Cities are branding and rebranding

themselves in order to improve their

position as attractive leisure and business
tourism destinations, locations for
business and places to study and live.
Unlike product and service brands,
which are driven by market forces, city
branding and place marketing are driven
by the need to diversify local economies
faced with industrial decline, attract
tourism and inward investment, attract
INTRODUCTION
City branding is on the increase, but can
one use strategic branding models
developed for goods and services to
brand cities? There is wide agreement
that places can be marketed and branded
like products (Aaker, 1996; Keller, 2001,
2003; Kotler et al., 1993; Matson, 1994).
But little empirical research was found to
support this assertion or to identify how
to brand a city successfully.
242 Place Branding Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005)
City branding: Can goods and
services branding models be used
to brand cities?
Received (in revised form): 1st December, 2004
Brenda Parkerson
is an honorary research fellow of Aston University Business School, working in the creative and cultural industries for
Birmingham City Council. Her research centres on branding places. She began her career as a classical ballet dancer and,
after studying lm at Columbia University, moved to Germany where she established herself as a director and producer of
documentaries. Her current work involves place branding through cultural programmes and capacity building, business
development and social inclusion in the creative industries.
John Saunders
is Professor of Marketing, Head of Aston Business School, Pro-vice Chancellor of Aston University and Dean of the Senate of
the Chartered Institute of Marketing. His research centres on strategy and product management and includes branding,
marketing communications, market models and business incompetence. He has published over 100 learned papers that have
appeared in the worlds leading journals in marketing and other disciplines. Along with Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong and
Veronica Wong, Professor Saunders writes Europes best-selling marketing text, Principles of Marketing: The European Edition,
which now appears in ten languages.
Abstract A citys branding is investigated using generic product and services branding
models. Two generic branding models and tourism segmentation models guide an
investigation into city branding as it should be and as it is using Birmingham,
England as a case study. The unique characteristics of city brands are identied and
Kellers Brand Report Card provides a theoretical framework for building a picture of the
brand-building activity taking place in the city. Four themes emerge and are discussed:
1) the impact of a network on brand models developed for organisations; 2)
segmentation of brand elements; 3) corporate branding; and 4) the political dimension.
A conclusion is that city branding would be more effective if the systems and structures
of generic branding models were adopted.
Keywords: City branding, place branding, Birmingham brand, networks
Brenda Parkerson MBA,
ACIM
Birmingham City Council
BMAG,
Chamberlain Square,
Birmingham B13 3DH, UK.
Tel: 44 0121 464 6166
e-mail: bparkerson@
blueyonder.co.uk
Report Card as a theoretical framework
to establish to what extent
brand-building activity is taking place.
Four general categories of issues are
discussed: the network, brand elements
and segmentation, corporate brand and
the political dimension.
BRANDING CITIES
Are core branding concepts transferable
to cities? At their most basic level brands
are understood in terms of their
identifying functions and potential for
differentiation. Brand as logo and brand
as product are common interpretations.
De Chernatony (1992: 3) argues that
brands are complex identities that exist
in the minds of consumers. Referring to
Meadows he states that branding is not
something done to customers, but rather
something they do things with and adds
that consumers interpretations of brands
may not be what the marketer intended.
Drawing on the classical branding
literature, the benets of product
branding are summarised as:
encoding and retrieval cues, heuristic
cues for evaluation and choice
decisions (Cohen and Basu, 1987)
identication functions, added value,
credibility guarantee and intangible
value (Murphy, 1992)
trustworthy badge of origin and
promise of performance (Feldwick,
1991)
facilitate the consumer choice process
and make it more effective (Doyle,
1989).
These benets are relevant to city brands.
City brands such as New York, Paris or
Rome are clearly identiable and each
makes a specic and unique promise that
aids the decision-making process. The
imagery conjured up by the mere
mention of these cities names adds
hallmark events and conventions and win
economic prizes (eg European Capital of
Culture) (Kotler et al., 1993; Matson,
1994). In Europe, national and EU
directives play a key role through
legislation and funding (Greenbaum and
Bondonio, 2003). As with product and
service brands the bottom line is
economic, but the processes involved in
strategic branding of cities are
characterised by complexity and
constrained by the political dimension.
The literature on strategic branding is
extensive and backed by empirical
research focusing largely on fast-moving
consumer goods. With the growth of
services marketing, research is moving
beyond the fast-moving consumer goods
model (De Chernatony and McDonald,
2001; Olins, 2003b). Place branding is a
relatively new area of research. While
not addressing branding specically, there
is an abundance of work in the area of
place and city marketing largely from
three disciplines: urban development,
tourism and marketing management.
Works on city and place marketing in
the area of marketing management are
fewer and less grounded in empirical
research than works in the areas of urban
development and tourism.
This study investigates the relevance of
product and services branding models to
cities. Two generic branding models
developed by De Chernatony and Riley
(1998) and Laforet and Saunders (1994)
and two tourism segmentation models
developed by Jafari (1982 and 1987,
cited in Jafari, 1995) are used to
determine the unique characteristics of
city brands. Birmingham is examined in
a case study looking at sources of brand
equity, the desirability of a corporate or
umbrella brand in a city context and
the impact of the political dimension
on strategic branding approaches. City
brand practitioners in Birmingham are
surveyed using Kellers (2000) Brand
Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005) Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Place Branding 243
City branding
form of extending city brands was
commonplace when America was being
colonised (eg New Englands Boston,
Hull, Plymouth and Worcester).
The Brand Report Card
operationalises Kellers understanding of
brand building. This practical approach
has ten characteristics that companies
must achieve in order to create and
maintain strong brands (Keller, 2000).
The brand excels at delivering
benets customers truly desire.
The brand stays relevant.
The pricing strategy is based on
consumers perceptions of value.
The brand is properly positioned.
The brand is consistent.
The brand portfolio and hierarchy
make sense.
The brand makes use of and
coordinates a full repertoire of
marketing activities to build equity.
Brand managers understand what the
brand means to consumers.
The brand is given proper support
that is sustained in the long term.
Sources of brand equity are monitored.
Keller suggests rating a brand on a scale
of one to ten on these ten characteristics
to gain an understanding of how the
brand is congured and identify areas in
which it excels or that need
improvement. This approach has been
used to investigate the Birmingham
brand.
The double vortex model
De Chernatony and Rileys (1998)
research on the mental models brand
managers and brand consultants use to
help them make sense of the components
of a brand led to their development of
the double vortex brand model. In this
model the elements of the brand are
divided into rational elements brand
intangible value to the experience, often
at a premium price. Evidence of this can
be found in businesses attaching names of
strong city brands to their products (at no
cost) to lend them credibility, status and
other positive associations even when the
product has no real connection with the
city. Examples of this are Chicago Pizza,
the restaurant chain, or Paris, a small
clothing store in Birmingham.
