Discussions between Place Branding and Territorial Brand in Regional Development—A Classification Model Proposal for a Territorial Brand

Abstract

There is a clear controversy between the concepts of place branding and territorial brand in the context of regional development, with different meanings being attributed depending on the regions of the world. On the one hand, there are the typological designations attributed to place branding coupled with marketing, and on the other hand, the typologies attributed to local governance and often mixed with the territorial brand but not considering the regional development. This discrepancy creates a gap in the scientific literature for a uniform classification model for the territorial brand. To fill this gap, this study adopts qualitative content analysis, and its main objective is to present a uniform territorial brand classification model. Through a review of the scientific literature on the subject, 18 variables were found to build the theoretical model, which was then applied to the analysis of 60 territorial brands. The results of this study led to the Territorial Brand (TRbrand) Classification Model, with 16 dimensions of analysis and generated 13 concepts. The conclusions reveal a new typological classification model for the territorial brand in regional development, the TRbrand Classification Model, which includes the brand, the territory, the cultural diplomacy, the local governance, the social actors, and the regional development.

Uses and Functions of the Territorial Brand over Time: Interdisciplinary Cultural-Historical Mapping

“…Regarding the concepts, place branding [1][2][3] is often described as being synonymous with territorial branding or the territorial brand. However, as argued by Almeida [4], they cannot be seen as synonymous, firstly because the words branding and brand do not define the same thing; branding refers to the management of the brand, while the brand is the final product of this management [4,5], i.e., strategic brand management [6]. Secondly, as argued by Almeida and Cardoso [5], the place brand concept should be applied to the brand of a specific place, while the territorial brand concept refers to the territory in a broad sense.…”

“…However, as argued by Almeida [4], they cannot be seen as synonymous, firstly because the words branding and brand do not define the same thing; branding refers to the management of the brand, while the brand is the final product of this management [4,5], i.e., strategic brand management [6]. Secondly, as argued by Almeida and Cardoso [5], the place brand concept should be applied to the brand of a specific place, while the territorial brand concept refers to the territory in a broad sense. As Santos [7] states, place, region and territory are different spaces and therefore the place brand and the territorial brand are different concepts.…”

“…In light of the above, there is no doubt that place branding is the strategic management of a brand [2,4,5,8], whether it is the management of a place brand or of a territorial brand. However, coupled with the concept of a place brand, Aitken e Campelo [9] argue that the place brand is linked to the intensity with which the representation of the place reflects the community experience, i.e., the idea of collective ownership and authenticity (the brand essence).…”

“…In fact, Almeida and Cardoso [5] argue that the use of concepts from different areas of knowledge from which they did not originate may give rise to misuse and confusion in terms of their definitions, and therefore clarification of the concepts is needed. The fact that the use of the terms place, territory or region (or other similar terms, such as nation) leads to different categories and types of brands [5] is accounted for by the fact that these different terms refer to the socio-spatial context and, therefore, differ from each other [7]. The territorial brand emerged from the need to differentiate the place, the territory and the region, and so the basis for this comes from the areas of cultural geography, regional development and cultural studies [4].…”

Modeling determinants of the Generation Z regional perception on the periphery: To stay or to leave

“…al., 2020; Aasetre et al, 2020).Place branding is a tool for attracting new residents, tourists, and investors and is a way of communicating with existing residents, businesses, and other institutions(Belabas et al, 2020;Almeida & Cardoso, 2022). The idea of brand or rebranding of a place reflects the need to select certain benefits or values and represent them inside out.…”