Towards a City Branding System

Many city administrations acknowledge the necessity of city branding to sustain the city’s competitiveness. Research has provided diverse notions of city branding and presented relevant factors and processes, and emphasized the importance of developing a more realistic and integrated framework to branding cities. However, there has been little consensus about why and how cities transform an entrepreneurial mind into a city branding paradigm. Literature is short of providing a realistic and holistic framework applicable to city brand management. Aiming to clarify the characteristics of city branding, our research suggests a systems approach to branding cities. With particular reference to managing the brand Amsterdam, the study outlines brand management process in terms of strategic interaction and intent, branding governance, city brand and its effects. Our research refers to the concept of city branding as a strategic, proactive, and systematic process for city brand management. Even though this research is limited to the descriptive study on the case of brand Amsterdam, the study contributes to extend the urban marketing discipline into a city branding theory and to introduce a city branding system. Further research needs to expand theoretical and empirical levels including more cities and to compare the dynamics within the city branding system.