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Previous literature has focused on the antecedents of place attachment and the effects on place satisfaction and place loyalty. However, little is known about the relationship between emotional place branding and place attachment. This study analyses the process of creating an emotional city brand in order to promote emotional bonds and achieve resident and visitor place attachment. The northern Portuguese town of Viana do Castelo was chosen as case study to conduct a mixed-method approach. The authors conducted document analysis regarding the creation of the city brand and interviewed a city councillor to understand the way it was managed. A notable resident and a notable visitor with a strong bond with the city were also interviewed. Then the authors developed a focus group with heterogeneous profiles of residents and visitors in order to understand their perceptions of the city’s image. Finally, place attachment was measured through a survey, with a sample of 285 respondents. The results not only show good acceptance of the city brand by residents and visitors but also reveal expectations of a more engaging and active communication strategy to achieve affective commitment. Place attachment is strong, especially concerning emotional factors, suggesting that city branding strategies evoking emotional bonds may reinforce place attachment. Place identity is stronger than place dependence as regards residents and visitors.

The concept of place branding in this paper is examined in respect to place identity. More specifically, it is argued that poems and songs are cultural elements of place identity that can help in the place branding process. Poetry and especially that set to music offers a powerful cross-platform that enables communication among people, creating common understanding and bridging linguistic and cultural differences. Greece has reached a juncture where the sun and sea model, on which it had based its tourist campaign in the past, is not sufficient anymore. Thus, it must face the options of altering its current product. Towards this direction, the present paper focuses on poetry, lyrics, and song as viable alternatives that can help reformulate the country’s projected identity and image. Representative examples of Greek poetry in general and of Greek poetry set to music in particular are analyzed and examined in this vein.

This paper is aimed to find a new framework for the theoretical structure of place branding concerning the role of the local community within it, based on the study from some places in two Indonesian cities. By the empirical study on those cases, the intention is to find the role of each element and its relationships between them, in the context of brand-management model to develop the competitive advantage of the city. The analytical process will be focused on the crucial role of the local community as the main player in city identity formation. The local community is the main user of the urban space who can make decisions over space, according to their inherited perception and belief, individually and communally. This qualitative research employed interviews and direct immersion with the urban community, to examine the anatomy of the place evolution in the two types of Indonesian cities: the heritage city of Surakarta and the cosmopolitan city of Semarang. The theoretical invention of the city authenticity’s DNA and its elements that have been formulated on a heritage city from the previous study is used as the basis for verification of the other cities. The research findings have proven that the uniqueness of the urban places is very much influenced by the decisions made by the local communities based on their interaction with their living environment. On the next stage, the interaction between the community and their place would be contributed to the sustainability of the city identity, which will become the main factor of the advancement of city branding and the increase of the competitive advantage of the city.

With the rise of global actors declaring statehood, the place branding competition has expanded beyond internationally recognized cities and nations. ISIS and al-Qaeda insist the establishment of the Caliphate defined both as a place and identity is paramount to reuniting Muslims under a supranational Islamic government. This study explores how each group presents the Caliphate as a place brand and identity construct in the online environment. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study investigates the discursive formation of place identity in ISIS and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) Arabic-language newsletters and examines the projections of Caliphate governance in over 3200 images. Using names, slogans, logos, and colours, ISIS targeted a niche Arab Muslim readership with contextual messages in al-Naba’ newsletter, while AQAP presented al-Masra as an Islamic, mainstream publication reinforcing the stated goal of liberating Jerusalem. The discursive strategies in al-Naba’ and al-Masra visuals further positioned ISIS as a self-governing Caliphate and AQAP as one of many sister brands with some capacity to govern. The study discusses the overlaps and distinctions between place and proto-state branding strategies and highlights the communicative threats the latter poses to cities and nations’ branding efforts worldwide.

According to numerous authors, residents play a decisive role in any place branding strategy, although paradoxically, they have played little or no role in the implementation of place branding strategies in recent years. It is for this reason that this study emphasises so-called “internal place branding”. Furthermore, we aim to determine whether the outwardly projected attributes of Barcelona (Spain) correspond to the attributes held by its residents. To achieve this aim, we undertook a cross-sectional descriptive study using a mixed method survey questionnaire in order to measure residents’ perceptions, with both open-ended and closed-ended questions. We selected 300 participants using the snowball sampling strategy. Results showed that residents of Barcelona, as a whole, perceived their city as cultural, creative, cosmopolitan, touristic, entertaining and friendly, attributes that closely match those projected by the city over recent decades. However, we also found a certain distancing of residents with respect to other values projected by Brand Barcelona. We believe this study provides important managerial implications not only for Barcelona’s brand managers, but also for professionals all over the world seeking to work with internal place branding.