Keller (2003) identies the advantages
of strong brands as:
greater loyalty and less vulnerability to
competitive actions and crises
larger margins
greater trade cooperation and support
increased marketing effectiveness
possible licensing opportunities
additional brand extension
opportunities.
Are these concepts transferable to
cities? Loyalty to a city may show
itself through repeat visits or civic
pride. Less vulnerability to competitive
actions may translate into a business
not relocating when a seemingly better
option is offered, or an image not
being damaged despite bad press.
Larger margins are related to premium
prices through brand equity and can be
seen in higher property prices in cities
with strong reputations. Greater trade
cooperation and support may be
revealed in local businesses promoting
the city and cooperating with city
strategies. Increased marketing
effectiveness can be achieved through
association with a city brand and
capitalised on across city-wide activity.
Private sector interest in a city brand
can lead to opportunities for local
authorities to raise revenues through
licensing their brands. Additional brand
extension opportunities are more
difcult to apply to city brands. But
while perhaps not relevant today, a
244 Place Branding Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005)
Parkerson and Saunders
individuals, businesses, public services,
local government and partnerships with
varied and often competing interests.
Castells (2000) denes a network as a
set of organisational nodes and argues
that networks have always had an
extraordinary capacity and extraordinary
problems in becoming forms for
implementing human activity.
Cooperation is identied as a key
characteristic, with each node being
dependent on the other nodes for the
network to function. Networks can
organise resources and activity, and will
reorganise themselves rather than clash
against other structures or organisations.
This makes them exible and adaptable.
The problem with networks is that they
have an inherent difculty in focusing
resources in order to maintain unity and
accomplish their task. Networks are good
at decentralising, but they are not good
at coordinating and centralising the
as it is understood within the
organisation and irrational elements
brand as it is understood in the
consumers mind. This model addresses
brands from both the managers and the
consumers positions, and makes clear the
differences in the processes and the
interrelatedness of the activities of both
positions (Figure 1).
Organisation versus network
In contrast to brand leading companies,
cities do not have a single body or
clarity of focus to drive branding. With
no organisational structure to manage the
mechanisms needed to build brand
equity, the double vortex model does not
t city branding. The uniqueness of a
city brand lies primarily in its form as a
network rather than an organisation with
clear boundaries and internal structures.
A city is an intricate network of
Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005) Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Place Branding 245
City branding
Figure 1: Double vortex model
Values
Mission
Vision
Corporate culture
Heritage
Naming Functional Service Risk
policy capacity reducer
Legal Crisp Personality
communicator
Time
Time/experience
Confidence
Rational: Emotional:
Performance Psychosocial
match
Stakeholder value
Brand inside firm Response
relationship
Brand inside
consumers mind
Shorthand device
Consumer
perceptions
approaches are likely to encounter similar
problems when applied to networks and
cities.
The double vortex model has been
extended to introduce the unique
dynamic of the city as a network (Figure
2). The problem of the lack of
organisational boundaries now becomes
evident.
The rational elements of a city sit
not just within one rm, but within a
network of many organisations and
individuals. Each may have its own
unique vision, mission, values, corporate
culture, heritage, functional capability,
policies, services and personality. They
may work in partnership with one
another, they may be competitors or
they may not know the other exists.
All will in some way and to varying
degrees inform consumers about the
city brand and the consumer will
perceive this as a whole. This dynamic
is mirrored in the response relationships
between consumers and the brand.
There is an inherent lack of stability
decision-making process or at allocating
resources to a particular purpose. Further,
Castells (2000) argues that beyond a
certain complexity it becomes practically
impossible to manage all the different
components of a network and to get
them all to work towards a common
purpose. The larger a network is, the
more difcult it is to manage by
conventional means (Castells, 2000).
In an analysis of city branding,
marketing consultant Berci Florian (2002)
retains faith in market-based planning for
cities and identies differentiation as the
key to satisfying increasingly
individualistic consumer demand. Taking
the opposite stance, architect Rem
Koolhaas (2001) states that it is futile to
plan a city; cities are self-organising
urban life forms that have outstripped
any means of conventional organisation
or control. Koolhaass (2001) view and
Castellss (2000) concept of the network
undermine market-planning approaches
requiring coordinated effort towards a
common purpose. Strategic branding
246 Place Branding Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005)
Parkerson and Saunders
Figure 2: Extended double vortex model
Response
relationship
Response
relationship
Response
relationship
Response
relationship
Response
relationship
Response
relationship
Confidence
Rational: Emotional:
Psychosocial
Stakeholder value
Time
Time/experience
Brand inside the
city
Response
relationship
Response
relationship
Response
relationship
Response
Brand inside
consumers mind
Shorthand device
Performance
match
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The important differentiating elements
for a city are likely to be the
socio-cultural and man-made background
tourism elements. Their uniqueness will
be the key in providing sustainable
competitive advantage over other cities
and in creating brand equity.
Jafari segments the ordinary world from
the non-ordinary world. This can be
applied to city brands needing to deliver
two unique brand promises to two
unique categories of audience: the tourist
and the non-tourist (Jafari, 1987, cited in
Jafari, 1995).
Corporate branding The role of
the organisation
At rst glance, city brands resemble
corporate brands and brand consultants
do refer to city brands as corporate
brands (Olins, 2003a). But do they
function for a city as a corporate brand
functions for organisations and their
products? The use of the term corporate
brand by brand consultants for a city
brand has its roots in graphic design.
Balmer has commented that the business
identity concept is ubiquitous and has
been used recklessly in practitioner circles
and to a lesser degree by scholars. In
practitioner literature, identity might be
dened in terms of the fundamental
attributes of the organisation while
identity solutions are explained solely in
terms of graphic design (Balmer, 2001).
A corporate brand acts as a seamless
umbrella that encompasses all the
brands in the portfolio (Keller, 2000).
Brand structure refers to how a
corporate brand is deployed across a
product portfolio. It provides a
mechanism for controlling the level of
association a consumer makes between
a product and the corporate image, and
determines the relationship between the
two. A content analysis of grocery
brands conducted by Laforet and
and consistency in a city brand. The
question is, can the standard
mechanisms for managing a product or
service brand (sequential planning
stages: vision, mission, values and
corporate culture) work for a city
brand?
