City Branding and Promotion

The Strategic Approach

Waldemar Cudny

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351041928
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

This book explores theoretical concepts of strategic promotion and place branding in cities. It outlines the issues associated with strategic management of urban territories and highlights various types of development strategies that seek to encourage socio-economic development, growth and city branding, particularly within the tourism industry. It examines the rules and methods for analysing the current branding of a city and how new branding and promotion strategies are created. Through a range of international examples the book considers the missions, aims and implementation of branding strategies and the importance of monitoring and controlling procedures. The first part of the book provides theoretical context, followed by a detailed exploration of the promotional and branding strategy prepared for the city of Tomaszów Mazowiecki in Poland.

This book provides the reader with theoretical and practical insights on city branding and will appeal to scholars and students in urban studies, geography, tourism, management and economics.

1 Introduction

1.1. Research problem and main aims

The publication is the outcome of several years of the author’s studies concerning city promotion and branding, as well as strategic urban management. The problems discussed in the monograph are strictly connected with both these issues. The book is devoted to developing city promotion and branding strategies. It presents the principles of devising this kind of strategy, illustrated with a specific case study of such a strategy developed by the author for Tomaszów Mazowiecki – a medium-sized Polish city. Recent decades have brought considerable interest in various aspects of urban management due to the fact that more and more representatives of the city authorities and policymakers have noticed the successfulness of new approaches to corporate management (Kot 2003). It has also been noticed that modern management brings good results in non-profit institutions, including public bodies. Public administration at the city level is a perfect example of an institution where modern management procedures pass the test (Szromnik 2012).

At the turn of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, many cities of the Western world were in deep crisis, caused by intensive deindustrialization, financial depression and numerous problems due to the growing globalization (see: Sassen 1999). Moreover, after 1989, a new type of city appeared in Central and Eastern Europe. These were post-socialist cities, which had been shaped by a centrally planned economy and an authoritarian government system for over 40 years (Liszewski 2001; Sýkora and Bouzarovski 2012). After the fall of communism, many of them entered the stage of intensive socio-economic transformations, which unfortunately led to a serious socio-economic as well as image-related crisis in many cities, e.g., in Poland (see: Cudny 2012). Modern management, introduced together with the development of neoliberal approaches to urban development, are perceived to be a good way to solve the problems of many cities. Neoliberal management in cities encompasses, among other things, implementing effective urban development strategies.

One of the most popular approaches to modern management of territories, i.e., countries, regions or cities, is territorial marketing (Florek 2013). It derives from the marketing used in corporate management. Originally, marketing was understood as a set of procedures aimed at increasing the sales of products and services provided by commercial companies. It was mostly about skilful application of various means of promotion which were to increase sales. At present, the marketing approach has been modified. Modern marketing is defined as orienting economic activity towards meeting the consumer’s needs. Goods and services are primarily to satisfy the needs of the consumers present on the market. Therefore, before a product is actually produced, comprehensive marketing activities are conducted in order to recognize the customers’ needs. The product is created so that it can satisfy these needs. Next, it is offered on the market, and various promotion techniques are used in order to generate the demand for it. However, the product itself has already been tailor-made to satisfy the customer’s needs, which has definitely made its promotion easier (see: Kotler 1999).

Moreover, modern corporate marketing is based on developing strong relationships between consumers and companies, which is done by creating attractive company and product brands (branding). Apart from this, sophisticated techniques are used to establish and maintain contact with both current and potential customers. These are examples of relationship (Grönroos 1994) and experiential (Coles 2008) marketing. As a result of the latest development of a neoliberal approach to urban management, marketing management has also been implemented with regard to territories – countries, regions and cities. In this case, it is referred to as urban, or more often, city marketing (Kavaratzis and Ashworth 2008). According to the neoliberal approach the city is treated as an organization which possesses a specific product, consisting of a range of offers used by various groups of consumers in a given city, e.g., the inhabitants, investors or tourists (Szromnik 2012). The product should be created in an appropriate way so that it can fully satisfy the consumers’ needs. Moreover, it must be adequately promoted so that information about it can reach consumers. The purpose of combining promotion with city branding is to create a positive image of a given destination and the products that are offered there (e.g., different products for investors, inhabitants and tourists). Appropriate product creation, promotion and branding of a given city make it possible to effectively achieve the development objectives. We can see here an obvious similarity to the marketing procedures applied in companies, where marketing is to ensure that their aims (e.g., increased sales and profits) are achieved. In a city, the main goal of the administration managing its territory is to intensify local development, which should be both dynamic and sustainable, and it should include social and economic elements (Parysek 1997; Kot 2003). Proper urban marketing makes it easier to achieve aims related to local urban development.

