Branding a City: A Conceptual Approach for Place Branding and Place Brand Management

Nowadays cities compete strongly with each other for attracting tourists, investors, companies, or talents. Place marketers therefore try to establish the place as a brand, promoting it to different audiences. But the perception of a place (brand) differs between those potential ‘customers’ and a conceptual foundation is still missing. Following a review of the literature on brand architecture and customer-focused marketing, this paper outlines a conceptual approach called the Place Brand Centre, recommending a target group-specific sub-branding-strategy for place brand management. At the end, practical implications for place marketers and gaps for future empirical research are discussed.