Brand elements and segmentation
There is little known about why some
city brands are more successful than
others. From an urban tourism
perspective, research points to a rich and
compelling history and interesting
cultural offerings as critical success
factors. Whether a city possesses these
characteristics determines its potential for
urban leisure tourism. National capitals
also have an advantage over non-capitals
(Lennon and Seaton, 1998).
Segmenting a citys offering into
brand elements can result in a better
understanding of its unique
characteristics. City brand elements can
be segmented further into tangibles and
intangibles. Jafaris (1982) tourism
segmentation model, although dated,
remains a useful tool for analysing city
brands and determining sources of
brand equity and competitive
advantage. Tourism elements are
segmented into products used by
tourists and residents plus background
tourism elements which can be either
natural (climate, scenery), socio-cultural
(culture, history) or man-made
(buildings, shrines, shopping centres).
Background tourism elements are not
necessarily conned to the city, but can
extend beyond city limits. With
adequate transport infrastructure even a
city with few attractions can become a
dormitory for the surrounding region.
Jafaris model requires extending in
order to reect the needs of residents,
businesses, investors and students (Jafari,
1982, cited in Jafari, 1995).
Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005) Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Place Branding 247
City branding
product but also the people, programmes,
systems, values and culture of the
organisation (Aaker, 1996). A city does
not share these organisational boundaries
and the systems, values and culture that
evolve within them. A city brand may
be the responsibility of a particular local
government function such as tourism or
economic development, but it does not
function within the boundaries of an
organisation in the same way that a
product or service brand does.
Nonetheless, the corporate brand will
identify the people, values and culture of
the city.
Increasingly, companies are realising
that their staff are the embodiment of
their brand. Unique corporate culture
can be the source of competitive
advantage for a corporate brand. There is
growing interest in orchestrating staff to
deliver the brand promise (De
Chernatony, 2002). The people of a city
are a unique element of a city brand and
in many ways deliver the brand, but can
(or should) a population be orchestrated
to deliver the brand promise?
Balmer extends corporate-level brands
beyond the company denition to
include groups of companies and
countries, regions and cities and argues
for a radical reappraisal of the traditional
marketing framework (Balmer, 2003).
Strategic competence and the
political dimension
There is a fundamental dilemma
underlying strategic competence in an
organisation between the extent of
challenge and ambition in goal setting
versus the ability to mobilise
commitments for achieving them over
the required time period (Murthy, 1987:
12). This dilemma is more problematic
in a complex city network.
The impact of the political dimension
on strategic competence has been
Saunders (1994) identied six
approaches.
Corporate-dominant approach (eg
Kelloggs corn akes) was found to be
rare.
House-dominant approach (eg Quaker
uses corporate brand on cereals but
Fisher Price on toys) was more
common.
Dual brands (Rowntrees Quality
Street), where two brand names are
equally prominent, were most
common.
Endorsed brands (eg Scotch
Tape/3M), where the brand name is
dominant and is endorsed by a less
prominent corporate or house brand,
were less popular than dual branding.
Brand dominant (eg Mars and Procter
& Gamble use this approach) are
stand-alone brands where the maker is
not in a prominent position.
Furtive brands do not show the
maker at all (eg used by pet food
makers to disassociate pet food from
human food).
These structures can also be found in
nancial services, automotive and luxury
goods sectors (Olins, 2003b). Corporate,
house or even furtive brands are
positioned rmly within the boundaries
of the organisation both strategically and
operationally, and deployment of the
corporate brand is determined by the
organisation (Aaker, 1996; De
Chernatony, 2002; Keller, 2003; Laforet
and Saunders, 1999). This is not the case
with a city brand. City brands are
adopted by independent organisations
and agencies that choose to be associated
with the brand. Even across local
government it is not a given that the
brand will be adopted.
In Aakers denition a corporate brand
identies the corporation behind the
product and represents not only the
248 Place Branding Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005)
Parkerson and Saunders
time, it is recognised that the city
council, through its elected
representation, legitimises the partnership.
Effective city-wide partnerships have
strong political leadership at the most
senior level, but it is important that the
local authority does not play the lead
role (Aulakh et al., 2002).
It would seem that through
partnership working cities try to
compensate for the lack of organisational
boundaries and corporate strategic centre.
Partnerships may provide an appropriate
framework within which brand strategy
and appropriate behaviour can evolve.
The following propositions have
emerged for investigation.
Proposition 1: Because of the
network form it is likely that strategic
brand models developed for
organisations will need adaptation for
cities.
Proposition 2: Deconstructing a city
into its brand elements is likely to
reveal the extent of the complexity of
a city brand and the need for
segmentation to identify sources of
brand equity and the desires and
needs of the target markets.
Proposition 3: Deployment of a city
corporate brand is decided by
individual organisations within a
network rather than by a strategic
decision-making body. This is likely
to impact on the way the corporate
brand is deployed and the frequency
of its deployment.
Proposition 4: The role of local
government and issues that undermine
strategic competence may limit the
extent to which strategic brand
models can be implemented.
METHODOLOGY
To determine the relevance of strategic
branding models developed for goods
outlined by Murthy (1987). Strategic
competence of public sector enterprises is
low because:
the dominance of the political process
in the strategic decision-making
process seeks ambitious and visible
goals, but leaves the mobilisation of
commitments to bureaucratic
processes
for most public sector enterprises
survival is more about personal careers
and reputations than organisational
survival in the economic sense;
conict between managers,
bureaucrats and politicians in their
methods, motivations and
characteristics can lead to a lack of
alignment of their interests
setting goals is done without
alignment of beliefs and values of
managers, bureaucrats and politicians
lack of leadership among decision
makers means there is no one to
infuse appropriate values, align
interests and overcome inherent
conicts between managers,
bureaucrats and politicians.
City strategy is primarily formulated by
local government under regulation of
central government in consultation with
the private sector. Partnership working
underpins many of the key provisions
set out in the Local Government Act
2000 (Calpin, 2000). Crucial to
successful partnership working is
effective leadership, as it increases the
visibility of the partnership, promotes
shared ownership of objectives and
persuades reluctant partners. Without
leadership to bring about a common
sense of purpose and develop a shared
vision, partnership working is likely to
fail (Young, 2000).
In the context of a city-wide
partnership, city council dominance is
seen to generate distrust. At the same
Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005) Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Place Branding 249
City branding
ofcials direct control over services and
budgets.
The traditional form of leadership of
local government in the UK is a leader
of the council elected annually by the
majority party or coalition. Since 1999,
UK legislation allows for powerful
US-style elected mayors. Triggered by a
residents referendum or a voters
petition, Birmingham residents voted
against an elected mayor and for a
Leader of the Council (BBC, 1999;
Parker, 2003).