Another approach to management, significant from the point of view of this monograph, is strategic management. Also in this case, we should start from procedures followed by commercial companies. It has been noticed that they need to devise and consistently implement long-term development plans. Developing and implementing such plans (often in the form of official documents) have replaced spontaneous management, which used to be very common. At present, more and more firms are devising long-term business plans, calculated for many years, which are called strategies. Strategic management involves running a company or another organization by developing and implementing a strategy (Analoui and Karami 2003; Andrews et al. 2012).

Similar to marketing management, strategic management also turned out to bring good results. Therefore, non-commercial institutions, including public administration, started to use this type of approach. In cities, strategic management is used for the purposes of their spatial, but more often also socio-economic, development. In the latter case, we can talk about designing and gradually implementing urban development strategies. Strategies of this type may be general and concern the whole of socio-economic development. They may also be introduced in individual sectors, i.e., concern individual elements of the urban branches or products (Kot 2003). Examples of sector strategies are those for industry or tourism development, or city promotion and branding strategies.

In this book, the reader will find a detailed analysis of city promotion and branding strategies, as they are a combination of the two very popular recent approaches to urban management described earlier, i.e., urban marketing and strategic management. Strategies of this type should be treated as urban development–sector strategies, because they concern a fragment of urban reality, i.e., city promotion and branding. They are run with the consumers of the city product in mind. A city promotion and branding strategy is a document, usually official, created and implemented by the city authorities. Its aim is to devise a long-term plan of promoting the city and shaping its brand, which is a type of local urban development strategy. Promotion and branding are never targets in and of themselves. They are always supposed to lead to the development of other elements in the city. It is about attracting investors, developing the economy in general and increasing the number of jobs. Other aims include developing tourism or increasing the city population, e.g., by increasing immigration. All these aims can be achieved through appropriate city branding and promotional activities (though not exclusively). On the other hand, adequate planning and implementing such activities are easier and more effective when done with the help of a well-constructed strategy.

The main research problem investigated within this monograph relates to the role that strategies play in managing the brand of contemporary cities. The author decided to analyze whether the management of marketing communications and branding of contemporary cities can be realized with the use of strategies and rules of their construction, borrowed from corporate management. This publication is intended to achieve a number of research and practical (applicatory) aims strictly connected with the issues discussed, i.e., with city branding and promotion strategies, including the creation of urban activities related to these issues. The main aims set in the book are the following:

1. 1 Present the concept of city marketing and its constituents and indicate its relationships with city branding and promotional activities.
2. 2 Define the features of strategic city management. In this case, it was important to present the assumptions of strategic management (also those typical of the commercial business sector) and the possibilities to use them in urban management. Further on, the idea was to present the structure of the city strategic management process, based on creating and successive implementation of urban development strategies.
3. 3 Analyze the different elements that the concepts of city branding and promotion are composed of and present the purposes that city branding and promotion serve.
4. 4 Analyze the relationships between city marketing procedures and strategic management. It was important to show that urban management based on city marketing rules may be combined with strategic management. In this case, one such overlap is creating different types of city development and management strategies, including strategies devoted to promotion and branding.
5. 5 Present the main types of urban development strategies.
6. 6 Analyze city branding and promotion strategies as a type of urban development strategy.
7. 7 Present a detailed description of the rules of creating city branding and promotion strategies, its stages and methods.
8. 8 Present a detailed city branding and promotion strategy, using the example of an original work concerning Tomaszów Mazowiecki – a medium-sized Polish city.

