Municipalities as Public Relations and Marketing Firms

Abstract

This article offers a metaphorical image of U.S. municipalities as public relations (PR) and marketing firms. Cities are practicing many of the same promotional and image-generation techniques as private-sector PR firms use with a desire for the same endsincreased consumption of goods and services, which in this case come from cities and not from private-sector businesses. The image presented here is based on six tactics that public organizations use to sell themselves to diverse audience bases. The tactics include branding, media relations, in-house publications (three prevalent tactics), use of outside organizations and volunteers as PR tools, public art, and built environment via sustainability (three uncommon tactics). The article asserts that image generation in a city acting as a PR and marketing firm is a consequence of the market models of governance, bringing postmodern public administration critiques to fruition.

Participación y Comunicación. Hacia la legitimidad de las políticas públicas de reputación de los territorios

“…Porque, en primer lugar, si la identidad territorial proyectada es demasiado simple y única, aunque facilite a priori la 'comercialización' del territorio, puede contribuir a la pérdida de diversidad de las identidades territoriales, a la 'comoditización' del territorio y a problemas de identificación de los públicos internos con las políticas reputacionales (Zavattaro, 2010). Y en segundo lugar, se puede dar el caso de que las imágenes proyectadas no tengan coordinación entre sí porque las políticas reputacionales operen de manera independiente sin una relación jerárquica o coordinada en la construcción de la identidad entre territorios de menor y mayor escala jurídica.…”

Expanding Goffman's Theater Metaphor to an Identity-Based View of Place Branding

“…The ExPAndInG GoFFmAn's ThEATEr mETAPhor list, of course, is not exhaustive but illustrative. Internal marketing efforts go toward building an organizational culture that supports place brand values (Lam & Ozorio, 2012), and employees become brand ambassadors when interacting with external groups (Kotler & Levy, 1969;Zavattaro, 2010;Zenker & Seigis, 2012). A mutual social construction of this kind is a key part of self-presentation (Goffman, 1959), and so is elevated here to an organizational level.…”

“…Imagebased communication attracts people, while substantive communication builds meaningful, dialogic, strategic partnerships with stakeholders. Although the focus of this article is on municipal practices, public administrators at every level can begin to think about the relational implications of policies, practices, and actions for building an overall place ethos (Anholt, 2007;Eshuis, Braun, & Klijn, 2013;Zavattaro, 2010).…”

Organizational Implosion

“…Two concepts are applied to answer these questions: Bozeman’s (2011) organizational implosion and Zavattaro’s (2010) communications tactics. The communications tactics are used as a means to extend Bozeman’s theory by including a view of how city officials might explain organizational implosion causes and implications to stakeholders.…”