Birmingham city brand elements
Tangibles
Birmingham is located in the centre of
England. The city is known for its
industrial heritage as manufacturers of
jewellery and guns from the 17th century
to the 19th century and automobiles in
the 20th century. The city once enjoyed a
good reputation (Queen Victoria bought
jewellery made in Birmingham), but from
a modern leisure tourism perspective this
history is perhaps not as appealing as the
histories of Amsterdam, Dublin or
London, which are among the top ten
European destinations. Key success factors
in urban tourism are a rich history and
culture (Lennon and Seaton, 1998).
Birminghams difculty in competing in
this arena is reected in low levels of
non-business overnight and international
visitors to the city (Marketing
Birmingham, 2003b).
In the 1960s, Birminghams city centre
underwent major redevelopment. The
new Bullring, the Rotunda and the
inner ring road were built. The inner
ring road was designed to bring cars in
and out of the city quickly. It became
known as the concrete collar. To cross
the road, pedestrians had to use tunnels
that became targets for criminal activity.
The concrete collar isolated areas outside
and services to cities the following have
been carried out.
A case study of the Birmingham
brand that examines key issues
impacting on a city brand. The case
study seeks to build a picture of the
brand-building activity taking place
within the city and to what extent
that activity is a strategic and
coordinated effort.
A survey of Birmingham brand
practitioners using the Brand Report
Card (Keller, 2000) as a theoretical
framework.
Semi-structured interviews with
Birmingham local government ofcials
illuminating the city context and
political dimension.
Secondary data: documentation,
perception research, MORI polls
(British opinion survey) and statistics.
It is acknowledged that the conclusions
drawn for the city of Birmingham may
not be relevant for other cities. For a
broader set of results, case studies of
more cities would be useful.
A CASE STUDY:
THE BIRMINGHAM BRAND
Background
With a population of approximately 1
million, Birmingham is the capital of
the West Midlands region. This
city-region has a population of
approximately 3 million and is the
12th largest in Europe (Interact-
Network, 2003). The Birmingham City
Council (BCC) employs about 50,000
people and is Europes largest city
council. It has an annual budget of
approximately e3.5bn (Birmingham City
Council, 2003a). The council has
recently devolved many public services
to the constituencies, giving elected
250 Place Branding Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005)
Parkerson and Saunders
runway has recently been approved
(Locate in Birmingham, 2003a, 2003b;
BBC, 2003).
Birminghams central location is a key
source of brand equity, and this is
supported by large-scale convention
centres and hotel infrastructure. Surveys
show a large percentage of domestic
business visitors. Key trends in the
nancial and professional services sector
(the fastest-growing sectors accounting
for 76 per cent of employment) are
further sources of brand equity
(Marketing Birmingham, 2003a;
Birmingham City Council, 2003a).
A fundamental characteristic of
Birmingham is social inequality. This is
due to highly skilled and highly paid jobs
being held by people living outside the
city and commuting in while large
proportions of Birminghams own citizens
live in deprived communities and remain
unemployed or on low incomes
(Interact-Network, 2003; Aulakh et al.,
2002).
Intangible elements
The non-ordinary world of the
tourist. Results of a 2003 national
survey of 2,013 UK adults revealed
that Birmingham was not seen as a
leading European or must-see city.
Arts and culture were not perceived
as world class. Birmingham rated high
on being a city full of colour and
enthusiasm. People who lived or had
lived in the city had more positive
perceptions than those who had not.
The positive impact of proximity in
city brand perceptions was also found
to be true for the city of Hong Kong
(Marketing Birmingham, 2003a;
Burson-Marsteller et al., 2001).
The ordinary world of the
resident. Residents perceptions are
surveyed annually on a wide range of
dimensions. The lowest ratings were
the ring road from the city-centre core
and those areas began to fall into decline.
With the urban development of the
1960s and the economic recession of the
1980s, Birmingham became a bad
product combined with a bad economy
(Locate in Birmingham, 2003b). Since
1987 new convention and arts centres
have been built, canal areas have been
developed and tourism infrastructure has
improved. Substantial investment has
been made in the citys retail facilities
and Birmingham has established a
reputation for business tourism, but the
city still carries the outdated reputation
of being a post-war concrete jungle
(Marketing Birmingham, 2003a, 2003b;
Swingler, 2003).
In 2003 visitor numbers to the citys
attractions reveal that all but two of
them are down from the previous year.
These two are Cadbury World and
Sarehole Mill (the inspiration of Tolkien)
(Marketing Birmingham, 2003b). The
brand strength of both Cadbury and
Tolkien (particularly in the light of
recent lm successes) is likely to be
related to their increased visitor numbers.
None of the other attractions come
remotely close to enjoying the global
brand awareness and positive associations
of these two attractions. They are also
unique to the location, unlike the
science museum or the aquarium.
Cadbury and Tolkien are global brands
and cultural exports which can attract
national and international visitors.
Birmingham does not have many of
these.
Birminghams central location benets
domestic business tourism and locating a
UK business. It is relatively close to
London and sits in the centre of the UK
national motorway and rail network.
Birmingham International Airport, the
UKs fastest growing airport, however,
has limited direct ights to major
international destinations. A second
Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005) Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Place Branding 251
City branding
of priorities of the two worlds in an
urban tourism destination. The
intangible elements apply to both
worlds. A tourist may prioritise
nightlife over employment, while the
resident may prioritise employment. It
becomes evident that a brand
delivering to one of these worlds
might disappoint the other. The
question of whether or not a single
brand image can meet the needs of
both these worlds must be asked.
The impact of the city council on
tangible elements
The impact of the city council on brand
elements is immense; it comes closest to
being the organisation behind the brand.
The city council also seems to be in the
best position to manage the brand
strategically. But the power of local
authorities has been systematically reduced
by central government over the years.
The BCCs role has shifted from service
delivery to that of a facilitator of
on safety, cleanliness, greenery and
housing. The highest ratings for 2002
were on quality shopping, universities
and colleges, conferences and
education. Residents greatest
concerns were with cleanliness, young
people with nothing to do, crime and
speeding. The polls revealed that
two-thirds of residents speak highly of
the city. This is reective of loyalty,
psychological bond and engagement
(Birmingham City Council, 2003b).
Overlapping worlds. The ordinary
world of the resident and
non-ordinary world of the tourist are
dialectically opposed. Residents and
tourists co-exist in the same place,
however, and many tangible elements
serve both these markets. The two
perceptual categories of non-ordinary
and ordinary represent two
perspectives and two sets of priorities.
In Birmingham, the image campaign
focuses on the non-ordinary world.
