BA (Hons) Public Relations Dissertation

The Importance of Stakeholder Relations & Communication Tactics to the

Practice of City Branding

Amanda Fox
Submission Date: 14 April 2010
Dissertation Supervisor: Gyorgy Szondi

Chapter 1: Introduction

City branding is a relatively new practice utilised by many organisations, both private
and government owned. It is a way of promoting a city and its assets to a range of
audiences. Branding is used to establish a city to compete for increased investment,
tourists, business, events and residents.

This practice has increased importance in today’s globally connected society and can be
seen in marketing and branding practices around the world. Examples of recent city
branding campaigns across the globe include the city of Beijing in the lead up to the
Olympics, the ‘I am Amsterdam’ campaign and the range of cities branding themselves
to compete for European Capital of Culture. The interest of this topic dramatically
increased through the introduction of certain publications such as the ‘Place Branding
and Public Diplomacy’ journal. The recent practice and interest has attracted the input
of many academics from various disciplines who have responded by writing literature on
the topic. Despite this interest the subject of city branding is still incredibly new. Certain
areas including destination and place branding have shown more development over city
branding in academic literature, and for this reason, the researcher wants to explore
this new topic area in more detail.
For the purpose of this dissertation the researcher refers to the overall activity
undertaken on cities as ‘city branding’. It is argued by many academics that creating a
brand is a complex process and a practice which is yet to be defined. This leaves the
terminology for this practice varied throughout current academic research and practice.

The researcher’s interest within the field of city and regional tourism and the current
progress of city and place branding has fused a significant interest in studying this topic.
Work experience included spending a year in the press team at Marketing Manchester;
the agency charged with promoting Manchester and also working at Welcome to
Yorkshire; the Yorkshire tourist board. These organisations are motivated by promoting
their areas nationally and internationally to increase their competitive position. It is
from this experience that the researcher has developed a keen interest in the city
branding field.

Drawing on a new element, this dissertation examines how communication is used as a

tool to develop stakeholder relations within city branding. This is a way to engage the
local stakeholders into the cities brand development and practice. Using selected cities
to create a case study, the research approach was to analyse documents collected from
each cities branding tactics and one-to-one interviews with city brand managers.

The researcher wanted to explore the practice and up-to-date literature on the subject
of city branding to increase knowledge and understanding, and to gather a greater
insight into the topic for further academic research.

The dissertation looks at city branding by focusing on four selected cities that the
researcher can gain access to easily. These cities are Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and
Bradford. The study examines how each of the cities uses local stakeholders such as
residents, local businesses and organisations to develop and implement the city brands.
This specific topic has been chosen as the extensive review of recent literature shows an
academic gap in this area.

1.2 Research Aim:

The dissertation aims to research this statement:

“Examine the role and contribution local stakeholders play within city branding with
communication as a tool to engage stakeholder relations.”

The aim of the dissertation is to firstly examine how local stakeholders are involved in
the development and implementation of city branding, and to assess how
communication can be used as a tool to build relations between the city brand and
these local stakeholder groups.

In order to fulfil the enquiry, the research will undertake qualitative inquiry through
case study approach. This research will allow the researcher to assess the impact of
stakeholder input and provide recommendations on how to address the issue in the
future through practice and future research suggestions for academics.
1.3 Research Objectives:

The dissertations main objectives which will achieve the overall aim are:

• To explore what communication practices and techniques are in place to engage

with the local stakeholder groups when developing and implementing the city
brands and any noted barriers to hinder this process.

• To analyse how essential it is for branding organisations to make relations with

local stakeholders of a city when developing and implementing a city brand.

• Construct an academic review of the relationship between the communication

practices and local stakeholders within city branding literature and current
practice to make valuable recommendations.
1.4 Research Questions:

• What role do local stakeholders play in the development and implementation of

city brands?

• How are these city brands engaging with the local stakeholders, if at all?

• What are the barriers to achieving local stakeholder relations?

• What communication activity is in place to incorporate and engage with the local
stakeholder groups?

• To what extent do communication tools aid the building of relationships

between local stakeholders and the city brand?

• Can communication be used as a tool for engaging the local stakeholders into
the city brand in order to achieve success?