Can Cities Market Themselves Like Coke and Pepsi Do?

Abstract

Consumer marketing techniques apply to public sector marketing. Cities can employ innovative targeted marketing capabilities to send a message to maximize an area′s greatest potential. Examines the how and what in a broad way, to provide stimulating ideas for city marketers and exposure to a variety of concepts used extensively and successfully by consumer marketing‐oriented businesses.

Image selection and the marketing of downtown areas in London and New York

“…Interest in the marketing of city places has grown considerably in recent years, (see for example, Ashworth and Voogd, 1990;Kotler et al, 1993;Matson, 1994;Williams, 1994;Warnaby and Davies, 1997;van Limburg, 1998;Ward, 1999) consequent to several influences. The latter allegedly include a severe intensification of competition for new business investment in urban areas throughout the world (see Ashworth and Voogd, 1990;Kanter, 1995;Stewart, 1996;Warnaby, 1998), greater sophistication on the part of corporatè`p urchasers'' of city locations (Matson, 1994) and, according to Ward (1999), pressures from local taxpayers for city authorities to attract``big name'' companies. Verbeke (1990), Bramwell and Rawding (1996), Miller (1997) and others have observed, moreover, how today's city planners increasingly recognise the futility of campaigns designed to attract industrial investment in the absence of measures which promote an area as a desirable place in which to live, work and travel.…”

“…the availability of cheap labour, government incentives, low cost structures, ancillary business services, technology infrastructures, and an area's international links and orientation (see Elliott, 1996;McMorrow, 1999). Such messages may have little meaning for local residents (Matson, 1994). The challenge for the city marketing manager is therefore to abridge diverse multiple identities within an inner city location into a concise and easily understood image which appeals to business investors and tourists but without compromising indigenous cultures and the distinct IJPSM 14,3 208 pre-existing characteristics of the area.…”

Webpage Design and Quality of Seaside Tourism Destinations: A Question of Collaboration

“…The globalization of markets forces tourist destinations to adopt a distinctive positioning (Gold & Ward, 1994;Ward, 1998). Unlike other product brands, which are driven predominantly by customers' needs, city branding and place marketing are typically driven by the often conflicting needs of diversifying local economies faced with industrial decline, attracting inward investment and attracting tourism (Kotler et al, 1993;Matson, 1994). Anholt (2006; shows that branding of places and cities has gained popularity and cities use specific events to enhance their image, as the Olympics of Beijing have shown (Mobley, 2008).…”

Cause Related Marketing and its Impact on Sales: Mediating by Brand Loyalty and Customer Purchase Intention

“…Ground-breaking strategies like CRM are being adopted for innovativeness as well as to retain customers (Matson, 1994). CRM has become a modern marketing strategy through out the western world (Taylor, 2007).…”