The diagram in Figure 3 has been
devised to illustrate the opposing sets
252 Place Branding Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005)
Parkerson and Saunders
Figure 3: Priorities in the ordinary/non-ordinary worlds
Tangibles
Intangibles
Image, style,
personality
Awareness,
recall,
recognition
Perceived
quality,
consideration
Emotional and
self -expressive
elements
Loyalty, bond,
engagement
Hotels, airports and trains
Culture, arts, history
nightlife, shopping
Safety
Cleanliness
Transportation
Education, health,
housing, employment,
business, infrastructure
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consumers desire and this information
informs strategy. Brand building requires
the organisation to maximise the
customers product and service
experiences. Maximising the experiences
of a city is not centrally managed.
Marketing Birmingham provides tourism
services that maximise the visitors
experience of the brand. For the rest of
the citys consumers there are a
multitude of public, private and
voluntary sector organisations that deliver
services. Each has their own strategies
and capabilities for maximising product
and service experiences. The BCC has
inuence and in some cases power over
some aspects of this activity through
funding initiatives, policy and legislation.
This places it in a key position to
maximise peoples experience of the city.
The BCC conducts annual opinion polls
to identify residents perceptions and
levels of satisfaction on key public
services, which informs council strategy
and policy. Marketing Birmingham
carries out perception research. Progress
is measured against objectives (eg
Birmingham a world-class city),
however, rather than visitors desires.
Locate in Birmingham gathers relevant
information on an ad hoc basis about key
businesses and issues in the city, which
informs its inward investment and
business retention strategy.
The brand stays relevant
Urban regeneration and cultural
initiatives have improved Birmingham
and continue to do so. This is informed
largely by market conditions and trends
in urban planning, regeneration and
design. In the context of the city
network, private and public sector
organisations will also contribute on an
individual basis to keeping the city brand
relevant by keeping their own brands
relevant.
partnerships. Some BCC partnerships are
effective. For example, the city planning
department brought intensely competitive
private sector developers to the table to
build jointly a major shopping
development (Locate in Birmingham,
2003b). Less effective is the partnership
with Marketing Birmingham, as indicated
by the councils reluctance to adopt the
new brand developed by Marketing
Birmingham and Marketing Birminghams
refusal to cooperate fully with the
councils scrutiny procedures (Dale, 2003).
Building the Birmingham brand
Three organisations/departments in
Birmingham were identied that engage
in marketing and branding the city. They
are Marketing Birmingham for leisure
and business tourism, Locate in
Birmingham for inward investment and
business retention and the BCC for
product development, resident services
and corporate planning. None of the
agencies emphasised Birmingham as a
place to study.
Locate in Birmingham is the BCCs
inward investment team, and the BCC is
a key stakeholder in and part funder of
Marketing Birmingham. Other
stakeholders include the NEC group
(convention centres), hotels and
city-centre retailers. Marketing
Birmingham has developed the city
corporate brand and is the brand
guardian. Although the three
organisations are interrelated, their work
is fragmented and not integrated through
a holistic approach to branding.
Brand activity in Birmingham has
been investigated using the Brand Report
Card (Keller, 2000), as outlined below.
The brand excels at delivering the
benets customers truly desire
The organisation knows/nds out what
Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005) Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Place Branding 253
City branding
The brand portfolio and hierarchy
make sense
A corporate umbrella brand is seen as
desirable. One Birmingham respondent
wants to see the city branding across a
wide range of city organisations in both
the public and private sector. But the
corporate brand does not create a
seamless umbrella for the citys
sub-brands. Although the brand designers
claim that the new design can be
adapted to anyones needs, the options
for integrating the corporate brand with
the sub-brand are limited and may be
inhibiting its adoption (Casteldine, 2003).
Issues such as a brands capacity to
hold individual niches or the degree to
which brands overlap are specic to
product and service brands. Overlapping
brands in a consumer goods context can
translate into cannibalisation and waste.
In a city context, overlapping brands
may be desirable and indicate a robust
competitive sector. Intensity of
competition among rivals is one of ve
forces that determine the attractiveness of
an industry (Porter, 2001). Intensity of
competition also determines the
attractiveness of a place in the context of
international marketing (Porter, 1990).
Here the concept of place as product
comes into conict with the dynamic of
place as market.
The brand makes use of and
coordinates a full repertoire of
marketing activities to build
brand equity
Marketing Birmingham and Locate in
Birmingham engage in a wide range of
marketing activity. The Birmingham
corporate brand has been designed to
give adopters choices in colour schemes
and straplines to suit their needs, but it is
more about achieving adoption by a
diverse audience than about maximising
brand awareness.
The pricing strategy is based on
consumers perceptions of value
General perceptions of the price of
Birmingham vary according to visitors
place of origin. In the UK
Birmingham is seen to be good value
for money, while Europeans nd it
expensive. For businesses, ofce space is
more expensive than in Manchester or
Liverpool, but decidedly cheaper and of
better quality than in London.
Birminghams higher price is seen as
positive and as reecting demand. The
concept of optimising price, cost and
quality across the range of a citys
offerings is unrealistic in a complex
city network. This is one element of
the Brand Report Card that does not
apply well to city branding.
The brand is properly positioned
Benchmarking has been carried out
through MORI polling to establish
points of parity and points of difference
in key city services with other UK cities.
In addition, the regional tourist board
compares Birmingham with other UK
and European destinations on measures
such as hotel protability and visitor
numbers. Locate in Birmingham uses
economic data to determine
Birminghams position (Locate in
Birmingham, 2003a; Birmingham City
Council, 2003a).
The brand is consistent
Brand meaning varies across the three
organisations. For inward investment the
new brand image is perceived as
frivolous and Birminghams business
community is unhappy with the focus on
tourism (Locate in Birmingham, 2003b).
The BCC has rejected the brand image
for not representing the reality in
deprived neighbourhoods (Birmingham
City Council, 2004).
254 Place Branding Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005)
Parkerson and Saunders
receives substantial additional funding
from the European Union. With the
enlargement of the EU this funding is
expected to be reduced. Exit strategies
include increased private sector support
and central government support.
The political dimension is not
perceived as a threat to long-term
brand strategy, although recent enquiry
by Tory and Liberal Democrat
councillors into the workings and
nances of Marketing Birmingham
would suggest otherwise (Dale, 2003;
Dale, 2004).
The company monitors sources of
brand equity
The brand guidelines distributed by
Marketing Birmingham dene the
meaning of the brand, but this meaning
is not aligned with a wider city agenda
(eg business, investment and the
community). The BCC, Marketing
Birmingham and Locate in Birmingham
track performance on a regular basis.
