Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
some places, this implied seeking to change an
unfortunate image, but in others the activity
became more concerned with how to enhance a
neutral or already favourable image by, for
example, emphasising distinctiveness. The
marketing of places then began to transcend mere
advertising and started to incorporate hallmark
events and specific, high-profile, developments in
the built environment. However, as city marketing
became an industry in its own right, the content
of such images, events and structures have
demonstrated convergent tendencies.
Furthermore, despite the hopes pinned on city
marketing, there appears to be very little
evaluation of the benefits of the activity, and what
evaluation there is tells a far from clear story of
the costs and benefits. The current concerns,
therefore, are less with the production of images
in the city marketing process but with how such
images are consumed and by whom. The current
evidence, in the context of the UK and other
European cities, is that much more attention is
being paid to 'internal' marketing in the sense of
attempting to meet the needs of existing local
businesses and residents. In conclusion, as a
planning contrivance, city marketing has
manifested itself in various forms and, in that sense,
is not one planning tool but several. Although it is
difficult to identify any current consensus, two
broad trends may be identified. The first is that the
overall expectations of city marketing are almost
certainly less than in the mid-1980s. The second is
that, in many places and in various forms, city
marketing is currently being used as much to serve
the specific purposes of local authorities and
indigenous populations and businesses as to
present an appealing, but possibly superficial,
external image.
Planning,
London and NewYork: Belhaven Press.
A similar philosophical approach but with
examples drawn mainly from US experience is
Kotler, P., Haider, D.H. and Rein, I. (1993)
Marketing Places: Attracting Investment, Industry and
Tourism to Cities, States and Nations,
NewYork:The
Free Press. For a much more critical and detailed
examination of the city marketing experience of
one city in the USA see Rutheiser, C. (1996)
Imagineering Atlanta,
London and NewYork:Verso.
Two topics that develop more general but equally
critical perspectives on city marketing, although
with rather different emphases, are Kearns, G. and
Philo, C. (1993)
Selling Places: The City as Cultural
Capital, Past and Present,
Oxford: Pergamon Press,
and Gold, J.R. and Ward, S.V. (1994)
Place
Promotion: The Use of Publicity and Marketing to Sell
Towns and Regions,
Chichester: JohnWiley & Sons.
As noted in this chapter, the number of genuinely
evaluative case studies remains surprisingly small,
although some are included in the texts above. The
study of the impact of city marketing upon
consumers is a relatively new field, out for a
thoughtful account of the variety of such impacts,
especially upon local residents, see Boyle, M.
(1997) 'Civic boosterism in the politics of local
economic development— “institutional
positions” and “strategic orientations” in the
consumption of hallmark events,
Environment and
Planning A
29, 1975-97.
REFERENCES
Ashworth, G.J. and Voogd, H. (1988) Marketing the city:
concepts, processes and Dutch applications.
Town
Planning Review
59(1), 65-79.
Ashworth, G.J. and Voogd, H. (1990)
Selling the City:
Marketing Approaches in Public Sector Urban Planning.
London and NewYork: Belhaven Press.
Bailey, J.T. (1989)
Marketing the Cities in the 1980s and
Beyond: New Patterns, New Pressures, New Promises.
Cleveland: American Economic Development Council.
Barke, M. and Harrop, K. (1994) Selling the industrial
town: identity, image and illusion. In J.R.Gold and
S.V.Ward (eds)
Place Promotion: The Use of Publicity and
Marketing to Sell Towns and Regions,
Chichester: John
Wiley & Sons, 93-114.
GUIDE TO FURTHER READING
For an introduction to city marketing from a
mainly European perspective and with an
emphasis on the external promotion of the city,
see Ashworth, G.J. andVoogd, H. (1990)
Selling the
City: Marketing Approaches in Public Sector Urban
