partnerships, and the barriers to partnerships. We conclude that the trend of corporate community involvement provides new opportunities for the development of partnerships between proactive corporate citizens, city government, and other (public or private) organisations. However, the results suggest that the actual number of such partnerships is lower than expected. This lack of partnerships can be explained by looking at the internal organisation of companies and their potential partners, and the barriers in the coalition-forming process itself.

Rethinking the Measurement of Place Brands

Place brand managers often disregard the complexity of place brands, as do their counterparts in the academic arena: they repeatedly use simple explorative descriptions of certain place brands, rather than a precise measurement. Thus, this chapter aims to identify and discuss measurement approaches that could prove useful in place branding. Therefore, we will define the brand and examine various options regarding what to measure in place branding. Finally, we will discuss the different approaches of brand measurement for their use in place branding, namely the approaches to measuring the brand in the form of free brand associations of target customers with qualitative methods; in the form of attributes with quantitative methods like standardized questionnaires; and with mixed methods that combine qualitative research with quantitative methods. Two mixed methods, namely the network analysis and the advanced brand concept map method, are explained in more detail. In conclusion, we also outline current and future challenges in measuring place brands and their outcomes.

Cross-Border Place Branding in Europe

In recent years, Europe has seen a strong increase in cross-border cooperation. Under different headings, most commonly the Euregion, cross-border partnerships are being set up in all member states of the EU and beyond. This trend is hailed as the regionalization of Europe, or the rise of the region state, and is actively supported by EU initiatives such as INTERREG. A key responsibility of these emerging cross-border regions is the attraction and retention of inhabitants, investors, and visitors, and place branding is a key tool for attaining these goals. An extensive literature has emerged, providing insights on strategies for the branding of cities and regions. At the same time, policy practitioners and branding professionals have developed a wide variety of place branding strategies in cross-border regions. However, few studies have dealt with the specific challenges faced by cross-border branding initiatives. Moreover, the cross-border cooperation literature suggests that besides the commonly assumed entrepreneurial motivations behind place branding, cross-border place branding may in fact be motivated by political reasons instead. This difference may be significant if the motivations behind a place branding initiative impact its design and implementation and hence its outcomes. This chapter explores the extent of cross-border place branding in Europe, as well as differences between cases in terms of the type of cross-border region, the scale of the region, and the scope of the branding initiative in terms of the range of target audiences addressed. Moreover, it proposes a first measure of the outcome of branding initiatives and suggests some possible relations between the characteristics of the cross-border branding initiatives and their outcomes.

Enhancing urban competitiveness through innovative growth clusters

Against the backdrop of today’s climate of economic globalization and the rapid development of information, this timely book explores the complex concept of competitiveness between cities. The expert contributors illustrate that innovation is a prerequisite for increasing urban competitiveness, and highlight the various ways that urban innovation-based competitiveness can be approached.