Brand equity reports as such are not
done. The BCCs polling results inform
policy and strategy and are made public.
Marketing Birmingham distributes the
results of its research to its partners and
they are made public. Locate in
Birmingham publishes and distributes
economic data to the business
community.
Branding in a city context
In Birmingham, activity contributing to
the delivery of brand benets (eg
positioning, consistency, coordinated
activity, understanding brand meaning
and monitoring) was found to be
fragmented. Three organisations are
involved in these activities for four target
markets.
The BCC targeting residents.
The brand managers understand what
the brand means to consumers
Perception research appears inadequate
and fragmented. Little evidence was
found to indicate in-depth knowledge
and understanding of the core
associations people in any of the target
markets make with Birmingham.
MORI polls show that residents have
positive perceptions of the citys shopping
facilities, colleges and universities.
Perceptions of education, hospitals,
attractions and leisure tourism are good,
but get worse year on year. The city is
not perceived to be green, safe and
clean. (Did this information inform
Marketing Birminghams Green
[Birmingham] billboard portraying the
city as a green haven?)
Marketing Birminghams research
shows that national perceptions have
improved slightly, but that arts and
culture are still not perceived as world
class (Marketing Birmingham, 2003a).
Locate in Birmingham does not carry
out perception research. In its opinion,
that is the work of Marketing
Birmingham. Given that Marketing
Birmingham focuses on tourism, it is
unlikely that it will get relevant data for
inward investment or business.
The brand is given proper support and
that support is sustained over the
long run
Birmingham has had substantial
long-term support from both the public
and private sectors in the area of urban
regeneration. Levels of support for
marketing appear more vulnerable.
Core funding for city marketing in the
UK tends to come from the local
authority, with additional funding
achieved through the private sector and
regional development agencies. This is
the case with Marketing Birmingham.
Currently, Marketing Birmingham
Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005) Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Place Branding 255
City branding
dominance of a city-wide partnership is
seen to generate distrust. At the same
time, it is recognised that the BCC
through its elected representation
legitimises the partnership (Aulakh et al.,
2002). Effective city-wide partnerships
have strong political leadership at the
most senior level, but it is also important
that the local authority does not play the
lead role (Carley et al., 2000).
Dominance by the BCC of the CSP
may render it a vehicle for achieving
BCC objectives and distrust undermines
partnership working.
The corporate brand
In July 2003, after the city lost its bid to
be European Capital of Culture, the
brand behind the bid was discarded and
a new brand was launched. The aim of
the new corporate brand is to increase
awareness, improve perceptions and
achieve adoption by a wide range of
organisations across the city. But the
brands design may be inhibiting its
adoption. To encourage adoption it is
crucial to design brands to accommodate
a wide range of brand structures and
representations of relationships. The
Birmingham brand claims to reect the
diversity of the city through
interchangeable sets of images, words and
colour schemes. Adhering to the belief
that multiple identities can be abridged
within a single brand, it maintains it can
be anything anyone wants it to be. The
design is unable to accommodate the
wide range of relationships between the
city and the sub-brands, however, and
key stakeholders do not agree with the
brands message. If multiple identities
cannot be abridged and the single brand
is used, then segments of the citys
stakeholders may be excluded (Marketing
Birmingham, 2003c; Bennett and
Koudelova, 2001).
In addition to the six brand structures
Locate in Birmingham (a department
within the BCC) targeting
investment and business.
Marketing Birmingham targeting
tourism (business and leisure).
The city as a place to study was not
targeted despite a relatively large student
population.
An effective strategic branding
approach would include activity in all
relevant target markets and require
integration and facilitation from a
strategic centre. For a city, this is a
structural problem that could be resolved
by positioning the marketing function
beneath a strategic function that works
across the whole range of city sectors.
In the UK, the Local Government Act
2000 requires Birmingham to set up a
local strategic partnership. Formed in
2001, the City Strategic Partnership
(CSP) brings together the citys main
institutions and agencies to provide an
overall strategic direction for the city and
appears to offer an opportunity for a
virtual corporate strategic centre within
which a city-wide branding programme
could reside.
The CSP is responsible for:
producing the long-term vision for
the area (the community strategy)
implementing a neighbourhood
renewal strategy to achieve
improvements in employment, health,
housing and environment, education
and crime
coordinating the work of other
partnerships
developing public service agreements.
Compared to other local strategic
partnerships in the UK, the CSP admits
to being late to get off the ground
(City Strategic Partnership, 2003). Largely
funded by the BCC, the CSP is chaired
by the leader of the council. BCC
256 Place Branding Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005)
Parkerson and Saunders
can compensate for the lack of
organisational boundaries and strategic
centre; this virtual organisation facilitates
the decision-making process and
allocation of resources needed to develop
and deliver holistic brand strategy.
Brand elements and segmentation
The segmentation of the Birmingham
brand revealed an expansive and complex
product and portfolio comparable,
perhaps, to a global brand such as
Procter & Gamble.
Segmentation of city brand elements
by target market assists the identication
of sources of brand equity. Strategic
decision-making bodies should prioritise
according to the strength of the element,
its potential for adding value, whether or
not it can be improved, how much that
would cost and how long it would take.
Decisions about urban tourism should be
informed by climate, scenery and the
potential cultural and given historic
richness of the location. Tourism in
general needs to be considered in terms
of a citys ability to deliver the promise
of the non-ordinary world.
The perceptual categories of the
ordinary and non-ordinary worlds
segment the brand elements from the
perspective of the place consumer. The
brand promise for the visitor in the
non-ordinary world is likely to be
dialectically opposed to that of the
resident in the ordinary world. This
dilemma raises questions about the
desirability of a single corporate identity
deployed across a wide range of city
brand elements (or sub-brands) with
potentially conicting values and core
associations.
Birminghams strengths lie largely in
areas that impact on business tourism,
business and inward investment, a central
location and proximity to London.
Cultural products are in need of
identied by Laforet and Saunders
(1994), a further brand structure was
identied: the NECs and Novotels use
of the brand colours and recognisable
graphic elements without the logo or
name. This associative approach solves a
problem for adopters of city brands when
corporate-dominant or endorsing
structures are inappropriate and house
brand approaches do not show enough
of a relationship.
The brand must have strong
associations with the colour and design
elements for the association to be
extended to the sub-brand. Strong
product brands typically have one or two
colours so as to enable strong associations
(eg CocaCola, Virgin, Orange, Lloyds
TSB and MasterCard). In contrast, the
Birmingham brand has ve colour
schemes with 12 colours each to choose
from, making strong associations between
colour and brand difcult.
