From creative industries to the creative place brand: some reflections on city branding in Poland

Abstract

Contemporary cities function in a competitive environment. In order to succeed, they build their comparative advantages using various instruments. One of them is city branding. Effective branding contributes to the increase of cities' attractiveness and thus to their competitiveness in various fields. Cities with a clear, credible and attractive vision of development have better development prospects. Creativity is used often as a part of branding strategies. Some cities describe themselves as creative and this is justified by their potential. Some possess creative potential but do not present themselves as creative and use other assets for branding. The article presents results of a study whose goal was to determine whether and to what extent creativity, as a positive attribute of a city, is used in branding of cities-capitals of Polish regions. The results of the study prove that cities with a diverse base of economic development and high creative potential treat the creative sector as one of the assets. Cities undergoing restructuring of the economy treat creativity as a very important element of branding. Creativity is also used by cities whose creative potential is negligible. This proves how high the expectations associated with the image of the "creative city" are and at the same time show the lack of realism in policy making and designing branding strategies.

How the Creative Class Co-creates a City’s Brand Identity: A Qualitative Study

“…Creativity is described as a tool that makes the city more attractive to locals, entrepreneurs and investors (Hall, 2000). The literature also stresses that creative cities are entities linked to well-developed creative sectors (economy), as well as dynamic creative economy (society) and a well-designed strategy aimed at supporting creativity (Dudek-Mańkowska & Grochowski, 2019). As such, the sum of resources, assets and the ability to use them in a natural environment will determine the level of creativity of the city (Dudek-Mańkowska & Grochowski, 2019) in terms of a particular creative tradition (e.g., tango dancing in Buenos Aires), a particular cultural 'scene' (e.g., artistic colonies in France) or specific events (e.g., Edinburgh Festival) (Richards & Raymond, 2000).…”

“…Branding views creativity as a relevant asset, that is, something that the destination has instead of something the destination is (Ashworth & Kavaratzis, 2015). As such, creativity is central to the branding of cities (Dudek-Mańkowska & Grochowski, 2019) and may be used to target external audiences (Miller, 2016). Indeed, creativity allows everyone to express themselves while sharing their own vision of the place (Vivant, 2013).…”

“…European cities as Glasgow, Berlin and Malmö have incorporated creativity as part of their core values (Dudek-Mańkowska & Grochowski, 2019), as a way to provide the basis for economic and social regeneration (Chatterton, 2000; Hall, 2000). A great body of research shows that creativity stimulates uniqueness and distinctiveness when places are attractive and benefit from high levels of reputation (Landry, 2000; Mengi et al, 2017).…”

Creative Spaces and Local Identity for Territorial Branding: The Case Study of the Samara Creative Industries

“…It also includes theoretical and practical approaches for promoting, marketing and branding goods and services and the urban environment. Modern cities in the competitive environment apply various branding strategies to ensure the association as places that create, distribute and promote different markets of goods, services and ideas (Dudek-Mańkowska & Grochowski, 2019). The more clear and attractive a city vision is produced, the more interest it obtains from consumers, investors and tourists.…”

City Branding and Its Variables: The Evidence From Indonesia

“…The variables associated with it such as brand awareness, brand loyalty, unique image, positive perceived quality, and revisit, t he variable is judged from data on the number of tourists who do not reach the target that has been set in advance and some tourist areas closed because there is no ongoing management to maintain the facilities and development so that visitors are not interested in returning, b ecome bored and do not want to visit these sights. The value of a city that becomes the preference of tourists to visit a city is known as city brand equity which is owned by West Bandung Regency, according to the assumption of researchers that it has not been maximally assessed from the variables inherent in it such as brand awareness, brand loyalty, unique image, positive perceived quality, and revisit, variables are evaluated from a data City brand equity which is less than the maximum visitor behaviour caused by factors known brand attitude in the concept of city branding (Bonakdar and Audirac, 2020;Dudek-Mańkowska and Grochowski, 2019;Górska-Warsewicz, 2020).…”