Each place is unique, with its own geographical features, history, and resources.
In a globalised world, many places are developing place-branding strategies to attract visitors, companies, and residents. The efforts made to reinforce place attractiveness have been widely commented in the academic literature, especially from a marketing perspective. This book provides a different view, since it prefers a policy perspective. It calls for a better understanding of the interplay between public policies and place development, marketing, and promotion.
The policy choices that underlie the development of places strongly influence their positioning, the groups and markets targeted, and more generally the attractiveness strategies designed. Therefore, this book’s approach is central to contextualising the discussion around place branding and marketing. It argues that responding to certain questions remains essential before taking any branding and/or marketing measures. These questions include, for example: how stable are political decisions? What are the place’s tax rates? What investments are made in childcare? What is the crime rate, and how is it addressed? What kind of company would want to (re)locate in the place?
This book also presents four main aspects of policies that are of particular importance for place branding and marketing: the characteristics of places, the role of stakeholders, prioritisation, and the use of specific marketing instruments. These elements are discussed through theoretical approaches, but also concrete examples. In this regard, the book devotes considerable space to cases from all over the world, ranging from European cities and regions to African, Asian, and Latin American countries, including undercommented examples that provide different insights into place branding and marketing.
Finally, the book proposes to monitor and evaluate place branding and marketing at the policy level, but also through communication and marketing lenses. In this regard, it provides techniques and tools that may be useful for scholars and practitioners alike. Again, concrete examples, from various settings, enrich the content of the book’s final chapters.