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The Reinvention of City Places
What are the aims of urban re-branding?
Revive a pre-existing but outdated place image
Change a poor pre-existing place image
Differentiate and area from other places
Highlight changes in the character or the activities of an area
Associate a place with a major event
A brand image generates a unique set of ideas, feelings and attitudes in people. To remain competitive, large companies sometimes alter or completely replace their images and re-launch themselves as fresh corporate brands. Similarly, competition between urban places to attract new investment, tourists and residents has led many areas to establish completely new brand identities.
Re-branding an area can help people become aware of the existence of new place products such the beaches, trails, parks etc. Urban localities may be regarded as ‘products’ in the sense that they provide labour, land, premises and industrial infrastructures to businesses, housing, shopping, leisure and other amenities to residents, while offering cultural and heritage products to tourists.
Re-branding can also address the issue of ‘MacDonaldisation’ common in tourist destinations, and help differentiate an area from other places. The promotion of an urban place as a product will be enhanced, giving it a substantial competitive edge.
The MacDonaldisation of cities
Tourism has tended to cause uniform growth of cities, with the objective of making the tourist experience as similar as possible to what the tourists are accustomed to. Consequently, tourist destinations become indistinguishable and lose their richness, minimizing their unique cultural features. Faced with the ‘MacDonaldisation’, emphasis should be placed on the heritage (social, cultural and natural) of the cities, and such heritage should be the object of tourist attention.
The challenge for the marketing manager is therefore to merge multiple identities within a specific location into a concise and easily understood brand which appeals to business investors and tourists but without compromising urban local culture and the distinct pre-existing characteristics of the area.