Success Measurement in Place Marketing and Branding

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore how success is measured within the place marketing and branding industry. The main issue surrounding this activity is the lack of a universally accepted framework that hinders practitioners from being able to justify the efficiency of their spending. In order to be able to efficiently approach this issue, from a practical standpoint research has been made in directions to better understand factors such as: the actual meaning success to practitioners, challenges that are experienced in the industry, and assessing successful measurement cases. From a theoretical standpoint, efforts have been allocated to exploring current work within the place marketing and branding industry, while also tapping into traditional product marketing and the afferent success measurements used within that industry. Furthermore, attention has been given also to how other types of institutions measure success within their industries. The approach is based on literature research and on the results of the performed expert interview that are meant to give insights both from a practitioner’s and a scholar’s point of view. Apart from identifying the various ways success is being measured within place marketing and branding, the findings presented and addressed various related pain-points met by practitioners and scholars alike in an attempt to give a different perspective on these negative aspects and stimulate further research.