The objective of this paper is to challenge three implicit assumptions about residents’ engagement with city branding: first, that disengaged residents may not be attached to their place; second, that residents’ desire engagement with official place branding; and third, that residents perceive place branding is appropriate for their city. In-depth semi-structured interviews were held with 22 residents of Dunedin, New Zealand, to examine their place attachment, place identity, understanding of city branding and attitudes toward their city’s brand. To assist residents to articulate their feelings about Dunedin, a visual elicitation method was used to assist them to articulate their place identity and place attachment. The findings identify tensions between residents’ place identity, their understanding of city branding and attitudes toward their city’s brand, underpinned by their attachment to the city. Many residents expressed place-protective attitudes towards anticipated changes to the social fabric of their community, which they perceive to be consequences of this urban governance strategy. Local authorities may need to re-think their adoption of place branding as a ‘one-size fits all’ solution to place management and find alternatives which promote the perceived uniqueness of the city while reinforcing residents’ multiple and complex place identities.

The Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) project was initiated as a design-led cultural policy by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. However, because of a lack of cooperation, communication and consideration of place identity and local values, a place brand strategy gap has emerged. Consequently, the DDP project was plagued by negative public perceptions and apprehensions. In efforts to reduce the conflicts, equilibrate the local cultural and economic needs, as well as propose alterations to the usage of the facilities through participatory discussions, a new blueprint for the DDP operations was developed by the Seoul Design Foundation. In this context, the revised offerings of the DDP resulted in the reconsideration of its name and category positioning to remove the place brand strategy gap. This research was part of the reconsideration of place brand identity strategy of the DDP. To address and resolve the underlying communication issues regarding the name and the categorical positioning of the DDP, this article explores the brand vision and mission statements of existing multipurpose cultural institutions. Clarifying the categories for brand communication establishes accurate perceptions and expectations about the offerings of the DDP to its visitors and local stakeholders, and ultimately meets the place brand satisfaction as well. Forty-five cases of similar multipurpose cultural institutions were investigated through thematic and content analysis. Thus, by incorporating the traits of the new operational plan for the DDP, the most relevant category and the foundations of a brand platform were suggested.

Tourism based on the valorisation of places in which historical heritage is the main attraction is one of the fastest growing segments of cultural tourism. The conservation and management of dissonant heritage - heritage with different meanings and narratives - has led to war tourism product development in various destinations. Although niche tourism at war heritage sites has received some attention by academics in tourism and management, this study area is still under-investigated. This contribution analyses the role of place identity and cultural identity in the valorisation and management of Italian war heritage sites in Trentino and Alto Adige/Sudtirol. The two Italian autonomous provinces are rich in war heritage sites including fortifications, trenches, war memorials testimonials of the Alpine warfare during the Great War (1914–1918). Special attention is given to the role of local stakeholders in the managerial choices and communication strategies in war heritage site management. Results show that a more targeted promotion of this particular war heritage could significantly contribute to enhance awareness on Italian cultural heritage. Managerial implications to overcome current weaknesses are provided.

History and cultural heritage are an integral part of place identity, infrastructure and landscape. This article explores the process of using local history and cultural heritage as a foundation for branding a small-scale tourist destination in China. We will study the branding project of Shouxian Tofu Village in China, in application with the 4D Place Branding Model specifically designed for branding cities in China. This article also provides some clues on the issues that limit the process of place branding in China.

Critical views of place branding which focus on its unexplored consequences on the physical and social fabric of places are emerging. Place branding is now seen as an essentially political activity, serving hidden agendas and marginalizing social groups and is transitioning from a response to the competition between places to a truly inclusive and participatory process to support the advancement of both the economy and social fabric of places alike. Kavaratzis, Giovanardi and Lichrou present an edited much-needed volume introducing critical approaches to place branding to assist the development of inclusive models and frameworks in both theory and practice. The book explores the tensions inherent to the politics of place representation and place discourse, ultimately exposing the political nature of place branding, its power dynamics and particular interests. The contributions within argue for more responsible and socially-oriented approaches with greater stakeholder engagement, acknowledging the collective ownership of place identity in a form of activism in favor of residents’ right to participate in decision-making affecting their places.

