City Branding (PDF)

City branding is a contemporary issue which is getting more important continuously as the competition between cities is growing. It helps to make a place desirable as a business location, tourist destination or a place to live. As Kavaratzis states, "The beginning lies in the realization that all encounters with the city take place through perceptions and images".
According to Charles Wrench, "anything for which you can construct a mental inventory is a brand". People connect brands of cities with certain historical aspects. Over time, cities have developed their unique reputation and converted more and more into own brands, due to globalization. City branding is comparable with product branding, where products and services with a strong brand can be sold easier, attracting people and investment compared to the poor branded. While some cities have prospered over the years, others have suffered. Furthermore every city has to compete against other city for its share of the world's consumers, tourists, businesses, investment, talents, respect and attention on the international level.
The objectives of this assignment is to examine how to brand a city properly and to understand the essential steps for implementing a significant brand strategy. For a better understanding of the approach, an anonymous online primary research was done in December 2013, to reflect and explain individual methods. The questions from this result can be founded in the appendix. Additionally one successful branded and one less successful branded city will be discussed.