City brand in the eyes of values
Andrej Pompe
GEA College, Slovenia
andrej.pompe@gea-college.si
Abstract
Cities have always been trying to create certain attractions in order to flow together different kinds of capitals like financial, human resource, investment, economics, free time, educational, energetic, cultural, social, and other capitals. Expansion of cities causes the outgrow of their historically known scales. Increasing complexity demanded deeper consideration about the city position in the competitive environment. This is why cities began to use marketing tools and more and more implement praxis of brands and branding while positioning their cities among competitors. One of three most important component of city brand perception is values (besides perceived attributes and personality characteristics) which create perceptual dimensions, meaning shaping city’s brand position in the eyes of stakeholders. This paper focuses on values and their impact on the city brand perception. A qualitative research study of five Slovene cities: Ljubljana, Maribor, Celje, Koper, and Nova Gorica, was conducted. Research displayed an immense difference in perceptions among explored city brands and showed a significant impact of values to their competitive position. The existent research can stimulate city managements to explore perceptions of their cities.
Keywords: perception; city brand; values; city brand position; competition among cities