DISCUSSION
The network
The dynamic of a network appears to
impact on brand programmes on at least
two levels:
on how activity is mobilised within
the network to develop and deliver
brand strategy and programmes (this
includes product development, image
building and leveraging brand equity)
on how the corporate brand can be
deployed across the network and
brand portfolio.
The city as a network poses a unique
problem for strategic brand models
developed for goods and services, in that
networks are not good at centralising the
decision-making process or allocating
resources to a particular purpose.
Partnership working is a mechanism that
Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005) Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Place Branding 257
City branding
of brand structures determining the
relationship of the brands to the city. A
citys institutions and organisations often
adopt a house brand approach with
individual brands showing a loose
association with the city.
Corporate-dominant brand approaches
tend to be used for services the city
delivers and for city agencies. Endorsed
structures show the citys support for an
event or organisation.
The way a corporate brand is
combined with a product brand reects
how the organisation wants the
relationship between the product and the
organisation to be perceived. The case
study of the Birmingham brand revealed
the opposite to be true. Brand guidelines
may indicate how the brand should and
should not be used, but the citys
sub-brands (institutions and organisations)
can choose to adopt or not to adopt the
brand. Corporate branding decisions
made in the corporate centre for a
product brand may be made externally
for a city brand. Unlike product or
service brands, the city has little control
over the deployment of the corporate
brand, leaving city brand practitioners
with the challenge of facilitating adoption
through inuencing and persuasion.
Marketing Birmingham would like to
deploy its brand across the city portfolio
(Marketing Birmingham, 2003d), but this
is proving difcult. The adoption of the
brand is often little more than use of the
logo as an endorser. To what extent this
increases awareness or improves
perceptions is questionable. Marketing
Birmingham uses the branding
consistently for effective business and
leisure tourism promotion, and the BCC
marketing department uses the brand for
its seasonal events campaigns. The
inward investment team nd it too
frivolous, but has managed to
incorporate the logo in black and white
and use the brand language mechanism.
strengthening before the city can be
considered a leading urban tourism
destination. Cultural exports such as
Cadbury, Tolkien and Jaguar are potential
prole raisers and also in need of
strengthening.
Birmingham has changed the look, feel
and functionality of its city centre.
Current pressure from local communities
has led to a shift in priorities (and
resources) from the city centre to the
surrounding areas, particularly those that
are home to disadvantaged groups. In the
context of strategic branding this is
product improvement (however crass this
may seem). Decisions impacting on the
product also impact on how the brand is
experienced, processed and understood as
a whole in the minds of place consumers.
From a holistic branding standpoint,
improving deprived neighbourhoods
would seem a favourable move, although
it is unlikely that improvements are being
made for this reason.
Some elements of a city cannot be
changed. A city is a product of its
unique history. The town of Dachau will
forever be associated with Nazi
concentration camps. A city like Las
Vegas is a product of its short history and
singularity of purpose.
While a citys iconography has a
quality of permanence, a citys face can
be changed. The originally unpopular
decision to build the Eiffel Tower
changed Paris irrecoverably, and provided
it with an easily recognisable symbol.
The seed of the Manhattan skyline was
planted long before the invention of the
elevator when three city commissioners
carved Manhattan up into squares to
facilitate the buying and selling of
property (Koolhaas, 1994).
Corporate brand
A city brand portfolio is much like a
portfolio of product brands, with a range
258 Place Branding Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005)
Parkerson and Saunders
Segal-Horn, 2003). Changing the culture
of a city in order to market it more
effectively raises ethical questions. At the
same time, improving education, skills
and employment can improve life for
residents, impact on the culture of a city
and so improve the brand.
In the opinion of brand practitioners in
Birmingham, the product Birmingham is
better than the perception of
Birmingham. Brand perceptions as they
exist in consumers minds are real
phenomena that are inuenced through
their experience and cumulative
knowledge of the brand. Cumulative
implies the need for a consistent and
long-term approach which may prove
challenging in a political context.
The failure of the Birmingham brand
campaign behind the bid for European
Capital of Culture has led not only to a
new brand, but also to new leadership of
Marketing Birmingham; the citys leading
businesses have been disgruntled by
Marketing Birminghams focus on tourism
(Birmingham Post, 2003), and a local
election has brought a change in
government and new city council
leadership. The brand practitioners
interviewed for this research are not of
the opinion that the political dimension is
a threat to the brand programme. But
circumstances in Birmingham indicate that
municipal branding may well be the
political mineeld that one New York
City consultant claims it to be (Lefton,
2003).
Long-term support of product
development has been achieved in
Birmingham since 1987. This is thought
to be due to strong leadership, effective
partnership working and a long-term plan.
Leadership is also critical to the success of
strategic branding, particularly if the brand
programme is delivered through a
partnership. Strong leadership can mobilise
the brand activity throughout the
partnership towards a common goal.
Other BCC departments, and much of
the business community, have rejected
the brand.
Abridging multiple identities is a key
issue for city brands, and the
Birmingham corporate brand tries to
achieve this (Bennett and Koudelova,
2001). But in its attempt to be all things
for all people, the brand loses sight of its
real function, which is to maximise
brand awareness. This dilemma, along
with the ordinary/non-ordinary
dialectic, raises questions about the
desirability and achievability of a single
corporate brand image for a city.
The role of local government
(political dimension)
The role of local government and public
policy in city branding is extensive. A
key driver of product development in a
UK city is urban regeneration. A local
authoritys economic development and
city planning functions are central to the
development and sustainability of sources
of brand equity.
Public policy can also impact on a
citys cultural products, which are a
valuable source of brand equity for urban
tourism. Local government can play a
key role in supporting and nurturing the
cultural life of a city. Further, a citys
cultural exports can be exploited, and
indeed created, through government
support (eg grants for artists and touring
programmes).
Local government can also play a role
in shaping a citys corporate culture (if
it can be called this). Like services
brands, the value delivery systems in
cities are visible and the consumer takes
an active part in them, but unlike
services, delivery is performed through a
network of diverse organisations and
individuals rather than an organisation. A
solution for service brands may be found
in corporate culture (De Chernatony and
Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005) Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Place Branding 259
City branding
argument for adapting the systems and
structures of generic branding models to
t city branding.
The network
Brand models developed for organisations
need modication to suit a network
better if they are to be of use in a city
context. The double vortex model was
extended to illustrate this (De
Chernatony and Riley, 1998). Two
mechanisms for creating a virtual
organisation were identied: the elected
mayor and the local strategic partnership
(LSP). The LSP is the more likely
mechanism in the UK because of a lack
of tradition with elected mayors. The
proximity of the brand programme to a
city-wide strategic decision-making body
can facilitate a holistic strategic approach.
