Place branding (r)evolution: the management of the smart city’s brand

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

“…The relation of advances in marketing like digital marketing and virtual social media marketing with city brand building is also presented [ 37 ]. [ 37 ] analyzes both the evolution of digital marketing in the construction of the city brand, as well as the use of digital tools for the construction, co-creation and development of the city brand are presented [ 47 ]. Finally [ 1 , 7 ], makes the broadest theoretical studies of the city brand, categorizing the city brand literature in studies on the concept, processes and measurement, brand strategies, urban planning and city brand culture [ 7 ], likewise, two trends can be found, towards marketing (oriented to communication processes) and towards city planning (oriented towards development architecture) [ 1 ].…”

Place Branding for Smart Cities and Smart Tourism Destinations: Do They Communicate Their Smartness?

“…Previous studies have shown the importance of smartness in the branding of cities [48,52] and the need for rulers to create branding strategies involving citizens and different stakeholders to promote the smart aspects of cities [44]. Therefore, it is surprising that the different cities' institutions no longer use a channel such as Twitter, which is precisely useful to generate interaction with stakeholders [19] and is an effective branding tool [75], to include smartness in their strategy branding.…”

“…For the above reasons, SCs and STDs need to communicate their smartness in their branding in order to influence the creation of their image [44]. Smartness is an attribute that shapes the image of cities and destinations among residents and tourists [7,17,45], which also generates expectations of more satisfying tourist experiences [46].…”

“…In this direction, Aragonez et al [54] recently built a city strategic management model involving citizens in medium-long term city strategies. In the same line, Grebosz-Krawczyk [44] created a smart city's brand management model based on building a local identity, with the involvement and initiatives of residents and other stakeholders. Therefore, a relational and participatory management of the smart city brand is needed.…”

“…However, smartness or smart concepts are still hardly used in the communication and branding of cities [65,66] and destinations [17]. Despite the importance of smartness in the configuration of positive STDI [28], some destinations do not communicate their smart aspects effectively [17] and it remains a developing area of implementation and research [44].…”