1.2. Methods, materials and book structure

Every scientific work is based on specific research methods. According to Durbarry (2018, p. 5), research is “the systematic investigation of data and inquiry to provide explanations, establish relationships, carry out experimentation or test hypothesis to generate (new) knowledge”. All research procedures in established sciences are based on scientific research methods. The research method could be referred to as the ways of thinking and bringing to life new ideas and solutions. It could also be understood as the way in which such ideas receive scientific validation (Sankey 2008). As Runge (2007) wrote, research methods are techniques applied in order to solve a research problem. They might be qualitative or quantitative in nature; they might also be divided into field and desk research methods. In this monograph, the author employed a variety of research methods. For the theoretical part, an analysis of the scientific literature and Internet resources was conducted. This kind of analysis is one of the basic research methods used, e.g., in social sciences. It is used to define the research approach taken in order to solve a given research problem (see: Bowen 2009; Cudny 2016). Analysis of literature and Internet resources can be included in the group of qualitative methods, i.e., those where the analysis is not based on numerical data (Crang 2003). With regard to the second part of this book, which presents a city branding and promotion strategy for Tomaszów Mazowiecki, the author used both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative methods included the author’s direct observation conducted in the city (see: Guest et al. 2013), which was necessary to obtain or confirm basic materials and information regarding the urban space of Tomaszów Mazowiecki. The aim of the observation was to gain information about the investment areas, the existing urbanized spaces, the condition of the city’s transport infrastructure, tourist assets and other elements of its mega product. Another important method was the query conducted in different institutions in the city. It involved gaining access to documents deposited at archives and offices, which were very helpful in the scientific analysis (Cudny et al. 2011). For the purposes of this monograph, the query was conducted at the promotion office of the Tomaszów Mazowiecki City Hall. It concerned the means of city promotion currently in use. The study involved obtaining and analyzing promotional materials, as well as reports and other official documents. Another valuable technique was the in-depth interview with selected employees of the city hall. An additional method was the semi-structured interview conducted with the city inhabitants. Those interviews enabled the author to learn the inhabitants’ opinions concerning the city’s mega product, the city image and prospective city branding and promotion activities. Different types of interviews are qualitative methods and are often used, e.g., in sociology, human geography or urban studies (see: Brinkmann 2013).

The information acquired by using the methods mentioned earlier was supplemented with statistical data regarding the socio-economic situation of Tomaszów Mazowiecki. These data were obtained from some statistical publications providing information about the city. While devising the strategy, the author also used the method of public consultations. This particular method is widely used in various types of urban development strategies (Kot 2003). Public consultations may be useful, e.g., for building a comprehensive socio-economic development strategy. They are also valuable in preparing specialized strategies, such as a tourism development strategy or, like in the case of this book, a city promotion and branding strategy. Methods such as future workshops are useful in establishing the city inhabitants’ attitude to currently developed strategies.

The data obtained using the methods listed here underwent desk analysis. The research material collected as a result was used to create the theoretical part of the book. It was also needed to properly prepare city branding and promotion strategy proposals for Tomaszów Mazowiecki. The collected materials made it possible to prepare a thorough diagnosis of the city’s current branding and promotion situation, as well as to formulate the aims of the city’s branding and promotion activities and to choose suitable activities so that those aims could be achieved.

The book consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 presents the key assumptions of the work, a research problem, the main aims of the publication, the basic methods and materials, as well as the structure of the book. At the end of the chapter, the critical approach to the managerialism and its use in urban development are presented. Chapter 2 presents the theoretical foundations of the analysis. It starts with a detailed presentation of the city’s marketing approach and the conceptual bases of promotion and branding. Next, several case studies are presented, showing examples of current branding and promotion strategies that are commonly applied in modern cities. Another issue that is explored is the question of the strategic management in cities and various types of urban development strategies, including city branding and promotion strategies.

The subsequent chapters present the details of building city branding and promotion strategies. Chapter 3 explains the rules of conducting the first stage of creating such a strategy, which is the current situation analysis. The chapter presents this material, including the study of city identity and city image. The author also describes the main actors who have an influence on these elements and presents the methods used for such analyses. Chapter 4 introduces the rules for creating such a strategy. From this chapter, the reader will learn about establishing the vision, mission and aims, as well as the rules of planning promotional activities and running public consultations regarding the final version of the strategy document. The chapter also briefly presents the assumptions of the strategy implementation and implementation control.

Chapters 1–4 make up the theoretical part of the book. Their aim is to introduce the reader to the problems of devising city promotion and branding strategies. Chapter 5 is the practical part, presenting a case study of such a strategy developed by the author in 2016 for Tomaszów Mazowiecki. The chapter presents the current situation analysis with regard to branding and promoting this city, as well as the mission, vision and aims included in the strategy. Further on, the author presents branding and promotional activities planned for Tomaszów and describes the rules of implementing the strategy and monitoring its effects. The book ends with Chapter 6, the summary, where the reader will find the most important conclusions drawn from the study presented in the book.

1.3. Managerialism in urban development – a critical approach

The book is devoted to the creation of promotion and branding strategies that are derived from city marketing. City marketing is derived from a product-oriented approach to urban development. As such the book presents two very timely and important approaches to urban development: the Keynesian economy and neoliberalism, which are both strictly connected with the city marketing and managerialist approach. The development of the world’s economy, including the economy of urban places, was influenced by many theoretical and practical assumptions. In the early 20th century Keynesian economics was a key approach applied first in the United States and later across the Western world. According to the theory introduced by British ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Setting the agenda
• 3 Defining the current situation: developing the analytical part of the strategy
• 4 Creating the strategic part and strategy implementation
• 5 City branding and promotion strategy for Tomaszów Mazowiecki (Poland)
• 6 Summary
• Index