Gregory Ashworth

Towards Effective Place Brand Management

Many facets of place branding, such as identities, image, promotion or sense of place, have been around for a long time. However, the need to analyse their nature in the context of branding and to examine their relationships in detail has grown rapidly in the last decade or so, as places all over the world have put branding activities higher than ever in their agenda. This important new book examines and clarifies key aspects of the recently popularised concept of place branding, expounding many controversies, confusions and discords in the field. The expert contributors clarify several unresolved issues surrounding the application of place branding, in particular its multiple goals. They provide a detailed analysis of the role of local communities in place branding strategies, and illustrate not only how, but also why brand management should be implemented. Case studies from a range of jurisdictions and cultural and political viewpoints are drawn upon, each illustrating an array of issues or techniques in specific economic, cultural and geographical contexts. This book provides a theoretically informed but practically oriented overview and discussion of the increasingly popular field of place branding as an instrument of place management. As such, it will strongly appeal to both academics and practitioners in the fields of place marketing, place branding, local development, tourism planning and development, tourism marketing, cultural geography, urban and regional planning. Consultants in local authorities, national and regional tourism boards will also find this to be a fascinating read.