The Conceptual Development of Place Branding
The origins of place branding have been well documented (e.g., Ward 1998; Kearns
and Philo 1993; Ward and Gold 1994). Early academic interest came principally
from the perspectives of urban policy and tourism. However, these domains, for a
long period of time, worked independently of each other and with little reference to
mainstream marketing. Borchert (1994) notes, with reference to the early place
promotion literature that “there exists only a weak relation with modern developments
in marketing theory”. Since the turn of the century however, inter-disciplinary
convergence has begun and common conceptual development is emerging.
Figure 2.2 provides a time-line of the development of place branding beginning
with early papers in the urban policy literature, focused on the distinctive nature of
the place product (see for example, Sleipen 1988; Ashworth and Voogd 1990,
1994; Burgess 1982; Urry 1990). However, it is argued here that these factors do
not form part of the place branding construct but should rather be treated as factors
which moderate both the management and the outcome of place branding, issues
which are discussed later in this chapter. The focus here is upon the transferability
of concepts from mainstream branding to place branding.
Place Image and Positioning
Image
Early literature