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Kristianstad is today in the process of implementing its third place brand in less than 20 years. The purpose of this case study is to describe Kristianstad’s place branding journey with a special focus on the place stakeholders and their involvement and engagement—a case of both rebranding and participatory place branding. The case study describes Kristianstad’s three distinct branding initiatives, with focus on their initiators, engagement and implementation. It is based on a collaboration with Kristianstad municipality and a descriptive approach was employed. Empirical materials were collected through interviews and active participation in workshops and meetings. The case describes Kristianstad’s place branding journey and illustrates how place stakeholders’ previous involvement and experiences influence their behaviours and perceptions of the current place brand as well as the continuing place branding process. The three main takeaways are: past experiences matter; it matters where the place brand initiative comes from; and engagement matters more than profile. Kristianstad municipality’s place branding journey shows the difficulties with rebranding a place, more specifically highlighting place stakeholders’ engagement over time.

Purpose Although the place stakeholders play a key role in participatory place branding, surprisingly little interest has been shown in the people involved in participatory place branding initiatives. The purpose of this study is to explore place stakeholders’ perceptions of the meaning and scope of place branding. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on two cases of participatory place branding, and the research design is inspired by participatory action research. The empirical material comprises observations, qualitative questionnaires and interviews. Findings This study identifies and describes four paradoxes in place stakeholders’ perceptions of the meaning and scope of place branding, embracing the target group (internal vs external), the objective (explore vs exploit), the stakeholders’ role (active vs passive) and the main value of place branding initiatives (process vs outcome). Furthermore, in this study, the place stakeholders’ paradoxical perceptions of place branding meant that, during the participatory processes, the authors encountered and needed to manage various opinions and behaviours, for example, “critics”, “innovators” and “relators”. Originality/value This paper contributes with a new perspective on participatory place branding. By capturing place stakeholders’ perceptions and understanding of place branding, this paper develops our knowledge and understanding of the starting point of participatory processes.