Leadership and partnership management
were considered crucial to effective
branding and partnership working.
Implications
A strategic brand programme can be
facilitated by the creation of a virtual
organisation led by an elected mayor or
LSP to mobilise the activity within a city
network towards the common goal of a
strategic brand programme. Positioning
the programme close to a central
decision-making body can help a brand
programme to work holistically. Strong,
effective leadership needs to be in place,
and in the case of the LSP the local
authority should not dominate the
partnership.
Elements and segmentation
Deconstructing the Birmingham brand
into its tangible and intangible brand
elements revealed an expansive and
complex product. Segmentation of a
city into its brand elements can assist the
Further enquiry made into the impact
of conicting methods and characteristics
of key players in a partnership (eg
politicians, government ofcers and
private sector CEOs) has revealed the
importance of partnership management to
strategic competence. Clarity of purpose
and clear, balanced rules and methods
were deemed critical to managing
potential conict. Weak ofcers and a
weak scrutiny function can undermine the
success of a partnership (Ormston, 2004).
One respondent expressed the need for
interpreters when key players with
potentially diverging motivations (for
example in a partnership with key players
from the private and public sectors)
interface. This suggests that there is a
method to managing partnerships that
may be as important as leadership in
mobilising the partners to achieve
common goals.
CONCLUSIONS
Interest in branding cities is growing, as
is the expectation that strong city brands
will increase opportunities for tourism
and investment and sell cities as great
places in which to run businesses, study
and live. In addressing the question of
whether or not goods and services
branding models can be used to brand
cities, generic brand models and tourism
segmentation models guided an
investigation into the Birmingham brand.
Four themes (the impact of a network
on brand models developed for
organisations; segmentation of brand
elements; corporate branding; and the
political dimension) emerged that were
used as a framework for analysing the
city brand. Complexity was common to
all four themes. The lack of clear
organisational boundaries and a strategic
centre, and the implementation of brand
strategy through a network were found
to be unique to city brands and an
260 Place Branding Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005)
Parkerson and Saunders
decide if, when and how they will use
the corporate brand.
The Birmingham brand aims to
increase awareness and improve
perceptions. It is intended for the
brand to be adopted by a wide range
of city organisations. There is a belief
that a single brand image can abridge
multiple identities. If this is not
achieved, and a corporate brand
approach is used, then choices may be
made that exclude segments of a citys
stakeholders.
Implications
Corporate brands need to be designed to
accommodate a wide range of brand
structures to facilitate adoption.
Deployment of a corporate brand across
a network is difcult. The challenge for
practitioners is in inuencing and
persuading organisations to adopt the
brand. A single corporate brand must be
carefully considered for diverse cities.
Representation of diversity must not
undermine the key function of corporate
brand design, which is to maximise
brand awareness.
Role of local government
(political dimension)
The role of local government is
extensive in city branding. Urban
development and urban regeneration are
key drivers of product improvement
and keeping a city brand relevant in
the UK. Public policy impacts on a
wide range of brand elements, from
arts and culture to education to safe
streets, all of which are potential
sources of brand equity. Strategic brand
programmes require support in the long
term. There is potential for the
political dimension to undermine
long-term support. Conicting methods
and characteristics of key players in a
management of resources and activity.
Segmentation also aids identication of
sources of brand equity, which in turn
should inform strategic decision-making
groups.
A city brand can also be segmented
into perceptual categories of the
non-ordinary world of the tourist and
the ordinary world of the resident.
Co-existing in a single location and
experiencing many of the same brand
elements, these two target markets will
be inuenced by opposing sets of
priorities when making decisions about a
city. The brand promise for these two
groups will also be dialectically opposed.
Implications
Decisions about brand elements need to
consider the current strength of the
element, its potential strength and
whether or not improvement is
achievable and desirable. If some
elements are weak, difcult or impossible
to improve, other elements can be
developed to compensate; a weak history
and climate can be compensated for by
strong cultural products to attract urban
tourism. Decisions around tourism need
to consider the promise of the
non-ordinary world. The ordinary and
non-ordinary worlds might not always
be in harmony. Brand programmes need
to be balanced and potential conict
managed proactively.
Corporate brand
The corporate brand/sub-brand
relationship is different for a city brand
than for a product or service brand.
Decisions about the deployment of a
corporate brand across a city brand
portfolio are not made by the strategic
decision makers or city brand
practitioners. The sub-brands, or rather
the organisations adopting the brand, will
Henry Stewart Publications 1744070X (2005) Vol. 1, 3, 242264 Place Branding 261
City branding
School of Public Policy, Birmingham, UK.
Balmer, J. (2001) Corporate identity, corporate
branding and corporate marketing Seeing
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Bennett, R. and Koudelova, R. (2001) Image
selection and the marketing of downtown areas in
London and New York, International Journal of
Public Sector Management, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp.
205220.
Birmingham City Council (2003a) Birmingham
economy, available from
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Birmingham City Council (2003b) Birmingham
Residents Views 2002, Research Study
Conducted for Birmingham City Council,
MORI, Birmingham, UK.
Birmingham City Council (2004) Personal
communication, 12th February.
Birmingham Post (2003) Commerce must lead
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Burson-Marsteller, Landor Associates and Wirthlin
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Calpin, D. (2000) Community strategies key to
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December.
Carley, M., Campbell, M., Kearns, A., Wood, M.
and Young, R. (eds) (2000) Regeneration in the
21st Century: Policies into Practice: An Overview
of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Area
Regeneration Programme, Policy Press and
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City Strategic Partnership (2003) Personal
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partnership can undermine strategic
competence.
Implications
Policy makers can support strategic
brand programmes by developing
policies that underpin the brand
programme in the long term. A
holistic strategic approach to branding
and positioning the brand programme
close to the central decision-making
body will facilitate appropriate policy
decisions. Local authorities can facilitate
partnerships and develop leaders from
within the community. Partnerships and
potential conict of key players must
be managed proactively.
What one needs to know
There remains much polemic and
promotion, but little evidence on the
effectiveness of city branding. Many
questions remain unanswered. Is a single
brand identity for a city desirable or
achievable? Are cities too complex? Can
insight into managing multiple identities
be found in research on diversity issues
that global brands face?
There is a need for further research
across a wide range of cities. For
example, comparative studies of strong
and weak city brands within a national
context need to be carried out before
generalisations about city brands can be
made. The subject of strategic city
branding is vast and complex. In
particular, this research has only skimmed
the surface of the role of local
government and the political dimension.
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