Over the past decade, place branding has become a vibrant area of research and has received increasingly widespread attention and recognition. Some scholars have discussed that many place branding studies have adopted qualitative and quantitative approaches in analysing collected data and information. This review article aligns the application of research methods and statistical analyses with place branding topic areas in articles published in three key periodicals since the year 2000. A dominance of qualitative research approaches is revealed in most of the specific topic areas in place branding including place identity, projected images, place offerings, marketing and communications, and stakeholder relationships. Several observations are also made about issues that might deserve further attention: (1) the dominance of qualitative analysis, (2) the lack of integrated research approaches and (3) the relatively low explanatory power of statistical applications in some studies. On the basis of the changing research domain in the place branding topic areas, mixed-method or more diversified quantitative approaches may yield insightful future research opportunities in a field where most research is typically conducted using individual case studies and qualitative approaches.

Rural tourism has a pivotal role in keeping the countryside alive in the changing industrial and technological urbanized world. Constructing a rural place identity, the starting point of marketing, is the focus of this article. The authors studied the role of one stakeholder group, namely artists, in the context of place identity construction of an old rural Finnish ironworks village. The results indicate that artists are extremely important to the construction of the identity of a place. Their roles unfold as stories, artifacts and atmosphere as well as entrepreneurs. In the future, these direct and indirect roles should better be taken into consideration in the process of identity construction of a place.

This study seeks to complement existing theoretical definitions of place branding proposed by earlier research, and offers a practitioner definition of place brand management. As part of a wider study on place brand management, 15 place brand practitioners working across 15 different geographical locations and in various destination management organisations were asked to elaborate on what they understood by ‘place brand management’. This is the first study to capture and integrate practitioners’ views on the essence of place brand management. The study generates a multi-faceted definition, which centres on the place identity, experience of the place, stakeholder engagement, and the place brand practitioner's leadership role in positioning and promoting the place proposition and experience.

The process commonly called globalization is associated with, among other things, an increasing economic connectedness and dependence between places, as well as the long-distance migration of people from and to all corners of the world. The analysis in this article considers these two ways in which economic globalization brings the world together by relating these processes to two different senses of the word brand: place branding (defined as ‘competitive identity’) and what we may call social branding, or the construction of social identities based on ethnic appearance. It does so by considering the case of the Aland Islands, a Swedish-speaking, autonomous region belonging to Finland. The article attempts to offer insights into some of the ways in which competitive identity can be linked with a kind of social change (represented by the notion of ‘brand promise’) that increases tolerance and inclusiveness. Through its comprehensive nature (linking culture, identity and economy) and its focus on behavior, the notion of competitive identity allows us to see how ‘place branding’ might open up ‘possibilities for becoming’ that reflect evolutions in the ways in which Alanders define themselves; the concept also ties such evolutions in identity to the broader economic activities that help to produce a place's image and that set the stage for future economic activity.

In this article, we advance the idea that any form of spatial planning aiming at preservation of places, landscapes or landscape character has to resist the temptation to target such preservation directly. Rather, a careful study and management of place identity, as the discursive figuration of place images and narratives in the community, has to craft a persuasive planning narrative that has a better chance to coordinate stakeholders and integrate policies. We argue that such endeavor can benefit greatly from an integration with place branding strategies, strategies that have become more inclusive and governance-oriented themselves, and that often include similar concepts of narrative analysis, stakeholder involvement, and a combination of asset creation, asset protection and asset promotion. A sensitive study of place identity, signification of place and a precise reconstruction of the history of governance and planning in an area are prerequisites for such a strategy. We illustrate this by means of three case studies – Tuscany, Minnesota and Missouri – areas marked by different assets, different planning histories and options, and different perspectives for branding.

There is no doubt that place branding is a powerful and ubiquitous practice deployed around the globe. Parallel to its acceptance and development as a distinct discipline is an understanding that place branding as responsible practice offers the means to achieve widespread economic, social and cultural benefits. Drawing on work around place and identity in cultural geography and cultural studies, this paper engages critically with this vision. Specifically, it challenges the widely-held assumption that the relationship between place branding and place identity is fundamentally reflective, arguing instead that this relationship is inherently generative. This shift in perspective, explored in relation to current responsible place branding practice, is central to the realisation of place branding as a force for good.