Understanding place brands as collective and territorial development processes

Place branding strategies linking marketing to places have received increasing attention in practice and theory in the past two decades. It is generally assumed that place branding contributes to the economic, social, political and cultural development of cities, regions and countries. But there exists neither a commonly accepted definition nor a sound theoretical framework for place branding research. Studies have until now mainly focused on nations and cities, while the regional scale has rather been neglected, even more in the context of Mediterranean countries. In addition, little is yet known about the conditions, processes, and outcomes of place branding. The objective of this thesis is to contribute to the clarification of the place branding concept and to a broader understanding of this rich and complex phenomenon. The focus is on the underlying conditions, processes and dynamics of place branding in regions that contributes to territorial development. Place branding is related to local food products and tourism for sustainable territorial development in Mediterranean rural regions (in France and Morocco). The introduction chapter outlines the societal and theoretical context of place branding regarding this thesis. Place brands have emerged as attempts to respond to intertwined and multifaceted economic, political and socio-cultural challenges: to the externalities of globalisation, to local development challenges due to regionalisation and decentralisation processes, and to socio-economic tensions in the Mediterranean basin and its food domain. Accordingly, three established literature streams are mobilized: the marketing and branding of places, regional studies and sociology. It is supposed that insights from the three disciplines are needed to understand the conditions, processes and development outcomes of regional branding. This leads to three units of analysis: the first deals with place branding in a narrow sense, understanding it as marketing strate