Resident-City Identification: The Challenge of Building and Managing a Complex Place Identity
Final Report Abstract
In the competition for residents, tourists and companies, cities are turning to place branding as a rapidly developing research domain. Marketers focus on building a strong, favorable place brand to increase identification with the place, mostly concentrating on its core brand associations. Reducing the complexity by presenting a simplified picture of a place may be helpful for an external target audience. However, identification with such a simplified image might be less likely for an internal target group. We propose that a strong resident-city identification results from fit between the city prototype and the resident's self-concept. In this relationship, perceived place complexity is a central variable. We develop research propositions and suggest an agenda for testing the model empirically. In two empirical studies we tested whether a strong place identification is related to identity fit between the place prototype and the customer's self-concept, hypothesizing that in this relationship, perceived brand complexity plays a central role for the internal target audience. Our results suggest that a 'one size fits all' place brand is a goal that is hard to achieve and a more advanced and complex brand management is needed.
Publications
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(2012): Advanced Brand Concept Maps: a New Approach for Evaluating the Favorability of Brand Association Networks. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 29(3), 265-274
Schnittka, O., Sattler, H., & Zenker, S.
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(2013): My City - My Brand: The Different Roles of Residents in Place Branding. Journal of Place Management and Development, 6(1), 18-28
Braun, E., Kavaratzis, M., & Zenker, S.
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(2013): The Citizen Satisfaction Index (CSI): Evidence for a Four Basic Factor Model in a German Sample. Cities, 31 (April). 156-164
Zenker, S., Petersen, S., & Aholt, A.
