Methodological elements to design a city branding with the use of grounded theory

Abstract

City branding was established as an endogenous development strategy – the need to build the city’s own identity. This identity is reached through the study of the history, culture, economy, trajectory, products and potential development as well as the design of symbolic structures to attract investors and tourists and to create specific demands. The participation of a government entity is expected for these purposes thus encouraging those contributions from academic areas, entrepreneurs, cultural representatives including those community traditions. On the other hand, this participation should be supplemented with studies focused on the reality of the population, its history, and the actions that promoted city development. Cities and strategic associates should accompany these above mentioned entities in the purpose of designing their city branding, by building a model of participatory planning, a symbolic representation and a media plan guaranteeing that recognition as a territory with competitive values and advantages is a reality. To contribute to these goals, a methodological proposal with key elements for the design of the city brand using a research focused on quality review of documentation and grounded theory is presented. This study used Atlas Ti and VOSViewer software to analyze data. The research resulted in the precise definition of specific city branding and established strategic planning, management environment, and fundamental branding structure as those key founding elements for any particular city branding.

Plan de gestión de marca urbanista basado en los factores arquitectónicos, culturales y turísticos de la ciudad de Ambato

“…La marca-ciudad orientada hacia el marketing y las estrategias comerciales con el objetivo de mejorar la percepción de la imagen de una ciudad y promocionar sus atractivos, además, la ciudad anfitriona de turistas se convierte en un centro de intercambio cultural, social y económico. Una marca-ciudad posicionada en el mercado turístico atrae la inversión extranjera e impulsa la economía local, asimismo, el posicionamiento de esta obtiene preferencia por parte de los turistas a la hora de elegir un destino de viaje (Torres Zamudio et al, 2021). El city marketing es una herramienta necesaria para impulsar la competitividad en un mercado globalizado por lo que es importante orientar las estrategias del city marketing al turista con el fin de intercambiar valores e identidades con los residentes de la ciudad y así fortalecer la imagen de la marca-ciudad (Osorio-Andrade et al, 2020).…”

City brand evolution research and future agenda: bibliometric and science mapping analysis

“…Although it is true that some authors have already developed and proposed some measurement tools and indicators to examine the city brand in planning [ 66 ] such as categorisation, perception, identification, communication and impact among others [ 4 , 7 , 39 , 43 , 47 , 67 ], it is still necessary to carry out future research on more effective tools and indicators to measure the construction of the city brand. For example, research could continue with measurements of stakeholder perceptions of cities (activities, history, culture and other possible value characteristics) [ 9 ] and could also include other types of impacts, such as the positive relationship which has been found for the impact of the city brand on the image of the country and the achievement of strategic objectives at the national level [ 68 ].…”

Horizontes de la transformación digital

“…Éstos sugieren la conformación de un grupo colegiado o comité de representantes constituido por líderes que agrupan miembros de diferentes procedencias vinculadas con la ciudad, normalmente consideradas como stakeholders o grupos de interés. Zamudio et al (2021) establecen que desde la teoría del marketing territorial se le considera como estrategia de desarrollo endógeno a la necesidad de construir una identidad propia para las regiones. Esta identidad se logra a través del estudio de su historia, cultura, economía, trayectoria, productos y potencialidades de desarrollo.…”

“…Con respecto a la gestión, se requiere la participación de un ente de gobierno que dinamice el aporte de la academia, de los empresarios, de los representantes de la cultura y de las tradiciones de la comunidad. Además, este acompañamiento debe complementarse con estudios centrados en la realidad de los habitantes, su historia y las acciones que impulsaron el desarrollo regional (Zamudio et al, 2021).…”